I love shooting steel targets. Shooting steel gives you a visual and audible indication that your bullet connected. Unfortunately steel target systems are usually heavy and sometimes expensive. Last Stand LLC has a solution. The Last Stand is a set of two molded plastic brackets. When combined with six 1/2″ rebar rods made of Elgiloy Hastelloy B, they construct an A-frame swing set type target stand. The height of the a-frame can be adjusted by varying the length of rebar inserted through the bracket. This also allows a range of adjustment for angled ground.

To test the Last Stand we hung some JC Steel plates from discarded fire hose. The hose is durable, much lighter than chain and seems to absorb the energy from impacts on steel more efficiently.

Setup was extremely fast. The fit of the Last Stand allows the “legs” to be left inserted into the brackets and folded closed into a stored position. It is then a quick matter to unfold the legs and insert the two cross bars.

Normally we would set this type of target system at 200 yards or more. Shooting 3.5″ to 8″ steel plates at less than 100 yards is not much of a challenge with a precision .308. However with 175gr Match Kings moving at 2600+ fps it gave us a considerable amount of energy transfer into the target. Hitting the large 8″ plate and medium 6″ plate did little to disturb the stand. The 3.5″ plate moved fast enough to jerk the right side of the stand up. It quickly settled back and allowed for followup hits on the other plates.

Shooting steel causes a lot of splatter. The jacket and lead core have to go somewhere. When the bullet impacts the steel plate, the splatter usually moves parallel to the strike face. Over time this splatter can chew a target stand to pieces. Setting the targets at less than 100 yards allowed us to see how the brackets reacted to splatter.

The Last Stand is made of a “bullet resistant material”. The design is intended to allow for rifle or pistol bullets to pass through without substantial damage to the bracket. This is similar to the self-healing targets currently on the market. We did not shoot the bracket to test this. What we did notice was that some of the copper jacket from our Sierra Match King bullets lightly lodged in the bottom of the Last Stand. This most likely will not be an issue with long range shots. Never less it may be a good idea to use gloves when handling the stands after use.

At $39.99 plus a couple bucks for rebar, the Last Stand is an affordable, light weight option for hanging steel.