TargetTalk

Dear Friends of the Shooting Sports:

I am currently working on an article detailing things that people can make at home for shooting to help get them started but also cut costs with gas and ammo prices increasing. Some of the items that have come to mind are an eye-blind, kneeling roll, wind flags, air gun target box, scorebook, etc. While many of these items are covered frequently, I'd like to add several new things for all disciplines and was wondering if you might have any input (please do not Reply All) as to 1) what to add, and 2) how to make the item in discussion. If you have any input, or guidance, in this matter please let me know as any and all help is appreciated.

I hope all is well for all of you and wish you the best of luck in all your shooting endeavors.



Sincerely,

Tes Salb
Managing Editor
Shooting Sports USA

For 10M and Bullseye, I use flip-up +.75D reading glasses over my regular glasses. I put tape (I like red electrical tape) over the left lens except for the reading area and over the right except for the reading and a port for shooting. I like this far better than the various irises and other lens holders I have tried.

For a trap, very hard to beat the Outers .22 trap. Good enouogh for .22LR and will last forever with airguns. I have shot 10 of thousands of rounds at 18fpe at mine, left it outside for years, and it is in like-new condition. Incredible bargain when you figure that no other traps I have used have held up as well.

If you must use cheap targets or print your own, you can get cleaner holes if you spray the back with clear lacquer. Let dry, shoot. Frankly, Edelmann or Gehmann targets are cheaper in the long run since you can put a lot of shots into them and still "read" them. I used to shoot 20 or so per target in training.

Someone mentioned using tight bluejeans for shooting instead of shooting pants.

For reloading, you don't really need to clean the case -- save the cost of a tumbler and media and just buy a bore brush to clean the case innards. For 30-06, Hornady Bulk 150gr bullets are cheap and very accurate.

Best,

Joe

If you do reload and tumble your cases, get your media from the pet store, they sell both crushed walnut and corn cob as bedding, they sell bags that are 2 to 5 times bigger and 10-50% the price of the tumbling media.

The fundamentals can be learned (must be learned) by dry-fire against a neutral surface.

The cheaper the gun and crappier the trigger, the better.

Tess, not sure how you can work that in but it is The Truth!

Steve

(if you would like I can certainly expound a bit more but I am sure you understand the point i am trying to make without my bloviating. The problem is in convincing the tyro that he/she doesn't need a bunch of fancy/expensive equipment for truly valuable training.)

1) Use heads, baggie, and bent coat hanger for trigger pull guage. 7,000 grains = one pound. Figure out how many heads equal minimum weight, put them in the baggie, affix the hanger, and see if your trigger will lift it.

2) Get one of those thick copper staples used for stapling industrial boxes. Cut/file a section to equal the weight of your standard powder charge. Use this as a check when setting up your scale.

3) Buy a small electrical panel box (Home Depot or similar). Remove the guts. Schmear 3 or 4 bricks of duct seal across the inside back. Cut a 4" or so hole in the center of a letter sized clipboard. Slide clipboard into channels on electrical box (fits perfectly). Hang target from clipboard. Mount clipboard on basement wall. Measure 10 meters. Shoot airguns! (Duct Seal is quiet - won't wake Mom or Kids!)

4) Take - or mail - an official air pistol (or air gun) target to a stamp maker. Have them make a stamp of the black. Buy cheap targets (Dunham's, Dick's, Walmart) and stamp the back.

5) Use a cheap salad spinner/dryer as a media seperator. Extend the life of your media by putting a few 2-3" strips of paper towel in the vibrator. Buy your media at the pet store.

6) Buy a yard or two of thin 100% cotton flannel at the fabric store. Talk about cleaning patches for life!

It's not something you make, but use a camera tripod instead of a fancy, pricey offhand stand. PL

Shooting in a basement, lighting is never where you need it. I clamp a cheap officemax lamp on a rafter over my target box to illuminate the target. Another hanging slightly behind me lights the sights.

Measure the size of the black on an official target. Cut a disk of equal size from a cardboard box. Measure the size of the ten ring on the official target. Cut a hole in the center of the cardboard disk equal to the ten ring. On the back side of any target, with a pencil, outline the disk. Also, outline the hole in the center. With a broad magic marker blacken the entire circle. These are great inexpensive targets - and you can see the pencil 10 ring for scoring!

I used to use a straight microphone stand for my off-hand stand. The stand basically had a three leg base that could move up and down and it had an extension that could go up and down which was a pipe with a thread on the top which the microphone holder screwed on to.

- Removed the piece that the microphone is mounted on.
- Fashioned a rest out of metal (can make it out of wood though) and put a piece of foam on it to stop the rifle from being damaged.
- Screwed it on to a solid cylindrical aluminium piece (can also use wood dowel) with the diameter of the hole in of the top of the stand.
- Drilled a hole throught the aluminium piece and put a pin through it.
- Cut a slit out of each side of the thread at the end of the stand.
- Slotted the piece with the rest into the hole with either side of the pin slotting into the slits I had fashioned into the thread at the top of the stand, which held the rest in place.

Later I added this ammo holder mod:
- Got a long piece of aluminium and drilled a hole in each end.
- Put one end between the rest and the piece that went into the top of the stand.
- Screwed a plastic box onto the other end (the type of boxes that you put screws and washers and the like in that you find at hardware stores).

Now that I think about it; it would have been much better to have a ammo holder I could slide up and down the stand and screw into the side with a thumb screw, that would be easy enough to do with a thicker piece of aluminium and a wider hole at the stand side of it.

Construction crews use those halogen construction lights mounted on yellow tripod stands, available from Walmart, Home Depot etc. for about $30. the stands are lightweight, wonderfully compact when folded and very strong when extended. The vertical post telescopes out to 60". Mount a 3"x5" piece of plywood on top and cover with some adhesive backed rubber. It is simple to attach an ammo holder to the vertical tube using another 3x5 pice of plywood and an electrical tubing clamp. Cost altogether less than $35...free if you find the tripod base disposed of at a construction sight.

Couple years ago someone was going to post pic of shooting stool, height adjustable at least for a couple of 'notches'. Never could get him to do it.

Anyone??

Bent from the same size bolt they do. Only longer to clear the compensator or weight, have a generous handle, and the shank is turned down to fit as a main spring housing pin removal tool.

Made from old barbell weights. Sand blasted and painted. Here is used a 1/2xfine thread bolt and washers and a nylock nut with just enough thread shank exposed to turn into the 5/8 post. There is a short pvc pipe piece inside the 1" weight plate hole to center the bolt.