Rubber Covered Poppers

[cking]

A company is selling a 2 inch thick cover for poppers that is suppose to make it possible to shoot the steel at any distance. IT is supposed to capture the bullet. Also suppose to last for thousands of rounds.

Anybody tried this stuff yet.

Would like to cover a 2/3 popper and use it as an activator for other things.

Let me know

[basman]

Do you have a link?

[shred]

A while ago there were rumors of various secret-squirrel-forces using layers of (non-metal-reinforced) conveyor belt over poppers to trap backsplatter so they could shoot steel from very close with pistols during training. The theory was that the bullet would expand & splatter on hitting the steel, but the rubber would contain the fragments from coming back. Of course their acceptable-casualty rate is typically higher than a match, and I'm not sure how much rubber it'll take to keep rifle rounds from damaging the steel when they hit it.

[cking]

Here is the link.

I would have expected somebody would have tried this already. Just $50.

http://www.letargets.com/html/steel2.html

[cking]

btt

[Carlos]

Down in the basement of the NRA's HQ they have a range set up and they shoot IDPA and a form of USPSA there with poppers that are covered in a foam which is about 2" thick. Works extremely well & I cannot recall ever seeing a light break from a fragment. Their match was a model for our indoor at www.shootersparadise.com

[Jim Norman]

Well, this intrigued me, enough so that I spent my money to buy one of the popper faces. Glued it on Friday night, will test it this Saturday. If the glue holds up, the only other thing will be whether the JHPs tear it up or if it stays true. Would be real nice if it did since we could ditch the steel shrouds we made.

Jim

[cking]

LEt me know how it goes, I had to send my back. As the 2/3 popper from LE targets was cut wrong and rubber face didn't cover all of the steel. The rubber was right but 1/2inch thick 2/3 popper was two wide under the circle section.

[Jim Norman]

The cutting was pretty much right on. It is short in that the bottom 3" of the popper are not covered. I am not too concerned about that area.

I will post results after we run amatch or two

Jim

[john soltesz]

hey jim hope it worked out, only don't ditch the shrouds since i paid for them i will want them back,,, got tired of building and donating the plywood ones years ago when i started the indoor action matches with vic thanx for all john

[Jim Norman]

John,

We will be trying one out tomorrow night. Stop in. Also, as it currently stands we'd still need the shrouds for the K-D plates.

Jim

[Jim Norman]

OK,

Here we go. We used the Rubber faced popper last night. It must be set light,the rubber absorbs a lot of the power. A 9mm minor will still knock it down. We had a light turn-out so there were only about 30 hits.

I'll report back after the next match.

One point, edge hits still escape.

Jim

[DocMcG]

Jim and Others,

Did you ever shoot the rubber covered popper with a rifle @ 100 yards? We have some mild steel poppers and gongs that we would like to convert to rifle targets and the conveyor belt idea is very tempting!

Kyle

Well, this intrigued me, enough so that I spent my money to buy one of the popper faces. Glued it on Friday night, will test it this Saturday. If the glue holds up, the only other thing will be whether the JHPs tear it up or if it stays true. Would be real nice if it did since we could ditch the steel shrouds we made.

Jim

[busyhawk]

While working we tried some rubber covered targets...the rubber came off in no time but in defense of the targets we did shoot alot of rounds (223). Now we never shot any rifle at steel targets less than 100 yards unless it was frangable ammo. I have see at the Fort Benning match with poppers less than 100 yard someone tried to shoot them with frangable but the targets were not impressed. Yes the military has the funds to do this and I don't.

Even in our shoot house with one foot rubber we had to replace the rubber a lot (shooting it alot also). The glue was a major problem since once the bullet got through the rubber it splatered and broke the glue about 3 inches around the bullet strike. Now shoot inside every room with 4 shooters and 5 targets and do this about 20 times a day and it adds up. The rubber would hold up pretty well under these conditions. Another consideration was fire, of course tracers and steel core bullets were not allowed. It seemed the tunstun core didn't create a problem with the green tip bullets.

Have you thought of using laytex poppers/targets? While in Germany we had to shoot laytex targets (with pistol), not having the ding of the steel sucked but there was no splater and the target did fall. German ranges are very safe and not shooting steel (for the most part) saved alot of explaining of how a bullet went somewhere? Not sure if the laytex targets can activate anything is another consideration.

Hope this helps,

RLTW,

Scott

[A well Earled machine]

We only have 200 yards and thats only on in one bay so a way to shoot steel at 50 - 75 yds. would be a big hit. Looking forward to hearing how they work with rifle.

EJ

[jobob]

I've shot matches with 50 and 75 yard steel. Didn't seem to create a safety problem, but I know from experience on my own targets that the steel gets damaged much more at under 100 yards.