Dave,
The brass hinges have the removable pins, the galvi ones don't. Each seam has two removables on one side and two non-removeables on the opposite. The removables alternate sides so it folds up nicely.
There is about an 1/8" gap between the edges of the sheets so if they get wet it'll keep the swelling from making it hard to put in the pins while standing it up. Take extra hinges, someday you might need one or two!
I made it this way so I could haul it in my Polaris 6x6 down to the range easier.
Same thing with the 30" sections of pipe on the target frame.
I tiewire the plywood to the frame, leaning it back about a foot away from the plate so if we're off the gong we'll know where were hitting anyway. The "T" couplings on the 3" nipples on the front of each leg were to hold the base of the plywood from kicking out when the plywood is on the front side wired to the frame while using it to make drop charts.
sscoyote,
So far I have only shot the steel out to 1000 yards and you can see them in the 22x Nightforce no problem, I'm not sure what they'll look like at 1500 yards. At 1000 yards with the size of plates I've been using, the hard thing to distiguish is which was the exact last hit, you have to keep track pretty closely there. You have 3-5 shots on each plate before you'll end up getting mixed up over which is which, sometimes a couple more but not usually.
I usually shoot that far by myself so after 5-10 rounds on a couple plates, I just take a drive down and paint em again. Two people make a mess of them pretty quick and them it just turns into a "clangin" match for number of misses out of ten or twenty rounds, or whenever we stop.
My brother's the only one that stands a chance of hangin with me at 1000 yards though. Dad's been out to 500 with me a couple times but he's been preoccupied with his mil-dot scope trying to establish an aimpoint associated with the reticle at 100 yard increments each time, so he's ready to move out farther now.
I put 90 degree male end connectors on the end of each leg, these grab the ground well and don't let it slide on the ice or hard ground, and with the extra weight of the steel pipe setup it doesn't move just setting there, hang the steel plates on it and it it's just heavier yet. I can screw it together in about a minute. I leave the connectors on the ends of the legs and frame pieces, so all you have is 9 or 10 sticks to screw together hand tight and it's standing there done.
I weld big nuts on the back corners of the plates to run wire through or hook chain hooks or whatever you using up. I like this because the whole surface is left white and at 1000 yards I think the chain or hole in it to hang it from would always make me wonder if I hit it there, or somewhere else. The whole surface being nice and white makes it just a little easier to keep track of hits is all.
Here's a pic, the first time out at 1000 yards with this 180gr Scirocco load, 26.25 moa, first and second shot hits. Just so happens that my 180 Nosler Ballistic Silvertip with the same load was centering it at the same exact setting too. The Ballistic Tip was 16" high at 500 yards with the same 100 yard zero though.
