A moving target will add fun to your outdoor shoot. Imagine a pig or a deer running across your field.

Take two 4 foot long 2 x 4’s, drill two holes in the bottom of each board, and hammer in two very long nails. Next, take a set of bolt cutters and cut the heads off the nails. This turns them in the spikes. The spikes hold the boards up right so you can set this target up by yourself.

Next, run guy wires off the boards. Take a 50 foot piece of rope, double it and twist it to make the rope stronger so it will not sag when you pull the target across it.

Next, take a hard cardboard tube and cover it in camo duct tape. This’ll make the tube disappear into the background. Next, zip tie the wings to the tube and then zip tie the tube to the top of the pig. Then, take the twisted clothesline and run it through the tube and tie it to the upright 2x4s.

Run a guy wire from the nose of the pig back behind the firing line to the marshal. Pull the pig across the range to give the illusion of flight. The guy wire is over 100 feet long, allowing the marshal to call the line and pull the target at the same time.

At Hornwood’s Scarlet Guard Inn earlier this month, I ran a range just for fun with these targets. I made a flying pig, and everybody enjoyed the pun all day long.

THLord Deryk demonstrates the moving pig target

This month’s safety tip: check out the land around your range. I found a hole in the ground that was well over a foot and a half long and almost 10 inches deep. The hole was full of dead grass and leaves; it was deceptive how deep it really was. If someone had stepped in it, they would’ve twisted an ankle. I marked it with some fluorescent orange tape to make sure no one was hurt.

Until next month, in service,

THLord Deryk Archer