Backer Boards?

[Jim Thomas]

Any recommendations for target backer board material?     The fiber board variety seems to be disappearing.       

[Hungry Horse]

Its an election year, get in touch with your local lyin', stinkin,' weasel, and get the plastic election signs. If your really good you may be able to get him/her to pay you to take them down.

                                    Hungry Horse

[wpalongrifle]

Jim, i have used old conveyor belt as backstop material for years!!! any coal  mining in your area? self healing holes and staple gun holds targets well...

[Daryl]

We use conveyor belts at the rod and gun club, now. Before, 2x4's were held on rails and targets stapled top and bottom, with no backers behind the target.  At Hefley, the Alberta Bullseye shoot has targets stapled to plywood.

For the chunk match, I use 4'x8' coroplast (plastic sign board) - 4mm thickness, cut into 2' X 8' strips. The targets are stapled to that, which seems to be working and holding up just fine. It is in good shape for this coming match as well - the 3rd such with the same backing.

[The other DWS]

At the ASSRA home range in Etna Green We just replaced all 50 4x4 ft backers for this season.  We have been using the "corr-plast" material.  We get 3 to 4 years out of a target.  I'd guess that each backer takes a thousand or more hits per year, some a lot more.   Even the old ones we took down and are discarding would still be usable for less intensive use   (anyone in Northern IN who might want a couple of the used ones can PM me)

We put them up at the 1st rimfire only match in april and take them down in the fall after 5 matches.  We leave 3 or 4 of them up year round so that the local shooters who use the range unofficially .  This keeps them from having to staple their paper plates to the 4x4 posts or the 2x4 rails.

We did our second total replacement. We have replaced a few that our really good benchrest shooters had chewed large holes in from shooting sub MOA group after group after group

We donated the waist high stack of cardboard backer sheets we had in to a local club who uses them.  We'll never use anything but corr-plast again.

[Candle Snuffer]

A long time ago when I lived in Ohio and was a member of the Shawnee Longrifles, we used cardboard.  The targets where stapled to the cardboard then we went down range and hung them on an upper and lower 2x4 with screw-in "L" hooks and/or bent "L" shaped finish nails. 

I feel the tar-board (fiber board) is the best, but as said in the beginning - it has become mighty scarce.  Why I don't know?  I hope it becomes available again.  There are lots of clubs that use this stuff.

[4ster]

Its an election year, get in touch with your local lyin', stinkin,' weasel, and get the plastic election signs. If your really good you may be able to get him/her to pay you to take them down.

                                    Hungry Horse

Several months after the last election I noticed several campaign signs that were still up.  I figure I was doing both the (loser) candidate and the community a favor by "repurposing" those suckers.  They even came with their own wire stand.  And think of the satisfaction of pluggn' holes in a candidate's sign - whether you voted for him or not.

[dagner]

 i was range oficer at local gun club for 3 years. they had been using black  fiber board.
 house sheeting  . i convinced them to go to the sign plastic. it outlasts the fiber board by a mile.what kills the fiber board is holes in it and then rain.  we are getting the next size up from 4 mm and paying $15 a sheet from local sign company. yes hawk them election signs people are glad to be rid of them after the election.

[Hungry Horse]

The sign plastic  solved our melted cardboard littering the range after every rainstorm. It leaves its own litter, but is nothing like what we had to deal with with cardboard.

                                              Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Most signs here are 4mm.  6mm would be better, but 10mm might be even better.  Here, 4m costs $25.00 per 4x8 sheet.

[zimmerstutzen]

I have my own little range on the farm with three shooting positions.  My paper target 25 yd target holder is a 2 x 8 piece of black fibre board and it has lasted for years.  There is a 2x4 cross rail over the top that provides some minimal protection from weather.

Last year we used some recycled dry wall pieces. for the  2x2   50 yd.  Poof of white dust with every hit. Didn't last long, but the gypsum was good for the garden. 

[Mike R]

sorry for a digression, but the topic reminded me that I saw Sgt York movie on Sunday and was reminded of how accurately the movie depicted an old time over the log and turkey shoot.  Did anyone else see it recently?  I think Cooper used a longrifle owned by Walter Cline, one of the founders of the NMLRA, in that movie--much finer than the one he actually owned, but the shoot was well filmed...

[Robby]

I made one out of old railroad ties. Formed them like a parapet on a slope and filled it with dirt.
Someday someone can mine it.
Robby

[Roger Fisher]

sorry for a digression, but the topic reminded me that I saw Sgt York movie on Sunday and was reminded of how accurately the movie depicted an old time over the log and turkey shoot.  Did anyone else see it recently?  I think Cooper used a longrifle owned by Walter Cline, one of the founders of the NMLRA, in that movie--much finer than the one he actually owned, but the shhot was well filmed...

Yes, saw it several times over the years... and noticed one ol boy made his shot from one knee position.  He wasted his quarter.  Noticed also, they were using cussin rifles.  I wonder if they really did when Alvin shot for that beef.

[Roger Fisher]

I made one out of old railroad ties. Formed them like a parapet on a slope and filled it with dirt.
Someday someone can mine it.
Robby

Seems like ol Jim meant backers to stick the targets on to....

One local club has a member that donates nice new cardboard sheets kept under cover.  Each shooter picks his sheet outta the pile and pins his target to it drags it to the prepared cross pieces, slides bottom of it into a grooved 2by and top under a heavy wire.  This keeps the thing in place.  After the shoot is over the used cardboard is put back in to a storage bldg til next shoot date...  Works for them.  We have (at our club) a goodly supply of homosote.  It will take many a moon til it is used up.

[Robby]

Oh. Cardboard, on the rare occasion when I hit it, the hole shows up better, cleaner.
Robby

[Jim Thomas]

Homosote is what we've used but it's hard to find locally anymore. Someone said the factory has been torn down...just a vacant lot now. ??   Long time members say the best stuff they've used in the past was sign board from a real estate firm.  I'm assuming that would have been coroplast.   

Just wondered what others have had experience with.   As Red Green says, "we're all in this together".      ... thanks for the input everyone!     

[Herb]

For my range I use cardboard.  Just get a big box and cut one side of it out.  Depending on how many targets (8 1/2 x 11 paper) I put up, about two feet by two feet or taller, or even the side of a refrigerator box at 200 yards, the better to see shots that drift in the wind.  Windshield boxes are heavy cardboard, get them from auto repair shops, they throw them away.  All cardboard is discarded or maybe recyled, it is free.  I cut 1x1" boards about three feet long with a headless nail driven into one end.  Stick the nails through at the edge to brace the target, usually front and rear.  Holds well in any wind I shoot in.  I take it all home afterward.  If I put up a frame, mentally challenged people would shoot it all to splinters.  They even shoot my three benches, but this is on public land and many people use this site, which is good.  Here is my friend Larry getting used to a .58 flint fullstock Hawken I built for him, bench groups from 50 yards.  I try to recyle the lead balls from that clay bank in the background.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

Cardboard is great. I had a box of Illustration board that I used when I used to work makes great backers. I met a guy at the range that had a stack of unfolded pizza boxes those worked great too. One of my favorites is real estate agent signs. in my subdivision, more than once an agent has just put up a sign on my lawn about a house up the street without asking. Thanks for the target dude. They even come with their own stand. Next time ask.

[Roger Fisher]

Seems like Jim Thomas's club (Whispering Pines) has found a source for the coroplast... They used it couple wknds ago at 3 day shoot even shmuzted it with brown paint to look 'primative"... Worked just fine.... cost not known to me...

[smokinbuck]

Roger,
Off the topic, but to answer your question about what Alvin York shot. His son Andrew brought one of his dad's rifles to the york some years back and it was a percussin rifle. One of many that he probably owned but one that he did shoot. I have a picture of me holding the rifle and another with Andrew, me and the rifle. Nothing special, just a plain old Tennessee mountain rifle.
Mark

[Jim Thomas]

Seems like Jim Thomas's club (Whispering Pines) has found a source for the coroplast... They used it couple wknds ago at 3 day shoot even shmuzted it with brown paint to look 'primative"... Worked just fine.... cost not known to me...

The club decided to go with coroplast. Local supplier.. easier to handle and store.  Stands up to rain very well.  Great bullet hole definition (torn holes are a bugger to score).     We bought enough to get a price break....I think it came in around $16 per 4x8 sheet.   It was thought that the white backer painted brown would provide better contrast with a white target.   We chose "brown" because that was the color donated... .