I made some Bell targets

[steve123]

A friend gave me some disc's for cutting something hard, concrete maybe, not sure exactly, they are 8.5" wide. He said he thinks they are AR500 steel. Anyway that motivated me to get a project going which was making some Extreme Field Target practice targets. I used an old piece of long L shaped steel cut into 5" lengths for the bell and hung by bailing wire. It's not a great resounding diiinngg like I wanted, more of just a ding, but I can tell I hit it by the noise and the movement. Plus the faceplate just makes a thud not a ding. Well it's easy to hear the difference anyway!

The sizes are in 1/4" increments and each 20% wider than it is tall. 

2"x2.4" at 60Y

2.25"x2.7" at 70Y

2.5"x3" at 80Y

2.75"x3.3" at 90Y

3"x3.6" at 100Y

Here's them all set out. The quadrant target is at 50Y. 

 

[FrankinFairfield]

Good idea.

I would have made 1/4”,1/2”, 3/4”,1”, 1 1/2”, etc....as you go out...For FT practice.. 

 

[stoti]

Jeesh, maybe you could make them a little bigger!!!  Just playing, nice work!

The boys and I absolutely love shooting steel. We have steel targets from 50yds to 200yds, plus our new Target Forge KYL targets. Steel targets seem to be what everybody likes to shoot the most, they’re just so fun!

I hope you have a blast with your new targets!

Have a great weekend!

Stoti

 

[Centercut]

Nice!!!! Looks easy to hit that 3” x 3.6” target at 100 yards doesn’t it? Ha! Yeah, right. Off bucket and sticks, in the shifting wind with no sighters and no wind flags? Thought so... Nice job Steve. Great way to practice for Extreme Field Target. 
Mike

 

[dizzums]

what would be cool is if you attached a rod to the plate and then maybe drilled a couple of bolts or nuts on the back to mount it so it spins . .with the right gauge stainless plate .. yeah .. would take alittle engineering to get it right but once it was ..

 

[steve123]

Good idea.

I would have made 1/4”,1/2”, 3/4”,1”, 1 1/2”, etc....as you go out...For FT practice..

I have some old Knockdown FT targets set up on a different location on my property for the closer distances but I drilled smaller holes in the head of each animal to take the difficulty up a notch when I want it. So 1/4" in head and 3/8" at 15Y, 1/2" and 3/4" at 25Y, and so on. But more than anything I need to practice offhand on normal sized KZ's, I think that's what separates the winners from the others! If I could hit a 1.5" at 25Y every time in offhand I'd be stoked!!!!

 

[steve123]

Jeesh, maybe you could make them a little bigger!!!  Just playing, nice work!

The boys and I absolutely love shooting steel. We have steel targets from 50yds to 200yds, plus our new Target Forge KYL targets. Steel targets seem to be what everybody likes to shoot the most, they’re just so fun!

I hope you have a blast with your new targets!

Have a great weekend!

Stoti

Haha, and thanks!

Yesterday in hard winds, I found the 60Y target easy, the 70Y a little tougher, each distance getting harder, and 100Y darn difficult. The vertical is not the problem with my SURELY Thomas HPX, but those 25gr MRD's still blow a lot in the wind! 

I'm still astounded the disparity in both precision and accuracy between 90Y and 100Y in windage needed and vertical???????!!!!!! 1/2" or so vertical at 90Y and a full inch or more at 100Y??? 

These are easy targets in calm conditions but I don't need to practice when it's calm.

Yesterday the windage at 100Y needed was silly! Last week I hung some surveyors tape on some trees way over 90 yards to the right of these targets but downrange 50Y, otherwise I have a string attached to my airtube, then I use the grass in the field, all as wind indicators, mirage wasn't noticeable. Half the time the string on my gun was blowing to the right so it was "showing a left to right wind", and the tape on the tree's were the opposite direction! So the prevailing wind was coming from the right, "showing a right to left wind"!!!! As it was I missed 30% of the time at 100Y watching ""ALL" the wind indicators, and if I had trusted just the string on my gun I would have missed most of the time!!!! This just goes to show that in EFT we NEED streamers as Mike calls them/surveyors tape, more so since we shoot at circle KZ's in our EFT match which are harder to hit.. I aimed off 2 mils a few times to hit close to center but most holds were 1.2-1.6 mils. 

I like to hear that ding rather than a thud, lol, so "high hit percentage" on my range 

 

[steve123]

Nice!!!! Looks easy to hit that 3” x 3.6” target at 100 yards doesn’t it? Ha! Yeah, right. Off bucket and sticks, in the shifting wind with no sighters and no wind flags? Thought so... Nice job Steve. Great way to practice for Extreme Field Target. 
Mike

Exactly 

 

[steve123]

what would be cool is if you attached a rod to the plate and then maybe drilled a couple of bolts or nuts on the back to mount it so it spins . .with the right gauge stainless plate .. yeah .. would take alittle engineering to get it right but once it was ..

Yeah, that's above my pay grade.

I was able to see every hit on the white painted dinger and on the faceplate so that definitely helps.

 

[steve123]

My grown kids showed up yesterday and wanted to shoot SURELY, my new Thomas HPX, a 47 fpe 22 cal laser. So we went out about 3 in the afternoon.

Here is SURELY in case you are curious. 

I was the last person to shoot and by that time it was windy - 10 mph + from 2-3 o'clock, at 100Y I aimed out 1.2 mil to the right on my first shot and hit on the left side of the face about an inch out??!! Each shot I kept aiming out farther until I hit middle of KZ """which was a 2 mil holdoff OR 7.2" from center"""! In the few lulls present it was still a 1.2 mil holdoff.

That KZ is 1 mil wide at 100Y so if the wind comes from 3 o'clock at 12 mph that's a 2.5 mil holdoff, if it then changes to a 2 o'clock at 9 mph it's a 1.6 mil holdoff, a .9 mil difference, that shows how easy it is to miss at 100Y with wind fluctuations. If I only had the string on my gun to use as a wind indicator, and was trying to make a hit on the first shot, I could easily make more than a 1 mil mistake in a wind call??!!

I do like these targets a lot, just the right size and shape for practicing in the wind!

 

[Centercut]

Surely sure is a looker, and she's got a great personality... Gorgeous wood, and the targets are perfect for practice. You can see your misses, which generally we can't do in Phoenix... unless you're way off! I'm coming with Tony and his wife Barb Saturday. It'll be fun, and also after for the Rimfire vs Slugs vs Pellet challenge! 

 

[steve123]

Surely sure is a looker, and she's got a great personality... Gorgeous wood, and the targets are perfect for practice. You can see your misses, which generally we can't do in Phoenix... unless you're way off! I'm coming with Tony and his wife Barb Saturday. It'll be fun, and also after for the Rimfire vs Slugs vs Pellet challenge!

Thanks for the compliment Mike! I love that gun.

Looking forward to seeing, you, Tony, and also that new "ringer" Barb.