Thread: Shooting Ducks - Ideas?

G'Day "mambomeg",
Might be better to make the duck from a sheet of metal [steel, S/S or alum] as they would flop over easier on your hinge??
They'd work with the "nerf" guns too.
Cheers, crowie

Hi Crowie,

Yeah I had thought about that, but in the abscence of any metal working tools or ability, I thought I'd just make them out of light wood (or MDF or something), and just give them several coats of polyurethane or some other sort of varnish to waterproof them.

Maybe I can find a mens shed member who can make them out of metal.. hmmm.... if only I was male....

mambomeg,

I may not be of any help but I know I'd be interested in the end result. My 3 year old grand-son would love one - it might even stop him shooting all of the spiders

cheers

Mick

3 ply would be more resistant to damage in storage (or kids) than MDF or chip board, anything will need a coat or two of paint. If water is involved, that is another strike against MDF - it swells up even if painted from just condensation from a cold glass. With a bit of fiddling around you should be able to make a base piece out of pine that would hold them up until hit before falling over (make the 'ducks' fairly tall & fill in at the bottom with a grass outline) - saves on hinges & screws.

Also, considering the quality of water pistols these days, I think you are better off sticking to brand name Nerf guns, at least you can get spare ammo at the larger outlets (like K-Mart & BigW). In Sydney, BigW is cheapest, followed by K-Mart then Target just under full retail.

Its for our local rural fire brigade - so the ducks will actually be flames. Hence the water pistols (or first-aid line hose from the truck), rather than a nerf gun.
But I like the Grass idea - if they had flat bases they could just sit on the base without having to be held on with hinges, and I could just have a flat bit of pine with a facade of grass stuck on the front. I have some fairly thick ply, so maybe I'll make a test one and see.

A great idea for the targets, is to run a rigid rod through the centre of the frame work, and then slide the targets onto that wire, by way of a hole drilled through from left to right of the target. The target needs to be slightly off balnce as from top to bottom, so that when a marksman hits a target, it will spin over a time or two, and then the bottom being slightly heavier, it will reset to the upright. If mounted on hinges, they have to reset by hand, or they need to running on a track with an electric motor turning . . . all too hard. Counter-balanced targets are what you need.
Now as for material and scrollsaws, you need a very slow saw to cut plastic or perspex. However, if you have a slow running saw, you can use old 4 or 5 litre oil bottles and cut out black duckies and wild hogs. Water will not cause them any problems, but they will not take any glues that I know of, so the pivot has to be wired or screwed on. The head of the screw can also appear to the shooter as a bulls eye.

You can also buy a cheap scalpel type set of knives from some of the "cheap as" shops for cutting plastic.

Hi,
I am in Bushfire brigade and we have a target set made from all metal by a member.
the principle should still be adaptable though.
targets along the top of a rail, rest angled slightly forward, then when hit they fall back on a hinge and rest on an "arm" that is attatched to a corresponding lower target. sort of curled up from below.
When the lower hanging target is hit it knocks the top target back up.
Ive done a quick profile sketch.