TCRT Is Rewriting The Way We Shoot
By Curt Staubach
Let’s face it—standing on a flat range, shooting at a single paper or steel target gets old fast. It’s repetitive, static, and doesn’t do much to push your skills. That’s where TCRT steps in and shakes things up. These self-healing rubber targets are the result of three years of focused R&D, developed from the ground up to do one thing: survive serious ballistic punishment.
TCRT’s proprietary self-healing rubber was formulated specifically for firearms use. It expands over 800% on bullet impact and closes back up without tearing or chunking. The targets are UV resistant, waterproof, and designed to keep performing in real-world range conditions. TCRT tested a sample of their rubber in the Arizona desert for over two years without any degradation. TCRT rates their targets at an industry-leading round count of up to 400 rounds of 5.56 per square inch—and from what we’ve seen, that’s not marketing fluff. They hold up. We’ve seen TCRT targets with over 10,000 rounds from a mix of 9mm and 5.56 and they are fine. No large holes or gaps. And they offer patch kits for their torso targets so if you shoot out the A-zone of your TCRT target, you can purchase a patch kit made of the same rubber and keep shooting.
What really makes these targets shine is how much they transform your range day. You’re not locked into shooting at the same setup all afternoon. With TCRT’s lightweight rubber targets and their RangeFlex Modular Target Stand System, you can build entire courses of fire, run them like a match with your friends, then reset and run a completely new course minutes later. It’s fast and easy to shift target placements, swap torsos, or adjust spacing and angles to make things feel more engaging and realistic. Spraypaint them to show hits and paint them different colors to designate shoot/no-shoot targets or different round counts “Course of fire is reds get 1 hit, greens get 2, black is no shoot and end on blue. Shooter Ready? Beep.”—then just repaint and go again.
TCRT offers quarter, half, and full-size torso targets, which lets you simulate distance and difficulty without hiking your targets 200 yards out. Want to work on precision or speed transitions? Use their 2", 4", 6", or 8" round hanging targets to build your own plate rack setup. The system gives you the freedom to make your range time feel like a match, a class, or a tactical run - and then switch it up on the fly.
One of the biggest advantages of TCRT targets is something you just can’t do with steel — train up close, safely. Whether you’re running pistol drills at contact distance or practicing CQB rifle transitions at five yards, TCRT targets can handle it without any special setup or safety concerns.
Rounds pass safely through the self-healing rubber, eliminating the risk of ricochet or fragmentation that you’d get with steel. There’s no need for expensive frangible ammo, no angled plates, and no worrying about splashback. It’s a level of flexibility and safety that opens up new training possibilities - especially for those who want to push realistic defensive drills.
And unlike paper or cardboard, which blow out immediatelyunder close-range fire, TCRT targets hold their shape and stay in place. You won’t be replacing targets every few runs. You just keep shooting — and repainting if you want to track hits. It's one less thing to reset, and one more reason TCRT makes training smoother and more effective.
“But it doesn’t go ‘ding!’ when I shoot it!” That’s true. And even though we all find the ding of shooting steel oddly satisfying, there are always trade-offs. Would we suggest using steel over TCRT targets if you are shooting long range? In most cases, yes. It’s much easier to hear the audible ring of steel over seeing your hit on a target at 800 yards. But you can paint your TCRT targets to see hits or staple paper targets onto TCRT rubber targets and use them as a backer that won’t break down in the rain like cardboard. And because they are lightweight, it’s much easier to set up a TCRT target at distance instead of a heavy steel target if it’s not a permanent install.
The other thing to consider is training. If we are speaking purely from a tactical standpoint, shooting steel can become a training scar. With steel, we train ourselves to listen for shot placement feedback instead of using visual feedback. Threats don’t go “ding” when you shoot them. If they do, you have bigger problems. And we shouldn’t train ourselves to listen for the “ding” to denote successful shot placement — we should use visual feedback. We should be looking for the hit on target. We should train our brain to use visual feedback to further determine threat assessment, not sound. That’s where TCRT targets make for a more realistic training scenario.
And when the training day is over, everything breaks down fast. No hauling heavy steel plates or picking up cardboard scraps. Everything breaks down fast. The TCRT targets stack flat and the whole setup fits in a trunk or truck bed without a hassle. And you didn’t break your back hauling steel targets around.
Conclusion
TCRT targets are built to take abuse and they do. More importantly, they make training more efficient, more engaging, and a lot more fun. If you're tired of wasting time resetting or rebuilding targets—or just want gear that keeps up with how you actually shoot—TCRT is worth your attention. Once you use them, it’s hard to go back.
For more information go to https://tcrt.com.
