At our range at work, our targets are all 'man-size'...basically the size of an average person, or maybe just a tad smaller. Distances range from arms length away to 8 feet (average gunfight distance), to 21 feet for what Thunder Ranch calls 'Sniper shooting'. However, with the rifle, the targets will sometimes go out to 15 yards. Target configuration? They usually look like armed terrorists, sometimes with grenades or bomb packs around their chests, sometimes with knives or axes, and sometimes with a variety of firearms. They have a tendency to move and charge at us at unexpected times, the lighting is often times low, and we are usually moving and screaming at the same time. We enforce a 'Hot Range concept' in which all of our officers are REQUIRED to maintain a loaded weapon at all times, and are penalized if a weapon goes empty and is not immediately reloaded, and they are penalized if they ASK for permission to reload.
Now, when we do Simunitions, our targets are real people, who can get rather unpredictable at times. When we do Simunitions, I and my other instructors play the role of the bad guys, and when an officer runs out of ammo, they can expect that we will usually shoot a nice group on their back....
Now, somehow, I don't think NCOWS would quite go for this arrangement...
At any rate, the partially obscured targets that French Jack is talking about are fun to shoot at, and I would ALSO like to try out something along the lines of what Joss House is talking about. Back in Missouri, Black River Smith and I used to shoot at a range that set things up similar to that...bowling pins at 50, 75, and 100 yards.....