Why is Steel Target Paint the best paint to use on steel targets?
Posted by on Aug 12, 2019
Steel Target Paint is a huge supporter of the Practical Shooting Sports, and their paint products are widely used not only in Steel Challenge matches at every level, but also in USPSA and other disciplines of Practical Shooting. As well it should be – Steel Target Paint has been formulated specifically for the Shooting Sports and is superior in every way to “all-purpose” spray paint found in hardware stores.
WHY IS STEEL TARGET PAINT THE BEST PAINT TO USE ON STEEL TARGETS?
Steel Target Paint is the best paint to use when painting steel targets due to it’s unique formulation. Have you ever tried painting a steel target with that one dollar can of white paint from the hardware store? Those paints are generally quite low in pigment content and very runny, so it can take a while to cover a steel target. And the more you use, the more it runs and drips off. By comparison, a high quality paint like Steel Target Paint has a much thicker consistency with a higher pigment content and there is a whole pound of paint in the can! A quick spray will cover an entire plate! The black Steel Target Paint works great for painting hard cover/no shoot zones on USPSA targets so you can make your own. Yes, the price per can for Steel Target Paint is higher than the bargain brand, but you’ll use far less per application so it will last you three times as long as the cheap brand. Used correctly, a single can of Steel Target Paint can last an entire day on a stage of a Level II or higher match (assuming one session per day) – again, that’s probably three times longer than most other paints. So in the end, whether you’re using just a can for your personal use on the practice range, or cases of paint for running a large match, Steel Target Paint will save you money. But if you are using it in a match, it will save you something just as precious as money – time.
We already know that it you have to use three times as much bargain paint to cover a steel target as compared to Steel Target Paint. That not only is a material cost, it’s a time cost. In a typical stage of Steel Challenge, all the targets are repainted after each competitor shoots their five strings. With Steel Target Paint, a quick “spritz” can be used to completely cover each of the five bullet markets on a target from 5 strings of fire. That can take on average about two seconds per target. It quite literally takes twice as long to cover the bullet markets with cheap, runny paint – four to five seconds. It doesn’t sound like a big difference, but how does that break down over the course of a match that has 100 shooters?
TOTAL PAINT TIME ON EIGHT STAGES USING STEEL TARGET PAINT: ~130 minutes
TOTAL PAINT TIME ON EIGHT STAGES USING REGULAR PAINT: ~260 minutes
In other words, you can shave over 2 hours from your total match time by painting steel using quality paint from Steel Target Paint.
Save money. Save Time. Use Steel Target Paint.
