I love shooting at steel targets...started out with a .22 spinner when I was a wee little lad. Now I'm shooting at some plate steel hung off a wood stand with mechanics wire.



I've put thousands of rounds of .22LR into these plates, and probably around a thousand rounds of 9mm. I've shot a few rounds from a .40 at it once (I don't own a .40 or .45 handgun, so I don't normally do that). The steel held up just fine. Not sure what kind of steel it is...it was laying around in my dad's shop. Drill press + cutting oil was able to bore through it. Probably nothing too special. When hung from wire, it bounces around quite a bit after hit with a centerfire pistol round, but that helps deflect the fragments into the ground. I've shot it from as close as 7 yards without getting hit with fragments (although it probably wasn't advisable...I don't do it often. I ALWAYS wear eye pro when shooting as well).



Pic I took a few minutes ago in the dark.






Anyway: Here's the point of this thread. I want to build some more steel targets. I'm brainstorming ideas here at the moment. There seems to be many different mounting methods and target stand ideas out there. Anyone care to share their designs for steel targets? I've seen targets hung with round stock, chain, wire, rubber, magnets, bungees, and a number of other things. I've seen plates slanted to deflect bullet fragments, or hung so as to swing freely and accomplish the same thing.



First I'm hoping to build a portable steel target that can fit in a sedan for a trip to the range (preferably the trunk...I don't want to get my back seat dirty. And no, my seats don't flip down). When I'm at my parent's place I can just shoot out back, but when I'm at college I'm too far from home to shoot here. So I go to a couple different outdoor ranges around where I go to college. They're unsupervised, and usually empty, so I could set up my own steel without issues.



I probably can't afford 'armor plate', so I'll probably be using 'mild' steel. I'll just stick to shooting at this with .22LR and handguns (I probably wouldn't be able to go out a safe enough distance for rifle fire anyway). I also wouldn't mind building some more elaborate steel targets to keep around home. Don't need to be portable. How hard would it be to build something like a resettable Bianchi plate rack (or something along those lines)?



I've only got basic metal working tools (torch, welder, chop saw, drill press, etc). Nothing fancy. I'm sure I can scrounge some scrap from here and there to build what I need.



Any input welcome. Thanks for at least skimming my novel of a post.

Just make sure that what ever you hang the plates by isnt stiff. The stiffer the "string" is, the more damage will be done to the plate.

Heres a quick idea.

Make a frame out of PVC pipe.  you can add more criss crosing pieces to the triangles to improve stability, and posibly make diagnols in the rectangular base.

http://www.championtarget.com/products/traps_targets/targets/MetalTargetsandTargetHolders.aspx

Check out the Target Trees - These are a blast and self reset

I've seen those in a few YouTube videos. They do look like a lot of fun.




Do you have a pic of the back of one of those (showing the construction/how they allow the targets to swing)? $75 isn't bad, but I bet I could build one for less money...



 

I was just thinking about doing something with PVC... I've already got a few hundred feet of extra 1" PVC drain pipe that's been sitting behind my dad's shop for years. I could pick up some fittings rather inexpensively. It would be rather light, maybe not the most stable...I could just stake it down somehow to keep it upright under fire.





Push the pieces together at the range...take it back apart to transport. Probably would hold together OK. Hang some plates with mechanics wire? It has worked OK for me, but it tends to get shot off when I shot more than a few mags of 9mm at the plates...anything more durable out there that would still allow the targets to move?





 

The bullet fragments may damage the PVC,  I made one out of re-bar and some chain from the hardware store.

Hadn't considered that...I should have though. The wood target frame I posted a pic of is all chewed up from fragments. Good thing you reminded me before I got too far along on the PVC idea.





A re-bar frame sounds like a good idea. I'd have to figure out a way to take it apart for transport.
One idea that just popped into my head is to make it out of threaded pipe and fittings. I have access to an electric RIDGID pipe threader...I probably could get my hands on some small diameter pipe too...
 

The stand I made can be taken apart for travel.  Let me MS paint or try to anyway  The rebar was bent using a torch and i welded some pipe scraps in the corners.  The cross piece just slips in  

Deleted in the moment of soberness.