Made a portable backstop today.

CHRIS_WNC

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I finally got around to putting this thing together. I had a piece of 3.5' x 3.5' half-inch thick AR500 that I acquired a while back. It had a couple of bolts welded on and had a square tubes with threaded ends. It wasn't meant to go together like this but it looks like it'll work for a while. I used some lag bolts and 2x8 lumber drops to help keep it from tipping over on the pallet base. It's angled around 45-ish degrees and should send spall down and possible out the sides.

Back when I worked in a ballistic lab, we shot this stuff with .30-06 M2AP without penetrations. It should do well as a backstop for our monthly .22lr "postal matches". :) Bonus is that I can haul it around the property and set up a little range where ever I want.

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CHRIS
 
Nice. Is there any chance of lead spall shedding off the top and coming back at you? Maybe add a wood lip to the top and see
 
At 200 pounds for the AR500 plate alone, I guess you and I have different definitions of "portable"...

EDIT

If I might suggest, you might consider re-designing the base to this. I rather suspect it'll get torn up in a relatively short time as it is.

Consider turning the base into a sand trap. It'll only need to be a few inches deep for the ricochetes. You could make it out of wood easily enough, maybe line the bottom with sheet metal if you want. Put a few drain holes in it for water (covered to keep the sand in).

This way the base will last a lot longer and you can periodically scoop and sift the sand to recover the lead for reloading purposes.
 
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Woah, woah, woah! I'm not an engineer here. lol. The sand is a good idea. I'm going to blast this setup for a bit and see how things go. Pallets are free from work. I just have to set the solid ones back before they get tossed.

CHRIS
 
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Just layer some sand bags into the bottom should do the trick. Looks good!
 
Nice. Is there any chance of lead spall shedding off the top and coming back at you? Maybe add a wood lip to the top and see
there's always a chance, but very unlikely at that angle (of the face and/or the top). Most of the spall I've been hit with shooting steel comes at under 15yds and flat faced spinning targets. Esp with rimfire.
So yeah, I'm close and subsonic rimfire likes to bounce instead of splat.
 
I moved it down below our riding ring along side a pasture. Good little spot with decent shade for the bench @ 50 yards.

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The last one is after about 50 rounds of rimfire splattering on it. The paint didn't last long on there. lol. I saw a leaf on the right side move while shooting once. I may put the triangle shaped sides on it before I shoot more than .22lr at it.

CHRIS
 
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