Hi All,
I've been looking around the house trying to think of what might make some good targets besides the standard paper bullseye...
Was thinking in-expensive items; like cans, maybe balloons, stuff like that.
So, what targets do you all like to shoot to change it up and have a blast at doing???
I suppose saucers and plates would be cool, but I don't think my Wife would see the humor;

make interesting plinking targets. They usually shatter when hit and since they are readily bio-degradable there is no clean up required.

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Big bang, much smash'em.

Fast food bags- preferably the white ones.
Stick a dot on it, and viola- free target.

Paper bags from the store- if you get them instead of plastic.
I bought a big roll of butcher paper a while back just for target paper since printed targets are far too expensive to shoot!

Out of date eggs make good targets, as well as spoiled vegetables and rotten apples. Please take the rotten apple out of the barrel first.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Charcoal bricketts are always fun to use as targets.

take cardboard and have someone trace out your silhouette, then cut that out then take some balloons and fill them with water and red food color, attach them to the BACK of the target for heart lungs etc, attach the silhouette with balloons to a 2x4 frame and there you go, a realistic training aid that can be quite educational but a lot of fun too, balloons and water with your wife at the range, you do the math just keep her away from the guns!

I am lucky enough to have a Grandma at the farm that loves to garden - but she no longer has a big family to feed so come end of the summer when she has lots of over ripe cucumbers, tomatoes, etc. etc. I love to set them out in the field on a straw bale and blow them up with various varmint rifles. Man do they splatter! AND they are biodegradable!

Ward

After Halloween, on the verge of going rotten pumpkins make awesome targets for pistols, rifles, and shotguns.

cheap, dollar-store stuffed animals are fun to kick around...bullets will go right through them, but if you hit the dirt under them, especially with something like a .223, they'll kick up pretty high. Then you get a buddy with a 12 gauge and some birdshot to shoot them down =)

Not biodegradable and possibly hazardous, so some precautions are needed, but that laptop that bit the dust sure blew apart good!

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Fast is fine;accurate is final

For .22 rifle, try Lifesaver candys hung on a string.

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Misty

Tennis ball hung from a string threaded through the ball.
Peter

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Need 1/2 moon Chiefs special

That's cool. If you miss, you can always claim the bullet passed through the hole.

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Tom

I was in blockbuster when they were taking down a display for the movie "The Hangover". Part of the display was this 3 1/2 ft tall cardboard cutout of one of the characters. A great target if you ask me! I asked if they were throwing it out.. which they were.. and if I could take it.. which I did!

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- The Federalist #46 -

My neighbor asked me to save plastic bottles (with their caps) for him. He fills them with water and uses them for exploding targets. This requires some cleanup, of course.

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Quoth the raven:
"Nevermore"

Empty Plastic Milk Cartons and Orange Juice Cartons filled with water with the cap on tight. You can blast the heck out of them and when you are done you just go pick up a chunk of plastic with a lot of holes in it. No trash left and easy to pick up and then put them in the recycle bin and you are good to go. In a month you will have a lot of targets saved and always make sure to save the lids for the water, makes transportation of them easier with no spilling.

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Craig

Large blocks of ice.

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Lost it all in a boat accident

Regular old clay pigeons set out around your range area.

I personally like to use paper plates both 5" & 9".

for air rifles and air pistols, Necco wafers. If you can find a big bag of them cheap, Animal Crackers. (The boxes used to be so cool, I never used one as a target. Made plenty of circus parades for children with them.)

there was a game invented by two journalists who had been in Katanga Province and other places, which involved shooting at 9 mm cases at various ranges with an air rifle. If a 3" mortar landed within 50 yards of you when you took the shot, you were allowed a second shot. wish I could find that article.

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and what his trumpet saith

I agree, I use clay pigeons as well.

July 1978, the electric circuits college textbook turned to coffetti after shooting it 50 times with my Ruger Blackhawk 44. I was in mechanical engineering. It was a successful study in inelastic collisions and conservation of momentum.

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S&WHF 366

Golf balls, frozen milk jugs and old fire extenguishers

Bowling pins, tennis balls, golf balls, necko wafers, 12 gauge shotguns shells that have been left on the ground, ice cubes (melting problem with those ), 2 liter pop bottles filled with water (& clean up after shooting) my favorite wasn't cheap, I bought my own set of resetting steel plates.

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Lynnie, Professional Pest

Kittens!


Just kidding I love kittens.

I've really gotten hooked on those Shoot-n-see targets. They're a little pricey but I like them a lot.
Welcome to Birchwood-Casey

[QUOTE=nicky4968;1234584]for air rifles and air pistols, Necco wafers. If you can find a big bag of them cheap, Animal Crackers. (The boxes used to be so cool, I never used one as a target. Made plenty of circus parades for children with them.)

I like aspirin at 10 meters with my air pistol. Besides it sounds cool!


Dwight

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Veritas et Humanitas

Take a ballon and put a little baby powder in it,blow it up enough that the breeze will move it on while its hanging on the end of a string.Pick your distance depending on the above factors and gun of choice.

D.G.

A while back my son and I went out to the range. We set up a old server tower, dual monitors, key board, etc. Gave him (15) 12 gauge slugs, 25 rounds 3" buckshot (000, 00, #4). Told him that he could shoot anyway he wanted. I told him that he should think of Bill Gates and all the problems that he had caused him. I think it took about 2 hours to wipe the smile off his face after he got done shredding it. I had some old Crisco in cans laying around and actually bought some new Crisco to replace friends stuff. Boy that stuff flies! Rotten produce is always great. Containers filled with water are good too. A friend gave me a case of outdated Coke and when shaken and shot that was fun. Cans of starting fluid shot with a high power are good. Sat a old gas can filled with old gas on a bale of hay, started the bale burning and shot it with a high power. Wow....

Miss? All of my shots go through the hole...

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Fast is fine;accurate is final

My favorite is one gallon milk jugs filled with water

The blue Maxell House coffee containers are pretty good also

My backyard plinking with my Beeman R7 is a blast with Necco wafers.

Should work with other guns, too, as Joni said.

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" I don't recall, senator."

Hey no kidding-make ice in those disposable 4"x4" plastic storage containers-use some food coloring-or freeze a pop sickle stick in some-so you can prop them up.
Cast ice in plastic bottles too. Environmentaly friendly-when hit they blow apart-only problem is having enough.

Try this one
What is your Fav target????

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SC Army National Guard

Thanks Everyone for all the awesome idea's...you all Rock, Can't wait to try some of them out!
I'm expecially excited about any of the targets that explode or go poof, so that you know you hit it...

Crackers & cookies. Thats a great idea. I imagine the local little furry critters will handle any cleanup needed.

Critter bait? Heh. Little targets bring bigger targets...Well, maybe not without a hunting license...

I read somewhere- place a coin under a canned drink. It leaves a perfect impression on the bottom of the can.

Eggs - they are cheap, fun to shoot, biodegradable, and usually the critters will clean up the mess afterwards.

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"Life is short, hunt hard"

Well, I'm really guilty of giving away my age here, but my cousin and I used to get the lids from a 1lb (good ole days) can of coffee, punch a hole in the center and poke a dandelion thru. Made a great target for country kids and .22's!
clipper1

What a gal!


I cut the bottom from feed bags then split the sides w/razor knife. Three ply heavy brown paper makes for six targets 16-19" wide. If I'm not shooting a scattergun I cut them in half for a smooth dozen.

You know I'm not gonna spend money on orange stick-on bulls when magic markers last as long as they do...

Empty .45 cases make a challenging target....





Went to the range this morning, did a little .22 rifle shooting, then finished up by running some rounds through my Ruger .22/45. Shot some satisfying groups on paper, then taped four empty .45 cases to the target board. Range was seven yards, two handed hold. I hit all four cases, but was only able to recover one. The others flew high and far, I saw one land in the grass at the top of the berm, but couldn't find it in the high grass and mud.

The Ruger .22/45 has to be the best value in a target pistol, period!

Well I was able to get some shooting in today and start the New Year out right...
Actually had a basket of fruit left-over from family Christmas party that I Confiscated.

I had a lot of fun shooting oranges and grapefruit!!! The good news is I was hitting them, but they didn't seem to blow-up like I was hoping...I was shooting Remington 38 special 158 grain LRN, which I find to be extremely accurate in my gun. I was only shooting at 10 yards Double Action rapid fire. I had a couple rounds blast them apart pretty good, but most just went through without much indication.
So then I decided to try filling a plastic bottle with water...this was cool. But still didn't get the explosion like in the previous posted video. But my bottle wasn't air tight, which might have made a difference...

What to shoot next time Sure was a good start to the year!

Canoeguy refreshed my memory, I've spent many an hour shooting shotgun hulls with my cousins.

Set em on the fenceposts about 20 yards away, get a rest on a haybale, and let the .22s fly!

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Fast is fine;accurate is final

[QUOTE=deanpf;1234573]Regular old clay pigeons set out around your range area.

IQUOTE]

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I agree with the orange clay pigeons. I drill a small hole in the lip and hang them on a small wire below my steel plate frame. My son and I shoot at them from 300 and 400 yards. Instant gratification or "dang, I must have pulled that one"................

It does. We like to use #10 cans of tomato sauce, a silver dollar and a .30-378 Weatherby.

I found a great long range target was an old plow point from an antique plow, (hanging from a tree limb). Whenever you hit it, it has a real nice ring to it, and you won't damage it.

Melons explode dramatically, and for real exploding targets, try Tannerite --- safer and cheaper than dynamite, which is also good!

cans of shaving cream rock as reactive targets.....84cj and i take a dozen cans or so to the range when we go... they are a crowd pleaser especially at 100 yards with a pistol! they spray the shaving cream everywhere!!!!!also build a campfire and put a can of spraypaint on a rock beside it, best done at night, when you shoot the can it makes an incredible ball of flames!!!

One of my favorites is a solo cup with a few inches of water in it. Stick it in the freezer for a couple hours then pop it out of the cup set it up on top of a water bottle with no top, or a tree stump and blast away!

OK, thread resurrection in process!

My personal favorite target was back when the range near me wasn't policed and you could bring anything. I'd buy a bag of little plastic army men for a buck ($.99 plus tax back then) and shoot them at 100 yards with my .22 I felt bad that they were based on US army, but I couldn't find any Russian ones at the time.

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So many S&W's, so few funds!!

I like golf balls. Get a bunch spead out somewhere like a sage brush batch and walk around with a K 22 and shoot them as you see them. different angles, ranges. Plus, they move good when hit or a close low miss.

If I miss?

When my son was little he'd take empty 22LR brass and lay them out, flat not standing up, a couple of inches apart on a board across two saw horses and from 50ft or more knock them off one at a time with his single shot Stevens' Favorite.
little showoff anyhow....