Airgun Backyard Practice Targets

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Scrench
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Joined: Sat May 25, 2013 7:42 pm
Location: Baton Rouge, LA

Airgun Backyard Practice Targets

Post by Scrench »

Hi Everyone,

On an earlier post entitled "Does Anybody Have One of These?" I was searching around for a suitable set of targets to practice with in my backyard that would have minimum impact on the neighbors, be as accurate as possible to the actual targets we use at the range but with zero ricochet possibility, and be as light and portable as possible so if I come home from work and only have 30 minutes to practice, I could just grab them all at once and be set up in no time. They are at pistol ranges in this picture.
New-Sil-Targets-012.jpg
Two of the pellet traps are made by Beeman, the other two are called Pellet Trap by doalloutdoors.com, which I found at Bass Pro for $22. The Beemans are about $30, but I prefer the Pellet Traps. You have to assemble them, and they are cheaply made with thin, flimsy metal that you could shoot through with no trouble. The cheesy targets and attachments that come with it are useless. But, their added depth allows room for some animals to swing all the way around depending on where you drill new holes for the rods. They are lighter, and with a 1 lb. brick of duct seal (less than $3) on the back wall, I cannot shoot through them with my target PCP. If I were going to use a gun that shot over 700 fps., I think I would buy some sheet metal, cut it to the same size as the back panel, and glue it on the back for reinforcement, even with the duct seal. The Beemans did come with a set of animals, but I blew two sets of chickens and pigs up because the welds will not hold on the back where a rod screws into them. You can see the Beeman animals and traps in the other post. Those animals would be fine if you don't cut the bases off like I did and use them as stand-up targets, but more powerful guns will still destroy them eventually because they are only 3.1 mm thick. The best animals I found were made by Quality Targets. I bought a set of Calvin's 1/10 scale Silhouette Swinger animals, without the swinging support frame, just the animals, and asked him to shorten the stem between the rod and the top of the animal to 1 1/2". Knowing what I know now, I would have asked him to cut them even shorter, probably just an inch so that I could try to get all of the animals to rotate completely. I would also ask him to narrow the width of the rod by about 1/3 or 1/2. These animals are made out of a single cut piece of 5.7 mm steel. My target gun, which shoots around 640 fps with 7.3 grain pellets, moves the ram only about an inch on a direct hit at 45 yards. These animals are solid, and my guess is, unbreakable. Very well worth it, and Calvin was fantastic to work with.

The hardware, rods, washers and nuts, cost about $7. I found the buckets at a grocery store for free. These particular ones were for pig casings used in a meat market, and the traps fit perfectly on top and in them. They are also the exact right height. Our range targets are 15 3/4" (chickens), 16" (pigs), 16 1/4" (turkeys), and 16 1/4" (rams) as measured from the ground to the center of each animal. These buckets with the traps on top average 16" to the center of the animals, so with a little adjustment of rod height you can be dead on. They were white, but I wanted them to blend in with the grass. The new Rustoleum Painter's Touch 2X spray paints adhere very well to plastic ($3). I painted the sides and backs of my traps the same color, so now, between the grass colored traps and the absence of sound when a pellet oozes into the duct seal, the neighbors with kids playing in their driveway on the other side of my 6' cedar fence about 30 feet away don't even know I'm practicing, and casual glances from other neighbors reveal nothing. There are very similar cat litter buckets out there. The only required maintenance is repainting and changing duct seal as needed, which isn't often.

All in all, for about $175 total, I wound up with these. If you don't paint anything and only buy the cheaper traps you could do it for around $140 or so. I said in the other thread that I would pay $200 for a set of good backyard traps, and that's very nearly what I spent. But these have made my practice sessions much more productive since I can quickly pick up all 4 buckets at once, set em' up and shoot without having to worry about anything falling apart, or caring about neighbor issues. I can now have confidence at the range in competition because I practice on very nearly the same targets. Comments and suggestions welcome.

See Ya' Shootin,

Richard Harris
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