Diy nockdown targets

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Figure I would share my old knockdown target design. I made up a dozen of these a various critters years ago for me and my cousin to bang away on. Fun and relatively simple projects.
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The board behind the target is what gets knocked down. You hit it by shooting through the hole and the string pulls it back upright.

I can’t make any sense out of what the springs or the hinge on the outside target do though.
The springs were a solution to terrain. If the target is placen on a hill, facing down hill, the front piece "hangs" down and you can hit the rear trigger plate but the target remains upright. Adding the spring makes the target work even if it is straight above you in a tree.
 
The board behind the target is what gets knocked down. You hit it by shooting through the hole and the string pulls it back upright.

I can’t make any sense out of what the springs or the hinge on the outside target do though.
I don't understand how the outside target is even staying up. What is it hooked to because the Springs aren't push Springs (open), they're pull Springs (closed). At first glance I thought you shoot through the hole to hit that one piece of wood and it hits the trigger that slaps the whole thing down , shell and all. Kind of like the dunking tank you see at the carnival that you throw a baseball at to dunk the guy who's up there talking a bunch of crap.
 
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Another note, the ring around the hole in the target and the trigger face are steel. Scrap from a clothes dryer if I recall.

Somewhere, I have no idea where, had a really good write up on making these. My cousin was in grade school then, and now she is a professor at a college, so that gives you an idea of how long ago I made these. I'll scrape around in my box old drawings and notes to see if I can find more details.
 
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