Need help selecting targets / setup for backyard

[2tall4economy]

Hello all. I grew up around guns (my grandfather & father had over 100) and have enjoyed shooting them but my life has taken me to large cities and overseas so owning my own has been impossible until recently.

I now have a bit of property with a few places I could set up, up to about ~150 yards with a backstop.

Shooting Interests:
Self defense
Africa Safari
Hog hunting
Skeet/trap
3 Gun

What makes this difficult for me (I think) is that whatever I buy needs to be able to withstand rounds from a Barrett M99, S&W 500, Win 70 .458, and 10 gauge, along other more sane rounds.

I'm thinking steel targets; I prefer the ones that flip back and forth (fall down not desired as I don't want to always be walking) but also some gongs maybe, but really not sure where to start. Maybe at 10, 25, 50, and 150 yards?

Suggestions on targets / distances / placements / brands welcome!

 

[g.willikers]

With your caliber requirements, it's going to be hard to use steel targets.
Too much chance of them shooting back at you.
You could check with the steel target makers to make sure, though.
Just do a web search on the subject.
And anything breakable, like clay birds or water filled bottles, will require lots of walking.
I've used hanging wood targets and bowling pins - they swing very well when hit.
But those will probably not last long with the rounds mentioned.
Maybe you should rethink your approach and use cardboard and paper for the heavy stuff, and the reactive targets for more normal rounds.

 

[FITASC]

Maybe you should rethink your approach and use cardboard and paper for the heavy stuff, and the reactive targets for more normal rounds.

+1

Personally all of those choices make my hand and shoulder hurt already!

 

[Jim Watson]

Self defense
Africa Safari
Hog hunting
Skeet/trap
3 Gun

A backyard range up to 150 yards will do everything you need to do for self defense practice with pistol or carbine, most of what you will see in 3 gun, most hunting where you would be shooting offhand.

Skeet and Trap are actual sports with their own specific range layouts, find a club.
You could not safely shoot practice birds from a portable trap in 150 yards. The ultimate range of 7 1/2 shot, the largest allowed in ATA Trap, is about 240 yards. Larger shot carries farther.

Shooting steel presents its own problems.
Good steel targets are rather expensive.
Each gun/caliber will have a minimum distance to avoid bounceback and target cratering. Pistols as close as 10 yards, but most rifles 100 yards. But when you get into the monster magnums the range gets longer. I found one place advertising a steel target for .50 BMG as "100+", most say 300 - 500 depending on the bullet type.
Evaluating results on steel can be difficult. Sure, if you are good enough to shoot groups on the size steel you have, it is great, just paint the plate periodically. If you are having to work at hitting the whole plate, you can't tell where you are missing and what you are doing wrong or how to adjust sights.
Paper doesn't have the bang and clang instant reward, but it is more educational.

 

[5whiskey]

I used plastic coffee cans hanging from a bracket. They kind of self heal, are cheap, no issues with ricochets, and very versatile. Most of your standard sized (not tiny, not mega) are a pretty good approximation of the size of a vital area.

You can get creative and make a dueling tree out of them if you want. Coffee cans make great targets. They provide feedback as they dance when you hit them as well.

Paper doesn't have the bang and clang instant reward, but it is more educational.

Yeah it gets boring shooting at paper, but I am a group size junkie so a lot of my shooting is at paper. A miss on a reactive target could be by millimeters or miles, and all you know is you missed. Paper is different.