Portable and Compact Target Shooting Rack

Durable, portable, quality target stands for practice shooting can be expensive, but they don’t have to be. I’ve done a lot of research and wanted something I could take to the range or my relative’s large property for plinking fun without breaking the bank. Wooden target stands work, but they are heavy, usually not very portable. They take up a bit of space in the garage to store because they are usually screwed together and not meant to be taken apart with long sections of wood. Plus, there really isn’t any cost savings using wood vs PVC. Thus PVC is a lot easier to work with.

I give you my version of the ultimate PVC target stand. It is very portable, it doesn’t need to be anchored down because it is wind resistant up to 40mph-60mph per my leaf blower testing (some places don’t let you hammer stakes into the ground, and lugging around sand bags is cumbersome), it breaks down into small 2 1/2 foot sections (you can fit three of these bad boys in a single duffel bag), and is light weight. Everything costs under $20 for a large 5 foot 6 inch tall 2 1/2 wide target shooting rack great for short or long distance practice. You might even have some of this stuff laying around which will help this project cost even less.

Materials List:

• Three 10 foot sections of 1” diameter PVC (get the rigid but cheap stuff, usually 200PSI rated). It’s usually about $3.75 per section. NOTE: You can use 3/4 inch PVC and fittings if it is a lot cheaper, but 1 inch is a little more sturdy. Since no sections are longer than 2.5 feet, flexing is not much of an issue either way.
• Six 90 degree 1” PVC elbow fittings ($0.75 each)
• Four 1” PVC Tee fittings ($0.75 each)
• Glue (any kind, school glue, caulk, hot glue, home made paste - We will count this as free, I used hot glue because I have tons of it)
• Cardboard (Free, you just need a few strips to roll up and plug the end of some of the PVC sections, and a piece to tape your targets to)
• Plaster of Paris, Concrete Mix, or Sand (Dirt is free, so we count this as free. I used Plaster of Paris because I had some, you can also mix glue and dirt for the same effect)
• Metal for weight (Totally Optional, I used tire balance weights because a friend gave me a bucket full but you could use fishing weights, old bolts, pieces of rebar, or nothing but water/glue dirt mixture)
• Velcro (Totally Optional, but easy and cheap)

Tools Needed:

• Something to cut the PVC with. This can be a hacksaw (cheapest), table saw, PVC cutting tool (I use one of these because I cut a lot of PVC and it cut clean and perfect with no shavings or mess and it was only $15. You can make a boatload of stuff, including boats, out of PVC so it is a great investment).
• Something to cut cardboard with. Usually a dollar store box cutter is perfect, but scissors or a kitchen knife if you don’t have one laying around. 

You can change the length of the PVC sections to make your stands taller or shorter, but it is a good idea to make all the pieces mostly the same size in case any get damaged. You can buy extra PVC pipe and have sections pre-cut to have spare parts to repair your stands in the field quickly and easily. It simplifies things if you only have a few sizes that work for any part of the stands.

• First, cut two of the 10 foot sections into five 24 inch long sections each. 

• Next, cut the last 10 foot pipe into four 30 inch sections. 

You should now have 12 short pieces of PVC pipe.

• Cut twelve 1-inch wide strips of cardboard about a foot and a half long.

• Tightly roll each piece of cardboard into a cylinder that matches the inside diameter of the 24 inch sections of pipe and insert the rolled pieces into the ends of 6 of the sections. Press them into the tube leaving a one inch space at the end. The rolls should be big enough to fit easily inside but snugly. When released they will unravel slightly and fill the tube nicely. If they are a bit too snug you can use the handle of a screwdriver or something similar to push them in.

• Fill the one inch space from the previous step with your glue of choice to seal the plug and allow to fully dry.

• Fill the opposite end of the tube with weights (if you have any) and your filler material (glue mixed with dirt or sand, concrete, plaster) leaving about 2 inches of unfilled tube. It is easier not to pre-mix your filler material so you can pour it in with minimal effort. I usually put a half a cup of dry powder, add a weight, then pour in a little water. I repeat this until the tube is about 2 inches from being full.

• Plug the remaining end just like you did earlier by rolling another plug of cardboard, inserting it, and filling with glue. Once the glue dries these six sections will be used to make the base of your target stand heavy and wind resistant.

• I used old tire balance weights made of zinc and lead because my friend works at a tire shop and gave me a bucket of them for free. You don’t have to use any weights technically if your mixture is pretty heavy but you can use fishing weights, old metal bolts, old rusty tools, or scraps of rebar.

• I used materials I had on hand such as plaster of paris and hot glue. If you use a cement type mixture you should not use the kind that expands when it drys because it would crack your pipes. In the end, my sections each weighed about 5 pounds each, for a total of 30 pounds.

Assemble the PVC sections and fittings according to the photos. The four longer sections of pipe determine the height of your target stand. The sections filled with your weighted material form the rectangle that rests on the ground and supports the vertical portion of the structure.

I first applied a long strip of self adhesive Velcro to each side of the top section of the target stand. I left the fuzzy mate attached and then removed the protective tape leaving the sticky back exposed.

I then cut multiple large flat pieces of cardboard from several large boxes that were large enough to cover the entire top half of the target stand.

I then pressed the cardboard against the velcro already stuck to the poles so that I wouldn’t have any alignment issues attaching the Velcro to the cardboard separately.

Velcro is of course optional, you can always use tape or zip ties or large clips if you prefer. If you use Velcro, save the extra hook strips in case you need to attach them to new poles if the old ones get busted during target practice.

I would recommend cutting two identical pieces of target cardboard and glueing them together to make your target base thick and sturdy if you have plenty of cardboard. 

Although folding your cardboard target bases make storage easier perhaps, it is best to use a single large piece of cardboard without a crease as your backing so your targets are flat. People throw out big flat screen TV boxes and other large boxes all the time, so finding big pieces are easy for me at lease.

If you can’t find large pieces of cardboard, you can always glue multiple smaller boxes together in layers to make a large sturdy piece that fits the target stand and stays flat.

You can use plywood just as easy as cardboard for a base to put your targets on, but it will get damaged just as easy and cost more to replace.

You can hang food cans, cow bells, or metal targets from the stand so you can see/hear when you hit the targets if they are far away. AR500 steel gongs may make the stand top heavy, but I doubt it will be an issue. Steel gongs may cause you to have to replace broken target stand sections more often because of shrapnel ricocheting off the gong. Food cans won’t make a loud ding or cause much if any shrapnel, but they will swing/move when hit so you know you hit them. You can also flatten the food cans and paint each side a different color with spray paint for a good visual indicator. 

Don’t glue any of the PVC pieces together in case you accidentally damage the stand pipes with an errant shot. They will hold together just fine without glue. If any of the pieces are glued together, you will have to replace more parts if one part becomes damaged. If you think the pipes and fittings won’t stay together without glue, you can always use bungie cords to hold them in place, but I’ve never needed to. On a side note, you could buy fittings that screw in and glue them into their respective poles, but those fittings usually cost three times as much and you would still have to replace the fitting when you replace a pole because those fittings would be bonded to a broken piece. 

If you are chipping away at your stand from missed shots or shrapnel a lot, you can wrap the poles in duct tape and they last a lost longer.

I used a little sand paper on the edges of all the pipes to make inserting them into the fittings easier. It only took a moment and you don’t sand much at all. To disassemble the stand, remove your cardboard target backing and twist the rack slightly to loosen the poles from the fittings.

Happy plinking!