Wasnt sure where to put this thread as it is a competition, training and build/construction related thread all wrapped up as one, so, whatevs.....it landed here.
A few of us that shoot together regularly noticed while going to major USPSA matches that we (especially me) sucked at steel compared to some of the top shooters. So CB45 got in touch with Bobcat Steel and he hooked us up with 4 mini poppers and 1 fullsize popper.
Being the cheap mofo’s we are, we thought we would make some 2x4 stands and get by for a month or two. Well….the stands lasted exactly two practices before literally falling apart due to splatter. So we put our heads together and came up with a design that would be durable, easy to use, fairly light and not be too difficult to make. The other important design criteria was that the popper had to take hits without falling so we didn’t have to walk our lazy arses down range between strings. After talking with Bobcat a bit, I settled on 11ga 1 1/2” square tubing as legs and cross members. I decided to mill a slot for the popper to rest in as well as using a piece of all thread internally on the cross member as a stop. Finally, a piece of 3/4” angle was used on the front of the cross member to deflect any direct hits.
Tubing, all thread and angle was all cut to length (24” for the legs and 12” for mini crossmembers and 14” for full size crossmember). I played around with the location of the slot (front to back) a bit to get a good angle on the popper so as to deflect any splatter down rather than up but not so much angle that the popper looked like it was falling down. I also had to play with the size/position of the all thread to keep the popper from falling backwards and staying there when hit. Once I settled on some dimensions/locations it was time to fire up the mill. I recently purchased a small 4-axis cnc mill, so this was a great project to learn a few things without tearing up too much expensive stock.
Video of slot being cnc'd
[video=youtube_share;cd8YvDeAXKI]http://youtu.be/cd8YvDeAXKI[/video]
Once I had all the cross members milled, it was time to start fabbing/welding up the stands. I am new to welding, so my welds look like doodoo, but they are getting better. Stands were welded up in an evening and came out really nice.
Just after a couple of weeks of practicing on the minis, I already feel like my transitions and trigger control are better. Initially I was really slow with transitions (like 0.45 transitions on 15yd minis). In a couple weeks that number dropped to .30-.32 consistent hits and .23-.25 when pushed. CB45 can speak to similar results and hopefully will weigh in on here. I can already say that my match performance regarding steel arrays has gotten better and CB45 will concur. Another added benefit that I didn’t foresee, is that I feel my paper shooting has gotten better/faster as a result. Transitions are much sharper with better trigger control due to shooting the small targets so much. In all, I am very surprised how much this has helped my shooting in such a short amount of time.
Many thanks to Bobcat Steel for hooking us up…..Contact him with any of your steel needs. Steel is of high quality and has been very durable to date with very competitive prices and Kimball is a great guy to deal with.
Video of CB45 burning down an array
[video=youtube_share;5WwBwSxIT8g]http://youtu.be/5WwBwSxIT8g[/video]
I was able to get a run in at 15yds with draw and 4 hits minis in under 2.0 sec. (took me a bunch of tries to nail this, but its real progress for me).
A few of us that shoot together regularly noticed while going to major USPSA matches that we (especially me) sucked at steel compared to some of the top shooters. So CB45 got in touch with Bobcat Steel and he hooked us up with 4 mini poppers and 1 fullsize popper.
Being the cheap mofo’s we are, we thought we would make some 2x4 stands and get by for a month or two. Well….the stands lasted exactly two practices before literally falling apart due to splatter. So we put our heads together and came up with a design that would be durable, easy to use, fairly light and not be too difficult to make. The other important design criteria was that the popper had to take hits without falling so we didn’t have to walk our lazy arses down range between strings. After talking with Bobcat a bit, I settled on 11ga 1 1/2” square tubing as legs and cross members. I decided to mill a slot for the popper to rest in as well as using a piece of all thread internally on the cross member as a stop. Finally, a piece of 3/4” angle was used on the front of the cross member to deflect any direct hits.
Tubing, all thread and angle was all cut to length (24” for the legs and 12” for mini crossmembers and 14” for full size crossmember). I played around with the location of the slot (front to back) a bit to get a good angle on the popper so as to deflect any splatter down rather than up but not so much angle that the popper looked like it was falling down. I also had to play with the size/position of the all thread to keep the popper from falling backwards and staying there when hit. Once I settled on some dimensions/locations it was time to fire up the mill. I recently purchased a small 4-axis cnc mill, so this was a great project to learn a few things without tearing up too much expensive stock.
Video of slot being cnc'd
[video=youtube_share;cd8YvDeAXKI]http://youtu.be/cd8YvDeAXKI[/video]
Once I had all the cross members milled, it was time to start fabbing/welding up the stands. I am new to welding, so my welds look like doodoo, but they are getting better. Stands were welded up in an evening and came out really nice.
Just after a couple of weeks of practicing on the minis, I already feel like my transitions and trigger control are better. Initially I was really slow with transitions (like 0.45 transitions on 15yd minis). In a couple weeks that number dropped to .30-.32 consistent hits and .23-.25 when pushed. CB45 can speak to similar results and hopefully will weigh in on here. I can already say that my match performance regarding steel arrays has gotten better and CB45 will concur. Another added benefit that I didn’t foresee, is that I feel my paper shooting has gotten better/faster as a result. Transitions are much sharper with better trigger control due to shooting the small targets so much. In all, I am very surprised how much this has helped my shooting in such a short amount of time.
Many thanks to Bobcat Steel for hooking us up…..Contact him with any of your steel needs. Steel is of high quality and has been very durable to date with very competitive prices and Kimball is a great guy to deal with.
Video of CB45 burning down an array
[video=youtube_share;5WwBwSxIT8g]http://youtu.be/5WwBwSxIT8g[/video]
I was able to get a run in at 15yds with draw and 4 hits minis in under 2.0 sec. (took me a bunch of tries to nail this, but its real progress for me).
