How to make homemade airgun spinner targets!

As promised, here is the tutorial for making your own spinner targets like the ones in the picture below.

I will do a tutorial for how to make the 20mm spinner target but the size can all be adapted to make them bigger or smaller.


Materials list:

• 3 or 4mm steel plate minimum of 20mm x 50 mm - ideally a bit bigger to allow you some room to work
• 1 x Coach bolt 80mm long by 6mm (see picture below for a better guide as to what you need)
• 2 x washers big enough to fit over the coach bolt.
• 20-30mm of aluminium or steel tube that will fit over the coach bolt and still be able to spin freely
• Paint

Tools list:

• Drill and 7 or 8mm drill bit
• Bench vice or clamp of some form
• Hand files - half round and flat
• Hacksaw
• Adjustable spanner
• Marker pen

1. Use your marker pen to mark out the shape of the target onto the steel - I drew around an object that was 20mm diameter and then drew a "tab" at the top. The "tab" will be the part you drill through that the target will spin on. 

Something like this shape will do nicely

2. Place the steel plate in your vice and cut out as close as you can to the lines with the hacksaw, just don't cut past your marked out lines. It is easiest to cut lots of straight lines that cut as close as possible to the marker lines, leaving any rounded corners for the file later on. (see picture below for clarification)

The cut pattern for the hacksaw

3. Swap the hacksaw for the half round file and file away the metal at points 1 and 2 in the picture below to make the concave shape around the tab

4.  Now use the flat file to file the convex edges of the target until you have reached the marked out line all the way around. 

5. Drill a 7 or 8mm hole in the top of the tab like the picture below.

6. Turn the target upside down and tighten the tab in the vice. only put it in the vice as far as the hole in the top.

Tighten it in the vice as far as the line in this picture

7. Take the adjustable spanner and open the jaws just enough to be able to slide it over the rounded part of the target. Now turn the handle of the spanner 90 degrees to put the twist into the tab.

Imagine the thick black line to be the spanner. This is the positioning you should be aiming for

8. You have now made the target part of the spinner. Just slide the components onto the coach bolt in the order shown in the picture below and you are ready to screw it into any fencepost, tree or just a piece of wood you can knock into the ground.

Have fun testing your DIY skills out and have fun shooting the targets. Please email me pictures through my profile if you make any your self I would love to see them.