Air guns indoors?

Anyone shoot pellet or BB’s indoors in the winter? I would like to set something up in my garage for my son and I to practice this winter. I’m wondering what everybody uses for targets and backstops?

Lead pellets are 10x safer than BB. No bounce back.

We spent countless hours shooting in the basement. Usually pop cans until shredded in front of steel trap my dad made. But when we wanted to go 10 cans wide we’d make our own stops outta cardboard or whatever. Broke plenty of stuff in the basement with BBs flying back at our faces including fish tank. Taken many a BB to the head. Etc. Trap is only good if you hit it.

Safety glasses always.

We also would go outside and shoot at each other… boys be boys on the farm. Lil bro still has two BB under the skin (oops)

Good thing for kids to do. Just know like with everything it’s only fun until you’ve done it enough then you gotta explore more dangerous ways to do it to make it fun again keep an eye out

I always used stacks of magazines or old phone books. Never had an issue but usually hit the target. This is shooting .17 pellets.

Agree w fishblood on everything. Something to do in the winter months w the kids.

I use a 2×6-8-12 whatever I have hanging around and use post it notes with bullseye’s. Easy to replace. Can build quick shelves to take out the my lil ponies and leftover toys kids don’t want anymore

Used to do it as a kid. My dad might still have the old steel trap that we used if anyone is interested.

I’d hang a piece of thick carpet from the ceiling a little away from the wall with a sheet of OSB against the wall behind the main shooting area just incase one makes it through the carpet. Should catch most everything and possibly allow you to reuse BBs. Hang cans and cardboard boxes with paper targets from fishing line. Should prevent most/all ricochet.

Great idea Munchy!

I have a 1200 fps .177 cal air rifle. That pellet will go through 1/2 inch plywood no problems. Plan accordingly!

-J.

We used to cut old shotgun shell casings and empty bb’s out. Aim at the primer…we only hit it once then my dad put a stop to it

Jon Jordan wrote:

I have a 1200 fps .177 cal air rifle. That pellet will go through 1/2 inch plywood no problems. Plan accordingly!

-J.

Yeah, I’d definitely not use a high powered air rifle unless you have a very good backstop and plenty of safety in mind. When he said BB gun I was envisioning a Red Rider type pump action, and a pump or two should be more than sufficient for indoors.

Craig Sery wrote:

We used to cut old shotgun shell casings and empty bb’s out. Aim at the primer…we only hit it once then my dad put a stop to it

Hah!! I may know of a vacuum cleaner that got disassembled internally when it sucked up a dropped primer. Those things have some power behind them.

munchy wrote:

Yeah, I’d definitely not use a high powered air rifle unless you have a very good backstop and plenty of safety in mind. When he said BB gun I was envisioning a Red Rider type pump action, and a pump or two should be more than sufficient for indoors.

Yea this will be low powered stuff. I know my pellet gun will go through a lot. The carpet is a great idea

I know a gamo I have will go through plywood 90% of the time, just to keep that in-mind. Lead will definitely be your best choice in pellets/bbs to lessen ricochet.

We did a lot of this as kids, but never inside. We plinked outside in any and all weather.

6 or 7 years ago I bought my nephew a .22lr for his birthday in January. He wanted to shoot it nonstop and challenge himself with accuracy. He ended up setting up my old ice shack on a snow day with a small heater and shooting out the window for hours while it was probably 10 degrees. This may be a safer alternative that’s easier to set up – depending on your location?

I made a stand for my kids when they were on BB gun team. Made a frame with 1×4 about 16” wide by 5’ high. Lined the back with shag carpet stapled to it. Front I ripped a channel to slide cardboard in to tack targets to. I could cut cardboard to fit and slide in new a piece as needed. Then on the bottom I put bar magnet to catch the bbs when they dropped. Needed to be that high. They shot 4 positions, prone, sitting, kneeling, standing. I’ll see if I can find it and take a picture tomorrow after work.

Take a cardboard box. Fill it with newspaper, phone books, magazines, packing material, etc. it’s a BB gun you don’t need to go crazy. I spent thousands of hours as a kid shooting in the unfinished part of our basement. Great for kids!

Coletrain27 wrote:

Anyone shoot pellet or BB’s indoors in the winter? I would like to set something up in my garage for my son and I to practice this winter. I’m wondering what everybody uses for targets and backstops?

My son’s and I shoot indoors in our garage. It would be nice to have a little more distance my garage is only 30 ft long but it still works fine.

I gave up on trying to find a ready-made solution for a pellet trap. The problem I was finding is that they are all too small for young shooters to safely use especially when practicing the standing position.

Instead I built my own out of three quarter inch plywood and then to the front faces that deflect the pellets I laminated 12 gauge steel. Nothing is getting through this trap, even the high-powered air rifles are stopped by this trap. Of course always use soft lead pellets, never bbs.

Think layers rather than thickness for your backstop(s). A layer of heavy carpet, followed plywood/OSB, followed by a soft layer of some sort should capture all projectiles. My air rifle can exceed 1400fps. The concrete behind the targets would start taking a beating but for a layered, energy absorbing backstop.

When I was a kid I used a cardboard box stacked full of old newspapers. 12″ or so of tightly packed newspapers always stopped my pellets, I never had a problem.

I think I’ll go to menards and get a chunk of cheap carpet and I’ll make a backstop out of that and some cardboard for the target. I’ll let me son just shoot his red Ryder at it and if I want to use my pellet gun ill get something a lot thicker for a backstop. Thanks for the help guys

We always just took a clothes box ( like the one you got a Christmas Gift shirt in) folded up a bed sheet to fit inside the box. Taped it shut and shot at that, could collect the bb’s pellets etc afterword too!
Always wear glasses

As teenagers we would shoot BB guns in the garage and when we had it dialed in we would take turns shooting cigs out of each others mouths.
Nobody ever got plugged.

Eelpoutguy wrote:

As teenagers we would shoot BB guns in the garage and when we had it dialed in we would take turns shooting cigs out of each others mouths.
Nobody ever got plugged.

Now days with the cost of heaters, that would be incredibly expensive! Kids now days can’t afford to have this much fun! Thanks a lot inflation. 😢
🚬🔫