Best target pasters and staplers: the small stuff that doubles your target life

Why this is a real shopping list

The first outdoor range trip teaches most people two lessons the hard way. The first is that a paper target is unreadable after about forty rounds, because the holes merge and you can no longer tell a new group from an old one. The second is that there is nothing to hang the target on and nothing to hang it with.

Both problems cost a few dollars to solve permanently. A pack of pasters turns one sheet of paper into a morning's worth of distinct groups. A stapler turns a piece of cardboard into a target frame. Neither shows up on a beginner gear list, which is why they are worth their own page.

Bench & Berm does not test gear. Everything quoted below is from the maker's own product page, checked on the dates listed in Sources.

How we picked

• Published pack counts. With consumables the count is the spec. Every pick here publishes one.
• Self-adhesive, not tape. Masking tape over a hole peels in the sun and tells you nothing.
• A stapler the maker will tie to targets, plus one honest alternative. Champion sells a target stapler; Arrow does not market the T50 for targets and we say so on its card.
• Nothing invented. Where a maker does not publish a figure — Arrow does not state the staple size on the page we checked — we print that instead of guessing.

What pasters actually do

A paster is a small self-adhesive dot you stick over a bullet hole. The point is not to repair the target; it is to reset it. Once the old holes are covered, the next five rounds are a group you can read from the bench instead of a guess.

The Birchwood Casey Shoot-N-C pasters do that and one more thing: each one is itself a piece of Shoot-N-C material, so Birchwood Casey says a hit shows a chartreuse ring. That means a patched target keeps giving you visible feedback, and in a pinch a single one-inch paster on a blank backer is a perfectly good precision aiming point. Birchwood Casey publishes 432 per pack, which at a realistic rate of use is several seasons for a casual shooter.

If you have already bought a Shoot-N-C target you may not need a separate pack at all. Birchwood Casey ships 110 pasters with the 12 x 18 Handgun Trainer and 120 with the six-inch Target Spots, which is the first thing to check before you add a pack to the cart. Our best reactive targets page covers the targets those pasters come with.

Pasters vs adhesive spots

These solve different problems and it is easy to buy the wrong one.

• A one-inch paster is for covering a hole. It is too small to be a comfortable aiming point for a new shooter past close range, and it is not meant to be one.
• A six-inch Target Spot is for creating an aiming point. Birchwood Casey describes the color as "high-contrast, radiant orange", and the pack is ten spots with 120 pasters, so it is both the target and the patches in one purchase.

If you are setting up on bare cardboard, start with the spots. If you are already shooting printed targets and just want them to last, start with the pasters. Our types of shooting targets page covers the wider choice, and best shooting targets is the roundup to read if you have not bought a target yet.

Do you need a stapler at all?

It depends entirely on where you shoot, and this is the part most lists get wrong.

Indoor ranges almost always hang targets for you, on a clip carrier or a motorized retriever. You will not touch a stapler there, and bringing one is harmless but pointless.

Outdoor ranges are where it earns its place. Public ranges typically provide a wooden or steel target frame with a cardboard backer and expect you to attach your own paper. Clubs and private land mean you are building the frame as well: our DIY target stand page covers the 2x4 build, and best target stands covers the bought ones.

Champion's staple gun is the pick because Champion markets it for the job and describes it as compact enough for a shooting bag, which is the only size spec that matters when the alternative lives in a toolbox in your garage. The Arrow T50 is the honest alternative: a better general-purpose tool, not sold for targets, and the one to buy if you want a single stapler for the house and the range.

Staple sizes and refills

One line that saves a wasted trip: Champion publishes that its staple gun takes JT21 staples, and staples are not listed as included on the page we checked. Buy a box of JT21 with the gun.

Arrow does not state staple sizes on the product page we checked, and we will not type a number we cannot source, so confirm the refill on the listing before you order. The model Arrow lists is T50GR-4.

What you staple it to

Paper needs something behind it. Most public outdoor ranges supply a frame and expect a cardboard backer; purpose-made cardboard target backers are sold in standard sizes, and a flattened moving box does the same job for nothing. The backer is also what makes the self-adhesive spots useful: stick three spots on one sheet of cardboard and you have three separate aiming points at a known spacing.

What you should not do is staple paper straight onto a wooden frame rail and shoot at the rail, or hang paper in front of steel without checking the distance rules the steel's maker publishes. Our steel target safe distance page covers that, and paper vs steel targets is the wider comparison.

Check the range's rules first

Ranges set their own target rules and they are not the same everywhere. Georgia's state firearm ranges, for example, publish rules for what may be shot and how, and many facilities restrict where targets may be placed, what materials are allowed and whether you may staple to their frames at all. Read the posted rules or ask at the desk before you set anything up. Our shooting range etiquette page covers what is normal, and range commands covers when you are allowed downrange to hang the target in the first place.

What to buy

• You shoot paper outdoors and nothing else: the Shoot-N-C pasters and the Champion staple gun, plus a box of JT21 staples.
• You are setting up on bare cardboard: Target Spots first; the 120 pasters in the pack cover the patching.
• You want one stapler for the house and the range: Arrow T50.
• You only shoot indoors: pasters yes, stapler no.
• You already own Shoot-N-C targets: check the pasters in the box before buying more.

What to look for in pasters and staplers

1. A published pack count. For a consumable this is the whole value calculation.
2. Self-adhesive backing. Not tape, not glue.
3. A paster size that matches your calibers. One inch covers a handgun hole comfortably; a ragged rifle hole in soft paper may need more.
4. Hit feedback, if you want it. Shoot-N-C pasters show a ring on hit; plain pasters do not.
5. A staple size the maker names. JT21 for the Champion. If the maker does not name one, confirm it on the listing.
6. Something that fits the bag. A stapler in the garage is a stapler you do not have.
7. All-steel construction if it lives in a vehicle. Heat, cold and a bouncing trunk are hard on plastic housings.

Beginner mistakes

• Buying a stapler and no staples. The most common wasted purchase on this page.
• Buying pasters you already own. Several Birchwood Casey target packs include them.
• Using one-inch pasters as your aiming point at distance. Use the six-inch spots for that.
• Shooting a target you can no longer read. If you cannot tell the new group from the old one, you are not practicing, you are making noise.
• Stapling to someone else's frame without checking. Range rules vary; ask first.