Anyone make your own targets?

[Meeks36]

Used golf balls for 22. Same size as a tree rats head. Small round orange stickers are great. Old soda cans, crackers, rotten fruit. All make excilant reactive targets. All time favorite is a empty 22 shell.

 

[27hand]

I use paper plates or computer printed grid targets unless I get in the mood for steel.

I've made or purchased stuff like this for my personal enjoyment or for a group shoot (everybody likes the steel)
I have since discarded all the mild steel and replaced with store bough AR500.

group shoot steel by poofy27, on Flickr


The 12 on the right are mine.
The springs were from a dumbwaiter out of the VA hospital. The base plates were column caps from a Verizon project.
Some of the pieces came from the Penguins arena.
2017-08-19_05-16-52 by poofy27, on Flickr

 

[Ignition Override]

Keep a can of orange spray paint and large drink bottles in your car or range bag.

Better: Academy Sports sells bright plastic spheres or cubes (green or orange-fashions change in Vogue magazine). They have a hole in which you can tie a long piece of weedeater cord.
Stake the Other end of this cord onto a berm for a handy, "dancing" target. About $25.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

I buy those blank plastic sign sheets at Lowes, which come with an "H" shaped wire bracket. They're about 24" X 36" and about $10 or so. Extra brackets less than $2 each.

Perfect size to staple a couple of the smaller targets side by side. Plenty of room of you just print your own targets.

You can find websites with printable targets. Some are pretty fun... like tic-tac-toe targets to play with a friend.

 

[JTHunter]

I buy those blank plastic sign sheets at Lowes, which come with an "H" shaped wire bracket. They're about 24" X 36" and about $10 or so. Extra brackets less than $2 each.
Perfect size to staple a couple of the smaller targets side by side. Plenty of room of you just print your own targets.
You can find websites with printable targets. Some are pretty fun... like tic-tac-toe targets to play with a friend.

All of those left over political signs work well for that too. They are free as well.
Many years ago, I found an old 8" red fire alarm bell in some trash. I found a thick-walled square steel tube and used a heavy bolt to hold the bell away from the steel tube a couple of inches. It makes a very satisfying ring - when I hit it from 25 -50 feet away.

 

[hk940]

When I was still working I would save any piece of cardboard from cabinets appliances etc. that was big enough to make a silhouette out of. I made up a template out card board for the over all size and the k zone, I made up a stand out of bed frame angle iron and a 3 1/2 gal bucket filled with cement.
I print out BR targets on card stock for rifle shooting.

 

[Flintknapper]

I use paper plates or computer printed grid targets unless I get in the mood for steel.

I've made or purchased stuff like this for my personal enjoyment or for a group shoot (everybody likes the steel)
I have since discarded all the mild steel and replaced with store bough AR500.

View attachment 882788group shoot steel by poofy27, on Flickr


The 12 on the right are mine.
The springs were from a dumbwaiter out of the VA hospital. The base plates were column caps from a Verizon project.
Some of the pieces came from the Penguins arena.
View attachment 8827892017-08-19_05-16-52 by poofy27, on Flickr

^^^^

Same here, aside from paper/cardboard targets...I like shooting on steel. Since I had access to a plasma cutter at work (some years back) I had various shapes cut out and I welded up my own.

Just a few:

 

[DustyGmt]

Oh yea, I get a good pile of cardboard going, different sizes, then I cut out a couple silhouettes and just take a utility knife and cut out 30-50 at a time. Show up to the range with my drill/driver and I put up a few at a time. Never run out of targets.....

 

[BAMASUPER45]

Wallmart, $1 per sheet 20X30, and a tack. (magic marker)....or on my AR500 1/2", use a can a paint white/black and by the time I'm in position again(25yds), paint is dry.

 

[troy fairweather]

Can remember if I said this, next time you get Chinese food grab some menus. They make a good combo with my pizza boxes lol.

 

[George P]

I use paper plates or computer printed grid targets unless I get in the mood for steel.

I've made or purchased stuff like this for my personal enjoyment or for a group shoot (everybody likes the steel)
I have since discarded all the mild steel and replaced with store bough AR500.

View attachment 882788group shoot steel by poofy27, on Flickr


The 12 on the right are mine.
The springs were from a dumbwaiter out of the VA hospital. The base plates were column caps from a Verizon project.
Some of the pieces came from the Penguins arena.
View attachment 8827892017-08-19_05-16-52 by poofy27, on Flickr

Another good source for springs are those used for garage doors. When they break they make for great target holders. A spot weld or two and a base plate and you're in business

 

[herrwalther]

I used to make targets of Hilary Clinton with a photo shopped 10 ring on her face on printer paper as my targets. I stopped when she became NY senator. I didn't want to give the Secret Service another reason to put me on a list.

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Taught a lady friend of mine how to shoot and had her plinking shotgun shells off a log in no time with my bolt action .22. Shotgun shells being all over the place at the outdoor range where we were at.

(HOLY COW! That was 25 years ago, already!)

 

[Ignition Override]

Flintknapper/fellow Sport Utility Rifle enthusiasts:

Do you know who sells a "rifle resistant" 9" or so steel plate?

We can't use typical rifle rounds on any of our Action Pistol targets, but a pretty thick, or at least low-cost 6"-10" plate would be cool from 25 yards or so, in a free stance with my new VZ-58 (7.62x39).

 

[RetiredUSNChief]

Amazon has AR500 target plates available. Search half inch thick AR500 and pick something you like.

 

[27hand]

Flintknapper/fellow Sport Utility Rifle enthusiasts:

Do you know who sells a "rifle resistant" 9" or so steel plate?

We can't use typical rifle rounds on any of our Action Pistol targets, but a pretty thick, or at least low-cost 6"-10" plate would be cool from 25 yards or so, in a free stance with my new VZ-58 (7.62x39).

Although I advise people to use AR400 through AR500 for pistol and only AR500 for rifle targets, I've shot mild steel with pistols for thousands of rounds.
The problem with mild is its prone to dimpling and pitting as you get into magnums.
If a piece of steel is cratered and another round hits it on or near the crater, the probability of a piece coming back at you really goes up.
Amazon is a good source of AR ( or Abrasion Resistant) plate. Many target suppliers but costs go up. MGM targets is one.
One thing is to watch how they advertise it. I've purchased AR500 and it didn't hold up like REAL AR500. It was probably AR400.

Here is a test plate I made with some handgun and mostly rifle rounds and how this piece of 1/2" mild steel held up (or failed).

DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME. This was controlled fire from behind shielding steel.''
Frags and riccochets can hurt you BADLY or worse.

Top to bottom.
7.62X39 SKS
.223 AR
9mm Kahr 3 1/2" bbl
30.06 Rem pump downloaded round.
30-30
.40 S&W Glock 23
7.62X39 AK
.44 mag 7 1/2" Redhawk
.300 Win Mag pass through with a 7.62 X39 German plastic cored practice round Just left of hole
7.62X51 Spanish FR8
7.62X51 Ishapore 2A1
.223 AR
2019-07-23_07-43-58 by poofy27, on Flickr

 

[George P]

^^^^

Same here, aside from paper/cardboard targets...I like shooting on steel. Since I had access to a plasma cutter at work (some years back) I had various shapes cut out and I welded up my own.

Just a few:

View attachment 885935
View attachment 885936
View attachment 885937
View attachment 885938
View attachment 885939

In your humanoid steel pic.............I remember a guy at a local club who had that steel target welded to a post that fit inside a steel truck wheel so he could dismantle it and fit it in his car trunk; a can of paint and he would shoot all day at it.