TargetTalk

I am looking for pictures. I would like to make a dedicated pistol range in the backyard with a privacy fence for total concentration, with a seating arrangement for the family waiting their turn. Any photos would be appreciated. Thanks!

That was my "dedicated" 10m range in the basement of my last house. Colorado doesn't lend itself too well to year round shooting outdoors, and no serious 10m matches occur outside, so I thought it best to shoot inside.

Arizona weather usually allows for outdoors training, although today at 107 degrees was pretty uncomfortable. I have ten meters on the shady north side of my house and can train year-round. The only way to have ten meters indoors is to shoot over the dining room table, through the kitchen, over the sofa in the family room and into the fireplace. In the interest of family harmony (and safety), I train outdoors. I also have six meters in my garage for monsoon season, and have appropriately scaled targets.

I use my rec-room and and a hallway for 10-meters. The target box is filled with Duct-Seal providing no bounce and good lead collection. It sits on a book shelf and has a goose-neck lamp over it for lighting purposes.

The advantages are: shooting anytime, heat in the winter, and AC in the summer.

Make your range as comfortable and convenient as possible - so that you will continue to use it.

I can only get a 7m range comfortably at home, shooting from the bathroom, across the hall, into the furthest corner of the room where I store violins, violas, cellos, and doublebasses. I'm thinking of changing the old wooden-framed bathroom window into a swing-out type, so I can mount a trap about 1 metre beyond the roof line over the porch... but as a miss would probably break a window in the new condos across the alley (used to be a concrete wall another 70 feet beyond, nothing between) I'll have to be clever about preventing that. Since the only gap which would allow a pellet to travel beyond a trap is about 2 feet square, it seems I could use a sheet of 1/2" plywood between the firing line in my workshop and the window, with a small opening in the middle for the trap which would hang about 10 feet beyond it. My 46m won't go more than a full pellet depth into 1/2" softwood plywood - thoroughly tested that at 7metres - so it'd be something I could hang temporarily for each session.

Then the only remaining issue, I think, would be whether neighbours noticed and got spooked. So I'd make a duct seal lined trap with deep walls so that targets were not at all visible from anywhere but in our place, with a couple of LED lights in the corners to illuminate the target. Should work most of the year. Only time it might be rough is the middle of winter, when an open window would cool the house down too much. But for about 10 months a year it should be fine. I'll just be that weird guy who keeps going out onto the kitchen porch and swapping pieces of paper in an odd box on a rail every ten minutes or so. I could use a bearing slide of some sort to make the box retrievable for the paper swap. Could even use it in the rain that way!

Thoughts, anyone? Seems if I plan it well there should be zero danger to anyone, so long as the inside flier board has an opening smaller than the outside of the metal trap box and the alignment is perfect. I almost never miss the black any more anyway, and at worst when tired and there's the odd muscle spasm I hit out in the low numbers, never in the zero area since about March this year. Tried my first full 10m targets at the local Richmond club last evening - been shooting scaled 7m targets inside since December - and only 5 were in the white, 4 just barely so. Of course I realize that accidents happen... but doesn't it seem I've figured a way to make it safe enough? I mean, for when none of my family are home?

I am living single, so my safety measures are simple.
I shoot air pistol and air rifle indoors. Living room plus kitchen are good for 9.5 m.
Pellet trap (louvre type) is at the the kitchen's blind wall and can be fixed at three different heights; illumination is by a low voltage 20Watt reflector spot light. Targets are attached to the trap with a small neodynium magnet.
At the shooting point I keep my gear in an open chest, so no table or so in front of me.

Greetings Hans.

Here is my range set up. I have 10m to the shooting point with room behind me for my desk. Eventually this is going to be my "man cave" with my reloading stuff, safe and desk for working on guns and also my business office.

My basement range measures 9.5 meter from target face to where I stand-close enough for me.

I have an old camera set up right in front and below the target with a wire running to a TV that I can look over and see where my shot landed. You can see the camera below the second picture covered by a plastic clipboard. I shot the clip board point blank and did not penetrate.

I stand in the "equipment" side of the room, the other entrance is in the same room, so there is no chance of anyone coming into the line of fire without us seeing each other.

Ya'll have some far more sophisticated setups than my "poor-man's" setup (which is a work in progress of upgrade). Here is my basement range. Now, I may just be in that "hobby shooter" class I've seen Russ mention here, but the way I see it, it's fun and shooting one-hand, bulleye-style is fairly new to me, so I'm learning as I slowly go along.

I try to be sure of what height I'm shooting at, so I mark the cardboard when it is replaced.




Only one light, but I need to upgrade it to two. Plan on upgrading to a wood riser that's more handy to move when I want to set the box on the metal shelf and shoot from the bench.




I've got marks on the floor set up for 5 Meter and 6 Meter shooting, too.




The 10 Meter Box I marked off.




And the top of my "bench". It is a Black & Decker Workmate adapted with two 3/4" plywood pieces attached for strength.

wattsnot,

For a dedicated pistol range in the back yard, if you have the means of sun protection (like a tent), that would be a good idea. Patio chairs would be good, padded nicer, all depends upon what you already have or are willing to spend. Search out the local Salvation Army/Goodwill stores/flea markets/yard sales and you might find something if you haven't already aquired them.

You can adapt the basics of the home range found here :

http://www.pilkguns.com/buildrange.shtml

into an outdoor range. Seating for waiting members would be to the immediate rear (best, safetywise), or maybe diagonally off to one side. Hope to hear back and see what you came up with.

Thanks for all your great ideas and pictures. I haven’t finalized the project in my mind yet. I do plan on taking time off work early next month to build. I did buy the Gehmann Manual Target Changer and will probably use it along with Doc226 idea of a video monitor screen at the bench. That’s a great idea! Thanks for all your ideas. If any one has any other suggestions, please post them. I will take pictures and submit once the job is done.

I've gone ahead and modified my bathroom window to swing out of the way, and made a trap on a couple of wooden arms which I can mount on the end of the balcony outside. It swings in for target changing. Primitive yet, but my first target shot on it last night at twilight was fun, scoring a 93 with the first shot a 10.1. Inspiring, even if the next target this afternoon was only an 89.




Got to make the safety baffle for a couple of metres in front of my shooting line to eliminate the possibility of smashing the window or otherwise overshooting the trap. Looks like heck, but it'll be safe enough for when no one else is at home once I've got a puttied plywood baffle with a hole in it between me and the target.



I'm nervous shooting at 10metres yet, got to get used to it. Looks different even though the scaled 7metre targets are about the same in apparent size from the line. Guess it has to do with focus.

I did a thread in a similar thought. It was a while ago... but here's a few home ranges (mine included):

http://www.targettalk.org/viewtopic.php?t=22374

One of the ranges is in a PowerPoint document

Oz

Here's my set-up in my downstairs basement. I'm lucky to have a spare room downstairs with a door which leads into the dirt-part of the basement. The first thought that went through my mind when my wife and I first inspected this house as a possible purchase three years ago was "AIR PISTOL RANGE!!!". It took some time to put together but the cost was minimal.

Here's the nice discreet "entrance" to the range as seen before I set up. The black tape on the floor is the 10m mark for my foot (the splodge on the door is a recently acquired dust speck on my camera's sensor - dammit!).




Here's how it looks after i have set-up (takes about two minutes) with the target carrier brought fully back. The black box on the stool has a rocker switch in it (double-pole, double-throw, momentary on-off-on) which moves the target forwards and backwards. The 4-core cable runs from the switch box to the motor unit which is tucked up behind the top of the other side of the door frame




And here's my view of the target when shooting. In reality the target appears much brighter than this but you get the idea. It has a couple of cheap halogen lights down the end to illuminate it




What I did to avoid the nylon cords getting in the way of all the other things I do in the basement was to run them up high with the target holder dropping down to the correct height. Here's the shuttle suspended on the supporting cords (white) and attached to the driving cord (black). To make the shuttle I used bits of aluminum purchased from the local hardware store which I riveted together with pop rivets. The rods coming down to which the target carrier connects are some sort of welding rod which are very stiff and ideal for this purpose. You can actually invert a commercial target changer in the same manner though you still need to be able to reach the controls (or duplicate the controls and run a cable). With this system I can walk underneath the cords (and I'm 6') without hitting my head on them until the point where the head space narrows about four metres in.




Here's the motor unit attached to a bit of wood screwed into part of an old metal bed frame which sits above the door frame. The motor is a 12v unit (a car ventilation fan motor) which I bought from an auto wreckers for $8. Window wiper motors can also work well. You can see the 12v power supply up in the floor joists. There are two blocks of closed-cell polyethylene foam to act as buffers with another two down at the pellet trap end. I know when to take my finger off the switch but occasionally the shuttle rams into the buffers but this has never resulted in any problems. With this motor, the shuttle and target holder move fast!






To connect the target holder which is made of a lighter gauge welding wire to the heavier gauge rods connected to the shuttle, I used the metal connectors which I cut out of a plastic electricians connecting block. I've used four of these (two for each side) which means it is easy to adjust the target holder to the correct height.




Finally my cat who insists of running into the basement whenever he gets the opportunity (I think he's hoping to catch a mouse down there but he hasn't had any luck so far). He occasionally sneaks in to sleep on the old wool carpet you can see that I placed over the dirt floor where the head space narrows. The carpet makes it more pleasant if I have to crawl down to the target trap. I have to be sure to shoo him out before I start practicing. He is a beloved pet, so perish any thoughts that I would even think of using him for target practice!

I can't see any of the pictures

Freepistol wrote:I can't see any of the pictures

A strange one this as I could see them fine.
I have shifted the host for the images from Postimage.org to Photobucket. Hopefully that should solve the problem. Let me know if you still can't see them.

I couldn't see them either, but can now that you've switched image hosts. Thanks. Sweet looking setup by the way.

Gerard wrote:I couldn't see them either, but can now that you've switched image hosts. Thanks. Sweet looking setup by the way.

Good for me, too.

This is a very cool thread! :-)

Here's mine temporary 10m range, later will make it more neat. :)