Any one have experience with dueling trees?

[bigkyle72]

I am going to be making my own and I as wondering what diameter to make the circles. Im thinking 6" would be good. It is going to be for pistol at about 25 yards and .223 at 100-200 yards.

Thanks in advance

[ar15barrels]

6" is a small pistol target at 25yds.
It would be a good size for 100yds rifle, but would again be small for 200yds.

Make the frame and the pivots MUCH stronger/thicker than you think they need to be.
Comercially made dueling trees that can handle rifle cartridges will use a pair of 1" nuts as the pivot points and then put 13/16" or 3/4" steel pins through the nuts for the pivot point.
Then, weld a 5/8" x 3" flat bar to the pivot pin to go over to the plate.
Protect the pivot platex behind 2" x 3/8" wall angle iron so that only the AR500 plates are outside of the angle iron.