Tin Cans

[Boudiepitbull]

I've acquired quite a collection of steel targets and stands on my home range. Despite having all that fancy stuff at my fingertips, yesterday and purely on a whim, I pulled six empty dog food cans out of the recycling and set them up on an old milk crate and had at it with a couple of .22 revolvers. Watching those cans skip across the lawn was more shooting fun than I've had in ages. Who'd of thought that banging away at a couple of tin cans could harken back to such a simple pleasure?

 

[glenncal1]

Take the cans and fill 2/3 with water and freeze. They become better targets that way especially if they are thin metal. Hitting one with a higher powered round will usually cause can to tear apart so they are better for rimfire than center fire.

 

[Rich Richardson]

I recycle my tin cans with a 44 magnum.

 

[sceva]

Cans and plinking; what could be more fun.

One of the few Tie Tacks I still have is a little bullet riddled sterling tin can by Sid Bell.

 

[Rudi]

They jump real good!

 

[robvious]

the simple joys of life are best...

 

[tlawler]

Great thread! I love shooting cans too, though when I first clicked on it, I thought it would be about Navy Destroyers.

 

[STCM(SW)]

Sorry, but Tin Can's were the most ships I have been on!
And a 22 LR is no good shooting at them!
LOL!

 

[BAM-BAM]

4" clays are also a hoot to shoot....... fulls, halves, quarters and then the little bitty pieces!

 

[Alk8944]

Two of my favorite targets for handguns are shotgun targets (clay pigeons) and potatoes. If you are where you can safely shoot indiscriminately, like out on the desert, potatoes are excellent "targets of opportunity" for double-action draw and shoot and point shooting practice. A 5 or 10 pound sack of potatoes will go a long way on an afternoon as they break-up when hit and the pieces then make good secondary targets.

The best thing about either of these are the remnants don't have to be picked up when you are through, both are bio-degradable, although the clays take a bit longer than the potatoes.

 

[lihpster]

My brother's favorite place to get targets was the produce aisle. Potatoes, oranges, lettuce what have you. Pretty cheap and the animals take care of the cleanup. One time there were 5 of us going, so, he bought 5 watermelons and some toothpicks and we used oranges for eyes and a bananna for the mouth. We each had a head to shoot into little bitty pieces. It was fun.

 

[CalifEd]

Used to use Animal Crackers and a .22 to simulate long range targets.
Plus you don't have to hike to set them up or retrieve 'em.

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

Instead of pop-cans I got a half dozen Black-Pipe nipples 2" size by 5" long. They lasted years, until some guys with AR's tore into them!

Ivan

 

[twodog max]

I like to shoot hickory nuts and pine cones small rocks oversized cucumbers just about any small target or anything that splatters that is non toxic. Fun like 60 years ago

 

[fiasconva]

Water bottles are a hoot to shoot too. They come in various sizes and when filled back up shooting them with a 22 makes great special effects. Add a little colored water and the kids love it.

 

[BAM-BAM]

My folks use to feed the birds black oiled sunflower seeds at the cabin....this required at least two "Safaries" a summer to thin out the chipmunk "herd"!

 

[TX-Dennis]

Aluminum beverage cans are great fun to shoot. They can really fly when you hit them low.

 

[Golddollar]

Back some time ago I developed a match for pocket pistols at my club in Maryland. The targets were Oreo cookies held by rubber bands stretched between two vertical metal rods attached to a horizontal metal rod attached to a pole set in the hole in a stack of cinder blocks ( o/" And the hip bone's connected to the thigh bone o/"). Amazing what a .38 Special can do to an Oreo cookie at 7 yards. There probably were a lot of happy skunks and oppossums that night after the match.

 

[robvious]

had a late friend that would "hot glue" gumballs to golf tees & mount them in holes drilled in a flat 2x6 at 15 yards or so... he would pop the gumballs, then whittle the golf tee... he had a blast..

 

[BRL40]

Aluminum beverage cans are great fun to shoot. They can really fly when you hit them low.

We were shooting tin cans with AR's and thought we were missing, so we went downrange and discovered the bullets were zipping right through both sides without even moving them.

Then we shot the dirt at the base and the dirt spray launched them into the stratosphere!

Anyway we've switched to plastic bottles and that at least gets them to move a little, but it's still a hoot to shoot at the base to launch them a good distance away.