wquiles
Well-Known Member
Once a year our Troop has a shooting events campout where under supervision of NRA instructors the Scouts get to shoot with shotguns and with 22RL rifles. For the 22LR rifle, we basically have shooting at the range towards the Rifle Merit Badge, but we also have a "fun" event of some sort, where for the last couple of years I have made/welded several steel targets.
Last year one of the parents and I came to the campout with scoped precision/target 22lr rifles and I had both a 3" and 6" steel plate to shoot at about 40-50 yards - me thinking that the 3" plate was going to be very hard to hit. Well, it turns out that the 3" diameter target was actually too easy to hit even at the back of the berm past the creek - not enough of a challenge. Once you hit it a couple of times, there was no challenge, no excitement - it gets boring really quick. It is tough to keep interest especially with the older boys "since it is always the same every year".
Well, since I am optimistic we will be able to do our yearly shooting event in Dec 2020, this year I am working on a new, more "challenging" steel target, and perhaps a way to have some "friendly" competition as well, specially for the older scouts and of course, the dads
Like with past steel targets, I try to do these for "free" - using left-over steel from prior projects, trying to buy/spend the absolute minimum as I find it makes the project more rewarding and requires a little bit more creativity to use whatever I have on hand. I look for steel plate material in the 1/4" range or so - being shot from about 40-50 yards:
The swing target is based on a common "difficult" stage on the 22LR precision rifle series, shot with a scoped 22lr rifle, which tests both the equipment and the shooter, with a diminishing target size. I am designing and building a smaller version of that common target for the December campout. Moving left to right:
3 inches
2 inches
1.5 inches
0.75 inches (same size as an US quarter, by the way!)
0.50 inches (my son says it is WAY too small to hit!)
I found some extra horse shoes from a previous projects which I cut in two to create a portable, modular target:
Once I had everything cut, this is how the target would look like (that small ruler is a steel 6" long by 0.5" wide for scale):
Again note that hitting the 3" target with the scoped 22lr rifle was relatively easy last year. The smaller targets, however, will be much harder to hit this year.
Course of fire:
Shooters get 10 rounds, and as they move left to right, if they hit the larger target, they score a higher number of points as the target gets smaller and smaller:
- 1 point for the 3" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 2x points for the 2" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 3x points for the 1.5" target" ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 4x points for the 0.75" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- a big 5x points for the 0.5" target (once you get here, you can shoot all remaining rounds at this smaller target)
Max points:
- hit 3" target = 1 point
- hit 2" target = 2 points
- hit 1.5" target = 3 points
- hit 0.75" target = 4 points
- hit 0.5" target 6x times (assuming 6x rounds left out of the total of 10 rounds) = 30 points (5x points times being hit 6 times)
Max score = 40 points
Rules:
- If the target "moves" at all, it counts as a hit. Does not matter if it was a "light" hit or a direct or solid hit. We will always need a spotter with binoculars or another scope to verify "hits". The shooter does NOT call his/her hits. The spotter calls a hit or miss.
- You have a timed max. of 2min to shoot all 10x rounds. It is PLENTY of time, but necessary in order to have many people participate in the course of fire.
- You "have" to start with the first leftmost 3" target, and can only move the next smaller target (in order), and so on, until you run out of ammo.
- After hitting any target (say the 2" inch target) you can then try the next smaller target (1.5") to the right, but you don't have to. Note that if you try the smaller one and miss, or miss a couple of times, you can go back and hit "any" of the larger targets you already have hit in order to be given points for each hit.
- Any smaller target hit out of order is always zero points.
- If there is any problem/challenge/dispute between the spotter and shooter, etc., the NRA range officer in charge makes "the call" and that is "final".
Note: This type of target is also known as "know your limit" which forces you to decide when to keep getting easy points (on a target you know you can hit) vs trying for the smallest/most difficult ones and running out of ammo.
Since you really need to use a scoped rifle to even be close to be competitive, and since I expect many would like to try, to entice the older scouts to participate/attend, we could limit this event to only scouts that have earned the rifle merit badge and again, any adults present.
I cleaned up all of the metal parts:
Last year one of the parents and I came to the campout with scoped precision/target 22lr rifles and I had both a 3" and 6" steel plate to shoot at about 40-50 yards - me thinking that the 3" plate was going to be very hard to hit. Well, it turns out that the 3" diameter target was actually too easy to hit even at the back of the berm past the creek - not enough of a challenge. Once you hit it a couple of times, there was no challenge, no excitement - it gets boring really quick. It is tough to keep interest especially with the older boys "since it is always the same every year".
Well, since I am optimistic we will be able to do our yearly shooting event in Dec 2020, this year I am working on a new, more "challenging" steel target, and perhaps a way to have some "friendly" competition as well, specially for the older scouts and of course, the dads
Like with past steel targets, I try to do these for "free" - using left-over steel from prior projects, trying to buy/spend the absolute minimum as I find it makes the project more rewarding and requires a little bit more creativity to use whatever I have on hand. I look for steel plate material in the 1/4" range or so - being shot from about 40-50 yards:
The swing target is based on a common "difficult" stage on the 22LR precision rifle series, shot with a scoped 22lr rifle, which tests both the equipment and the shooter, with a diminishing target size. I am designing and building a smaller version of that common target for the December campout. Moving left to right:
3 inches
2 inches
1.5 inches
0.75 inches (same size as an US quarter, by the way!)
0.50 inches (my son says it is WAY too small to hit!)
I found some extra horse shoes from a previous projects which I cut in two to create a portable, modular target:
Once I had everything cut, this is how the target would look like (that small ruler is a steel 6" long by 0.5" wide for scale):
Again note that hitting the 3" target with the scoped 22lr rifle was relatively easy last year. The smaller targets, however, will be much harder to hit this year.
Course of fire:
Shooters get 10 rounds, and as they move left to right, if they hit the larger target, they score a higher number of points as the target gets smaller and smaller:
- 1 point for the 3" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 2x points for the 2" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 3x points for the 1.5" target" ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- 4x points for the 0.75" target ("have" to hit this one before moving to the next smaller one)
- a big 5x points for the 0.5" target (once you get here, you can shoot all remaining rounds at this smaller target)
Max points:
- hit 3" target = 1 point
- hit 2" target = 2 points
- hit 1.5" target = 3 points
- hit 0.75" target = 4 points
- hit 0.5" target 6x times (assuming 6x rounds left out of the total of 10 rounds) = 30 points (5x points times being hit 6 times)
Max score = 40 points
Rules:
- If the target "moves" at all, it counts as a hit. Does not matter if it was a "light" hit or a direct or solid hit. We will always need a spotter with binoculars or another scope to verify "hits". The shooter does NOT call his/her hits. The spotter calls a hit or miss.
- You have a timed max. of 2min to shoot all 10x rounds. It is PLENTY of time, but necessary in order to have many people participate in the course of fire.
- You "have" to start with the first leftmost 3" target, and can only move the next smaller target (in order), and so on, until you run out of ammo.
- After hitting any target (say the 2" inch target) you can then try the next smaller target (1.5") to the right, but you don't have to. Note that if you try the smaller one and miss, or miss a couple of times, you can go back and hit "any" of the larger targets you already have hit in order to be given points for each hit.
- Any smaller target hit out of order is always zero points.
- If there is any problem/challenge/dispute between the spotter and shooter, etc., the NRA range officer in charge makes "the call" and that is "final".
Note: This type of target is also known as "know your limit" which forces you to decide when to keep getting easy points (on a target you know you can hit) vs trying for the smallest/most difficult ones and running out of ammo.
Since you really need to use a scoped rifle to even be close to be competitive, and since I expect many would like to try, to entice the older scouts to participate/attend, we could limit this event to only scouts that have earned the rifle merit badge and again, any adults present.
I cleaned up all of the metal parts:
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