Iv been wanting to build one of these for a while, and yesterday finally got around to it.

this is what im basically wanting to have when finished.

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target stand with approx 36 - 40 targets on it. plates that fall down when shot, and smaller ones that swing when hit. with a cable pull reset to reset the plates. everything is 1/4 in steel, probably weigh 200-300lbs when finished. best part is i scrounged all the steel from the scrap yard, so i will only have about $30 bucks in it when its finished.

heres where im at now.

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Any more progress or pics???

Hows the mechanism to reset the standing plates work?

I'd like something like that for my backyard...

How much you think it'll weigh when done?

Seems like it'd be heavy AF, but if you're not carrying it around all the time that'll be fine...

Not much yet, ill be working on it tomorrow though.  Im just winging it as i go, ill post pics as i go.  Yeah, its gonna be heavy.

OST

I got a little more done today. I attached the flip plates, and welded everything together, and i have the 12 bottom swinger plates cut and ready to weld, then attach some legs. the biggest challenge will be to make a reset mechanism. Not super hard, it will just take a few minutes to work something out and get the parts / pieces out of my metal pile, and start getting it together. I am going to make two smaller racks vs one big rack. one will go behind my house and the second will go to my range.

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they will look like this basically.

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That's kickass man. It's crazy I had a random idea last night to make a shooting stand myself. I spent last night kicking it around in my head, sketching some stuff out and doing a bit of research. I shared the idea today with my Dad and after trying to explain it, and some rough sketches he made some really great suggestions and I just finished a really detailed schematic and figured out my dimensions and parts list.

My biggest problem is finding material. We don't have a scrap yard around here that I can salvage what I need from, and I really don't want to pay an outrageous amount for metal pipe so I'm gonna have to get creative and see what I can find at a car scrap yard and hope that's a little cheaper.

I plan on sharing my plans, so hopefully it works as I intend and it comes out like I'm envisioning.

yeah, steel is expensive.  if you can find a truck leaf spring, you can cut it up and make plates out of it. you can use car leaf springs, they are just not as wide. neither one will hold up to rifle rounds though, so its pistol caliber, or rimfire only if you want to keep them around very long.

i scrounge mine over time, its hard finding really good steel, but you can get it if your not in a hurry.

my scrap yard is 100' off the main road into town, and every time i have to go to town i take a bucket and gloves with me, and swing by to look around. its very rare i cant find something useful, and often i find a TON of useful stuff.

just yesterday....

i picked up some 10lb barbells, several lawnmower blades to cut up for the rimfire plates, a hacksaw, three craftsman wrenches, a sledgehammer head, a claw hammer, a adjustable wrench, a pair of pliers, 7 nice t-posts, 50' of winch cable, a heavy clevis, a heavy hook for a chain, 15' of chain with hooks on each end, several lbs of nails, 6 lead battery terminals, a big lead fishing sinker, heavy plug off a dryer, a stainless kitchen pot, a heavy aluminum kitchen pot, a 2'sq piece of expanded metal, bar stock 1/4"x4"x4' long, 1/2 dozen zip ties, 2 copper ground clamps for ground rods, 2 screwdrivers, a dozen stainless bolts, 50 fuses out of old cars, a pair of blacksmith tongs, a couple pieces of nice rebar, and three ratchet strap parts ( iv got about 25 ratchet straps of all sizes at home i pieces together, total cost maybe $5.00 for all of them). i brought home the kitchen pots to use in the garage for various projects, melting lead, soaking metal etc.    the total cost for all of that stuff? $12.00

my favorite thing to get is hardware, and tools. nuts, bolts, nails, cable, chain, hooks, clevis, snap links, electrical cable. i ahve 6 , 5 gallon bucks filled with hardware of all kinds. iv used a lot of it on my father in laws farm fixing and upgrading things, all dirt cheap.  tools, such as hammers /  sledgehammer heads, wrenches, etc. its amazing what people throw away. iv also gotten about 6k lake city brass and 1000lbs of lead for bullet casting.

i have a big bucket of once fired brass hidden away i will pick up next week. i can get 1000 pcs of once fired lake city 5.56mm brass for about $15.00 per 1000. ( plus all kinds of other calibers. ) hell, i have three heavy steel welding tables i built from scrap yard steel, probably cost me $25 bucks each. i got a full sheet of 1/4" steel last summer for $45.00, which i made the table tops out of. planning to get more of it later this summer for other projects.

lots of this stuff is rusty, so i made a rust removal / reverse electrolosis tank for quick easy clean up.

https://www.ar15.com/forums/general/If-you-deal-with-rusty-metal-parts-etc-you-should-try-reverse-electrolosis-rust-removal-/187-2195967/

Making progress on the target stand. Its mostly done, mainly just need to add the reset mechanism to it. maybe some wheels to make it easier to move. hmm.

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That is awesome man.  Would cost a good amount of money to buy something like that.

Do you know what kind of steel the plates are?  I would think even mild steel would be ok for most handgun (non Magnum) and rimfire rounds.  Do you think the stand will hold up to getting hit?

I have spent way to much money on steel targets and stands.  This inspired me to at least start building the stands

Yeah, it would be expensive to buy, thats for damn sure. i think i have about $50 bucks in it. $30 in welding rods, and the other $20 is what the 200lbs of steel cost me. ( $15.00 per 100 lbs )

the top plates are just regular 1/4" mild steel. The bottom plates are 1/4" thick lawnmower blade, and are a lot harder than the top plates. they should be fine for pistol calibers and rimfire. im actually going to stencil the front " pistol and rimfire only" lol.

I am considering adding more flip plates to place on the bottom, as in the original design, i will probably add another 12 flip plates to the bottom as soon as i can scrounge the steel i need.  i might just scrap the remote reset thing as its going to be annoying to do, and another 12 plates would cut down on reset frequency. it would be easy to add on, just make another rack of 12 plates, and set it on the bottom, and weld it into place. easy peasy.

ill be building a new 100 yard range behind the house later this summer, and moving this target to it. i love metal working !