How weird. Only yesterday I wrote, “Now if only we had an Ian.”
Look who showed up in the wash this morning, quite unexpectedly!
And he likes his new target range. And he had a historic old rifle to sight in.
Of course there’s nothing much in the way of infrastructure yet. I haven’t even been able to re-set the range markers. But there’s a couple of darned nice target stands, and I’ve got a poncho liner in the Jeep’s gear bag, so what else do you need? Let’s go shooting.
I don’t recall who among the commenters first posited the notion of using chicken wire and clothespins for paper targets – I’d never heard of that and neither had Ian, so we were both interested to see how it would work in practice. Worst case, I didn’t throw away that piece of plywood.
As a way of quickly and securely attaching targets, it works great.
Ian’s new/old AR-10 had some gas system and ejection problems so we didn’t put a lot of .30 cal downrange but there was some…
On the target he shot at from 200 yards he did no damage to the wire at all…
The much tighter sight-in group from 25 yards clipped one wire.
So heavy use would eventually chop a hole in the center of the spot where you usually attach your targets, but the same can be said for any material and this will be extremely easy to repair at need. And in the meantime there’s less top weight and you don’t have a big sheet of plywood acting like a sail. So far, me like.
And a lot easier to replace I would think. Someone else damaged chicken wire could easily patch any holes.
Joel ,it was I who recommended the chicken wire. The gun club I belong to does it that way and it works quite well. Every once in a while ,volunteers will spend a Saturday replacing the wire,(we have about 30 pistol ranges) .If you don’t put the targets in the same place every time,it will last a little longer.
Now get somebody in the aerospace industry to donate a few rolls of safety wire and you can replace shot thru wire sections.
Just center the targets over whatever holes start forming! Once they get to be about 6″ in diameter, the damage should cease (10″ if you’re shooting before breakfast).
That’s right out of the “why didn’t I think of that?” files.
I’d get bored and start shooting the clothes pins. Or shooting AT the clothes pins, more likely.
🙂 If you come visiting, bring your own clothespins.