AutoTargets Reactive Target System Updates

Last summer I did a full review on the reactive target system from AutoTargets. It’s a pretty intense, awesome, and expandable setup that rapidly presents targets in different shooting scenarios and scores your hits, elapsed time, and more. I still have three of my loaner units and have benefited from software updates that improved performance, but some other updates from AutoTargets were big enough to warrant this follow-up post . . .

The company launched with a crowdfunding campaign through IndieGoGo. For good reason, many people refuse to participate in crowdfunding, which is often a gamble that never actually results in a delivered product. AutoTarget’s first big update was that all of their IndieGoGo orders were not only fulfilled, but fulfilled on time.

Once they caught up on those pre-orders, AutoTargets opened their webstore for direct orders of all of their products.

I’m an Android guy, but AutoTargets’ lack of an iOS app was a big issue for a lot of people. They’ve now launched their iOS app as well as a Kindle app.

Addressing my only gripe about the units’ performance — the targets dropped more slowly than I would have liked — AutoTargets has released an optional drop speed upgrade. This can be retrofitted into existing units, or shipped pre-installed from the factory. It reduces drop time from 800 milliseconds down to 150 milliseconds.

The ability to engage these targets out to 1,200 yards means pegging a lift unit with a fast-moving piece of lead is a distinct possibility, even if you aren’t sootch00. To ease your worries and protect your investment, albeit at a much higher cost than a sandbag, AutoTargets has released AR500 ballistic armor. It’s rubber-coated and comes with a mounting bracket for its lift unit protectee.

Extended-range WiFi adapters can allow a single lift unit to be up to 400 yards from your mobile device, or allow two units to be up to 1,000 yards from each other.

Carrying cases are now available for easier lift unit transport.

On the future-looking front, AutoTargets is working on releasing a side-lifting upgrade that will let you have targets pop out from behind a tree or barrel, or in tight quarters such as behind a couch in a shoot house. It will feature a rotating head that will allow configuration as a normal lift unit, too.

AutoTargets is going to loan me an updated unit complete with drop speed upgrade next month, so I’ll likely follow up one more time with a brief review of the newest model.