People keep inadvertently shooting through the ropes that secure the target stands in case of flood. I just fixed them, and this morning found the rope that actually anchors the whole thing shot through.
So I used up about 60 feet of that new 550 cord…
This time I bolted a couple of chain loops around the frame, in hope that bullet frags will hit them and leave the cord alone. Climbed up that little cut to secure the new cord to a well-rooted little juniper that’s out of the line of fire.
I didn’t bother with chain on the paper target stand because presumably flying frags won’t be a problem. The cord is small enough in diameter that I could use a bullet hole and get it further from the targets and wayward bullets.
Of course I had to test it, right? At least with 20 rounds, no immediate damage. There’ll be lots more than that, though, and not just pistols.
Its always amazed me how something as thin as a rope can be severed by a bullet time and again without the shooter meaning to do that. I guess this is just another thing that amuses “Uncle Murphy.” Hopefully, this fix will last a while.
In this case the rope appears to have actually been hit – and severed – by a stray shot. That possibility remains. But I’m hoping the chain loops will stop bullet frags from wearing through the rope as has happened twice now. That happens so insidiously I have to keep checking both this target stand and another I have in a deeper part of the wash. If this works I’ll put chain on the other one too.
How many people are shooting at these stands? Form what I can tell you should be able to count you neighbors on one hand
Pretty much most of the time, yeah. But it belongs to Ian, and on those rare occasions when he brings a machinegun to a neighborhood gathering and they bring relatives, there’s a good chance Uncle Joel will have some repair work to do.
Well is Ian going to share some of his wild boar haggis with you???
}:-]
Gad, I hope not. Some of that venison wouldn’t be unwelcome though.