[swingset]

Ammo, and targets!

Thanks to a neat suggestion from my buddy on rimfirecentral, I built a little holder for some golf tees, and stuck it in front of a log. Topped each tee off with a paintball, and shot at them with the .22 from 35 yards. With a decent scope, that's not too difficult. The total cost of this very fun, reactive and challenging setup? $6.00 + $.99 for the tees. You can shoot all day long, and have a great time for what 1 box of high-power will cost ya.

Here's some pics:
http://home.alltel.net/~swingset/temp/Paintballs_before.jpg
Before I shot - note I staggered them, front to back. If you put them in a straight line and shoot one, it explodes and takes it's neighbor with it, so if you stagger them, and shoot the one in the back first, it doesn't knock the others off.
http://home.alltel.net/~swingset/temp/Paintballs_downrange.jpg
Yes, they're hard to see by the naked eye at 35 yards! Forget it with iron sights, you'd have to be inside of 20 yards to do that well.
http://home.alltel.net/~swingset/temp/Paintballs_after.jpg
The after effects! Cool, watching them go POOF!! Plus, they're biodegradable, cheap and you can pretty much pick any color you want. Then, when you're a master at it, you can move down to the smaller caliber of paintballs. I'm not there yet! :D

[DrPsycho]

Haha, nice... but what if one were to hit a golf tee that's fixed to the block of wood? Would they all topple over like humpty dumpty?

[yzguy]

That is pretty cool.... I'll have to try that when I find a place I can go out back and shoot....

but for right now I can go out back and do the same (at closer distances) with a pellet gun with the kid!! :)

[swingset]

DrPsycho, you can hit the tees (notice in the "after shots" I clipped one or two) and it doesn't knock any over....at least it didn't for me. The holes for the tees I drilled were oversized, so they don't sit in there real tight.

Really, the platform isn't important to the fun, you can sit them on a log or glue them to a big piece of string so they hang from something. It matters not, just thought it was a neato idea for .22's. :D

[George Hill]

I like it.
:D

[El Rojo]

Why wouldn't it also be neat for any gun out to 100 yards? What a great idea. Do I still have some paintballs laying around that are several years old? I just might. I might make this target today. Just gotta find some cheap golf tees and a 2x4. I think my wife is going to like this idea as she usually shoots the 10/22 when I go out to do other testing. Thanks Swingset.

[swingset]

El Rojo, I tried hitting them at 100 too, it's not impossible, but even with my 32x scope on top of the Savage .223, it's quite a chore to nail them with confidence! (at least it is for me!)

With my skills, I'll have to stick to the rimfire at 35 yards.

[Sisco]

I'm going to have to give that a try.
I did try something similar with charcoal briquets but the vibration from the hits made them all fall off.

[cool45auto]

That's a good idea!:cool:

[Al Thompson]

:cool:

[Dave Markowitz]

Cool!

I'm going to have to try this. This would be great for air rifles, too.

[Booran]

if you use brass from the range its even cheaper. they are really hard to hit at a 100yrds with a 7mm and a 3-9 scope on it.

[swingset]

Brass is a cool reactive target.

However, I prefer targets that go away on their own! :D

I used to shoot brass & bricks and all kinds of junk - but in the end I had a huge pile of junk to clean up. Shooting paintballs leaves nothing behind, as do ice cubes, which are also neat to shoot.

I have tennis balls hanging from my target boards too. They can be shot hundreds of times before they disentegrate, and even then are pretty easy to clean up.

[Selfdfenz]

Coolness Swingset.
Like an Egg Shoot, only closer and more colorful.
S-

[Larry Ashcraft]

I'm gonna try it with my .17 HMR. Maybe out to about 75 yards.

[foghornl]

Used a similar setup many years ago when I first started .22LR shooting..

Had a buddy "router" a groove in a 2x4, and I used the 'Necco' brand candy wafers for targets.

Really like the paintball idea, though...and paintballs are probably cheaper than Necco wafers now...

[Pheonix]

What is the distance between the pins? Offset depth?

[swingset]

What is the distance between the pins? Offset depth?

I have mine about 2" apart width wise and 1" depth on the offset.

The big thing tho is to make sure the board is SOLID, either weighted or spiked to the ground. If it's wiggly, an errant shot will knock all the balls off the pins.

You can always just drive the tees into the ground or a log or whatever, that works equally well. :D

[foghornl]

I really like the paintball idea....very reactive targets.

As I recall, though, when I was shooting at Necco wafers (think 1960's) paintball wasn't in use.

An old-time shooting buddy used 'animal crackers' in his 2x4 setup. Think it was some sort of 'ego boost' for him...

"...I can one-shot knock down a rhino, tiger, elephant, etc with my .22LR at 40 yards..."

[Ironbarr]

Sounds like a winner for several calibers/distances. Thanks.

(Patent Pending?????????) :D

[MarkDido]

The way I was shooting my .22 today, I would need a paintball the size of a Volkswagen!

"had a crosswind, the sun was in my eyes, yadda, yadda......."

[Doug444]

Simplest thing for these is string and tape. Suspend a line with several drop strings and just tape the briquets to the drop lines. First hit starts things moving, then it gets really fun.:p

Doug444

[Ironbarr]

not being a paint-baller, I had no idea of the size of paint balls... these tired eyes, looking at the teed-up balls suggested to me that they were about ping-pong ball size.

Today I stopped by the paint ball shelves at a KMART - these are what - .45 or.50 caliber size? Now they must be rather small to the eye even teed up at 7 yards.

If I can't see'em, I can't hit'em (unless they make a noise). But the idea is good, especially if it works for those with decent eyes - or a great fire control system - as in radar, director, computer, weapon, and all the accoutrements that make the system work - not the weapon's trigger assembly).

Oh - BTW, I believe that, with this post, I either decend into the eternal mass of the passe, or advance into the glory and ecstasy of the respected, statesman-like plateau of life known as SENIOR member.

Or is it that I just hit a number flagged to change something in the server computer? Oh well...:D

-Andy

[swingset]

Ironbarr,

You're right, the paintballs are small, more like .68 caliber in most cases.

Notice in my initial post I said it's nearly impossible to hit with iron sights, unless you're standing on top of them.

With any decent scope (6x or greater), it becomes much easier.

Since a good many .22 can easily lay all it's rounds into a .5" target at 25 yards, hitting a paintball isn't a huge challenge, but you will most definately need optics.

[Ironbarr]

Roger That.

Thanks - and Happy Birthday to us all.