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Lighthouse for the Blind sent me an email ad (and I suspect others from the DPS instructor list) selling their LH101 targets that they call B-27 targets. I have seen these in person, and as the pictures below show, they are not quite the same as what DPS uses:
B-27:
LH101:
I have never seen an official standard for the B-27, but the differences concern me. You can see the head and body are shaped differently. And strangely the LH101 clearly shows empty hands on the target.
Has anyone used these? Does anyone know if these are considered by DPS to be acceptable?

I got the same email. Good eye on the paper target. I didn't notice because I like cardboard targets and after looking at it again, it is correct. Hmmm I suppose they print their own paper and are rselling the cardboard. I sent them an email asking for prices without the patches. We'll see if they can beat Letargets.com

After comparing the "sale" price at LHFTB and LE Targets regular prices I'll stick with LET. Plus I know the quality of LETs products.

MoJo wrote:After comparing the "sale" price at LHFTB and LE Targets regular prices I'll stick with LET. Plus I know the quality of LETs products.

Yes, I agree. Plus it's hard to argue with the service of LE Targets. If I order on Monday the latest I will have them is Friday. Not many companies perform that well.

MasterOfNone wrote:Lighthouse for the Blind sent me an email ad (and I suspect others from the DPS instructor list) selling their LH101 targets that they call B-27 targets. I have seen these in person, and as the pictures below show, they are not quite the same as what DPS uses:
(pics redacted for space savings)
I have never seen an official standard for the B-27, but the differences concern me. You can see the head and body are shaped differently. And strangely the LH101 clearly shows empty hands on the target.
Has anyone used these? Does anyone know if these are considered by DPS to be acceptable?

At the risk of being branded terminally insensitive, I will point out that these people are, after all, blind, therefore you can't expect their copies to be absolutely perfect.

A very close friend of mine is blind and actually works for Lighthouse. I have taken this woman shooting, and she was pretty good, and let her drive my car, on an abandoned airport and an abandoned shopping center, and being a Lighthouse employee she has, over the years, had various products that were designed to make life easier for the visually impaired in her hands for field testing. One of the funnest products she tested was "Sonar glasses" which could, with practice, allow the user to tell the difference between hard and soft objects, which direction things were moving, and relative distance. The problem was that you had to wear headphones or ear plugs and that cut off ALL the other sounds of the environment. I will call her later today and see what she thinks of my comment.

Without trying to hijack the thread, it just occurred to me that one of the above mentioned products might just be worth revisiting these days. Thirty or so years ago a company introduced a little device that would allow a blind person to scan a line of text, and then read it tactilely. The problems were manifold, first, getting the "camera" oriented properly was a chore (I submitted a design for a device that would align it, like a fence for a circular saw) and the tactile output was little vibrating pins that actually duplicated the text, letter by letter, which tickled some people, and was hard to get used to for people who already were proficient at braille. I wrote and submitted a lookup table to convert text to braille, but found out there was basically no software in the device. With today's improvements in imaging technology I would be willing to bet that it could be done quite easily.

Got same email yesterday too

I got the same email. Their "special" price is $83/100 with replacement centers compared to $30/100 targets, $12/100 centers ($42/100 total) from Law Enforcement Targets. They claim retain is $175/100!

Chas.

I recognized immediately that their pricing was bad. My main concern was confirming or debunking their claim that these are B-27s.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:I got the same email. Their "special" price is $83/100 with replacement centers compared to $30/100 targets, $12/100 centers ($42/100 total) from Law Enforcement Targets. They claim retain is $175/100!

Chas.

Maybe retail price is $175 if you buy everything one piece at a time at a shooting range.

I'm curious, though, if using a different target would make the proficiency test invalid. These are close but not the same. Where does DPS draw the line?

Echoing jimlongley, not to be insensitive, but an organization for the blind selling shooting targets is ironic.

The Annoyed Man wrote:Echoing jimlongley, not to be insensitive, but an organization for the blind selling shooting targets is ironic.

I always saw the same irony in the fact that all our clocks and office supplies in the Army were provided by Skilcraft (National Industries for the Blind).

Cobra Medic wrote:I'm curious, though, if using a different target would make the proficiency test invalid. These are close but not the same. Where does DPS draw the line?

The Admin Rules require a "standard B-27 target." I have emailed DPS to see if they consider these to be suitable.

MasterOfNone wrote:

Cobra Medic wrote:I'm curious, though, if using a different target would make the proficiency test invalid. These are close but not the same. Where does DPS draw the line?

The Admin Rules require a "standard B-27 target." I have emailed DPS to see if they consider these to be suitable.

Let us know what you hear. The Lighhouse email claims they supply DPS with "B-27" targets.

Chas.

Charles L. Cotton wrote:

MasterOfNone wrote:

Cobra Medic wrote:I'm curious, though, if using a different target would make the proficiency test invalid. These are close but not the same. Where does DPS draw the line?

The Admin Rules require a "standard B-27 target." I have emailed DPS to see if they consider these to be suitable.

Let us know what you hear. The Lighhouse email claims they supply DPS with "B-27" targets.

Chas.

The targets that DPS used at instructor's class last year were printed by Lighthouse but, they were the corrigated cardboard ones not the paper ones. The cardboard target in the e-mail is a B27 the paper one isn't.