Indoor Rimfire Steel

[danjordan78]

After some experimentation and lots of thinking and research, we finally got indoor rimfire steel going! With 8 months of winter, I needed some way to train for US Steel Nationals! Started an 8 week league for .22 pistol and rifle with rotating stages. That way you can see your improvement over time. We are only doing rimfire, no centerfire yet. Not sure if we will do any CF or not as there is a lot more energy there for any kind of frag or deflection to cause damage.

We ended up using galvanized steel ducting that was leftover from the installation of the air handling system. We cut 24" sections from the 24" and 36" diameter ducting. The 24" is good for the 6"-12" circles and 9x18" plates (we made reduced targets so we can scale the stages down), and the 36" is perfect for the 18x24" plates. We cut slits in the front edge and folded over a rim so that it would catch most of the frag as it came back. Leaves a nice little pile of lead at the bottom at the end of the night. Right around the plates where most of the energy is dissipated from the the frag it dings the metal up a little,but I don't think it will ever wear thru. Figured out a way to mount them on the stands and that's about it!

Doesn't really matter if you hit them directly, it just punches a little hole. They will wear out eventually but we cut a couple of extras for when we need them. Could probably pick up scraps from the sheet metal place in the future too. Super light and you can store them outside if you need to.

We set up halogen lights on each target to light them up fairly evenly and painted dots on the floor for the different stages. That way we only need to measure once. You can color coordinate the dots too so you know which is which.

Looked at the tire idea like they do in European Steel Challenge. They are just heavy and I was a little worried about the little .22 bullets bouncing off of them. Had numerous people warn me about that, even with 9mm. To get big enough tires for the 18x24 plates we needed semi-truck tires too that were HEAVY and had really thick side walls.

Looked at using conveyor belt or thick rubber mating too cut into 18-24" wide strips, but didn't want to have to come up with whole new frames or ways to hang them. They are pretty heavy too.

Also thought about building something similar to this using welded wire to make a "barrel" and then wrapping that with sheet metal. Could use heavy gauge metal for CF too and it would probably work. This is what I was working on before I came across the galvanized ducting.

Works awesome! Maybe someone else can use the idea to get more shooting going in their clubs in the winter!

Edited February 11, 2015 by danjordan78

[danjordan78]

Really? No one even has looked at this thread!

Great idea and working really well for us. Just another way to get more shooting in during the winter months!

[Gooldylocks]

Seems like those bright work flood lights are washing out the targets pretty bad, especially the far away ones. But it looks awesome! I really would like to get a little midweek steel series going, and this is the kind of inspiration that I'm looking for! I really like the target stands too, can you give us a little more on the dimensions for making those up? How are the plates attached to the upright 2x4?

[danjordan78]

The back targets are actually lit up by lights from the top (they have flood lights for the normal targets shot at 50'). We try to use the halogen lights on the floor to light up the targets that don't have overhead lights on them. It's not perfect, but it works just fine. No one complains (they might notice and mention it though...)

If I had it to do over I might change the mounting system next time I do it. I designed and made some brackets that fit over the end of the 2x4, have a post sticking out the front of the bracket for the target to hang on, then a couple of pieces welded on that hold the shields in place. Problem we ran into was that the targets weren't centered in the shields. We solved that by using some galvanized, perforated straps which we could bolt the targets to and adjust the height with the various holes. Works OK but the straps get shot up a little.

If I redo it, I would use normal steel target hangers, and just weld a 1/2" or 3/4" solid steel rod sticking straight up from the top. Then I would drill holes crossways in it, and put a cotter pin with a washer through it. One single hole in the shield and it would slide down, be held in place and you could adjust the heights to keep the steel targets centered.

The target stands are easy. One 8' 2x4 makes the base, and the upright slides in and out for easy stacking, take down, and replacement. 2 - 24" pieces are on the floor for legs, 2 - 20" pieces are cross wise with 2 - 4" pieces between them to create a slot for the upright to slide into. If you don't want to take the upright out, one screw thru the bottom holds it in place.

Things are crazy at work this week and then I will be heading to Florida for the Steel Nats. After that I would be happy to help anyone that is interested in getting indoor steel going and how it's been working for us!