Information comes from and was given to me by MOA Targets (specifically for their 40% IPSC starter kit), but it's a generic how-to for hanging steel targets with simple and cheap materials that you can put up and down easily each time after the initial setup. It should take you about 5min (depending on how many beer breaks you take) to set it up the first time, and after that it's well under a minute each time you get to or leave the range.
First up, make sure you have
all the parts.
- Target
- Two equal-ish lengths of firehose
- Nuts, bolts, and washers
- Tools and Knife- recommended are a properly sized wrench and a cordless impact driver, but you can get by more slowly with just two wrenches.
- Stand pieces (kit or homemade, whatever this entails for you)
Cut an X in each end of your firehose sections:
Using a lag bolt, washer, and impact gun/wrench, mount the firehouse to a 2x4 top crossbar (or whatever you're using, but a 2x4 is easiest):
With the firehose and washer on the backside (not the strike face) of the target, bolt the firehose to the target:
Go grab some EMT Conduit table legs/pipes/whatever you're using and throw everything in the back of your transport machine:
(note: emt conduit should be fine with up to ~60lbs or more, but if you step up to heavier duty pipe, you can basically go until the wood breaks)
Set it up at the range:
Try not to miss. If you do miss, do it when your buddies and cameras aren't around. If you don't miss, don't brag about it, because then they'll certainly be there, and they'll proceed to make fun of you all year until you actually get out to Cola Warrior Texas 2 and place a 26 slots above them. You know, on second thought, maybe do miss a few times:
Again, while the above pictures and information is all credit of MOA Targets, it applies to hanging other targets cheaply and easily as well. So stop faffing about with it, go out and actually shoot your targets and get better. If you don't have steel targets yet...well, now you know what you need and where to get it. The 40% IPSC kit used as an example for this post works great, because it forces better accuracy with pistols, and at 100yds with rifle is about equivalent to a full-size torso/IPSC target at 250yds on sizing (disclaimer: the target does not magically make changes to wind and gravity, your ballistics will still be 100yd ballistics). This means though that if you're somewhere with limited space, you can train for the higher standards you should be working towards still. He's also running a sale right now so y'all got basically
no excuse to not have some good steel yet.
Don't forget - 12yds for pistol, 100yds for rifle, and 200yds for magnum rifle - minimums. Shooting is fun, but it's the most fun when your gear is reusable and your (or someone else's) body isn't leaking red fluids.
Disclaimer: I don't get paid or have any official connections to MOA targets. He just posted a good writeup on reddit, didn't want to bother posting it here, and since so many here hate reddit, people would otherwise miss out on good info, so he asked if someone could dump that info over here for y'all as well.