What would be on your "Wish List" of shooting equipment for a BP shooting club

[Molly]

OK, here is the situation.  Our shooting club is maybe going to open the "purse strings" to pay for some shooting equipment for various shooting venues such as bench rest 22 rim fire, trap/skeet, USPSA, cowboy action AND BLACK POWDER, primitive style.

I could give a rat's hinny about all the other styles but tell me if you had one or two items that you would like to have for club use during bp shooting what would they be?  I do not mean those things every bp shooter would have but rather things like targets,frames, tables, benches, etc.

I may need to put together a proposal for equipment and right now I'm hard pressed to know what to ask for.  We all bring our own target stands and targets and we all have all the shooting paraphernalia needed...so give me some suggestions, please.

[rich pierce]

We have pvc pipe holes for target stands at 7, 15, 25, 50, 60, 75, and 100 yards. Target stands. About 8 benches with folding chairs. Loading benches with notches to hold the guns and rubber pads for the buttplates. Cross sticks sets. A CO2 bottle with adapters to eject dry ball loads. A vise set up to hold a gun while pulling a ball or filing sights. Plenty of sand-filled shot bags and 4x4 and 6x6 chunks for bench shooting.

A source of water for cleanup. A big chunk for throwing hawk and knife. Weighted coffee cans for disposing of patches on loading benches. Trash cans. Recycling bin. Covered cooking area with big grill. Small charcoal grill. Cabinets for storing stuff. Tables with benches for eating.

[Old Salt]

You may have already thought of this. I feel the the most important this is good back stop.

Old Salt

[Keith Zimmerman]

Steel sillouttes for woodswalks.  A variety of sizes for various distances and application....rifle, pistol, novelty.

[Brokennock]

If the range is covered, some built in mounts for spotting scopes, and a couple scopes available is nice.

Some steel changers, of various shapes at unmarked distances would be great.

As far as benches go, a few benches for sighting in is good. But, to many clubs/ranges seem to have to many benches and too close together, making it difficult to practice shooting from field positions.

I like the earlier mentioned idea of having water available for cleaning.
A good "Stop the Bleeding" kit (and offer the free "stop the bleeding" class to members once or twice a year) in addition to a standard 1st aide kit.

[Don Steele]

A set of AR500 steel plate targets for the offhand range in various sizes to place from 25 to 100 yds. and lots of heavy chain to hang them with.

[Molly]

Good stuff...thanks...more suggestions welcomed but I see some things right off.  One being racks which are suited to hold the long rifle, appropriate shape and size and with padding. 

[R.J.Bruce]

A woods walk set up for wounded vets, with EASY TO SEE / EASY TO HEAR, reactive targets, on a finely graveled path that can be accessed by a TrackChair, motorized, tracked, wheelchair

Along with half a dozen, inexpensive, loaner, T/C Renegade rifles in .50 caliber. Have the steel buttplates removed, and install Kick-eez Magnum recoil pads. Find patched ball barrels if possible. Have some of the "Lock Meisters" here tune up 6 of the L & R replacement flintlocks for the T/C. Install those locks in the Renegade rifles, and put a White Lightnin' touch hole liner in the barrel.

Then reach out to wounded vets at the VA, American Legion, etc. that would like to shoot a muzzleloader, but otherwise do not have the means.

See if TrackChair will help with sponsorship.

I'll throw in a $100.00 to help if you can pull it off.

Bruce

[steven baker]

There is nothing like a out door shelter to keep dry if rain or cool if shine ,maybe a club banner or flag ,take care Steven.

[Hungry Horse]

 O.K. Everything mentioned previously are good ideas. But, if you want an event that will be incredibly popular, and maybe even attract more muzzleloading participants, and will more than pay for itself if run correctly, you have to build a running game target. We set up a very rudimentary running deer target at our rendezvous years  ago and charged a dollar a shot to participate. The prize was a limited edition David Wright print. We had people that started shooting this target, and never got to the trail walk. More that one shooter spend every dime he had on this target. One of those prints became the most prestigious thing a local shooter could display in his war room.
 And it doesn’t just attract muzzleloader shooters either. We set one up on our range, and let the cartridge guys, and gals, use it to get ready for deer season. Once again it was a giant success. We share our range with the local sheriff’s department, and you guessed it, they want to use it for training.
 A powered running target are not cheap to set up and maintain, but they are like a license to steal.
  Hungry Horse

[Standing Bear]

On a covered firing line it’s nice to have the roof high enough to load a long rifle Or smooth bore without removing the gun from the loading bench.  Think a 44” barrel and 48” ram rod with a 14” lop.

Also a fairLy long roof overhang for shade or drizzling days.

Range supplied flint shields for different heights x stick and offhand.

A loading bench is nicer with a back board.

Trail walks and moving targets are a BIG + as already mentioned but most are set up for a group of 4-5 shooters and spectators are not considered (some become participants).  A simple chain hanging loose gets a lot of attention.

[little joe]

Wow Don,t you guys ever dry ball. Co2 ball discharger.

[Craig Wilcox]

Built a moving target years ago.  Used an old 12V starter motor, with a switch to run it either direction.  Target ran along a steel guideline, motion was by a simple pulley on both ends of the range.  Just had a cotton cloths line running.  Worked well, but battery needed a charge after several hours, and no solar cells back then.

[T*O*F]

No motor required.  Just replace one of the pulleys with a bicycle rim with a crank handle on it.  Also works both ways. 

[Molly]

The moving target sounds interesting.  Are they available commercially?  OK, so maybe we can make one but the thing is that the club is willing to buy one so why try to engineer one?

[Hungry Horse]

I’ve seen them built from old drag type gate openers ( these are very heavy duty), and windshield wiper motors off of 18 wheelers that are 12v, and light duty. And our version at the rendezvous that gravity operated with nothing more than a long rope, a steep hill, and a waited target frame.

 Hungry Horse

[Daryl]

Ours is gravity fed, while being reset from the firing line with a rope and pulley.

[rich pierce]

I’m thinking a Rube Goldberg setup could include pulleys chest high and way up on a tall pole or tree with a weight. It would be tough to get more than 30 feet or so of travel that way though.

[Brokennock]

I’m thinking a Rube Goldberg setup could include pulleys chest high and way up on a tall pole or tree with a weight. It would be tough to get more than 30 feet or so of travel that way though.

We made one for a different shooting sport using a ground level pulley at the bottom of what almost looked like a gallows with a pulley at the top, extended about 2 feet from the vertical stand, a weight hung from there, when released the weight drops pulling the rope through both pulleys and dragging the target either across the range or toward the shooter, depending on where things were placed. The target base was mounted on wheels with an eye bolt in it, another piece with a corresponding eye bolt was spiked into the ground opposite the rope attachment, a landscape spike with a rope tied to the fat end was placed through both eye bolts holding the target in place, when said rope was pulled, either by the shooter by hand or through activation of a swinging target, it releases target allowing the weight to fall.

[Not English]

Yellowstone Flint and Cap Club generally subscribes to a primitive shooting style range, We have rails for supporting muzzle loaders while loading, but otherwise you load out of the bag or off of the ground. We also have one cement shooting bench for sighting in. The one thing the club did splurge  for was a really top notch clay pigeon machine. It can throw everything from ground level (rabbits) to everything at varying heighths, speed, and angles. We have access to an old railroad bed that is heavily overgrown  with banks frequently more than head high. This allows for a really nice woodswalk with gravity run moving targets.

[WadePatton]

I’m thinking a Rube Goldberg setup could include pulleys chest high and way up on a tall pole or tree with a weight. It would be tough to get more than 30 feet or so of travel that way though.

a set of gears, or manual transmission, could be used to change multiply/divide the travel of your target. For the Rubes no doubt.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

At position one on our trail we have a target board for our tie breakers and a stainless steel rod with a "T" handle haging in a spruce tree together with a yellow plastic box holding ball pulling screws for rifles from .40 cal to .75 cal.  Evidenced by the balls also in the box, it gets a lot of use.
But what I'd like there is a small covered bench with a small stout vise ....  for working on rifles right there on the trail.  The bottom of the bench needs cupboards to store targets, staplers, etc...that's what I'd like on our range.