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19 Comments

    1. There’s a couple of ways to do movers. It’s partially range dependent, but the easiest is if you have a way to run cable/rope across the range, then to a screw eye in a 4×4 buried, to redirect the cable to the firing line, so you can have someone shooting pull the target perpendicular across the range for you.
      Building a mover target is pretty simple, build a small 2×4 platform with wheels at the corners, using small lawn mower wheels, and then you can build the target holder on the platform. Put a screw eye in the 2×4 platform and hook the cable to it.
      If you want to pull back and forth, it’s as simple as making perpendicular set ups.

    2. Well Michael last week when I was antelope hunting, while shooting at a standing buck Off-Hand at 150 yards looking through my scope, it sure seemed like a moving target. Trekker Out

    3. We built cables running diagonal.
      This way, we can rehearse for transverse as well as increasing distance, simulating a ‘must-stop’ such as a retreating bear or rabid skunk… or an attacking cougar.

      And we add stress with calisthenics and everybody shouting contradictory orders at the shooter:
      “Don’t hurt it!”
      “Kill it or you die!”
      “You have room to retreat! Back up! Back up!”
      “That’s my neighbors’ dog!”
      “You’re breaking TheLaw©!”
      “You’ll go to prison!”
      “Quit while you’re ahead!”
      “Switch mags!”
      “Aim to wound!”

      After one session at our place, a sixteen-year old girl was walking from her family farmhouse to the tractor in the field.
      Just before sunrise.
      She felt something watching her.
      She turned to see a cougar about forty paces away, and advancing.
      She pulled her FN 4.7 == just like she rehearsed == and emptied twenty shots into its face and near leg == just as she practiced.
      She inserted her spare mag, retreated to the far-side of the tractor, then scanned three-sixty including up into nearby trees.
      She made eighteen hits on a moving target.
      She rehearsed, she practiced, she is alive.

  2. Your comment of on public shooting areas is so true. Proper firearm handling and etiquette has been lost to a large number of today’s shooters.

    I am looking for a property in the Redoubt that will allow for a private shooting range.

  3. Trap/ clay bird shooting is great moving target practice. So you’re great with a 12 gauge? Move down to .410 and see how fast you can get on target while in range.

    Also, a circular piece of plywood screwed to an old car tire with a target stapled to it rolling down a gentle slope is a great simulator for a moving deer with a .22 rifle.
    But this should be done from an elevated position relative to the direction of fire to ensure you are shooting into the ground, for safety’s sake.

    1. I remember reading in one of Jeff Cooper’s stories about how some advanced students at Gunsite got good enough to regularly break doubles with a .308 bolt action rifle.
      There are probably not very many shotgun ranges in the world where it would be safe to practice that, but I don’t think anyone would argue that is superb rifle skill for moving targets.

  4. What kid doesn’t love ‘plinking’? We still enjoy it using pellet guns and tin cans to save .22 ammo. I think the instant feed-back adds a lot of fun to it.

  5. As a side note. I know prices vary greatly depending on location. But I was surprised at the price of cross ties ($28). In my part of the country the going rate is $10-12 from a retailer.

  6. If you go for cleaning your sand of metals, make sure you have a good face mask/filter and keep your clothes and skin covered, maybe with a painters disposable suit. Not all the copper/lead is in chunks, much of it is a dangerous powder that would do your lungs no good and possibly could be adsorbed by skin contact. Lead poisoning is no joke.

  7. Just purchased a twin shooter for our shotgun range at Cabelas. it will fling two clay pigeons out to 70 yards electronically at the push of a foot peddle. Just need the car battery to hook it up too. Use the least potent shot so your BBs don’t go out of range.

    Stay safe.

  8. A moving target doesn’t have to be fancy. We use an old washtub hung from a rope and pulled by a string fed through screw eyes. Rings like a gong when you hit it! You can tape a target onto the tub or use a small pot as you improve. My grand kids hit a 2′ tub at 300′ with a .22 pistol 50% of the time. And none of them have shot before this last summer. I might possibly be a little proud.

  10. I have a neighbor who likes to play with his heavy equipment and volunteered to build a berm for us. He’s building a large pond and needs to re locate a large quantity of dirt. I have a feeling that this is going to be a BIG berm. Not quite as sophisticated as 3AD scout’s approach, but effective and FREE.

  11. Made a similar backstop at our place using rr ties. I made the two back corners in log cabin overlap style and used galvanized spikes on each layer. Good idea on sand fill, we will need to replenish ours soon and I will consider that option. Great article.

  12. While I have never considered a shooting range as a priority, I also realized I have never lived in a rental house on a farm or owned a place that did not have a shooting range. So, just gave it as ‘a given’. Good article for discussion. I agree with Greg, most of my railroad ties lasted about 5 years, before I had to rebuild the range. Eventually I went to shooting stands like they use in IPSC matches, which allows the backstop a ‘non-concentrated’ hit on the railroad ties, rather that stapled your targets to the railroad ties. (which results with you shooting thru them!). I eventually graduated to steel, which would accommodate both rifle and pistol. I also had to hire a bulldozer to build up by now depleted railroad ties with earth to make a decent backstop. In retrospect, build an earth berm, then put up the railroad ties. My 2 cents.

  13. RE: JE’s comment on protection from lead dust. Disposable is the way to go. If you pick up too much dust, or too often, on your clothes, it’s a problem. You can bring it home and share it with kith and kin. And, when you wash those clothes, it can get retained in the machine and spread around to the rest of the load(s). A local laundromat had a nightmare when a house rehab crew washed their duds and contaminated the machines.

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