Creative Targets?

[drew-67]

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;

 

[44forever]

Crackers and cookies (vanilla waffers, etc.)

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

 

[Andy Griffith]

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Out of date eggs make good targets, as well as spoiled vegetables and rotten apples.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.

 

[Joe Kent]

Charcoal bricketts are always fun to use as targets.

 

[Crazy K38]

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!

 

[WHO CARES]

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

 

[Vegetaman]

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

 

[valkyriekl]

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 =)

 

[BigRich315]

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

 

[gunlovingirl]

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

 

[pred]

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

 

[Tom M]

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

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

 

[USAF385]

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!

 

[don95sml]

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.

 

[.460V & XVR Magnum Man]

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.

 

[Andy Griffith]

Large blocks of ice.

 

[deanpf]

Regular old clay pigeons set out around your range area.

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

 

[nicky4968]

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.

 

[Vegetaman]

Regular old clay pigeons set out around your range area.

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

I agree, I use clay pigeons as well.

 

[Engineer1911]

The best target -- ever

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.

 

[cass]

Golf balls, frozen milk jugs and old fire extenguishers

 

[Joni_Lynn]

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.

 

[MWark]

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

 

[K38]

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

 

[DeathGrip]

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.

 

[geddylee10002000]

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....

 

[BigRich315]

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

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

 

[CaptainKirk]

My favorite is one gallon milk jugs filled with water

The blue Maxell House coffee containers are pretty good also

 

[Beauetienne]

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

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

 

[11B Lifer]

Shooting ice

Large blocks of ice.

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.