I can shoot out to 500 yds or so in my back yard and want to build some new targets for hunting practice. What have you found to be some good material to use for target backers? I would think treated plywood that is painted but have you found something better? Would like to be able to see bullet holes using 20-60x spotting scope. Would like to leave the backers up year round. Thank you.

Plastic campaign signs-Muddy

Choroplast

I agree on this. The name of the stuff is evading me right now but it is basically plastic cardboard. Chloroplast? Anyway, it would work good in theory as far as weather is concerned. The problem with backers is the holes. They get shot up and need replaced. You're gonna go down and put up paper, just take some cardboard with you. That or put up steel and take a paint can.

Our gun club has been using OSB board that slides into tracks for many years. Durable and easily replaced with the track/groove system.

Quarter inch OSB that I buy in 4x4 sheets works great for me. No need to paint it and it lasts for 5 years or more.

Big sheets of cardboard
Wrap black plastic trash bag around it and tape it to the back
Buy cans of Flat White spray paint and paint the trash bag


Wha Laa.... Homemade Shoot'n See!

Conveyor belting from a mine or quarry. About 30" wide and as long as you could lift, waterproof and self-sealing the holes to some degree

Obama or Clinton re election signs..........

Coroplast is light, tough, and probably weatherproof, but it isn't cheap, at least not in new 4'x8' sheets.

If you can find it as scrap in the size you want, you might get it free or cheap, but for target backers I'd think you'd want fairly large pieces.

On a related note, most shooters overbuild their target frames, especially ones intended to be portable. I see guys manhandling frames built of steel and 2x4s. For years I've made mine from furring strips with cardboard stapled on, and they've held up even in the wind. Easily repairable and replaceable too.

Paul

30 lb felt stapled to a frame..

I built these and like them a lot.

DF

We experimented with sheets of closed cell foam Walmart was selling cheap as sleeping bag pads. They can withstand an enormous number of shots with surprisingly little damage.
The downside was that you needed longer staples to hold targets.

Homasote also works and is easier to tack targets on.

thanks guys. lots of experience here.

dan

A bud's gunclub uses chicken wire across an open wooden frame. Works great for paper and cardboard targets. They just hang their targets on the chicken wire with clothes pins.

Yep it's great stuff get all my scraps locally from a friend in the sign business.He cuts it to fit my target board so I load his 308's in return..Have a three ft pile in the corner of the garage he gave me after the last election cycle...

Democrat election signs. After they lose of course.

Don't know what it's called but, at our range, we use the black sheets that look like stiffened air filter mesh and appears coated in some black asphalt gooey stuff.

Works really good.

Best material for target backer...




...able bodied welfare recipients.

I have gotten free "plastic cardboard" when it is discarded as out of date advertising at convenience stores. It is usually printed on one side, so works well. I used to belong to a club that used new pieces of it for backing on a rifle range; it would take thousands of hits on a 4x8 sheet before it needed replacing. I think we got it from a sign printing company.

Our range (not club owned) has pipe set in the ground and sells frames made of 1x2" to set up in the pipes (pipes at ground level). Lots of folks use cardboard from whatever they have. I use cardboard, but also go around after the elections and grab the political signs, which are made of some sort of plastic, and work well. for our range hi-power range, we use thick, commercial cardboard. We have a paper box company near me, and I can get a load of a 100 or so pieces at once. Have to cut them to the 6x8 size we use, but have a storage area to put them in till needed. We change them out every couple of months, as not used excecpt by some folks sighting in for 200+ yds, and our hi-power competitive shoots. Box company gives us the cardboard free, as scrap otherwise. Pueblo West range uses the chicken wire set up too.

I built a frame out of 3/4" PVC to fit the cardboard used on pallets of feed to protect the bags from pallet nails.
3 pieces of PVC about 4 feet long, 2 elbows, 2 pieces of 1/2" rebar about 18 inches long comprise the frame. I screw the cardboard on with little self-drilling screws.
Lay down the frame, drive rebar into the ground even with the legs, and tape on the targets. I use a small pipe wrench to pull the steel when done.
Takes longer to describe than to do - and is cheap to replace in the event of an errant shot. Stands up in a bit of a breeze, too.

and, you can pick them up for free every 2 or 4 years! Just drive along any highway during an election year.

And, if you ask an ambitious candidate nicely, he might hold the sign for you at 100 yards. This does two jobs simultaneously: 1) it saves the cost of a target frame, and 2) it reduces the number of annoying politicians!!!