Rimfire spinner

waco

Springfield, Oregon
My brother just bought a new CZ .22lr rifle. We plan to go out and shoot Saturday. I will be bringing my Kimber .22 Hunter.
We will be shooting paper of coarse but I thought it would be fun to have a reactive target too.
Not owning any smaller steel targets I decided to fab one up at work today.
1 1/2” angle iron along with 1/2” rod and 1/2” sch 80 pipe were used. I just dug around in the scrap bin to find some slugs that measured just over 2” down to 1”
Nothing very heavy duty but at no closer than 50 yards and with .22lr only it should hold up okay.
8723
 

Ian

Notorious member
Very nice! Those look like the 50-yard ones I've seen in filmed .22 rimfire competitions on youtube.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
Brotherly but not manly.

Here is our own Waco sitting in a chair shooting his wife’s rifle. Sorry man, it needed to be said.

8725
 

Hawk

North Central Texas
Made a few for my daughter when she was young. 1-1/2" dia. on the bottom. 1" dia on the top. Three spinners on a five foot piece of pipe.
She could keep all of them spinning at 25 yards when she was 8.
Had a Ruger 10-22 with 50 round mags.
She could empty them faster than I could fill them.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
You will get reasonable life out of mild steel, with non-mag handguns but it will make light pock marks, esp
with Jbullets. Much less damage with cast, almost none. We used mild steel stop plates in IPSC club for years,
slowly beat them to death, but many, many thousands of hits. They get domed, bending away from the shot side
as the little peens make the front side longer than the back. Of course, 90% or 95% of those were
45 acp cast 200SWC. I think all RN 9mm would be a little harder on them, but not real bad.

AR500 used to be real hard to get, so we did this. Not so hard to get any more. But, if you have a
source of 3/8" mild steel, it will last a good while with cast and one shooter, like for years. AR500 will
last pretty much forever with rifle hits, just a faintest dimple with .223 FMJ close up, nothing at all with
handguns.

BUT one hi vel rifle hit on mild steel and you have a hole. A friend had a plate rack with mild steel plates, had shot
thousands of rounds on it. One day, decided to try to use the Mini14 on it. First shot, it wiggled but didn't flip,
he said, "Dang, can't believe I missed it at this range" (like 30 yds, 6" plate), so he shot the next one,
same thing, just wiggled, did not fall, hinged plates. So, he walked up, nice hole burned all the way
through 3/8" mild steel plates, and not enough pop on the plate to push it over. He sighed and unbolted
them and headed to the shop to weld and grind them. Lesson learned....me to, I was watching it.

We were (I still am) amazed that it will burn through but not tip it over.

Bill
 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
I have a commercial one with four hanging targets, about 1.5 to 2" circles. They flop up to
lay flat, invisible, on a crossbar when you hit them. Then a top plate to bring them back.

I was working on that today with a Ruger .22 at 15 yds, just having fun plinking. With a rifle,
I set it at at least 30 or 35 yds with iron sights and 60 yds for scope.

Bill
 
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wquiles

Well-Known Member
This is another variation of the spiners - it is called a quadrant:
http://www.steelplinkers.com/Quadrant.html

It gives you a visual clue if you hit the center, but also a visual clue of which of the 4 other corners you hit when missing the center. Best thing is that there is nothing to reset.

I borrowed one from a friend (rated for rimfire - rightmost in this picture), and made my own two smaller ones rated for high-power airguns:
IMAG0053.jpg


I did a detailed, step by step post on a welding forum on how I did mine in case anyone is interested.

Mines are not as perfectly balanced as the "commercial" product, but work plenty good enough :)

Will
 

Ian

Notorious member
That's pretty slick, Will.

I have one of those commercial quadrant targets with plates rated for 44 Magnum handgun with jacketed, only problem is the soft steel bar frame isn't actually up to the task so it keeps bowing in the middle. It's been relegated to rimfire only now.
 
F

freebullet

Guest
Have a little spinner from Midway clearance section. Ain't even fired at it..22attic rifle on back burner. Watched a guy take shrapnel under his eye (he lived) shooting steel years ago. Not a big fan of doing so unless far away and angled down, since.
 

Pistolero

Well-Known Member
We shot a lot of steel in IPSC matches.
Hard (no bend) rules: You must have eye protection and targets at minimum range of 10 yds.

Even then you will occasionally get a bloody spot on a cheek.

Bill
 

Rick

Moderator
Staff member
IHMSA still shoots smallbore at 25 meters, the NRA sanctioned smallbore matches start at 40 yards. The NRA did a lot of testing before changing the rule book and moving the targets out to 40 yards from 25 and what they discovered is that a smooth target poses little risk. The danger comes from a cratered target from previous hits, a bullet hits the edge of the crater, shatters and fragments are directed straight back to the firing line. That being the case soft steel targets pose more risk than hard targets because they crater both much easier and deeper. It's also why the softer 22 targets should never be shot with anything but 22.