Why are so many Targets and Spinners so short?

[Aim1]

I'm obviously not talking about all of them but the majority seem to be very short.

I have a nice lawn and don't want to be shooting divets into it. I know some folks use piping to raise the spinners and targets up higher. Plus, who wants to be constantly shooting downward rather than straight/level ahead like most shooting?

For example I just bought this .44 Mag Spinner from Birchwood Casey and its 21" high. 42" or higher would have been better and you could always push it into the ground deeper if you wanted to make it shorter. If it's too short from the factory you're out of luck.

I know you don't want a target so tall you're shooting over the horizon and being dangerous but like I said, better too tall and pushed in deeper to make it short than too short and can't adjust it without adding parts.




Why are so many Targets and Spinners so short?

 

[Zaydok Allen]

Because less material means cheaper to make and misses go into the dirt as you already stated.

I recommend buying some treated lumber and borrowing a post hole digger to build a simple H brace, and prop it up.
Wouldn’t take much. Replace the center piece every few years. Good to go.

Also, I take spinners to the woods and shoot out there. Many of us want portable, not big.

 

[jmorris]

If you have a short one it spins if it’s not a vertical target. If you have a long one and someone wants to “drive” the top target down, the first shot is “|” or maybe even “\”, from the side if the shooter is firing at it from the left to the right. As it rocks back and subsequent shots are hitting it if turns into “/“ and bullets are going over the berm or backstop to who knows where.

If you are just talking about the stand height, that’s because shipping is cheaper.

 

[ApacheCoTodd]

I don't like shooting as much towards the ground but I do understand making them easier to transport and less expensive.

Too, the taller it is the broader/longer the base or legs need to be.

Todd.

 

[taliv]

Generally for target placement misses should go into the berm NOT the ground where they are likely to ricochet over the berm and leave the range. So short targets should be placed very close to the berm.


The targets in your post are short because the frame is a lever. If you extend it 5 feet up and apply force at the top then the base and ground has to be a lot stronger than the flimsy metal they are selling. Prob doesn’t matter much for 22lr but ...

 

[Texas10mm]

They are designed to be placed on the berm.

 

[ATLDave]

I hate spinners. I hate the idea of a steel target that basically ensures a non-trivial percentage of hits will be at extremely oblique angles, which guarantees bullets sliding/glancing rather than splattering*. There are doubtless places/circumstances where spinners can be shot with comparative safety, but many, many, many places/circumstances that permit shooting other steel with relative safety are not suitable for spinner shooting.

I also hate them as shooting concept. The idea of "timing" a target that is visible is completely unrelated to anything else we generally do in shooting (whether for fun, competition, hunting, or SD). Stupid all the way 'round.

*Splattering is what you want for safe steel shooting.

 

[taliv]

shooting them at 400-800 yards with a rifle is fun and teaches you a lot about time of flight.

but yeah, i generally agree Dave

 

[edwardware]

The idea of "timing" a target that is visible is completely unrelated to anything else we generally do in shooting. . .

Come on, you can't think of any real world targets that move in the time between bang and thwack? It seems to me that most non-paper targets have at least the potential to move.

The swinging might not be perfectly representative, but movement during flightime is common.

 

[ATLDave]

Come on, you can't think of any real world targets that move in the time between bang and thwack? It seems to me that most non-paper targets have at least the potential to move.

Of course real targets move. They move in ways that require leading them or tracking them... not in ways that require timing a visible target, such that shooting too soon (not at the wrong spot - literally just too early in time) is bad.

I like moving targets. I hate spinners.

 

[Zaydok Allen]

I have two spinners and they are fine for what they are, just a reactive target that moves when hit. I tend to knock mine over though if I'm shooting them with anything but 9mm. I actually bought lengths of heavy duty chain to help stabilize them.

However, I don't feel they are good for anything but plinking. Serious practice with moving targets has a very different focus than stationary swinging targets. I agree that trying to corelate any meaningful defensive or competition practice with the timed shots needed for a swinging target makes no sense. They are just plinking targets.

 

[edwardware]

They move in ways that require leading them or tracking them... not in ways that require timing a visible target. . .

Makes sense. I guess that Spinners are popular because rotary motion is so much easier to design than linear motion.

 

[ATLDave]

I agree that trying to corelate any meaningful defensive or competition practice with the timed shots needed for a swinging target makes no sense. They are just plinking targets.

For a while, they were popular in 3gun matches (fortunately, the rules in USPSA/IPSC make them plainly illegal) where the target had to be spun or rolled in order to have successfully engaged it. It was a moronic trend.

You're right that they work fine as steel targets... but so do static steel plates!

 

[ATLDave]

Makes sense. I guess that Spinners are popular because rotary motion is so much easier to design than linear motion.

Swinger rely on rotary motion, but they're not using the KE of the bullet to generate the motion (usually they run on potential energy in a pendulum propped at its highest point until activated). The swinger doesn't penalize you if you hit it too quickly as it appears from behind a stack of barrels... if you hit it, you hit it. There's not a "wrong time" to hit it. There are wrong times to shoot at a particular spot, but not wrong times to hit it.

But swingers are generally a lot bigger and heavier than the small, fixed axis spinners. Precisely because their frame has to remain pretty rigid while that pendulum (typically a 20+lb weight/hammer) swings back and forth on it.