Glass targets???

[oldman45]

I may be a step left of center but I do not think people should use glass bottles for target practice. After reading on a gun forum about people enjoying shooting at empty glass bottles, I made a remark that the glass breaks and then is on the ground for animals to cut their feet with, people to step on and tires to be flattened with.

People began to tell me that I was talking like a tree hugger, a hippie and other things.

Am I correct in not wanting broken glass on the ground? It seems to me to be bad sportsman conduct. From what I read on that site, I am the only one that feels this way.

 

[BarbC]

I think anything not biodegradable is litter at best and vandalism at worst.

 

[novalty]

I shoot on my father's property, and I would be in for a major butt kicking if I was shooting glass. Just the typical: paper, pumpkins, milk jugs, balloons, and shop-vac. Okay the shop-vac isn't typical, but man did it have it coming, after dying in the middle of a clean-up. Everything is cleaned up throughly afterwards.

 

[truckemup97]

I'm pretty sure it would be a bad idea unless, possibly, you were shooting in a dump, and the glass was to be quickly covered with several feet of dirt. If you were shooting glass on my land, I'd make sure you never did it again.

 

[Rugskipper]

Hey, if John Wayne can do it, why can't everybody?

Seriously, I've always thought that shooting glass showed bad form.

 

[anoblefox]

My take is that when glass is left forever for everyone thereafter to see, it leaves a bad impression on the shooting sport. We should be respectful about the image we present of ourselves. I know some would think I am just acting like a sissie, but whenever I shoot glass, I pick it up and pack it out. It has nothing to do with animals, and I am no tree hugger!

 

[HAWKEYE10]

I may be a step left of center but I do not think people should use glass bottles for target practice. After reading on a gun forum about people enjoying shooting at empty glass bottles, I made a remark that the glass breaks and then is on the ground for animals to cut their feet with, people to step on and tires to be flattened with.

People began to tell me that I was talking like a tree hugger, a hippie and other things.

Am I correct in not wanting broken glass on the ground? It seems to me to be bad sportsman conduct. From what I read on that site, I am the only one that feels this way.

You must have been on Glock Talk. Where ever you were posting they were wrong. Don

 

[oldman45]

You must have been on Glock Talk. Where ever you were posting they were wrong. Don

Nope, I was on a gun forum for the local state area. Normally it is a group of decent folks but they seem to not have a problem littering an area with broken glass.

 

[rimfired]

Interesting post. I agree with all that if you don't clean-up your targets, whatever material, it's littering and worse. No matter whose property.

Just had to grin thinking about Wild Bill and Annie shooting blown/thrown glass balls for exhibition.

Times have changed.

 

[snowman]

I agree with everyone else -we shouldn't be shooting glass.

Andy

 

[G.T. Smith]

A while back, someone created a poll concerning the preference of cans or bottles for beer. I had to say mine was cans because they are so much easier to clean up. When my grandchildren come out to visit I like to think that they can play anywhere on this property with the chances of getting cut kept to a minimum. I have picked glass shards out of my garden spot for 20 years or so. Where does my youngest grandaughter head when she spots a freshly tilled section of dirt? That's right, the garden, lays down, crawls around throwing dirt clods.
Isn't it kinda hard to tell exactly where you are hitting when you shoot a bottle? No, please don't shoot glass bottles on my land, I don't and neither does any one I know of. But then I don't stray too far from here, and I only got a couple of shooting buddies left that ain't died or moved to a foreign country like St. Louis or something.
Peats,
gordon

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Why not spread a tarp or plastic sheet on the ground, or use boxes they will fall into?

 

[Rule3]

Why not spread a tarp or plastic sheet on the ground, or use boxes they will fall into?

It would never contain it all. Shards will be flying everywhere, not only is it a mess but a major hazard. I have dropped a drinking glass on the kitchen floor (tile) and there are tiny Little particles of glass all over, some end up 15 -20 feet away in the family room.

I always wanted to shoot an old CRT or TV and watch it imploded though.

 

[Indiana George]

Close to 50 years ago, (I'm 56 now) my father would take my brother and I to Woolworth's - a local "Five & Dime" to purchase long strips of these, to be used as targets for our bb guns and slingshots: We stuck them on top of fence posts, between the strands of barbed wire, in the mud, etc.

The critters eat what shattered candy didn't disolve in the rain and the 'sticks' are biodegradable if left behind. (We usually didn't)

I am now using them with my 7-year-old grandson and he enjoys shooting them as much as I did. (And still do!)

 

[doublesharp]

Shooting glass targets is a bad idea.

 

[Andy Griffith]

I have to respectfully disagree, somewhat...

There is nothing wrong with shooting glass- responsibly.

Used to do it at the dump when I was a kid on our place- I only regret that most of the bottles I shot are now collectible. Bottles and other "hard" trash must have been thrown out there for two or three generations, as there has always been glass and other junk there for at least three generations. That pile is still there I'm certain, although likely grown up in bushes.

I've also shot them at a municipal dump like others on here did many, many years ago- but rats and mice were much more fun.

 

[PDL]

When out in CA for my last year of the army, we'd go down to the dump and shoot glass or rats. There was broken glass all over the pits anyway.
I'd certainly not shoot glass in my yard etc. But at the dump it didn't add a hazard.

 

[venomballistics]

it can be done in the right environment, without becoming an issue.
Im not big on glass smashing ... but then I never really had an area I could turn into a walk in meat grinder

 

[pilgrim6a]

!!! CAUTION !! BOF CONTENT !!!
When I was a lad, my favorite place was an old quarry. We would sneak the guns and a box of .22s (just 1, 50 rd box!) out and walk down there. It was 50' deep and half of the bottom was a stagnant, scum covered pond. And a never ending supply of wine bottles. But the best was winter, when the water on the rock face would turn into a frozen waterfall.
If I ever find another place to plink,ice blocks will be my target of choice.
You can't get more biodegradable than that.

 

[oldman45]

I have to respectfully disagree, somewhat...

There is nothing wrong with shooting glass- responsibly.

Used to do it at the dump when I was a kid on our place- I only regret that most of the bottles I shot are now collectible. Bottles and other "hard" trash must have been thrown out there for two or three generations, as there has always been glass and other junk there for at least three generations. That pile is still there I'm certain, although likely grown up in bushes.

I've also shot them at a municipal dump like others on here did many, many years ago- but rats and mice were much more fun.

Ok, let me jump in here again. This all took place in Shreveport, LA.

Back in the mid 50's, my father and I often would take one of his company trucks to the dump (he owned the company) and we would get rid of all the waste materials left from the jobs underway. While there, we would take a couple boxes of .22 rounds and shoot his H&R nine shot handgun and my Winchester single shot rifle. We enjoyed shooting glass bottles at the old dump.

Fast forward to the late 90's, the very large city dump is relocated and changed to a landfill way outside of town. The dump is covered with a few feet of dirt and turned into a city park.

Jump to about 2005. Kids are playing in the park and begin to be cut with glass. At first it is thought the glass was being broken at the park. It was later found the glass was working it's way to the surface, as are other items, that were dumped over 60 yrs ago.

Now I think back to all the bottles my father and I used as targets in a dump way out of harms way. I am pretty much certain that the bulldozers that moved the debris around broke a lot of glass as well so shooters were not the only offenders back then. Yet we contributed to it.

Sorry but glass does not go away.