[Spray_N_Prey]

I am helping out at a local monthly match and have been having a problem trying to activate swinger, etc. I’m looking for some of this boards infinite wisdom. I’m guessing that most people that setup activators use some type of wire ran from a popper to the activating target. Do you use some type of pulley? Basically can you explain how to do this and what to use. Some pictures what be this bomb.

Thanks,

Shawn G.

[Tom Mainus]

At our club all of our swingers etc.. are activated by forward falling poppers. We have a hole in the center of the popper where we put a carriage bolt through the hole. We then attach an eyebolt to the carriage bolt with a two sided threaded insert. Cable gets attached to the eyebolt and almost always has to go through a deadman to get to the swinger. Our deadman are just 2x4 with an eyebolt through the center. Stake the deadman down in the correct spot and run the cable through that to the swinger. We use the 1/8" rubber coated cable for all of our stuff. If we have to make alot of turns in the cable to get to the target I may use a pulley or two to reduce friction on the cable.

Tom

[Anubis]

As far as running the cable Tom has it spot on
Also, almost all swingers are activated by the cable pulling a stick out from under it.
What I've seen that works best is the stick gets cut in half then has a hinge bolted to
both halves so when the cable tugs on the stick it only needs a small pull then the
hinge collapses under the weight of the swinger.

[P.Pres]

Yup, stick under the swinger, cable streached across the ground to a piece of rebar staked into the ground.
the cable is pretty tight and is off of the ground about a foot passing right behind a popper. Popper falls onto
cable pulling the stick out from undet the swinger which is set loaded under the weight..

[h2osport]

Our poppers have a d-ring welded onto the back about 12" from the bottom. Hook cable/chain whatever on and when the popper falls it pulls the cable/chain. We also have some horseshoe shaped pieces of rebar that can be driven into the ground for change of direction of the cable/chain if needed. Our swingers have the "stick" made out of metal welded to them with the hinge in it.

Hope this helps. I think there are alot of creative ways that activating has been acomplished. How you do it depends on what equipment your club has available. You might have foot activators available or something else to use.

Randy

[kevin c]

P.Pres, on Jun 17 2009, 03:44 PM, said:

Yup, stick under the swinger, cable streached across the ground to a piece of rebar staked into the ground.
the cable is pretty tight and is off of the ground about a foot passing right behind a popper. Popper falls onto
cable pulling the stick out from undet the swinger which is set loaded under the weight..

Pretty much describes our standard activator set up, using hinged sticks. We tried drilling the Arntzen poppers we had and it was too much work. We tried small C clamps to hold the cable on the poppers (still do when we are out of the alternatives) but they work loose, get shot up, get gummed up with lead spatter, etc.

A variant is to use steel D or O rings hose clamped to a second forming stake/rebar. Set that stake on the other side of the popper from the one securing the end of the cable. The cable runs through the ring to whatever needs to be activated. This way you can have the activator up or down range and off angle to the popper.

We also have hand levers/doors/step on traps to start the activator - just run the cable to them instead of a shoot popper.

clarity edit

This post has been edited by kevin c: 26 June 2009 - 09:10 AM

[Jadeslade]

Use a standard popper falling on 20 ga (4strand) wire attached to a piece of 4x4. There is an eyebolt in the 4x4x26 piece of wood and a clip in ring on the wire. At the other end of the 6 ft piece of wire is a ring that goes over rebar pounded into the ground. All connections are with wire sleeve so no sharp wire ends to get cut. The popper just falls on the wire, pulls the piece out so nothing has to be done to the popper. Wire can be any length (just stretch out long ones before shooting) and keep extra connectors and wire very handy. (like behind the rebar) Better if precut extra wires with connectors already made. Wires get shot all the time. I think wire repair is one of the things that wastes the most time and cause for stages thrown out. I'll take a picture and post it. I've been at clubs that use rope or twine-not a good idea.

[Flexmoney]

P.Pres, on Jun 17 2009, 06:44 PM, said:

Yup, stick under the swinger, cable streached across the ground to a piece of rebar staked into the ground.
the cable is pretty tight and is off of the ground about a foot passing right behind a popper. Popper falls onto
cable pulling the stick out from undet the swinger which is set loaded under the weight..

What P.Pres is describing there is the "generate energy" portion...using the cable as a trip wire and having the popper fall onto it. You can see that in use in this video. The activator is the far right popper and you can see the two white posts that the cable is string between: http://www.youtube.c...re=channel_page

[Flexmoney]

Another way to "generate energy"...

We often use a rearward falling popper with the wire (it needs to be cable) attached directly to the popper.

Usually, this means a small'ish hole is drilled into the face of the popper and an eye-bolt is attached. If you locate this really low on the popper, then you will only get a few inches of "pull". If you locate it high on the popper, you will get lots more "pull", but you will get your wire shot more often.

One thing... know how much slack you need in your wire. Too tight, and the wire will go taut, not activate, and it can actually hold the popper from falling down. (reshoots suck)

[Flexmoney]

On the stick with hinges that holds up the swinger...here are a couple of pics of what they use over around Pittsburgh.

 activator.jpg (43.77K)
Number of downloads: 50

 activator2.jpg (63.12K)
Number of downloads: 56

They went so far as to add a bottom plate and hinge...along with the normal "cut the stick near the middle and add a hinge".

You do need to be consistent in placing the top and the bottom of the stick. Here, they have a plate, and that plate is staked to the ground.

Attaching them to that bottom platre may be over'kill...but having something like that for them to set on is a good idea.

We usually place our stick where it needs to be, then paint around it's base with one color of paint (so we know it's the bottom and we know where to place it from squad to squad), and paint the top of the stick and it's location a different color.

[Flexmoney]

Speaking of sticks...

Local shooter, Chet Whistle, came up with the best idea I've seen...easily adjustable cable length.

First, he made some activator sticks out of 2x2 Trex-deck material (plastic wood, probably a scrap piece of railing), cut and hinged. Then, he drilled a simple hole in the stick for the cable to run through. He drilled another hole to come in from the side and bolt in there to act as a set screw on the cable. (It's a thumb bolt...like a wing-nut...and is easy to tighten and loosen.)

We can change the length of the cable pull without any tools and it takes just a few seconds!!

[kevin c]

Gotta remember that last. Good one, Flex.

[Jim Norman]

Activation of movers.

One, use a popper, attach a cable to the popper. What one of our intrepid shooters did was to make a fixture that attached to the bottom of the popper plate into which we insert a short (2-0) 1 x 2 and attach the cable or rope to this. The stick is at right angles to the popper face. This accomplishes two things. It moves the cable/Rope away from the splatter field and it also moves the attachment away from any bullet impacts. We then attach the cable/rope to a hinged stick to activate swingers, Out & Backs, Drop Turners etc.

Two, use a door or a port. DO NOT activate directly off the door. use a pulley and a counter weight. Have the door attached to a very short link that pulls a pin and allows the weight to drop free pulling the cable/rope that activates the mover. Doesn't matter how fast or slow you open the door, the mover activates exactly the same for every shooter.

Three, use a port with a hinged cover, the cover falls and pulls the activator cable/rope to start the mover.

With these three systems we achieve normally nearly 100% activation, the only problem seems to occur when the stage is reset and the prop-sticks are not set correctly, hinges turned, cables from multiple activators not routed cleanly and of course the occasional angel where a shot did some damage, (very rare, but possible)

Jim

[Flexmoney]

Jim Norman, on Jul 1 2009, 09:42 AM, said:

Activation of movers.

One, use a popper, attach a cable to the popper. What one of our intrepid shooters did was to make a fixture that attached to the bottom of the popper plate into which we insert a short (2-0) 1 x 2 and attach the cable or rope to this. The stick is at right angles to the popper face. This accomplishes two things. It moves the cable/Rope away from the splatter field and it also moves the attachment away from any bullet impacts. We then attach the cable/rope to a hinged stick to activate swingers, Out & Backs, Drop Turners etc.

Jim, I am trying to picture that and I come up with two different possibilities on what you guys have?

I think what you are describing is along the lines of a welded on tube to hold a stick? Attached to the popper face? And, that stick moves with the backward falling popper...going from horizontal to vertical?

That stick holding tube, would need to be long enough to soak up the splatter off the face of the popper. But, not too much weight, as that starts to counter-balance the popper.

??

Quote

Two, use a door or a port. DO NOT activate directly off the door. use a pulley and a counter weight. Have the door attached to a very short link that pulls a pin and allows the weight to drop free pulling the cable/rope that activates the mover. Doesn't matter how fast or slow you open the door, the mover activates exactly the same for every shooter.

Using a pin and a counter weight is a GREAT idea. Thanks!

Not only is the door pull and activation the same, but it would keep the cable out of the way. I had a cable get all up in my arms at a recent match...and I had to do wide transitions while that was going on (not to mention engaging the moving target).