Woods Walk Course Design

[Nuthatch]

I'm setting up a small woods walk course on my property to use in the off-season. By small, I mean I'll setup about a dozen targets this year and maybe another 10 next year. I've got steel targets ranging from about 2" up to 10". There are plenty of hills, large stumps, etc. to use as safe backstops & no legal restrictions. This will only be for friends and family, not open to the public. Total space is about 80 acres of steep & rocky terrain. There is a mix of brushy, wooded and open areas. The timber is mostly all dead & slated to be cleared this year so I'm not worried about shooting into it. I was figuring the targets would range from about 15 yards for the small ones out to maybe 100 yards at most. I can go farther but this would be for hunting practice & open sights.

I'm familiar with 3D archery courses and have attended local shoots for the past several years. But I've never done a woods walk course and, to my knowledge, there aren't any around these parts. So for those of you who have done these, what are the key components of a good course? What are the typical distances & setups seen out there? Any particularly good ideas for course design? I'd like to make it challenging for me but easy enough for older kids to have some success with .22s & such. Are there any course maps available online for places you've attended? What safety precautions are used at events (other than safe backstops) to make sure that non-shooters aren't walking into the line of fire?

 

[rchas]

Preferably you have targets that swing or reset themselves. Run your targets along one side of a trail with 15 to 20 yards between shooting positions. If you are tight on space, put up two targets at each position. Mark the shooting position with a stake or log on the ground--no one walks off the trail on the target side or between the target and shooting position.

If you have targets that need to be reset by hand, the rules include all guns are pointed in a safe direction while the shooter is down range resetting the target.

I would aim for a course where a few shots are darn near impossible, and a few that anyone can get, with a bunch in between. A couple of novelty targets, like water filled plastic bottles hanging on a string, or splitting a ball on an axe head, are fun

 

[Thomas.bill92]

Yep, good ringing steel is a must! I have a woods walk set up on my property with 17 targets, some are hardened ar500, some are mild steel pipe, and my favorite are a handful of knives from an old John Deere combine, they are shaped like a Christmas tree and dance like crazy when hit (they are also tough as all get out as I have never even dented one with a muzzleloader). Most of my targets are hanging from shepherds hooks, you have to find the good ones though to be able to support the target and if you keep the high powered unmentionables away, they will survive many hits. I don't have many mountains or hills where I am in VA but I do have plenty of ravines and if I can make it so that I am shooting down into a ravine, Ill take advantage of that spot. Don't make anything too permanent because as time goes on and you use the course more and more, you may find better places to put targets or new directions to shoot from. Lastly, my range too is just set up for family and friends but it always has to be shot in a group as some parts of the trail are potentially downrange and in the "splatter" zone. I will gladly take some pictures of my setup the next time I am out and post them back on this thread.

 

[Nuthatch]

Preferably you have targets that swing or reset themselves. Run your targets along one side of a trail with 15 to 20 yards between shooting positions. If you are tight on space, put up two targets at each position. Mark the shooting position with a stake or log on the ground--no one walks off the trail on the target side or between the target and shooting position.

If you have targets that need to be reset by hand, the rules include all guns are pointed in a safe direction while the shooter is down range resetting the target.

I would aim for a course where a few shots are darn near impossible, and a few that anyone can get, with a bunch in between. A couple of novelty targets, like water filled plastic bottles hanging on a string, or splitting a ball on an axe head, are fun

Good thoughts. Yea, definitely need the axe split target. Thank you.

 

[Grimord]

Two other targets to consider that can be pretty difficult are a length of 3/8" chain hanging from a limb. When hit it really dances around. The other is a truck coil spring hanging from a limb. Very difficult to hit. but when hit it dances.

 

[rich pierce]

You’re fortunate in having lots of terrain with hills and such and plenty of land. So you should have no problems with one shooting station position being downrange of another. That’s the toughest challenge in many areas, good backstops and not enough walking distance between stations.

 

[Nuthatch]

You’re fortunate in having lots of terrain with hills and such and plenty of land. So you should have no problems with one shooting station position being downrange of another. That’s the toughest challenge in many areas, good backstops and not enough walking distance between stations.

Fortunate for the sake of recreation anyway. Flat costs extra up there. We have to create it with heavy equipment.

 

[nit wit]

I have run WW for 30 years, 10 is plenty, 11 for novelty or tie breaker. Remember the "Clyde Fisher " Rule, 3 hammer falls. My first WW was 4 1/2 hours. I have learned much since then. Swingers, breakable and knock over targets save time!
Best of luck.
Nit Wit

 

[Thomas.bill92]

Two other targets to consider that can be pretty difficult are a length of 3/8" chain hanging from a limb. When hit it really dances around. The other is a truck coil spring hanging from a limb. Very difficult to hit. but when hit it dances.

Hey, thanks for the idea! Gonna hang it on my woods walk this evening for the weekend shooting festivities!

 

[TDM]

I’ve been meaning to build a WW for a long time, no good excuse not to.

 

[Thomas.bill92]

I’ve been meaning to build a WW for a long time, no good excuse not to.

If you have the land for it, there is no better way to enjoy a muzzleloader!

 

[TDM]

If you have the land for it, there is no better way to enjoy a muzzleloader!

Fortunately I have plenty of land. Just need to get off my lazy rear and do it!

Have the steel and chain lying around to make targets too.

 

[Thomas.bill92]

Fortunately I have plenty of land. Just need to get off my lazy rear and do it!

Have the steel and chain lying around to make targets too.

Sounds like a great weekend project, you'll have it up and shootin' before you know it, so you already have some trails or roads to utilize?

 

[TDM]

Sounds like a great weekend project, you'll have it up and shootin' before you know it, so you already have some trails or roads to utilize?

Yes, my shooting range slopes down to one of my feeder creeks. The bottoms bordering the creek have almost no understory, just big trees. Elevation changes just enough to make it interesting. Lots of places to hang targets. I have over 3 miles of trails, but I think that would be a bit much.

 

[Timber Wolf]

We just upped the club’s WW from 12 to 14 targets. Some are pretty big and some are pretty (dang) small. Distances from 20ish to 50 yards, but you can back off to a 100 (or more) from the last target (Scuba tank) for tie breaker if required. Our walk is not very long, and some of the stations are pretty close together, but safety has not been an issue. We have a larger chain for our “Snake” which I usually hit, but did not last month. The walk is somewhat along a ridge and the targets are set down hill so all shots have a safe back-stop. Shooting our Muzzle Loader Woods Walk along with our Archery Walk is the most fun I have these days.

 

[TDM]

I’m really going to try to start putting targets up next week. I have a big sheet of 3/8” steel, a plasma cutter, and welder. I could knock out 10-12 targets in a couple hours. Embarrassing that I hadn’t started sooner. It would be a lot more fun than just shooting at targets down the range.

 

[Grimord]

I’m really going to try to start putting targets up next week. I have a big sheet of 3/8” steel, a plasma cutter, and welder. I could knock out 10-12 targets in a couple hours. Embarrassing that I hadn’t started sooner. It would be a lot more fun than just shooting at targets down the range.

I find the woods walk, with friends and fellow shooters, to be more fun than shooting at paper targets at the range. It is also a good primer for hunting situations, as you have to load from the bag, and the targets vary in size and distance. At our woods walk shoots at our club, we usually end the shoot with a campfire and some tasty vittles and a lot of great conversation.

 

[Boom Stick]

Find or set up a log at approximately 15 yards and take a battery operated drill and drill some holes spaced out in a line where you and either insert some wooden dowels or some sticks you wittle down (cheaper) and stick in the holes. On the sticks you can insert some old potatoes, apples, or other fruits or vegetables as 'exploding' targets. Very exciting and fun, especially for the kids.

 

[Grimord]

For shooting potatoes, carrots and charcoal briquets, we use a string stretched between two trees at about 30 yards with other strings dangling at different lengths spaced out on on the suspension string. The ends of the danglers have a 1.5" sheet rock screw for screwing into the targets. Works really well, and easy to set up. If there is any breeze, the targets get to moving and make the shot more difficult. Just do not set up the targets the day before the shoot. We found that the critters make off with them. We have also used wine corks as targets on the strings and ping pong balls.

 

[Capnball]

I'm setting up a small woods walk course on my property to use in the off-season. By small, I mean I'll setup about a dozen targets this year and maybe another 10 next year. I've got steel targets ranging from about 2" up to 10". There are plenty of hills, large stumps, etc. to use as safe backstops & no legal restrictions. This will only be for friends and family, not open to the public. Total space is about 80 acres of steep & rocky terrain. There is a mix of brushy, wooded and open areas. The timber is mostly all dead & slated to be cleared this year so I'm not worried about shooting into it. I was figuring the targets would range from about 15 yards for the small ones out to maybe 100 yards at most. I can go farther but this would be for hunting practice & open sights.

I'm familiar with 3D archery courses and have attended local shoots for the past several years. But I've never done a woods walk course and, to my knowledge, there aren't any around these parts. So for those of you who have done these, what are the key components of a good course? What are the typical distances & setups seen out there? Any particularly good ideas for course design? I'd like to make it challenging for me but easy enough for older kids to have some success with .22s & such. Are there any course maps available online for places you've attended? What safety precautions are used at events (other than safe backstops) to make sure that non-shooters aren't walking into the line of fire?

I had a metal charging bear target once. I was in the process of painting point rings on the target. Then I got this idea to paint a smaller bear inside the bears outline. The object of the target was to hit the bear twice in two minutes (from the first shot). Scoring was as follows, first shot must be in the "small" bear, 10 points. No points for large ring hits on first shot. Reload, 10 points again for the smaller bear but any shot in the larger ring would be 5 points. The idea is to simulate a charging bear. You'd probably have the drop on a real bear and get to aim, breathe, squeeze. But the second shot would be more difficult, given reloading, aiming and shooting in 2 minutes. I know a bear can cover a lot of ground in two minutes but the idea is to roughly simulate the adrenaline rush without creating an unsafe shooting situation. I did this alot and it was a blast without multiple targets at different ranges. Can of spray paint and a stencil fixes it up good as new when it gets hard to read.