Any tips on where to get a few cardboard backers?

I've got family property to shoot on, and have my target stands / furring strips...now I need some sheets of cardboard. Paper plates and 8.5"x11" paper handle the rest...

Thanks!

-Mark

Check with your local appliance store, moving company or construction company. All seem to have a ton of stuff that comes in big boxes.

Worse case you can buy large boxes or full sheets of corragate from Liberty Carton in Golden Valley or another box making company.

The moving companies seem to want more than reasonable $$$ for it these days. Our company does large equipment (racks, monitors, etc...), but saves every darn box that comes through the joint. Cost savings.

Didn't know about Liberty, I'll give them a holler.

Thanks!

-Mark

you know how many times I have been asked for any boxes when I worked at a large retail store.

Usually for moving purposes, but I know it was probably at least a couple times a week someone would ask if I had any old boxes they could have. If I did, I would let them know. I wasn't about to go find them for them, but if I happen to have some, it saves me a trip to the compactor.

I use chicken wire stapled to to the frame and use snap clothes pins to hold the targets to it, this lasts a long time and is not affected by weather.

John

Swing by the local liquor store and pick up the empty boxes that 6 packs of bottles come in.

Break 'em down and you have a nice backer.

If you're willing to spend a bit, there's the local LE Targets:

http://www.letargets.com/estylez_ps.asp ... %7e2%7e2.2

They don't have a store, but you can call in an order and pick it up few hours later, to save on the shipping.

Costco/Sams Club leave their bulk packaging around for customers to use.

Businesses sometimes let employees take the printer paper boxes. (I know my dad brought a ton of these home over the years)

Schools get lots of equipment, etc around the start of a new year. Talk to a custodian, ask if you can pull some cardboard out of the recycling pile.

The liquor store idea is a good one, packaging there shouldn't be a problem either. Same with a grocery store.

When we get something big and in cardboard, we generally break it down and toss it into a pile in the family shed, for future use.

Furniture stores, electronics stores - they'll have some too.

Ask around, someone can find a pile.

City/county recycling center should have a cardboard pile, I doubt they'd have a problem with you taking some out as you put other stuff in.

Thanks, guys. Looks like tomorrow is the day of phone calls.

Got my paper plates and ream of paper ready to go...time to break in the new shotgun this weekend too.

How much and how big? I've got plenty of cardboard boxes I'd just as soon give you as recycle.

I'm just using standard IDPA / IPSC sized target stands...

If I could roust even a good dozen backers, I'd be pleased. More, hey, all the better!

-Mark

Seriously though. At ~$.50 a piece or less, the IDPA cardboard targets at LE Targets work very wel for me. Sure, it's not cheap or recycled but I use masking tape to cover holes and bought them in a BIG box of 100 and always have some on hand.

That's 18" wide by 3' high or something like that? I have a bunch of boxes (broken down) bigger than that; you pick up in downtown Mpls. PM me if you want them (you or anyone else).

Agreed, and you Twin Cities guys should maybe consider yourselves lucky that you can drive to Blaine and pick stuff up from LE Targets. For us in Wyoming, it's a seven-eight hundred mile drive or else having the targets brought here by UPS. If there's a reliable source of used material available, great, but also consider that your time cutting pieces to size might be more fun if you used it to shoot instead of cutting cardboard

Priority Mail and Express Mail flat rate boxes your local Post Office are free.