We found and demonstrated to the idiot-thorities that putting another plane of steel orthogonal to the plane of the plate meant that splatter was now re-directed in the up range and down range directions.

Most of the time the lead pieces were small enough and of sufficiently low energy that it wasn’t a problem – BUT, all too often a larger chunk of lead came whistling back at the shooter.

As to using tyres – they proved to be worse than steel because the natural resilience absorbed the energy of the fragments and then launched the whole chunk rather than breaking it smaller on impact.

The rings around the round plates are car tires with the sidewalls cut out. Around the rectangular plates the shields are steel. The primary reason was to protect the light bulbs on the ceiling, and the flood lights on the floor in front of each target. When the bullet strikes the target it shatters into a million (+/-) tiny lead flakes that stay in the plane of the plate. This assumes that there are no pock marks in the steel. If there are pock marks, lead can go just about anywhere if the bullet strikes the pockmark just right. That’s why making your targets out of armor plate is a good idea.

Have you suggested to your club that they should send someone over to Holland on a fact finding trip?

Mr. C.

Interestingly, other pistol matches using the same targets did not have to have the shrouds.

When we clearly demonstrated that the shrouds in fact INCREASED the chances of splatter bouncing back at the shooter, we were instructed to remove them.