[prreed10]

Hello All!
I am the IDPA match director at my local club. I went out to our club yesterday to setup for today's match and found someone had used several of our target stands as target boards. Needless to say several were destroyed. Prop damage is frequent at our club.

We use stands made of 2x4's and 2x6's - center is 18.5 in a the support arms are 29.5in. We presently leave them stacked underneath or sheds (open ended aluminum garage type). I would like a way to secure them. Maybe transport them to our conex, which is locked and about 75 - 100 yards from our bays. I thought of maybe a dolly of some sort, but we have around 50 +. I also considered chaining them to one of the support beams of the shed. Does anyone have any suggestions to a way to store these?

I will post some actual pictures of our stands and the damage when I get home from the match.

This post has been edited by prreed10: 07 November 2009 - 03:45 AM

[McGunner]

We leave out wooden stands and also have problems with club members destroying them (the metal ones we keep locked up). It always amazes me when I come across such things when I go to the range to practice. You figure that people would act like grown ups and respect the equipment..which most members do but for some reason theres always one guy or element which don't...some one atleast once a year shoots out the 4x4 posts holding the wall we use on the rifle range to put targets on.......drives me crazy......

As far as securing the equipment, we use a few conex boxes for all the metal (stands, swingers,poppers, plates etc.) and a corral made of chain link fence with a gate for the larger props (walls, posts, fault lines etc.) We also have 2 atv's with trailers to move everthing. Only small number of members have the combinations and keys for the locks.......

Depending on your budget, maybe you can fence in the open ended shed and put a gate on it with a lock, and use something like garden carts to move them around..

Hope this helps...

Matt

[hitman]

Chain and lock if you want to leave them at the car port.

[Jim Norman]

put chainlink fence and a gate around the garage-shed. Lock the gate.

Jim

[sargenv]

Our target stands are welded from 4" C channel steel. They weigh about 45 pounds each and are left on the shooting bays. It takes two target sticks to post a target on them.. we use the 1 x 2's (actually about 5/8" x 1.5") @ 5 ft tall. If people want to move em around they can, but in most cases the people who use them don't move them far and utilize them as target stands only. I think we paid $75 ea for fabrication and steel. We have about 75 or 80 of them. They last forever..

[Jim Norman]

We made our own nesting stands out of 1x1x1/8 angle and 1 x 2 tube. We have a stands and stick trailer, holds easily 100 stands and the required sticks. We also have a 'steel trailer' which has all our regularly used plates and poppers. A third trailer has our movers. All three and a Quad to move them fit in one container. Walls and supports are racked outside.

Now we do have, just like everyone else, a few members that don't get it. They have used and will continue to use anyting not bolted down as a stand. In fact we have some target holders that are bolted to a buried timber. They are arranged to hold the frames for the highpower shooters. People simply place a plastic bottle on them and attempt to shot them off without hitting the steel. Unsuccessfully in most cases.

Sad fact of life is that there are those that get it and those that don't. How hard is it to build a couple target stands and bring them with you to the range? You invest thousands in a gun but 10 dollars for target stands is beyond them.

Jim

[LPatterson]

It is almost impossible to prevent idiots for doing stupid things as they are so ingenious as proven by the bullet holes in the stop sign at the range exit.

[calishootr]

if they are stackable, run a cable thru all of em as you stack em up and lock em all together, we found at our range(pre conex boxes) that if we make it as big a pain in the ass to utilize, then the offenders will look elsewhere for stuff to trash....ive seen barricades used as a target stand and blown up badly....on the plus side, ive seen up in oregon onerange had a couple of old WWII torpedo tube tansporters that they tossed all oftheir steel into and slammed the lid shut and locked it
sad to say, for us it was the purchase of a conex box that ended the misuse of our property when we are not there...

[prreed10]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I think I am going to try to run a cable through them and lock them to one of the beams of the carport. I will leave 2 or 3 of the worst ones out so someone has something to use as a target stand. I that does not work, I may get one of the members to make a lockable stand holder out of angle iron.

[jmorris]

We have that problem at one of the ranges our club uses we put the stands inside but it would be a simple addition to lock them up on the cart.

[Flexmoney]

jmorris,

I really like those carts that hold the stands and sticks...and paster rolls and targets (and I could see adding a place for a stapler, a few cans of paint and some ink pens).

Do you have any more "how to's" and of pics on those?

Maybe start a fresh thread for them?

[jmorris]

Quote

jmorris,

I really like those carts that hold the stands and sticks...and paster rolls and targets (and I could see adding a place for a stapler, a few cans of paint and some ink pens).

Do you have any more "how to's" and of pics on those?

Maybe start a fresh thread for them?

I can do that, I'll have to take some more photos.