Quietest/softest printable paper for targets?
- Thread starter qball
- Start date
Yes it is. The down side is I need to pick out the pellets from the duct seal. When I was able to shoot more I go through a tin of 500 pellets a week sometimes more if I'm tuning a gun.
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Qball after my post I was thinking of using absorbent paper. It’s soft and you can draw circles with a felt pen. It shouldn’t be louder then the photo copy paper and with a pellet catching box full of compressed old clothing it should be really quiet. Tomorrow I’ll have she who must be obeyed stand next to the target (Safely) and fire a couple of shots at photo copy paper and absorbent paper. Will let you know outcome.
Gary
Gary
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Qball on the left 3 shots with my Hw77 22 cal shooting H&N 14.65 gr ( not the best pellet in this rifle) On the right 7 shots from my HW50S 22 cal shooting Barracuda Green 12 .65 gr. All at 25 metres. I also put a few pellets through photo copy paper. Wife reckons no sound when hitting the absorbent paper and it seems to hold up well. Maybe someone with a sound meter could chime in.
Gary
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Qball on the left 3 shots with my Hw77 22 cal shooting H&N 14.65 gr ( not the best pellet in this rifle) On the right 7 shots from my HW50S 22 cal shooting Barracuda Green 12 .65 gr. All at 25 metres. I also put a few pellets through photo copy paper. Wife reckons no sound when hitting the absorbent paper and it seems to hold up well. Maybe someone with a sound meter could chime in.
Gary
thanks Gary! I tried a few shots with napkin and paper towel yesterday and found napkin with smoother surface being better visually but both basically silent with no sharp snap from printer paper. Also like you I’m going back to old clothe because it is quieter than rubber mulch, the combo of old clothe and napkin has been near silent!! It’s so silent i can hear pellet fly……another problem can only be solved by 450fps? LOL
Met my new neighbors and they are very nice retired couple who enjoy being in the back yard all the time, doh!
Thanks to everyone’s input I need to form a better multi pronged attack plan!
1. Quiet down the target: napkin target with old clothe, done!
2. quiet down the guns: long moderators and super low power. Done!
3. Increase foliage along the fence by a lot! Probably will need to double the amount of photinias planted, the landscaper said they will get big but no where near enough still after 3 years. This will take some time for the photinias to grow.
4. Increase background this one is tricky because I don’t want to be a bad neighbor:
- looking at a big ass fountain with lots of water noise. $ouch$
- strategy location for bluetooth speaker for some low level music but can’t be obnoxious
- wind chime? This one might be obnoxious.
Thanks again for everyone’s input!
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go to Staples or any office supply store and pick up onion skin paper. When you print on it you may end up getting 2=5 pages so only print one page at a time then slip the extras back in. Thsi paper is very thin like 6-8 lbs per 5000 sheets and sometimes less. If you wet it down and look at it hard you may put a hole in it.
Dan
Dan
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Would a small shop fan work? It's a static white noise and isn't something someone would generally find annoying or suspicious. Plus a nice breeze for you!
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Use a heavy paper stock for your target you'll get nice clean holes. Use a piece of commonly used yard equipment to camouflage the sound of impact. Mower, leaf blower, fans, music, etc. Synchronize your shots to planes flying overhead, sirens, cars, etc. Also the sound at POI might not be as loud as you're perceiving to your neighbors ears. Have someone else shoot at your target setup while you listen from different distances and angles.
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Hi qball , my answer is a bit late but i've just discovered your topic . I've always been fussy about noise when shooting airguns and I made a lot of experiments to make them quieter , but the noise of the pellet hitting the target is the most difficult to tame . it's true that paper towel gives good results but I find that the pellet tends to sheer the paper and the points of impact are sometimes difficult to see clearly . The best solution I found until now is to use self-adhesive dual-color flake-off technology target , applied directly on a piece of rubber foam ( used to damper vibrations of whashing machines , dryers , etc...) about 1/3 " thick. It gives good results ; also , slugs are much quieter than pellets .
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thanks! Will have to look into it. So far I have had good luck with old clothing and paper towel. Paper towel is 100% silent with absolutely no snapping sound like printer paper. The pellet does make a slightly bigger hole than printer paper target sometimes but I’m ok with that. the problem now is I hear the thud of pellet hitting the compacted clothing, not loud or that noticeable unless it’s pin drop quiet out in the yard but I rarely shoot during that time. I have tried different clothings, soft materials like fleece, sweaters and old tshirts are the best and jeans are the worst. Now I used jeans in the very back and use mostly old cotton T-shirts layered with fleece.
paper towel has been very economical and easy to replace. Costco bulk paper towel with amazon bulk painters tape make fantastic combo that is super cheap. When I have time I will go through a few targets an hour.
I even got a 3D printed moderator to be quieter than any commercially available moderator(I literally tried most brands already). My quest for silent backyard a target shooting has been very fruitful and entertaining.
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What about craft style construction paper? It has a more fibrous make up than printer paper and would leave better impact marks than paper towel. Seems targets made for competition are made of heavier stock construction style paper than printer paper.
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This is my pellet trap ; a wooden box 8"X12"X20"long , with a removable lid. The inside is covered with acoustic foam and filled with sandbags. The target is kept in place with magnets against a metal frame , about 4" into the box. This setup is good to stop .30 cal at 50 yards , but I usually shoot .22 . I can still hear the impact of the pellets because, of course , I'm facing the box when shooting ; put when I stand 30 yards aside , the noise is almost completely down. I also spend a lot of time to experiment different ways to improve factory moderators ; sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't .....that's life
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This is my pellet trap ; a wooden box 8"X12"X20"long , with a removable lid. The inside is covered with acoustic foam and filled with sandbags. The target is kept in place with magnets against a metal frame , about 4" into the box. This setup is good to stop .30 cal at 50 yards , but I usually shoot .22 . I can still hear the impact of the pellets because, of course , I'm facing the box when shooting ; put when I stand 30 yards aside , the noise is almost completely down. I also spend a lot of time to experiment different ways to improve factory moderators ; sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't .....that's life
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Very NICE!!!! I've been thinking about building a bigger box like yours so the sound is immediately blocked by the side wall. Great idea on the acoustic foam! Gonna have to do some research and build two much bigger weather proof boxes like yours!
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Thanks qball ; bigger box is a good idea , indeed . I think that putting the target somewhat deeper in the box could decrease the noise .
Good luck for your quest to silence
Good luck for your quest to silence
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This is my pellet trap ; a wooden box 8"X12"X20"long , with a removable lid. The inside is covered with acoustic foam and filled with sandbags. The target is kept in place with magnets against a metal frame , about 4" into the box. This setup is good to stop .30 cal at 50 yards , but I usually shoot .22 . I can still hear the impact of the pellets because, of course , I'm facing the box when shooting ; put when I stand 30 yards aside , the noise is almost completely down. I also spend a lot of time to experiment different ways to improve factory moderators ; sometimes it works , sometimes it doesn't .....that's life.
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How much trouble do you have keeping the sand inside the box? How often (shots) do you change sandbags?
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@rc4fun : I use plastic bags , the kind to keep food in deepfreezer , filled with sand and closed by a zip system .I put four of them , 2 on top of each other on 2 rows. Bags are changed after 200-300 shots . In fact I'm looking for a more "reliable" stuff , rubber mulch or something more dense which wouldn't need to be changed so often.But sand is so inexpensive.....
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I haven't tried it, but "real" target paper is advertised here at a reasonable price: https://www.pistoleer.com/shooting-targets/custom/
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qball that acoustic foam seems like a good idea. You can buy adhesive rolls on eBay dirt cheap. I was thinking if you are going to build a new box what about having an extension on your the front of your target box that is hinged, say about 1 third of the length of the box so it can be lifted up to place your targets. The hinged section can also be lined with adhesive foam. It may act as a moderator. No radiated sound. Just thinking 
Gary
Gary
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Thanks. I use rubber mulch and 1/4" bird screen like @bigragu. You definitely need space for the mulch or sand to leak into or it will just spill. I bet The sand is a lot easier to sift the pellets out! I push it to about 800 or 1000 shots before hitting the back stop or having mulch leak out when changing targets, then the screen needs changed. I use 1/8" foam packing sheets with the target stapled to it and ditto with magnets. I've only ?sifted? pellets once so far after 2500 shots and then just to see what it takes.
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