Target Framed that is. At last I completed some target frames for the range. Having my own private shooting range has been a lifelong wish for me. It's only taken me into my 60's (barely) to achieve.
Over the year, I've gone from being a spray and pray type of shooter, just blasting to blast, to one that really enjoys the slower pace and skill of precision shooting.
This becomes a creative way for me to focus my perfectionist tendencies in a limited area, and enables me to let go of it in others.
In my earlier posts you've seen the steel plates before, those are certainly fun, but I still really like the challenge of trying to punch that perfect hole in paper. When you try to take a rifle that can easily shoot 2 or 3 inch groups at 100 yards down to shooting an inch or less.
So yesterday I built target frames, I copied a design used at one of the gun ranges I used to belong to. This consists of a 1x2 legs and a sheet of quarter inch plywood (or pegboard, pressboard, etc.) This gives something solid to staple the paper targets to. This is then placed into some short sections of PVC pipe buried in the earth. This design allows for it to be easily replaced/repaired, to pull out of the ground for mowing/storage or even to move from one distance to another if multiple PVC bases are planted.
I've tried some methods like having a double rail and clipping the paper between them, but they just don't seem to hold as stable.
Here's the initial construction of the frame. I simply screwed some small drywall screws (my favorite construction hardware) through the plywood onto the 1x2 legs.
I built four frames from the half sheet of plywood and four 1x2's.
I then had some help from Betty digging the holes and placing the PVC.
One of the challenges I've seen with the metal bases you can buy is that they are constantly blowing over in the wind (unless you put heavy sandbags on them or stake them to the ground. It becomes quite irritating for them to blow over or move during a shooting session. The legs in these are intentionally loose, and to lock them in, I use a small wedge. That makes them very solid, yet allows instant removal.
First one done at 50 yards and ready for number two at 100 yards.
Here's the setup, if you zoom in, you can see the target way back there against the treeline. My little portable swivel bench under covered porch. This is a Sako/Beretta model 85 .22-250 caliber with the handloads I made a few weeks ago.
The scope is a Vortex 5-25x56 StrikeEagle. Nothing fancy, but they are good little shooters for the money. I really like the little zoom lever towards the back of the scope, this let's me keep it at low levels for easy target acquisition, then quickly zoom to higher levels without twisting and twisting the ring. Also love the little level built into the scope rings. It doesn't feel super sturdy, so may end up breaking it off at some point, but I kind of like it just being there to flip down if I want to use it.
Oh, and let's not forget the results. I only got to get off 5 rounds at 100 yards today before the rain started. Four of those rounds into one large hole, and the 5th shot that I pulled a bit still under an inch. Not quite ready to challenge @galenkp at a mile yet, but that day may come. This rifle really only designed/intended to shoot up to 800 yards, even though it stays supersonic past 900 yards. I'm quite confident in it for that purpose. Now to start working on my long-distance rifle...
Yes, I'm quite happy with this rifle's accuracy. This is 5 shots at 100 yards.
I did slightly pull one of the 5 shots off to the right just a touch. You can see the original load testing of various powder weights and velocities in my previous post here:
@ksteem/winter-escape-and-science-at-the-range