Originally Posted By Trod7308:
I bought 1/2" ar 500 circle plates. Various sizes. 2 holes to hang, allowing a perfect circle target.
I use steel 1" pipe to hang them.
I bought the hooks to hang the targets.
My problem: I'm not hearing them or seeing them move when I'm hitting them. I am only at 20-40 yards.
My solution: using chains instead of the hooks.
Or am I just a bad shot lol
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I have similar plates at 80+ yards. I bought a few each month for a few summers and built up a pretty good stack of plates. I have them from 4" circle to 10" Circle, a few squares, rectangles, a few silhouettes and a Coyote with a 2nd plate/center mass cutout. Also have one that has a head and a second head that swings from side to side to emulate taking head shots on a hostage taker.
When mine are shot with .22 rimfire all the way to .308, you can see them move and hear them ding when the round impacts.
Now if shooting .22 Subs and a Can, you can hear a slight thud, but no real movement. With the .300 Black out, subs and can, you her the round impact louder than the firing of the gun and it definitely moves then. That's my favorite to shoot.
I've hung them on "Shepard's Hooks" that I bought from Lowe's or HomieD's and they are OK for quick portable set ups, but not my preferred.
Out in my back yard, way out back, I built a sort of Swingset. Maybe 6-6.5' tall out of that black hardware store threaded pipe that folks often use for natural gas.
Across the swing set I hung about (12) 1 foot chains from it and then hung S hooks on the end of those.
Now I can hang like 6 of whatever targets I feel like using that day.
I've had them for several years and other than repainting the targets white and the pipe, chains and hooks black every few times I get out there to shoot, I've not had to replace anything.
It works well. If I had it to do over again, I'd put a center support in the cross pipe everything hangs on at like 10-12 feet. All I'd need is two Ts and a few more sticks of pipe. The weight of all the target plates, S Hooks chains and collars, gets it saggin in the middle a bit.
It works perfect as is, but the sag irritates me. I may redo it this spring.
If you are seriously not hearing or seeing these move at only 40 yards, I'd paint them fresh with white, then send a few rounds down range, go down and inspect them. IF you are hitting them, it will be obvious in the fresh spray paint.