I like hearing the "ping" so metal is good. And I'm lazy so self resetting is a plus, too. But, I live in a neighborhood and have to be mindful of my backdrop and ricochets.
What's the best target for my backyard?
- Thread starter TheB34rded1
- Start date
Live squirrels and pest birds seem to be very popular back yard targets for many of this forums members! 
Thurmond
Thurmond
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I don't have any links but there are some knock downs that are set in there own backstop/ pellet trap
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Air Venturi silent trap with ballistic putty is great for punching paper in backyard quietly. Available from PA or Amazon.
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I wish! My neighbors would probably freak out. I do drive ten minutes to my father-in-laws 6 acre property where there are essentially unlimited rabbits, squirrels, and starlings. So, I don't have it too bad. 
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If you like to hear it ring use an old circular or table saw blade mounted with a bolt spaced behind a thick piece of wood. Drill different sized holes and screw on large washers that correspond to the hole sizes. Pellet through the hole. The blade rings.
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IMHO, a good back stop is the main concern for shooting in a neighbourhood along with a relatively quiet airgun.
At my "little 1 acre wood" in the "hamlet" of Rougemont, NC the adjoining properties to mine are similar in size and half of my lot is wooded. For practising hunter class field target shooting I created a shooting lane between two log back stops with a 53 yard maximum distance where three relatively cheap Gamo knock down targets are placed. My Gamo targets are the old early offerings that had thicker face plates than the newer offerings but they had no reducers so I made my own reducers. This gives me three targets with 1 1/2", 3/4" and 3/8" killzones. As far as noise is concerned, a couple years ago a neighbour came over to my shooting lane because he thought I was shooting a bow and arrow judging by sound of my .177 R9 springer, the clink of knocking down the target, and then resetting.
Anywhoo, here are a couple pics of my shooting lane........
Entrance to the lane from the back yard..........
The large pine tree on the left of the entrance was toppled by a 1/2" coating of ice during a March ice storm a few years back.
Looking uphill on the lane from the 30 yard line.........
Looking downhill on the lane from the "30 yard pic above".......
Misc pics of the Gamo targets.........
Added one of those campaign poster wire frames to hold my targets.........
The target with the 3/8" reducer had the paddle perforated after thousands of 10-20 yard CPLs at about 13fpe getting concentrated in one spot.........
The solution was to rework the reducer and harden the paddle.........
A couple years ago I would have a visitor come out from the back stop and watch my shooting sessions.........
I'm thinking that the noise/vibrations caused by pellets hitting the logs brought out the lizard from the log pile but it did seem to be entertained with the shooting session and at times sit through a whole session. It even seemed to get "tame" to the point that I was able to get close enough to take the pic above.
Anywhoo........I don't have the real estate to set up separate lanes for each target so I simply set the three in a row and shoot at them from various distances my moving along the path and the log back stops made from ice toppled trees keep the pellets inside my property boundaries.
At my "little 1 acre wood" in the "hamlet" of Rougemont, NC the adjoining properties to mine are similar in size and half of my lot is wooded. For practising hunter class field target shooting I created a shooting lane between two log back stops with a 53 yard maximum distance where three relatively cheap Gamo knock down targets are placed. My Gamo targets are the old early offerings that had thicker face plates than the newer offerings but they had no reducers so I made my own reducers. This gives me three targets with 1 1/2", 3/4" and 3/8" killzones. As far as noise is concerned, a couple years ago a neighbour came over to my shooting lane because he thought I was shooting a bow and arrow judging by sound of my .177 R9 springer, the clink of knocking down the target, and then resetting.
Anywhoo, here are a couple pics of my shooting lane........
Entrance to the lane from the back yard..........
The large pine tree on the left of the entrance was toppled by a 1/2" coating of ice during a March ice storm a few years back.
Looking uphill on the lane from the 30 yard line.........
Looking downhill on the lane from the "30 yard pic above".......
Misc pics of the Gamo targets.........
Added one of those campaign poster wire frames to hold my targets.........
The target with the 3/8" reducer had the paddle perforated after thousands of 10-20 yard CPLs at about 13fpe getting concentrated in one spot.........
The solution was to rework the reducer and harden the paddle.........
A couple years ago I would have a visitor come out from the back stop and watch my shooting sessions.........
I'm thinking that the noise/vibrations caused by pellets hitting the logs brought out the lizard from the log pile but it did seem to be entertained with the shooting session and at times sit through a whole session. It even seemed to get "tame" to the point that I was able to get close enough to take the pic above.
Anywhoo........I don't have the real estate to set up separate lanes for each target so I simply set the three in a row and shoot at them from various distances my moving along the path and the log back stops made from ice toppled trees keep the pellets inside my property boundaries.
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Reckon "best" depends on what you want to accomplish. I'd say an old school bell found at yard sale was my best/favorite.
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They don't 'ping' but paintballs do 'pop' and explode! I find once you get past 45 yards they get a little challenging.
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