Moving Target for the Yard

Needed a more fun way for target shooting by making a movable target. (We were running out of grandkids to use to run back and forth with the targets.)

We can use this moving target to hit with our .22's, BB-guns, archery equipment, and baseballs.

• Two or three posts
• One steel wire for target railing
• Two pulleys to hold target on the railing
• One mason lone or clothes line to pull target
• Six (or more) eyelets or pulleys for mason-line
• One light-weight board or screen for a target backing

Basically:

Posts (A) are used to hold a steel wire railing (B), upon which rests a couple of pulleys (C).

A secondary mason-line (D) runs through another set of pulleys or eyelets attached to the posts. This string creates a moveable loop between each of the posts. The mason line loop is extended to an area where an assistant can pull the line back and forth.

The target (E) is connected to the top-rail pulleys and (not shown) to the mason-line strings on the back of the target.

An assistant or a motor pulls the mason-line back and forth to move the target.

Pick your spot where you can place two posts about 15 or so feet apart and where you have a nice area about 90 degrees from one of the posts to allow an assistant to pull the mason line.

1. Set up the first post, e.g. the left-hand post.
2. Dig a hole as deep as you can.
3. Pop the post in the hole and fill with cement
4. Try to get the post plumb and uhm whatever the other word for not crooked is going left and right
5. I actually dug a shallow hole due to the rocky nature of the yard and so plopped a cement brick in the hole to hold up the post
6. Use a string or long board to line up the second post and repeat
7. Let cement dry

Attach one of the ends of the steel wire to one of the posts. I just used staples.

To thread two pulleys through the steel wire, do the following:

You'll want to position the pulleys so that their hook points down (because that is where you'll eventually attach the target, and gravity will pull the pulley's wheel so that it rides on the wire).

Thread the open end of the wire through the "lower" hole of the pulleys.

In the example photo, the "hook" part of the wire is pointing down and the wire is threaded through the "bottom" hole of the pulley.

Now pull the wire taught and use a line level to get it fairly level. Or you can eye ball it, it doesn't have to be perfect.

In the photo you can see that I used a clamp to hold the other end of the wire to the post while I positioned the wire so that it was mostly level.

Attach the target backing to the two steel wire pulleys.

In the photo you can see that I just used a couple of cable ties to attach the top of the target to the pulleys' hooks.

Install a couple of eye bolts or pulleys (NOTE: I RECOMMEND PULLEYS) on each post to route the mason string/clothes line. The location of the bolts will be relative to the size of your target. I just dropped down about 1/3 of the height of the target and installed the bolts there.

In the photo, you can see where there are four eye bolts connected on one of the posts.

You'll also want to attach a few pulleys on the back-area where your assistant will be pulling the mason line. In our case, the assistant area was actually part of a shed wall, so we attached an eye bolt on the shed wall.

This is the hardest part of the whole project, believe it or not.

Loop the mason line through the eyebolt/pulleys starting at one post, pulling through the next post, pulling through the assistant's area pulley, then all the way back through the second set of mason line bolts/pulleys and then back to the original post.

Run the target to the far left-side post and attach the target to the top mason line of the mason line loop. In the photo, you can see that I just attached them with paper clamps.

Give it a shot (ha).