Shooting into......

[barnettshale]

 

[Frontier's]

Going with corrugated plastic backboard. The Whittington center uses this and it lasts forever.

 

[jimairwin]

Where I work, someone has the idea to use either power poles or railroad timbers for a target backboard to prevent constant rebuild cost.

I highly disagreed with it, as it's a big safety issue, especially with low velocity rounds, including muzzleloaders.

Opinions?

May be OK for low usage. Will deteriorate fairly quickly. Best to use sand or sandy soil.

 

[DixieTexian]

For muzzle loader velocities... Straw bales. Bottom row side-facing, top row end-on. I place my targets to line up with the top row. Once it rains and the bales get soaked, no round ball is going through them. I use a shipping pallet faced with 1/2 plywood in front of that stack. I have one stack at 25 yards, one at 50. If I want to shoot further I move my table back. Next spring, tear the bales apart, shake out the lead and collect then start over with new bales.

Around here, you can probably find some old rotten round bales that folks are looking to get rid of for next to nothing. Not very handy if you don't have a way to move them, but should be plenty to stop anything you want to shoot as long as your hits are pretty well centered.

 

[Frontier's]

May be OK for low usage. Will deteriorate fairly quickly. Best to use sand or sandy soil.

How do you staple targets to sand?

 

[Grimord]

For paper target set up at our ranges we have steel poles placed at each end of the back stop with 3/8" plastic coated cable stretched between them with about 10" of separation so a paper target can span the cables and be held in place with clothes pins provided.

 

[erhunter]

At a range I shoot at they have a cinder/ gravel berm built with old tires
buried in them and use thick rubber mat to mount/staple your targets to. This seems to hold up very well and stops everything I had seen shot at them.

 

[barnettshale]

Trying to edit videos to be smaller but no luck yet.

 

[Tanglefoot]

There are several good backstop plans outlined in this thread, and I would encourage anybody I cared about to use one of them or something very similar. A friend of mine built a portable setup using PVC pipe to build the frame, with strips of plywood bolted to the PVC verticals to attach a sheet of cardboard with clips. Staple the paper targets to the cardboard, and replace it when it gets shot ragged. Looked strange but it was light weight, portable, and renewable. So far so good. What I'd like to do here is strongly urge everybody NOT to use railroad ties, treated phone poles, or metal backing for any target or target holder. At a rendezvous up in the prairies near Waco some years ago, a friend of mine ... Mike ... was shooting a "Poker Table" match with a .45 caliber ML pistol. The rules were that you had to raise your pistol under the "poker table" (a piece of plywood) and shoot the silhouette of your opponent. The silhouette was mounted on a backing of stacked RR ties. Mike was seated behind the table on a section of log simulating a chair. I was standing on one side of Mike and another friend was standing on the other. Mike fired, grunted, and fell backwards off the log chunk. His bullet had struck the backstop, come straight back, and hit him square on his breastbone! The good news was, it was a soft lead round ball, flattened on the RR ties, and struck Mike flat. It didn't penetrate his chest but left him a silver-dollar sized purple bruise. We recovered the bullet, which had fallen into his lap, and he carried it for years in his medicine pouch. On another range some genius had constructed a Split- The-Ball-On-The-Axe-Blade target by welding the back of a single-edge axe blade to a quarter-inch tool steel plate with holes in the four corners of the plate to allow it to be spiked to a log backstop. Unfortunately, the exposed portion of the back plate was roughly 2 inches wide by 6 inches long vertically on each side of the axe head, and it was surface-hardened by welding. They started using it one afternoon in spite of objections by myself and some others, and just a few rounds into the match, one rifle bullet --- fired at maybe 15 yards --- ricocheted back, passed between two other spectators, and struck a young woman bystander in the face.
Accidents DO happen, y'all, and when they do somebody often gets hurt. You don't want that on your conscience. Thus ends my sermon. Please be generous when the plate is passed.

 

[TFoley]

Gain-twist, or progressive rifling, increases the twist rate as the projectile moves down the bore. It is claimed that gain-twist rifling imparts less angular momentum to the bullet, thus reducing the tendency of the bullet to drift in the direction of the twist.

 

[Canute Rex]

Maybe not so much of a solution for beginners, but I shoot into a plywood box filled with rubber landscaping mulch. The box is 2' x 2' by 3' deep. I've shot up to 69 caliber into it and most balls stop halfway through or less.

The box is up on legs and has a hinged top with a piece of metal corrugated roofing on it to keep the rain out. The front is thin plywood held by sheet metal angle on the sides and bottom so it is replaceable. After some shooting I can dig through and scoop out spent balls for recasting.

I would echo others in warning against any steel out there that isn't 1) extremely thin, 2) hanging from a chain or pivot so it dissipates bullet momentum, or 3) at an acute forward angle so bullets deflect into the ground.

 

[Thingamajiggy]

We've used RR ties with no issues, aborbs whatever we shoot into them. Have not tried power poles.

 

[Flintlock]

I cut up pine and stack it 3-4 rows deep like firewood, as the pieces get shot up I can switch them out and retrieve my lead. I only use pine especially in the first row or two, I have bit hit by a returning FMJ 45acp by a frozen oak log.

 

[alcessapiens]

Ah jus tacks mah shootin papers on mah neighbors doghouse. Thet thar dawg has been mighty quiet ever since…

 

[barnettshale]

The matting shown with the target stapled to it has been in place for more than 3 years. 100's if not a couple of 1000 rounds have been fired into it. It is pretty much self-healing. .58 PRB's down through 22's. We have been through cardboard, plywood and in the past those realty for sale signs and this has absolutely been the best answer. Been shooting into this same mound of dirt for more than 25 years. There is a gully behind it with a higher bank about 25 yards further on. Also a pond berm/dike to the right and another pond berm/ dike to the left.

 

[Whitworth]

When not ringing steel I use 18 inch thick slices of 2+ foot diameter logs and shoot into them end on with the grain. Later I split them up and retrieve my lead.

 

[Gus Alexander]

Seriously...

Sure they'll get shot up eventually. But a ricochet off them, extremely unlikely. Talking about RR ties, unless the rail plates are left on 'em.

RR ties don't allow small arms penetration & the round usually ricochet. I've had .50 balls from pistol, & C&B rounds land at my feet. Practicing draw & shoot @20ft from the backstop. I've noticed particle board/OSB over the ties really absorb energy & capture more rounds..

 

[Va Hunter]

On my range I use old 48” bucket truck tires filled with dirt as a backstop. Works really well.

 

[SDSmlf]

Why not just put up two poles holding up a sheet of OSB and let the dirt bank catch the bullets? That’s what my range is like.

Exactly my plan!

Just crazy what non shooters were suggesting at work because the material is free.

The above will obviously work, but I have found that unless one has complete control of who is shooting at a range, folks tend to not take personal ownership and just shoot up and destroy things.

If this is this is a permanent range, you may want to consider something a little more durable. Below are some photographs of a setup that uses steel angle and channel anchored in cement that holds the easily replaceable target stands. The steel is hidden behind small mound of dirt (almost like a pit), maybe 18” high or so to protect it from being shot. The the target stands are made out of 2x2 lumber (two 8’ pieces of 2x2 make a stand up to 6’ tall) and a backer of your choice. The target stands are taken down when not in use. Everyone can have their own personal stands, or the range or club can store them.

 

[centershot]

We are fortunate that our ranges are in front of a huge hill. Back in the 50"s, when we acquired the land, we sank 2 large steel I-beams into the ground, vertically. Each had two hole drilled into it, one at the top, one at the bottom. We then strung 1" aluminum cable between the posts and attached the ends to anchors that were embedded in concrete previously. We hang our targets on frames made of snow fence and 1x4. Staple a 4'x4' piece of fence to the 1x4 and attach a piece of light gauge wire to each corner. Attach 2 wires to the top cable and 2 to the bottom. Attach your targets to the fencing with clothespins. We tried a lot of things over the years but this has worked out the best.