My First Backwoods Shooting Course
Finally got around to putting together my homemade target stands and setting them up for my backwoods shooting course. This time around I used six target stands. One of the stands was solely used to hold up a blind to start behind. Another target stand held two targets on long piece of horizontal cardboard. I still have two more stands made; just need to cut some wood to fit and bring them down to the course. Here’s a video of last night (more info after the vid)…
What I Learned Last Night — Yes, just in one night I basically learned all this stuff. Sorry if it’s jumbled up, but it was easier to just type it all out at once. A lot of it could be expounded upon in future articles.
It’s great to be able to make things out of metal laying around. Being a pack-rat has it’s advantages some times. Knowing a welder is awesome! Painted on silhouettes are permanent, so you should pin on card stock paper cutouts instead. They will be easy to move around later on. You can never have enough cardboard (Sams club will become by cardboard gathering center). It’s going to be a pain to break it all down and bring it back to the garage/house when it rains. You can get the most out of each target stand by using a long piece of cardboard horizontally and having multiple targets on it; maybe one hostage and one bad guy. Take the time to make the cardboard more like IDPA targets… put a smaller piece of cardboard at the top, like the head zone — That also allows hats to be put on. Have a partner randomly change out where the hat and silhouettes are placed. Maybe even where the targets are if you want to spend the tie changing that much around while your back is turned toward the course. You can never have enough barricades – They are realistic and help you work on aiming around corners without protruding too much of your body. There’s a reason police and SWAT train in shoot houses! Get a handguard before I burn myself on my AR-15. Bring extra zip ties and staples so I don’t have to make several trips back to the garage. Its good for your children to help set up the course with you – Good bonding time and a chance to teach them something (like my 3 yr old helping to zip tie the wood to the stands for me, and my 6 yr old helping move targets around). Large water drums and great because you can move them easily; but they just aren’t that high. Practice shooting AR from kneeling as well as standing. Set up a longer range target for the AR and try going prone (without wearing shorts and a nice shirt).
What tidbits of wisdom do you have about setting up your own backyard courses? Leave your comments below.
Comments (1)
Thanks Fella