Moving target ideas please.

purdeydog

Well-Known Member
Hi

Looking to make a moving target for rifle shooting. Along the lines of a hardox plate attached to something that swings or is moving, ideally swinging. Need some help with ideas. The criteria is

1. It needs to withstand centre fire rifles from the varmint calibers through to 300wm
2. Withstand bullet impacts from 100y.
3. Needs to not have to be patched out.
4. Needs to have some sort of mechanism to set it off and reset it without having to keep going down to it too often, perhaps some sort of spring/pully system.
5. Needs to be relatively inexpensive to make/construct no more than a couple of hundred pounds.
6. Wont have access to mains power.
7. Will be placed in a field with a steep bank on one side if that helps with gravity etc.
8. Needs to be easily fixable in the field with replacement parts on hand.

Any ideas gratefully received.
 
Save youself the pain and expense and purchase a low powered 177 air rifle and a 10M running boar target setup. You can then practice the most important element of moving target shooting for very little money, at home whenever you want, safely and without risk of generating noise complaints.

K
 
Hi

Looking to make a moving target for rifle shooting. Along the lines of a hardox plate attached to something that swings or is moving, ideally swinging. Need some help with ideas. The criteria is

1. It needs to withstand centre fire rifles from the varmint calibers through to 300wm
2. Withstand bullet impacts from 100y.
3. Needs to not have to be patched out.
4. Needs to have some sort of mechanism to set it off and reset it without having to keep going down to it too often, perhaps some sort of spring/pully system.
5. Needs to be relatively inexpensive to make/construct no more than a couple of hundred pounds.
6. Wont have access to mains power.
7. Will be placed in a field with a steep bank on one side if that helps with gravity etc.
8. Needs to be easily fixable in the field with replacement parts on hand.

Any ideas gratefully received.

If you can give an idea of what you’re wanting to achieve. ie running boar practice or something else in mind.
Might be easier to make suggestions.
 
We used a large washing machine drum ring fitted a steel 5mm cable vie a pully to the other end on a sprung loaded pully wheel fixed to a sealed bearing fitted in a "A" frame it was powered by a 240v battery with a variable speed control to slow drum or speed it up , the target we had was wafer board or aircraft skin with targets on , we also had trip switches so it stopped when it reached the end of the runs . I cant see any real problems if the Hardox was run and supported like an overhead tram car (tram line sky lift) with anti sag rollers from rear overhung rollers it could then be worked as ours vie a push button feed control from shooting line so could be run in-out. our range was 40 mts wide , if its safe to leave it use a solar to charge battery, ours was run off a gen to charge our batts , Note ours was on a gated range so once setup it was left in place apart from my gen .
 
Many thanks for the replies. In this circumstance noise isnt an issue. We aren’t looking to achieve anything other than some fun. It could be a running boar or a moving gong. Not trying to recreate any specific hunting type scenarios. We have an annual shoot with like minded people. We various metal target stands with life size animals, some gongs and some reactive fox targets. From 150y to 450y. Some off sticks, bales, Land Rover etc. We raised over £2000 for a farmers charity last year. This year we want to add a mover. Perhaps some sort of pengilum and you have 30s to shoot before it slows down or something like that.
 
If you aren't trying to replicate a hunting scenario, you could always add the movement at the shooters end and have them shoot two or more shots from a suspended platform. After the 1st shot the platform starts swinging, it doesn't take a lot of movement to make the shooting tricky for shots two and onwards...
 
Many thanks for the replies. In this circumstance noise isnt an issue. We aren’t looking to achieve anything other than some fun. It could be a running boar or a moving gong. Not trying to recreate any specific hunting type scenarios. We have an annual shoot with like minded people. We various metal target stands with life size animals, some gongs and some reactive fox targets. From 150y to 450y. Some off sticks, bales, Land Rover etc. We raised over £2000 for a farmers charity last year. This year we want to add a mover. Perhaps some sort of pengilum and you have 30s to shoot before it slows down or something like that.
Easy to make some knock over targets just like a steel plate shoot , remoute reset with a rope on lever and a bar when the rope is pulled arm gets pulled down the rear arm comes up and resets target very easy to make , steel rod road pins as rollers and the gong welded to steel tube like a door hinge target to be made like a lollypop weld a leg at the bottom of target this supports target as it sits slightly forward the round knocks it back and so it go's on . you may need to protect lower part of target to avoid base getting hit with rail sleepers sand bags . :tiphat: a very worth while event your doing there:thumb:
 
good evening,not what you ask but when i want a challenge i half inflate balloons and stake a four foot fishing line on the balloon and put them out from 100yards to 400 in windy conditions.its good practice and with a very large hill behind nice and safe.
 
Sounds good i'd use helium party balloons then stick some flour in them just a few ,blow them up place a few as hard ones way out of small shots give a small cheap prize to the winner make it timed but safe that will give the spectators a bit of enjoyment aswell
 
One of the easiest reactive targets to make is a duelling tree. You have multiple discs and a time limit to get them all to the other side. Making them different sizes will increase the difficulty as they get smaller. It is basically an angle iron stand which hinges the target to swing left or right.
A wheeled trolley towed with a rope with a target board on could work too. Any bumps would add to the movement. If you have enough help you don’t need a motor. Just a long enough rope. Put a pulley diverter of some sort at each side of the range. Pull each end alternatively you have a variable moving target.
 
Not a bad idea sonic. I'm familiar with dueling trees. Ref shooting hardox with 300wm It's fine. What's ruins the targets is super fast varmints like the 220 swift etc. They will make a good dent at close ranges. The biggest problem is securing the targets from impact shock to what ever your hanging them from. Reinforced Rubber strips almost like tyre rubber we use. Think it's conveyor belt matting. If the bullets hit the rubber it just makes a neat hole through it no problem.
 
If ur wanting it like a running target really ur 2 best options are

Putting it on wheels but u might even need a wee set of tracks for it

Or putting in a wire rope above it and either simplly a piece of pipe/sleve over it or get some low friction rollers like for a rope slide/zip wire.
U also get small swing face pulleys (the side faces swing so u don't have to thread the rope all the way throu from the end) for tree surgery which would do the job nicely and aren't dear

If ur had a slight slope on the ground u could let gravity do the work 1 direction and either a winch/motor or hand pulled rope to reset it.
With some redirect pulleys it would be very easy to have ur rope person in a very safe place even back at the firing position
if u used some low friction line/string (like tree surgeons throw lines, or even electric fence rope) u could be quite a long way away and pull the thing back fairly easily.

The wire rope really could be quite a simple cheap set up to make, plus ur disc is easy to rig free hanging, Even if u don't have the slope u could use 2 trees with the wire 'zip line' at different hieght to give u the fall. Ideally u want it tight but a simple cheap hand winch from aldi/lidl/screwfix etc could easliy be attached at 1 end esp if ur taking it down in between shoots.
U might need some sort of stopper/slowing down device at bottom to take the stress of the hardox gong coming to a sudden stop
 
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