Backstops

[walks with gun]

    Down with bug of some sort so watching videos of trailwalks and people shooting, ( getting antsy for spring to get here) and something I've noticed is a lack of backstops.  Maybe it's angle people are filming by but there seems to be a lot of videos of targets just hung on trees or set on fences where people are just firing into the woods.   I understand that it may be private land or warning signs may have been placed but that doesn't stop critters or kids from wondering through.  In this day and age we really can't afford any accidents that will help condemn or sport as well as ruin a rondy or club shoot.   It really doesn't take long to put up a backstop or place targets lower and safer.  OK, just thought I'd throw this out there since I'm trying to lay out a trailwalk coarse for this spring.

[Daryl]

On our trail walks, it appears we are just shooting into the bush. There is a berm behind the farthest targets, which are 110yards from the shooting line
that wanders through the bush in a fairly straight line. On the back-side of the berm in the bush, are signs, WARNING TARGET RANGE NO TRESPASSING, or some-such.

[John SMOthermon]

Most woods walk ranges are set up so that there is a natural back stop behind the targets... (hill side)

[smylee grouch]

These are my backstops. Pictures taken During construction and after construction. One at 25 yards, one at 50 yards. Made with 3/8 inch thick plate steel 4ft wide and 10-11 feet long. Scrap steel legs. Out at my cabin shooting range.

[Candle Snuffer]

Nature's backstop;



Man made 300 yard common backstop.

[Daryl]

One of the steel targets going in - at 1000 meters.



1100 meter line. Row of 4, 8'x8' square white targets.

[bob in the woods]

I think it's pretty safe to say that shooters are very aware of the safety concerns connected with the sport.  Even when hunting, I have passed up more than a few shots at game when safety was questionable. The statistics speak for themselves.  Around here the major threat to life in winter is snowmobiles . In summer months, motor boats and 4 wheelers take the prize .

[Daniel Coats]

Wildfires are a concern where I live. Several are started every year from gunfire according to my firefighter neighbor.

[Eric Krewson]

I live in a subdivision with houses on the ridges and deep hardwood hollows in between, we all have 4 or 5 acres around our houses, on my street it is mostly big hardwoods. I hunt my land and my neighbors 50 acres but taking shots is only on a limited basis. I won't take a shot into a 200 ft. deep hollow if there is a house on the far ridge. 

People just don't realize what direction an errant bullet can travel. My cross the hollow neighbor was shooting down into the deep hollow the other day in the direction of my house on the ridge as I was walking to the mailbox. I am sure he though this was perfectly safe with 200 ft. of hillside in the background. One of his bullets came whizzing up through the trees in my direction, it had to have hit a rock, ricocheted and make a 90 degree turn in my direction.

People think when a bullet hit the ground it stops, most of the time it does but a certain percentage get back up and head off to parts unknown.

Out of the 360 degree viewing area around my stand I can only shoot safely toward a small 45 degree slice of the pie which is straight ahead in this picture. I have a frizzen stall on if anyone is wondering why my rifle is cocked. I find it is much easier to pull off the frizzen stall than to silently cock a gun with cold hands if a deer shows up.   



I haven't seen the first deer in my woods this year or on my tiny food plot for that matter. I have night time pictures of at least 40 different deer, 14 were bucks, on my little plot. Urban deer go nocturnal as soon as they get pressured, such has been the case this year.

Here is a shot of the plot a couple nights ago, 1:30 in the morning.

[walks with gun]

       We did stop shooting here one summer, it was so very dry and windy we tried to keep track of every patch fired ( we found many smoldering) that we finally decided to call it quits till weather improved.   I only mentioned the use of backstops because of YouTube videos, and seeing what others were doing.  People setting  up targets on their property but firing towards and onto peoples land,  Yahoo's using public back roads as firing ranges and other sorts of idiocy.

[Daryl]

Just one of the BIG pluses in the ball and patch & lubricant combinations we use, is there is NEVER a smoldering patch - it is impossible to happen.

[Candle Snuffer]

I remember back in the 70's when I got involved in muzzle loading, it seemed like everyone was using Crisco / lard as a patch lube... I remember when on the firing line the Range Officer would say to watch for smoldering patches,,, and when there was one - we'd stop shooting until that smoldering patch was stomped out...

I normally use just plain ol' spit, unless I'm hunting - then I use a tallow lubed patch, and to this day I'm always looking to make sure I don't see any smoldering of my patch - even if there's snow on the ground, lol!!!

I guess seeing smoldering Crisco lubed patches way back when left a lasting impression on me.   

[walks with gun]

    Unfortunately many period correct lubes do have a chance of smoldering compiled with a slightly looser patch that I think may have been more common than what we tend to use now.   I've been trying olive oil on patches for the last year and it seems to be working well with no burning.  Much better than the crisco patch or the deer tallow-neatsfoot oil-beeswax lube I used for many years.  I might experiment with a small chunk of wasp nest under the patch this spring just to see how it affects accuracy and smoldering.

[Eric Krewson]

I use TOW mink oil, shoot across a winter browned zoysia grass lawn (tinderbox) and have never seen the slightest hint of a smoldering patch.

[John SMOthermon]

Walks, I’ve used Olive Oil & a pinch of wasp nest for a couple of years now as a hunting lube/ patch/wad combination.

My gun was kept loaded in the safe from mid Nov (when not in use ) until the end of January.

It fired as expected too at that time. Wasp nest will create a better seal in the bore,
I’ve noticed my gun seems too shoot slightly higher and harder with the nest wading vs without.

 

[walks with gun]

     Mr. SMOtherman  This is the stuff I Like to know, I leave my rifles loaded for weeks at a time, (I live in a cabin out in the woods) I think the wasp nest idea seems sound and should be a great seal.  Never a shortage of wasp nest either.

[Daryl]

I recall Sam Fadala noting that he always got higher velocity when using wasp nest over the powder- ie: between patched ball and the powder.
He noted that the patch did not seal and that the addition of wasp nest would always increase velocity.
When an NAPR member allowed his rifle & method of loading for this test, Sam was amazed the velocity was not increased with the addition of the
wasp nest and he could not understand why, but that the addition of wasp nest would ALWAYS increase velocity.(just not in that man's gun)

[hanshi]

I've been shooting muzzleloaders for 55 years and don't recall ever having a patch smolder after firing.  At the range and in the woods there is usually some sort of wad between powder and prb  in the guns I use.  I lube with TOW mink oil and Hoppes #9 BP Lube almost exclusively; and though I've used a wide variety of wads there have been no smoldering wads regardless of composition.  In fact a favorite wad material at the range is a wad of tissue paper, usually toilet paper.  When such a buffered load is fired the tissue wad will do one of only two things; it will turn to "snow" (normally) or I will find the wad balled up and stuck to the fired patch.  For hunting a punched out felt wad is the usual buffer.

I've also found that using a wad results in a velocity increase.  Sometimes it is a very modest increase but other times it's more than just modest.  I've had, on occasion, others telling me any paper wad is a fire danger.  But then these same people consider paper patched bullets to be perfectly safe.  I've use my share of hornet nest and it works great and won't burn.  But mine's all used up now, and I've not been able to replenish my stock. 

 

[walks with gun]

   Found quite a few over the years, could be so many were using that Bore Butter stuff or looser fitting balls or that we walk back and forth down the rang so often but it made me nervous.  I hunted woodcock with my SXS double that year using commercial wads but skipped small game hunting with my rifle until we finally started getting some rain. 

[Mike from OK]

Wasp nest is a proven velocity increaser.

When you're up on a ladder and open an electrical enclosure and find a wasp nest... Your velocity down the ladder is record-setting.

Mike