Fitting the Thermal Heating Kit to Your Own Steel Target

The thermal heating kit goes onto a steel target you already own in a few minutes: an adhesive heating pad on the back of the plate, a control box U-bolted to the post directly behind it, a battery in the box, and a cable tied up out of the line of fire. The steel needs to be a 66 percent IPSC or larger so the plate covers the box, and it should be clean and not badly pitted. One rule above all the others: never power the pad unless it is stuck to steel. Without the plate to carry the heat away it will catch fire.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHmZjuQjAk4

Watch: How To Turn Any Steel Target Into A Thermal Target (9:30) on YouTube. The install from the bench to a portable stand, then a look through a thermal optic.

What comes in the basic kit

The heater pad, the control box, the battery, and spare heating pads. Steel targets, stands, and the full range packages are separate, for anyone building a thermal course from nothing.

The basic kit: heater pad, control box, battery, and a spare pad. Steel and stands are sold separately or in the full packages.

Choosing the steel

• Size: a 66 percent IPSC or bigger. The only requirement is that the plate covers the control box behind it. The kit has more than enough heat for any normal steel target; a whole vehicle profile is a conversation to have with us first.

• Condition: a clean back, wiped with alcohol so the pad's adhesive meets paint and not grit. A new plate, or one that is not deeply pitted and rusted, holds the pad better than one that has spent years on the range.

• Mounting: the box must sit directly behind the plate. Anything that needs the box somewhere else, such as a target hanging on chains, puts the power cable where it can be shot.

The pad and the plate it is about to go on. The back of the steel was wiped with alcohol first.

Fitting the pad

1. Peel the backing off the pad.

2. Place it high on the back of the plate, near the bolt hole, with the cable pointing down.

3. Press from the centre outward. Keep pressing until there are no air bubbles and the whole pad is in contact with the steel; the bubbles move to the edge as you go.

4. It is ready to shoot as soon as it is on. Nothing needs to cure.

Centre first, then out to the edge. You can watch the air move out under the pad as you press.

Hanging the plate and mounting the box

1. Hang the plate any way you normally would except on chains. An ordinary steel target bracket on a T-post or a portable stand works. The stand in the video has a slot cut for the U-bolt because it is thicker than a T-post.

2. Set the temperature on the knob at the back of the box before you mount it. It is hard to see once the box is on the post.

3. Put the U-bolt through the slot or around the post and run the wing nuts up. The box goes directly behind the plate, as high as it will go.

Pad high near the bolt hole, cable running down. On the stand and ready for the box.

The box sits directly behind the plate, on the post, on its own U-bolt.

Battery and power

1. Take off the four hand-wheel screws. They are large so you can squeeze the rubber gasket, and that gasket is what lets the box live in the rain.

2. Inside there are spare zip ties, an alternative to the U-bolt if you need one.

3. The battery has two sockets. The power lead goes to the box; the other socket is for the charger. They only connect one way.

4. Manage the wires, close the lid on the gasket, and lock it up.

5. Cut the transit zip ties off the cable, take the cover off the port at the bottom of the box, and plug the pad in. It only goes in one way.

6. Tie the spare cable up with the small zip ties from the kit. A loose cable hanging behind a target gets shot; one did during testing.

The power lead is the one that fits. The other socket on the battery is for the charger.

Cable tied up with the small zip ties from the kit. A loose cable gets shot; one did during testing.

What it does once it is on

The pad warms the plate from room temperature to about 100 C, which is what gives a bright plate in the optic no matter what the air is doing. A target this size gets there indoors from about 20 C. Through a thermal optic the plate reads as a warm body against a cool background.

Who it is for

Not the person who zeroes a coyote rifle a few times a year; hand warmers will do that. It is for ranges running thermal courses day after day, where nobody has time to babysit heat packs between relays.

The kit, the pads and the full packages are on the Thermal Optic Targets page. For why cold steel disappears in a thermal optic, see Why Can't I See Steel Targets Through My Thermal Scope?.