Thanks to my friend Olivier I found out about this new electronic targets by Sport Quantum being presented at CES2019. I immediately contacted them to do a test and write a review and we arranged for it in Brussels. Luckily for them they were also present at Intershoot and we were able to do the test without having to take the trip from Paris to Brussels. I got to see, learn about, and shoot on a prototype model that they travel with.
The Sport Quantum target is made for 10 meter air pistol and rifle shooting, both for precision and standard disciplines. It can also be used at 8 meters and the size of the target will adapt, but they do not go below that distance because there could be rebound issues and the impact may be too strong and damage the plastic plate.
The commercial model looks like this and has a more refined pellet bin.
Table of Contents
How the target works
This is a French made target with an engineering founding team that decided to use piezoelectric sensors to figure out the position of impact by the vibrations it generates on a transparent polycarbonate plate (a type of plastic). In fact there are two plates, one that receives the impact and is changed after 10000 to 50000 impacts, and the other one that has the sensors. Through their research they discovered that having the extra plate on top did not affect the results (which are scored on tenths of a point).
The target weights 12 kg (26.5 pounds) and it is mounted to the wall (the setup you see in my pictures is the travelling prototype). It is controlled with a tablet that is provided with the target (more on this below).
You can use it in English, French and German and they are working on more translations.
The plates
The life of the plate that receives the impacts depends on how good the shooter is. The better the shooter, the tighter the group so more impacts hit in the same place. To make their targets last longer they have included a clever setting that allows you to offset the target, so that other areas of the plate get pummeled.
The plates are covered with silicon grease for a bit extra protection. You can buy the plates from Sport Quantum for about €50, but you can also go to a hardware store and have them cut for you and drill the wholes for the screws, which reduces the cost. If my memory is good, it is a 5 mm thick plate, but you can always take the old one with you or measure it at the range.
The screen
The screen is much larger than the target. This allows for the offsetting of the target and also to have different images, like the games that are included with the target, like the one with the apples that fall from a tree as you hit them.
The game that I really like is one where you have a black dot travelling through the screen and changing direction at random every so often.
Software
Their user interface is the best I’ve seen so far. I’ve used Disag, Meyton, Sius, Intarso and Kongsberg. My general view of them is that they are not very user friendly. They all have user experience issues, and some of them are very hard to use (Kongsberg is the worst of all). I’m not event talking about managing a competition, just regular day to day use at the range by shooters.
The Sport Quantum interface is very intuitive and straight forward to use. I could just dive in and start using it. The couple questions I had were easy to solve and to remember. This is the strongest point of the target.
It was easy to change languages, to change target, to start and finish training… Even changing the color of the target and background was easy. The flow of the app is a pleasure to work with.
The only downside is that at this stage of development you can only use it with the provided tablet, instead of having an app to install in any mobile device or web access.
As I did not have the time to create and account and track some training sessions I can not really add anything about their tracking and improvement system (sQuore).
The electronics
I’m no engineer, so there’s not much I can say. In these pictures you can see the basic setup. To update the firmware you have to insert a USB key on the top right. The target connects to Wi-Fi and there are also Ethernet ports so that you can use a cable connection.
User manual
For more details you can download the user manual in English and French, and also their flyers.
The application and website is also available in German, so they probably have all these docs translated.
Price
The target costs €2.160 plus taxes. This includes the target, the tablet that controls it , the software (called FeedbaQ), and delivery.