Steel and dead trees have been the targets of choice for many of us for longer than any of us have been alive. But maybe we can build a better mouse trap. What if we used rubber instead?

It won’t win you any games of Rock, Paper, Scissors, but rubber is an attractive option if you want a target that lasts almost forever.

OKAY, WHAT IS IT?

If we really break it down, Infinity Targets are sheets of kind of special rubber in the shape of targets.

The primary method of mounting them is with large clips. To “reset” the targets you spray paint them any color you want. 

And that’s about it in a nutshell. Mount the target, shoot the target, paint the target. It’s that simple.

ON THE RANGE

Infinity Targets are best mounted using simple clips. Each target comes with clips for mounting, but buying some extras off Amazon might be a good idea since sooner or later you’re apt to put a round through the clip.

Bases can be bought from Infinite Defense or just about any shooting supply shop in the nation. And the recommended 1×2” wood uprights are available at your local home improvement store or lumber yard. 

For my use, my local club provides the wood and bases but the targets are normally clapped-out leftovers from the USPSA/IDPA/PCSL matches. Using the provided wood and bases, clipping the Infinity Targets is easy and pretty self-explanatory. 

After that, you shoot them. Complex, I know. 

The targets for this review are the 24×24” B6, 24×18” Circle Drill, and 9×11” A-Zones. The A-Zones are larger than true A-Zones so you have room to clip them to a stand and have the entire 6×11” A-Zone area available to shoot.

After two months of shooting, I kind of love these targets. The A-Zones are great for setting up drills and mock stages because they give you exactly what you need and nothing else. Setting them at different heights is easy because they only require one stick of wood to mount and are just easier to move around.

I’m a big fan of Circle Drill or Dot Drill targets. I normally have a pack of them in my range bag at all times. There are just so many different drills you can do with them and can train so many skills off one simple target.

The Infinity Targets adds to this because you can paint your own. Using different colors you can quickly mix and match a new drill on the fly. Or just paint it white and make it harder.

The B6 is a big target and one I like for longer distances. Put it out a few hundred yards and it’s nice for practicing on. Huge benefit to this is that it is a lot easier to put out than steel. Downside, it’s harder to call hits.

Judgment

I’ve shot a lot of targets over the years and I didn’t think I could be impressed with something so simple. But the Infinity Targets work exactly like they claim. Easy to reset, easy to use, and just really handy to have around.

Seeing hits is pretty easy since the paint flakes off kind of like a splatter target. While shooting steel is nice for instant feedback, the quiet hits off rubber are also kind of nice since it makes for a quieter range session. 

Since I’ve been almost exclusively shooting suppressed the last few months, changing out steel targets for rubber helps make it a bit quieter and a bit more relaxing.

BENEFITS

Infinity Targets are easy. And they make a lot less trash to clean up. And you have a lot more options with them if you keep a couple of colors of spray paint with you.

Plus, you don’t need to reorder packs of paper targets all the time.

As pure convenience items, there is a lot going for them over paper.

They are also weatherproof. Rain and wind basically don’t affect them. Rain can make wet paint run a little, but it needs to be really pouring down to be a real issue. The extra weight of the rubber keeps them from flying off during even pretty strong wind.

If you’re not willing to train in the rain and the wind, you’re not really training. Infinity Targets make the logistics of it a lot more manageable. 

DOWNSIDES

Big thing that stands out about the Infinity Targets that you don’t need to deal with when you shoot paper or steel is the smell. Oh my lord, do not store these in a small confined space. Bad idea.

My targets were left in a closet for a couple of weeks between range sessions and when that door opened, the smell almost knocked me over. The rubber smells like rubber, like a tire shop more or less, but the targets give off a LOT of smell. 

It takes a few weeks but the smell does become less potent, but even after 2 months care must still be taken to not leave the targets in my car after getting home from the range. If it sits overnight, it takes a few blocks with the windows all down to blow out the air in my car.

Leaving them in a well-ventilated corner of the garage works well.

The second downside is that while these targets can go a long way in supplanting paper and steel, they don’t entirely replace paper or steel. 

For getting a really good precision zero on guns, paper is hard to beat. Mostly this is due to being a lot easier to see exactly where the holes are Vs. looking at where paint knocked off rubber. The same goes for testing group size in general.

And paper is a lot lighter. If you are limited to an indoor range that uses the overhanging pulleys, they aren’t likely to let you try hanging a rubber mat on them.

For instant feedback on hits and misses or something reactive like knocking down a popper, steel is king. One of my hopes with the Infinity Targets was that they would be able to be used for long range shooting with the paint hits working kind of like splatter targets. This kind of held true, but it isn’t perfect. The trade-off of not having to haul steel out hundreds of yards is really nice. 

COST: INFINITY Vs. PAPER

Infinite Defense says “9mm and 5.56/2.23 you are going to look at getting 5000+ rounds throughout (gen2) the entire target. Our competition shooters typically get 5-6000 rounds before replacement is needed” 

Let’s take the average and call it 5,500 rounds per target.

For a test case, we’ll use the USPSA targets since those are easy to compare to cardboard. 

USPSA Infinity Target runs $129 + (for me) $16.52 shipping = $145.52 or $0.03 per hit for 5,500 hits.

Let’s assume a cardboard USPSA target lasts about 100 hits. A pack of 25 USPSA cardboard targets costs $0.94 per target, plus (for me) $22.15 shipping = $45.64 or $0.02 per hit. This number drops if you buy in bulk and get 100 targets for $79 + shipping bringing it down to $0.01 per hit.

For the Infinity Targets you’d also need a can of paint, but let’s ignore that since the cardboard targets would also require either stickers or tape to reset and staples for mounting. We’ll just call those a wash.

Pure cost, cardboard can save you money. But you miss the benefits of the Infinity Targets like very fast/easy reset, easier mounting, and practically zero trash to clean up. Ever.

And that’s for the larger targets. While the larger targets are good, I actually like the smaller targets more. Infinity Defense’s A-Zone target is only $50 for two. If you go with those, these become way cheaper than cardboard. 

They are also very lightweight, easier to mount, and give you a lot of options for placement. While they aren’t perfect for everyone, they are pretty awesome for me and I highly recommend them.

LOOSE ROUNDS

Infinity Targets won’t be the only thing I shoot from now on, but they definitely have won a place in my range kit and I’ll shoot them a lot. They work, they’re easy, and I really like being able to quickly rearrange my shooting options — especially with the A-Zone targets.

If you’re in the market for some new targets and want to think outside the box a little, you should strongly consider some of these.

NEXT STEP: Download Your Free Target Pack from RECOIL

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