I have always kept the big cardboard sides from large screen TV purchase or big amazon boxes to use at the range. Idea is to tape this cardboard to the wood targets so it’s easy to grab when done and your not leaving older target stapled into the wood (pet peeve of mine clean up the darn target when you’re done!)

I use cheap paper plates as targets and as I was going out to shoot some of my recent acquisitions and some older guns I came up with another simple idea. I labeled the targets for the gun I was gonna use on it. Worked great on the 10 yard wood frame.

Made for a fun day and just thought I’d share this idea.

So care to share any range ideas you may have?

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Great idea and some great guns (actually all) in that photo.
And …. That’s a lot of cleaning for one range session !

I do the same thing. I use them for firearm, air rifle, and archery targets. I'll cut up large appliance size cardboard boxes into usable/storable sizes and cut some into 8.5" x 11" for target backers for my bullet traps. Some I'll cut into silhouette shape combat targets. I also use the smaller size paper plates. Cheap and effective! My 100 yard backstop behind my house has 3 rows deep of stacked RR ties and 8 high with a large mound of dirt behind them. I put wooden pallets in from of the RR ties and staple the cardboard backers to the pallets. When the pallets get shot up, I just toss them in the bon fire pit.

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SIC SEMPER TYRANNIS

Tonneau Cover packaging makes great backer. Especially if you have an 8’ box. You can get 3 out of each side. I used to color a 2” or 3” circle on the center of a sheet of paper. Then I’d go to work and make 20 copies when nobody was looking.

We have a home business (it's a long story) where we utilize quite a few large cardboard boxes, so I like to use these as target stands at my spot out in the woods where I shoot. I take them out there folded up, then tape them once I get there. I reverse the process when I leave. The larger box on the top is covered with painter's paper, which is necessary after using it several times. And I love paper plates as targets.

And before anyone wags their finger, there's a small hill hidden behind the brush!

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Remote control cars/trucks and some flying drones..all moving targets.
One person evades the fire.....while the other gets to shoot em. Then switch positions. You could score by shots fired to disable...have various stations..

Could get quite expensive but it would be challenging and fun! . (you asked..)

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My Daddy was a pistol..

I shoot at an indoor range where targets are held by overhead trolleys. Thus, I don't need refrigerator cartons as target backers. Any old 12"x12" piece of cardboard will do. I tape the cardboard securely to the paper target. It greatly reduces the tearing of the paper and leaves cleaner holes so I can get more shots into a given target. That's especially important for a shooter like me who groups so many shots into the bullseye.

I also use the same Birchwood-Casey target every time. That way, I have a consistent basis for comparing accuracy across many range sessions. I have years of data from each of my guns from these targets. As an accuracy score, I calculate the percentage of my shots that hit within a 4"x4" square around the bullseye.

Below is one of my better targets (did you think I'd put up a lousy one? ), from my Shield 45 @ 15 yards, standing, two-hand. I was shooting American Eagle FMJ 230g. Note that the holes are much cleaner than what you'd typically get from round-nosed .45 acp with an unbacked target.

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What, me worry?

I have about 4 of these.
Access Denied

Couple of 1X2s and a piece of cardboard box and I can paste targets to it all day long.

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The best I can with what I got

I know it makes a mess but these are so much fun

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The US Postal Service will ship you cases of free cardboard boxes of many different sizes.

They never check to see what you use them for.

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John

Political signs make good target backers and are free and plentiful after elections. I am talking about the plastic corrugated board type which have the heavy wire supports that stick into the ground. I made a fairly heavy wood base with holes in it to stick the wires into. I have been using them for many years. They are far superior to corrugated cardboard. You will never use cardboard again as they are much stiffer and also waterproof.

My other range suggestion is to make up a dedicated hand tool kit for range use in case repairs are needed. Whatever you think you need. Mine has a small ball peen hammer, pliers (regular and needle nose), a knife, an assortment of very small to medium sized screwdrivers, small vise grip pliers, a wire cutter, a medium file, and a set of Allen head wrenches. Also several diameters of steel rods up to about 8" long. Mine are 1/4", 5/16", and 3/8", 3 each.Those rods come in handy more often than you might expect.

I keep a couple of the political signs around and I also use the cheapest Dollar Store paper plates I can find .
Here's another tip ... A lot of people use those Shoot And See type targets . They usually have some peel off dots around the outside of the circle that nobody uses . I find these targets at the range and use the dots for my bulls eye on the paper plates .

I use old decks of playing cards. We wear out a lot of cards playing Cribbage and then save them for the range.

The club I shoot at has a lot of steel targets and we throw a lot of 9/40/45 at them. But there’s also a ton of scattered empty 12ga hulls everywhere and when my #1 shooting bro is there with me, we set up dozens of these empty hulls and break out the rimfire pistols.

Quite often it’s S&W Model 41’s, Ruger Mk II/III or Sig Trailsides.

Then we duel, usually starting at the far left and moving to the right, skipping none. It’s a lot of fun to draw a bead and begin the trigger press only to see the empty hull go flying because you were a fraction of a second too slow. At 10-15 yards, it’s a fun challenge and the misses go up if you rush the shot.

The hulls will be happy to take many shots, you only need to set them up again. The only time this game doesn’t work well is on heavy wind days as the wind will knock ‘em down.

I volunteer building target frames for my gun club. We have used 2 x 2 wood framing for years. We use a substance called Choroplast, which is virtually the same as the corrugated political sign material. It is sold in 4 x 8 sheets, to the tune of $14 per sheet and is going up radically. It holds up to weather and works quite well, makes a bit of a mess when it is shot apart. My major complaint is what terrible shots people are, I am constantly repairing the frames. I have tried to impress the importance of centering the target on the backer but people don't listen and want to hang two targets side by side on a 24" backer. This puts the target over next to the wooden frame, any shots wide left or right will begin tearing up the frames. I like to joke about our members ability to shoot, I usually say "Our shooters have no standards." Ground strikes are not uncommon, as well as shooting the roofing structures, there are numerous holes in the benches and holes where someone overloaded a .44 magnum and blew the cylinder apart.

suggestion for the target pistol paper plates. the size drawn / printed out is up to you. has helped a couple of buddies that sometimes disliked their snubbies while target shooting. I call it a mushroom print. start w/ a 2" dia. half circle, 1/2" bar from the middle/bottom of circle, 3/4" down. so what it should look like is a mushroom cap. front sight align w/ bar/ top of front sight on the borrom of circle.

I find that the "dividers" in the middle of 30 packs of beverage cases are a pretty good approximation of the torso area for patterning my defensive weapons, especially shotguns.

I thought this thread was going to be something useful like hiring all the unemployed gun bearers from the old Tarzan movies to reload your guns and magazines while you kept shooting.

I like to save up gallon milk jugs for rifle day at the range.

Filled up with water, they blow up nicely with fast bullets.

I staple a 6" paper plate, 3X5 card, 3X3 Post-it, and a 1.5"X2" neon post-it to the cardboard backboard.

I position the center of the 3X5 card 14" above the center of the paper plate to represent heart and ocular. The other two Post-it are placed to the right or left of the 3X5 to represent a half facial target view and a single eye target.

My POA is the staple in each of the targets.

We sometimes take the corrugated target backers and place the stick end of dum-dum suckers into the slots at the top then try to shoot the sucker end off the stick. It can get real challenging depending how far out you place them. Fun time shooting with a .22 pistol or rifle. You definitely know when you hit one.

Backyard fun, empty farm fields behind. I've since added a wall of those timbers in front of the steel.
Evolution: hand sketch, CAD, build (retired design engineer lol). Then built a bench from a spool that was given to me from a local electric company. I move targets around (center) as needed.

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When I live in a rural area on NC, a neighbor had a unique range. He had an underground range! In the wall of his basement, he bored a large hole and put 8" dia. PVC fittings into the hole. On the outside of the house he dug a channel 50 feet long, about 3 feet deep and buried 8" PVC piping in the channel and connected it to the bored hole in the basement wall. At the end of the 8" piping he dug a larger hole and lined it with cement blocks on three side. This was the target house with a metal stand to hold cardboard on which targets were mounted. The backside of the target stand was dirt and this was were the bullets impacted. For safety, he put a locked steel plate cover on the target area. In the ground with the pipe, he also buried an electrical cable so he could illuminate the targets. He could shoot rain or shine with no problem from neighbors.

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Bill

Question: Can you be certain of nobody EVER being in those EMPTY fields?

A friend of my wife got hit by a stray bullet while riding a golf cart on a back road. Guys target shooting thought they had a safe distance in empty woods behind their targets.

Pizza boxes
Every Miller Lite thirty-pack comes with a free target in between the rows of 15.

Last weekend, I found some expired yogurt cups in the frig.
Impressive what 5.56 does at that 25 yds. And the chickens enjoyed cleaning up the mess.

If I'm ever attacked by a dairy product, it doesn't stand a chance.

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Because of the metric system?

Way too elaborate for me, however I have been using the 3x3 and smaller post-it notes for years. I have found it is a great way to keep myself sharp by going for a smaller target. Trying to hit the small target at the same speed as an IDPA target or a paper plate makes me realize I am getting sloppy and need to not neglect the basics.

I had a realtor friend and got a hammer in the ground style sign base. It holds cardboard for the times our range has no wood left on the 25 yard target or you just want to shoot at a different distance.

Our club is mainly rifle shooters and I rarely see others except from August to November.

Cut 2" squares or 3" pieces of painters tape make good bullseyes. Green shows up better than blue for me.

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Front sight and squeeze

I have a electrical supply company, those big spools are a pain to dispose of. I have a couple guys who use them as benches. The goat farmers around here like to stack 'em, give the goats something to climb around on.

This past Monday, four of us guys from our gun club did an upgrade to our local range. MidAmerican Energy gives away used poles to anybody who will take them. We have a small pile of them and put some to good use. Actually, all the material used was surplus (as in free to the club). The only cost was for the 8" lag screws to bolt the 4x4s to the poles.

I do pretty much the same thing! Except I don't have the grid so I just count my hits on the 4" bullseye that I print myself. I also use a larger cardboard with one of the ranges big targets stapled to it with the white side showing and I mount two targets. The large white area keeps me honest. Also gives me lots of white area to see my sights better, the eyesight ain't what it used to be.

I use the same target backer for months. I print my targets on 28# Hammermill so if the backer is shot out the paper is heavy enough to still cut clean with most loads.

I take a pic of each target and add notes. These were with my S&W Model 66, 6" barrel.

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I use to use animal crackers at 5 and 10 yards for the 22's.
Kids loved it, made me feel like a big time shooter, very little clean up and the local animal life liked the crumbs.

Back aways for a club event I developed a novelty shoot of Oreo cookies strung on rubber bands between two vertical rods. It was for pocket pistols at 7 yards. Four Oreos were strung up and the shooter got one full load of his gun to break as many of the cookies as possible. They make a highly visible and biodegradable target. I rather imagine the skunks and possums were very happy.

Exactly. The smaller personal and 12" sizes just about match the typical adult head -face size. Larger, and you can cut the top to head size, and the lower part below the fold is like the thoracic cage. When the cardboard is brown, with grease stains...so much the better LOL.

Soda/drink flats. What holds a case of cans, or energy drink bottles. if you leave the sidewalls intact, you can hang them against the backstop and they provide a 3-D constrast, 'raised' off of the backstop. Again, they usually align with the size of an adult torso.

For grouping performance, I use the 50' .22 targets. 12 bulls on one page. I always fire 5 bulls, 10 shots per bull. Can test two loads one one target.

Bullets do not go beyond the backstop. And yes I've lived here for 43 years and actually a caretaker for that property. It's currently being farmed for soybean. We don't shoot when the farmer is out working. Safety first.

I use the wire hooks to hang cardboard to staple targets. The 2 plates are 3/4 in. thick and convex. I only shoot the plates with pistols so they are not pitted. Larry edit. I don't know how to turn pictures.

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You can always tell the old pro at the range-they bring their own staple gun

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Forum consigliere

I had to show this some time! The Food Service Dept. at the Pgh Schools had a bunch of weird things they decorated with, etc. This thing is supposed to be a drum stick. Anyways I stuck it on the 25 yard target and came pretty close to dotting its eyes. Dad’s old 1950 K22. I probably should have used a better hand rest.

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Have So many targets that I just use them. Local gun shop sells 12 B-27s for $6.00 so very reasonable. I have run out of replacement centers for them and have to order some more. For those that were ever on a military shooting team you remember pasters. I had so many and am now down to my last 2 rolls. Pasters are basically black postage stamp sized lick and stick that cover most holes in targets. This was “ checking” a new 2 1/2 357 Mag. revolver, not happy with the green insert front sight and my sorry vision. New glasses next week.14F89D50-C26E-4C85-9F24-EBD7EE4483C4.jpg

This is my latest targets from Yankee Thunder, purple pigeon hangars. Took out 3 on the first 3 shots at 163y, Ruger Precision Rimfire. Just built this one a couple of weeks ago. Very pleased with the results. I do use Strelok Pro as well.

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I should take picture so I can better participate.

We belong to a local range now, but when we just went into the desert to shoot everything was based on metal fence posts. I just took along a few that I drilled holes in and a fence post driver.

Cardboard backers got zip tied direct the the posts.

I have an 8' piece of 2x4 with screw-in hooks on the bottom and screw-i in eyes on top. The eyes are for a couple of small pieces of chain that hook on to the holes drilled in the posts. The hooks are for hanging my steel targets.

5/8" rebar is cheaper than posts. Cut them to 4', pound in and wire two across the top and bottom of your cardboard. Attach targets and shoot.

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Front sight and squeeze

If you don't have a laser printer, you can order them online. Upload your file to the UPS Store or Office Depot. Print them on 28# Laser and they are like .17 cents a piece. Pretty cheap for a target. I've done it when I didn't have my printer setup or when I was out of toner.

My wife buys lots of stuff that comes in cardboard boxes. I use metal rod stands like Caldwell where you slide in the cardboard and also the metal adjustable base that holds 1X2 wood posts. Buy the 10 footers from HD and cut them in half. Use large clips to hold the cardboard to the posts. I like the splatter targets so I can see the hits from a distance and use the sticky dots to cover the holes for re-use.

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Here is my Infinitely Adjustable Spotting Scope which I made. No clamps are needed. The bowling ball was free as it was being thrown away from local bowling alley. I epoxied the threaded stud into the ball's thumb hole and made a bracket to attach to the scope. It has very rapid repositioning ability.

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Bill

I like NECCO Wafers for .22 plinking.

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and what his trumpet saith

I like reaction targets. The only time I shoot paper is to zero. I have hanging square steel and hanging lengths of 2 in round pipe. Also have tennis balls suspended by rope on an iron bar. I have claybirds-qt oil cans-tennis balls -empty shotshells and pine cones to shoot. Fun to throw out a tennis ball and walk it out of sight with a .22. My little playground is not far from the house.

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S&W Accumulator