Tip for Backyard Shooting Steel Targets

[NC_22]

I use a suppressed PCP in my backyard, on an acre in the county but the impact sound on steel spinners and steel squirrels can be pretty loud. These targets would just ring at a high pitch at impact and didn’t want to annoy my neighbors.

I installed a HVAC product, thumb gum, which is like sticky tack but denser and more sticky on the back of each target. It has reduced the high pitched ring considerably and held in place through the summer and winter without issue. The targets are heavier and don’t spin quite as much but also is nice that they settle back into resting position faster.

This was my best solution to reduce the noise and enjoy my hobby. Also made a wooden box packed with the thumb gum as a pellet catcher for target practice, 6x6 small targets. Super quite and never had one go through the box.

Anyone use this product or have another solution to reduce the report of impacts?

 

[airgunmike56]

Never heard of it, Is it pretty cheap, Can you get it at Home Depot, If not where do you get it from, Does Amazon carry it?
Mike

 

[Bigragu]

I use a suppressed PCP in my backyard, on an acre in the county but the impact sound on steel spinners and steel squirrels can be pretty loud. These targets would just ring at a high pitch at impact and didn’t want to annoy my neighbors.

I installed a HVAC product, thumb gum, which is like sticky tack but denser and more sticky on the back of each target. It has reduced the high pitched ring considerably and held in place through the summer and winter without issue. The targets are heavier and don’t spin quite as much but also is nice that they settle back into resting position faster.

This was my best solution to reduce the noise and enjoy my hobby. Also made a wooden box packed with the thumb gum as a pellet catcher for target practice, 6x6 small targets. Super quite and never had one go through the box.

Anyone use this product or have another solution to reduce the report of impacts?

I retired from the HVAC industry. Back then 1” and 2” duct line insulation was used to line the inside of ducts, and in the last few years duct insulation in fiberglass is going away and more and more shops are using rolled, dense, neoprene as the insulation. It is perfect to contain the temps within the ducts, is a great sound proofing material, and will not degrade and get into your lungs like fiberglass will.

I called the superintendent running the shop I worked for and asked if he could give me some of the scrap cuts that would normally get thrown away. I placed the 2” thick neoprene pad inside my bucket traps and after shooting into them with 25 cal MK2 Heavy’s at 900 FPS at 50 yards, I pulled the pad out and saw that the pellets never made it thru the back side. The 2” thick material contained them, and is very very quiet. Almost silent, and I say almost because there is still that tiny pop sound when the pellet punches thru the target with a cardboard backer.

 

[NC_22]

Never heard of it, Is it pretty cheap, Can you get it at Home Depot, If not where do you get it from, Does Amazon carry it?
Mike

Rectorseal 81881 5-Pound Duct Seal Compound,grey https://a.co/d/7NR5I2F

 

[AlanMcD]

I do the same to dampen the sound of my spinners, but since I am not in the country and in a residential area, I built boxes out of 2x12 pressure treated lumber and mounted the spinners in them. The boxes are somewhat sacrificial (I put an extra layer of wood behind the spinners to catch any misses, and these get replaced as needed) as they are intended to capture all misses, ricochets and splatter. I also find that they redirect the sound back to me reducing what goes off to the sides for neighbors to hear. Of course the boxes also sit in front of a sturdy backstop built of 4x6 PT lumber, but you could just use the box idea to control sound dispersion. It would be easy to add a sound absorber inside the box, but I have not done that (it would have to stand up to the splatter).