Hello once again, Shooters!
I had a whole bunch of empty pellet tins that I was looking for a use for, so I found this thread about recycling pellet tins where @NMshooter shares his collection of "Ted Targets" on this post. I thought that the "Ted Targets" were pretty cool, but looked to be too high of maintenance for me as you would surely have to keep going out and setting them back up, so I came up with my own variation..."The SkeeterHawk Spinning Ted Target", if you will.
Here is what the finished target looks like:
To do this, you will need some supplies that you should have laying around:
You'll need a few basic tools:
You drill holes just bigger than the diameter of the coat hanger at opposite ends of the pellet tin. Note that there are "crimp" marks on the JSB and FX tins that are exactly symmetrical, so you can use those as a guide as where to drill the holes to make sure that you are symmetrical. Here is a hole drilled in that crimp mark:
Cut the coat hanger into four pieces as shown:
Use the pliers and put two 45degree bends and one 90 degree bend in the center of each of the straight pieces of coat hanger as shown:
I painted the front and back of the tins a different color so that they will look cool when spinning:
If the pellet tin just spins in the hole by itself, it will get stuck, so I used a straw as a spacer to keep it above the bend in the wire. This also gives it a place to get "stuck" on the lip so that it will (hopefully) rotate to the same spot. I used a small straw from a juice box, but a regular straw should work too:
Measure it so that the angle is facing up, and it will just stick barely above the bend in the wire as shown:
Cut it to length:
Take your razor knife and put a small (~1/8") slit on the short side of the 90 degree end of the straw as shown (This will give the tie-wrap a place to overlap the straw):
Wrap the tie-wrap around the end closest to the 90 degree angle to hold it in place:
To make it "brighter" I added some Yellow electrical tape on the outside, avoiding the drilled holes as not to "hang up" the spinning action:
The top of this post shows the target at this point once you insert the painted tin onto the wire hanger.
How take a drill with a big bit out
Now drill some holes in scrap wood and insert the target, making sure that nothing will be in the way as it spins:
Finally, here is a video of me demonstrating the targets in the freezing cold:
I probably could have used heat shrink as the spacer instead of the straw, but I wanted something pretty hard so that it would be more likely to spin longer. There may be improvements to this design, so if you think of something, please let us know.
I hope that you enjoy this little target! I did!
Happy and Fun Low-Maintenance Plinking!
Jonathan
I had a whole bunch of empty pellet tins that I was looking for a use for, so I found this thread about recycling pellet tins where @NMshooter shares his collection of "Ted Targets" on this post. I thought that the "Ted Targets" were pretty cool, but looked to be too high of maintenance for me as you would surely have to keep going out and setting them back up, so I came up with my own variation..."The SkeeterHawk Spinning Ted Target", if you will.
Here is what the finished target looks like:
To do this, you will need some supplies that you should have laying around:
- Empty Pellet Tin(s)
- Wire Coat Hanger
- Plastic Straw
- Small Tie-Wraps
- Spray Paint
You'll need a few basic tools:
- Drill with bits
- Pliers with wire cutters
- Razor Knife
- Scissors
You drill holes just bigger than the diameter of the coat hanger at opposite ends of the pellet tin. Note that there are "crimp" marks on the JSB and FX tins that are exactly symmetrical, so you can use those as a guide as where to drill the holes to make sure that you are symmetrical. Here is a hole drilled in that crimp mark:
Cut the coat hanger into four pieces as shown:
Use the pliers and put two 45degree bends and one 90 degree bend in the center of each of the straight pieces of coat hanger as shown:
I painted the front and back of the tins a different color so that they will look cool when spinning:
If the pellet tin just spins in the hole by itself, it will get stuck, so I used a straw as a spacer to keep it above the bend in the wire. This also gives it a place to get "stuck" on the lip so that it will (hopefully) rotate to the same spot. I used a small straw from a juice box, but a regular straw should work too:
Measure it so that the angle is facing up, and it will just stick barely above the bend in the wire as shown:
Cut it to length:
Take your razor knife and put a small (~1/8") slit on the short side of the 90 degree end of the straw as shown (This will give the tie-wrap a place to overlap the straw):
Wrap the tie-wrap around the end closest to the 90 degree angle to hold it in place:
To make it "brighter" I added some Yellow electrical tape on the outside, avoiding the drilled holes as not to "hang up" the spinning action:
The top of this post shows the target at this point once you insert the painted tin onto the wire hanger.
How take a drill with a big bit out
Now drill some holes in scrap wood and insert the target, making sure that nothing will be in the way as it spins:
Finally, here is a video of me demonstrating the targets in the freezing cold:
I probably could have used heat shrink as the spacer instead of the straw, but I wanted something pretty hard so that it would be more likely to spin longer. There may be improvements to this design, so if you think of something, please let us know.
I hope that you enjoy this little target! I did!
Happy and Fun Low-Maintenance Plinking!
Jonathan
maybe even get a.spool of wire instead....
