Backstop ideas?

[rekladan]

I have a nice big basement. Perfect for some indoor practical shooting practice. I thought it would be a good idea to start a discussion about the targets and backstops that can be used, especially for multiple targets, i.e. cases where it doesn't make economic sense to buy those small airsoft target stands.

I normally set up 5-6 of these, for some moving fire drills. Simple cardboard bases would work too, but the used BBs will get scattered all over the place. I still wear eye protection, since I've found that BBs that miss the target entirely tend to come back to me, just to let me know.

Here's what I've found so far:

1. Shoe boxes

Tape an old, unwanted magazine (the printed kind) in the bottom of the shoe box. Instead of the shoe box cover you can use a piece of cardboard, taped on one side to the main box, so you can just flip it over to open it. This piece of cardboard is the only perishable part of the setup. Tape the appropriate target on it and move to the next box!

2. Family-size ice cream boxes

I run a hotel with a cafeteria, so I have litterally dozens of big ice-cream boxes. Same as above, an old magazine taped in the inside of the back and a piece of cardboard is used as a cover and target backing.

You could achieve the same effect with a large tupperware box (a real one, not the shooting kind), but your wife may not appreciate it. By the way, if you don't put the magazine inside, an airsoft pistol can pierce the plastic box easily.

These are my main two types of backstops. The shoe box type is bigger, obviously, but even with my wife's help, I don't have many of them!

I re-use the BBs without prioblems. Obviously, instead of old magazines you can newspapers or leaflets, etc.

Any other ideas?

[Rich-D]

With air guns, I utilize beer boxes ( which are 4X the size of a shoe box) with newspaper backing inside. For targets, I use stock 8 1/2 by 11 sheets of paper. With a marker I place a cross in the middle approximately 4" high and 4' across. As the beer boxes are fairly large, missed shots and returning BB's very seldom occur.

Best of Luck!
Rich

[Hawkmoon]

Doing our series of airsoft tests, I found that at a distance of 25 feet, most of the green gas guns would penetrate multiple layers of corrugated cardboard (the brown, double-wall stuff that we make cartons from in the U.S.). I used a large, corrugated carton, but I had to cut several more layers out of other cartons to ensure that the pellets didn't shoot all the way through the backstop.

I think a good backstop would be an old, discarded carpet, hung from the ceiling.The bottom should just hang down, but no be fastened. Carpet is heavy and dense enough that a 6mm plastic ball won't shoot through it, and resilient enough that the pellets won't be damaged or deformed by the impact. Don't hang the carpet directly against a wall or hard surface .. leave enough space so the carpet can defect when hit.

With a large(ish) carpet as a backstop, you can pin multiple targets up at random and practice snap shooting without any concern for what happens if you miss the target.

[rekladan]

Mmm sounds good, and I have plenty of these too, but beer boxes have nooks and crannies...

But you gave me an idea: my wife bought some collapsible storage boxes from a value supermarket chain. They are about the same size as beer boxes, only they are completely empty inside when expanded.

Hawkmoon, my aim is to shoot without having the BBs scatter all over the place, so I prefer a 'box' setup. I guess a hung carpet would take much of the energy and leave them pretty much under it though...

Corrugated cardboard is what I use for the cover of the boxes. Shoe boxes are made of a similarly dense material, which isn't much in itself, so the old mags/newspapers are mandatory. Expanded foam doesn't work!

[Hawkmoon]

The carpet should absorb most of the energy and the BBs drop straight down. Place a couple of those boxes under the bottom of the carpet and most of the BBs should fall right in.

[Rich-D]

Mmm sounds good, and I have plenty of these too, but beer boxes have nooks and crannies...


In the USA at least, the bottle liner in the beer box pulls out, leaving no nooks and crannies. Hawkmoon's suggestion for a loose hanging rug really works great. I forgot to mention that I also use utilize in my basement, discarded large rubber backed throw rugs that we use in my Taverns. However, the first time I weighed down the bottom, the BB's from my CO 2 rifle went right through. Hanging loose the rugs vibrate and drop's the BB's into lined up beer boxes below. When we play in the bar (after it's closed of course) or outdoors, it's just the beer boxes.

Best of Luck!
Rich

[rekladan]

In the USA at least, the bottle liner in the beer box pulls out. leaving no nooks and crannies.
This is news to me, our stuff is different. Nevermind though, we do have other boxes that will do the trick!

[ljshooter]

I use a poster board to mount the targets to and behind the poster board I have an old towel behind the poster board. When the BB pass though the board they hit the towel and fall to the floor. This makes them easy to recover and reuse as they do not bounce all over the world. if you don't have a frame to put the backstop on ( i use a pvc target frame) you can hang it from a closet door frame with a couple of binder clips.


binder clip
http://qpmstationery.com/Images/Products/BindersClipN00004.jpg

[tony315]

I made target holder today for the 1911 i ordered.
used two boxes, the top box thinner than the bottom to catch the bb's when dropped.
i used 14 gauge wire to hang an old t shirt on to catch the bb's. one inch infront of that i put another wire to clip targets too. I also had to put some weight in the bottom box for stability, i used a box of shogun shells..
I think this will work well for me I will be shooting 15ft indoors. I may lower the target hanging wire lower depending on how accurate the pistol ends up beeing.

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/tony315/airsofttarget003.jpg

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/tony315/airsofttarget004.jpg

http://i127.photobucket.com/albums/p124/tony315/airsofttarget005.jpg

[rekladan]

That's nice and neat. Since I am setting up multiple targets, I was looking for something simpler.

These days I am away from home, shopping and seeing the folks, and I am looking out for any suitable boxy products that will work as backstops.

I will start experimenting again in a week or so, when I get home with my purchases, and will report back.

[Hawkmoon]

Tony, I think you're going to shoot right through your backstop. Let us know.

[tony315]

I have not recieved the airsofts yet, but i tried it out with the red ryder and seems to work fine.I will have to keep an eye on the t shirt shot about 50 bb's and i can see a where the bb's are making a mark in the shirt. I did not dare take out my air bb gun and try it. I am assuming the airsofts will have about the same fps plus they are plastic instead of steel. my targets are also made from poster board which will take alot out of that bb.

tony.

[rekladan]

If a 0.2gr plastic bb has no trouble piercing both sides of an unsupported aluminium soda can, I don't think a poster board sheet will make much of an impression. Perhaps you 'd be better off replacing the t-shirt with a towel, or an old jersey.

Overall I really like your setup though!

[Ken Grant]

Hang a piece of carpet,bath towel or throw rug from the top and let the bottom rest inside a 5 gal. plastic bucket.
99% of the BB's will wind up inside the bucket.

My piece of carpet is wider than the bucket and I just curl the end to fit inside. That way even if your targets are wider than the bucket,the BB's still roll down and the curl keeps them inside.

[rekladan]

The other day my wife and I went to IKEA.

I spotted and bought two nice plastic boxes, a kinda 'frosted white' color, a tad smaller than a beer bottle box. They cost less than a Euro each.

Arriving home, I borrowed a small blanket and, without unfolding it, I just placed it inside one of the boxes, I leaned it to a wall corner and placed an A4 sheet of paper in it, with an IPSC target printed on it (about 3/4 scale). I did not tape the paper sheet in place, nor did I place any kind of cardboard backing to it - I just placed the piece of paper on top of the blanket, which was a tight 'fit' in the box and therefore had plenty of nooks and crannies under the paper.

I then loaded 15 plastic BBs in one magazine of my TM Hi-Capa and fired them off as fast as I could pull the trigger, from about 5 yards. No BBs left the box.

Retrieving the pellets is as simple as laying the box on the floor and carefully lifting the blanket off, shaking off any pellets caught in its folds.

This setup has no consumables, other than the paper target. I think my search for an easy-to-move/rearrange multiple-target setup, is officially over, once I go back to the shop and get a few more of these boxes. Only problem is, my wife seems to like them for putting stuff in them...

[maxxhavoc]

Hang a piece of carpet,bath towel or throw rug from the top and let the bottom rest inside a 5 gal. plastic bucket.
99% of the BB's will wind up inside the bucket.

My piece of carpet is wider than the bucket and I just curl the end to fit inside. That way even if your targets are wider than the bucket,the BB's still roll down and the curl keeps them inside.


Exactly what I came up with, except I use a shoebox. Put the box slightly forward of where the towel is hung so the BBs hit at a slight angle and they roll down easier.

I put strong magnets (I use the magnets from dead hard drives) behind the towel, and use them to stick binder clips in the front as target hangers.

When you are done, Fold the towel, stick it in the box, and store the lot easily.

[rekladan]

Well I've been using a similar setup, described above, for some time now. No problems. I also have shoe boxes, but they are slightly smaller, and unlike the plastic box, which will take the occasional hit when I neglect to cover a portion of it, the shoe box will allow the gBB to go right through.

One correction though, these boxes do not cost about 1 dollar/euro each, that was the price of the lid... they're actually priced at 3-4 bucks. Still not a lot, but if you buy 10, it adds up!

[Ping Ping]

Best thing Ive found is to use whatever corregated cardboard box I have, put a pillow, or old carpet remnant inside and cover with saran wrap. I paste a target over the saran wrap and wallah! No back-splashing bb's. The saran shrinks back after penetrated, leaving a hole too small for the bb to exit and all are deposited neatly in the bottom of the box. I can put around 150rds into the saran wrap before having to change it. The pillow, or carpet, serve to dampen the bb and while it still bounces around a little inside, doesnt exit.

[rekladan]

That sounds interesting too, the only problem with my method is that the target/box setup has to lean upwards, otherwise bbs just fall out. With your way, it sounds like I could stack two boxes one above the other, the only thing I haven't been able to do so far...

[Ping Ping]

That sounds interesting too, the only problem with my method is that the target/box setup has to lean upwards, otherwise bbs just fall out. With your way, it sounds like I could stack two boxes one above the other, the only thing I haven't been able to do so far...Tha's actually one of the points to this method. I could never find a way to get a full IDPA target over one box. Stacking them was the only way. Unfortunately, saran is not as wide as an IDPA target, so I end up stacking several. Since the bb will penetrate a first layer of cardboard, I can even use the cardboard targets in front of boxes. I dont use stands. I just set them on whatever table, workbench, spare washer/dryer, even more boxes... I have.

And yeah, no tilting required.

[rekladan]

I will definitely try this. At first, I was looking for as non-perishable a setup as possible, but saran comes cheap!
...saran is not as wide as an IDPA target,...
If you look at stores selling consumables to restaurants, hotels etc, you should be able to find more sizes. Not sure if it's worth the trouble, though!

I shoot scaled down IPSC targets (the international politically correct ones) that fit an A4-sized paper, so I can print as many as I like, and my boxes are relatively small. I shoot at shorter distances than with the real thing anyway...

[WyoBob]

I have a plate practice range set up in my garage. I'm using high density foam for the "plates" and have taped some clear, plastic lids over the foam so the foam doesn't get torn up. The "plates" are attached with a duct tape hinge to some PVC pipe that lays on some bar clamps, clamped horizontally to some cubicle panels. The range is 21 feet, the distance we shoot 6" plates at but I made the foam targets 5 inches in diameter.

For my first setup, I tried a bed sheet "funnel" under the targets to catch bb's and funnel them through a slit in the sheet into a cardboard box. This worked OK but was kind of cumbersome. I now just clamp an old bed sheet to a couple of "cubical walls" that I bought for $1.00 each at a garage sale. I can easily remove the sheet and move the panels so I have access to my garage.

I "bellowed" the sheet out from the cubicle panels to absorb the bb impact and they drop down and "stick" in the piece of scrap carpet below. BB's hitting the foam targets do bounce all over the garage. I just sweep them up toward the carpet and pick them up with a brush and dustpan. For the bb's on the carpet, I pick up the edges and roll them to the center. I wash and dry the bb's and spray a light coat of wax on them and use them again.

The rectangular targets are "A" zone sized. The large ones are actual size and the smaller one is sized for 15 yards. (Every once-in-awhile, we add some IPSC targets to our plate shoot for some variety.)

Airsoft practice has helped me quite a bit. I'm using a TM MEU which is similar in feel (though not weight) to my 9mm Trojan. I can draw and clear 5 plates in just under 3.0 seconds on a few runs but most times are around 3.30-3.50 seconds. I sure wish I could do that with the real thing. With the STI, I average about 3.5-3.8 seconds when everything is working right.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v620/WyoBob/Guns/DSCN2019.jpg