Here’s another historical document from the early days of practical shooting. This is a scanned copy of the original design document for the “Pepper popper” – the most commonly used falling steel target in USPSA, IDPA and other practical shooting matches. The target’s name came from designer John Pepper, who was active in the founding years of IPSC and USPSA on the East Coast. Gary Greco shared this document with me as part of a collection of John Pepper and early practical shooting memorabilia.

Pepper’s design skills were not limited to steel: the document itself is an information-rich layout with many elements. I’ve broken each element out into a separate image for easier viewing.

Pepper is mentioned in one of Jeff Cooper’s “Commentaries”, archived here: http://dvc.org.uk/jeff/jeff9_8.html

Some discussion of John Pepper here on the Brian Enos forum: https://forums.brianenos.com/topic/116398-origin-of-the-popper/

More about John Pepper and Jeff Cooper here:

https://www.gun.rodeo/rodeo/1226/Salute+to+Col+Jeff+Cooper%2C+John+Pepper%2C+Ron+Benson%2C+%26+early+Steel+Target+designs+from+Gunsite