Fun Targets

People are nuts to shoot anything made of glass. Don't care if it is your property. Who wants broken glass around?

Before our area was developed as it is now, idiots used to shoot TVs, old cars, appliances etc. What a mess.

Then of course there are the gender reveal parties that shot tannerite and set off major fires.

Propane tanks with sterno gel or make your own gel with a lil Styrofoam and Gasoline, that way you can keep the flame going and put it where you want it, controlled. Then you would have a nice fireball but you probably want to be a good ways back and far away from any populated area.


ETA: far away from any dry vegetation as well....preferably in a clearing in the middle of winter with snow on the ground....

From the rear deck, shooting BBs at dandelion puff balls in the back yard provided hours of fun for our grandkids when they were young. And shooting the puff balls helped with the proliferation of dandelions in our back yard.

T_Walker said:

Soda cans filled with water and frozen. I usually have at least 6 in the freezer. Puts a smile on everyone's face, especially new shooters.

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Be careful... you might start a snowstorm.

.308 Norma said:

From the rear deck, shooting BBs at dandelion puff balls in the back yard provided hours of fun for our grandkids when they were young. And shooting the puff balls helped with the proliferation of dandelions in our back yard.

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I work my tail off trying to keep them out of my yard, there is no way I will help seed them. LOL

.308 Norma said:

From the rear deck, shooting BBs at dandelion puff balls in the back yard provided hours of fun for our grandkids when they were young. And shooting the puff balls helped with the proliferation of dandelions in our back yard.

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That reminds me of the hours upon hours we spent shooting sycamore balls out of trees. Mother nature’s exploding targets.

Craziest thing I ever shot was a bowling ball. Numerous shots from a .44 mag and just little chips of bowling ball came off. One shot 7 mag 139 grain at about 75 yards it absolutely disintegrated.

Anything you shoot with a 10mm is fun.

Soda cans filled with water are impressive...

I have a zoo of small sized AR 500 animal silhouettes, a dueling tree for both centerfire snd rimfire guns, and this latest dual swinging paddle/ central paper target stand from ALCO targets.



Sadly I live in an area where trigger trash empty out their junk rooms to shoot stuff and leave the mess behind, so I prefer pack it in- pack it out steel targets.

Stay safe.

Speedo66 said:

Will a .22 penetrate a propane tank or fire extinguisher?

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I watched (from a distance) a guy shooting 30lb propane cylinders. He said they had to be ruptured or the recycler wouldn't take them. First .22's, which did nothing. Then shotgun with bird shot from about 50' away that also so did nothing. Eventually he got around to using deer slugs and got the desired effect. Empty tanks with open valves of course.

Mostly shoot steel, sometimes clay birds on a rail. Overripe veggies from the garden.
Most fun was shooting through the centers of 3/8" flat washers at 100 yards with a 9mm. Through the hole every time without ever hitting the washer.

Riomouse911 said:

I have a zoo of small sized AR 500 animal silhouettes, a dueling tree for both centerfire snd rimfire guns, and this latest dual swinging paddle/ central paper target stand from ALCO targets.
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Sadly I live in an area where trigger trash empty out their junk rooms to shoot stuff and leave the mess behind, so I prefer pack it in- pack it out steel targets.

Stay safe.

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Same here. I have a bunch of others, ones I made out of saw horses and such, target stands for cardboard, etc... but the ones like this are the most portable, pretty slick and sets up/ packs up in less than 5 minutes. All that's needed with the Yankee thunder kit is 40' of 1" Dia metallic conduit and the 33% silhouette mounts right to a 2x4. Very quick and easy setup.

Reactive "Battleship" targets, just like the game you played as a kid.

luzyfuerza said:

when it was time to clean up.

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Exactly!

doubleh said:

It's a shame that they are left where used instead of being placed in the numerous trash containers after being shot to pieces.

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Exactly, again!

Rule3 said:

People are nuts to shoot anything made of glass.

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Exactly, a pita to clean up!

Riomouse911 said:

Sadly I live in an area where trigger trash empty out their junk rooms to shoot stuff and leave the mess behind, so I prefer pack it in- pack it out steel targets.

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Exactly,thank you!

My wife and I got tired of all the trash at an outdoor gun range that we frequent. Very informal with no management except a !0.00 dollar yearly membership.
She went out there on her own to start to clean it up.
Tons of crap picked up and hauled to the transfer station.

We also pick-up a couple of gravel pits too. I do not want to give "gunners" a bad name and have these places gated off.
My motto has always been pack it in, pack it out!
Playing in and next to the BWCA has taught me that, as well as with my parents growing up. (NO!, I am not a tree-hugger!!!)

A picture of the target stand I built after clean-up. (Railroad rails for uprights)


A picture of after over five years of cleaning up this place looking "upfield" .Can you see the buck in velvet?


Wish I had better pix, especially when it was ugly.
(Not really)

The best to me for reactive targets (which I have posted before) is ice.
No clean-up required!!!

12GA up in the pine trees after an ice storm or fluffy snow storm.... like a winter wonderland, especially if you get the right lighting. If it's fairly dark and you catch the right light coming g off a flood light or something, it looks like a million lil diamonds falling from the sky

Took some shots at a 20lb propane tank with my 45. One of the lead bullets came back and hit me in the thigh. It expanded to about 80 cal perfectly off the tank and didn't feel good on the leg. Never had a bullet bounce back "in one piece" off AR 500 targets.

DazedandConfuzed: Thanks for the idea which I had forgotten about. It's good to watch large, empty drink bottles tethered very loosely (weedeater cord) to any loose board. They jump like a frightened cat.

To hang a frying pan at a fairly steep berm at Action Pistol lanes, a simple, thick metal rod might work fine. We can't use most rifle rounds on the AP's metal plates set up by the club.

My nib ZPAP arrives this week, might need a steel frying pan.

balloons are fun to shoot. inflated and tied to something ,they move a bit if there is any breeze so you have to pick your shot , you know if you hit it, and clean up is easy

Eggs, oranges and ice are my reactive targets of choice.

I love the ideas; getting shooters to have fun seems to be more of a motivator than self-preservation at times. Hmmphf?

The club to which I belong has an absolute ban on any target placed on the ground. The primary danger is bullet 'bounce' or ricochet. Any round passing over our back stop - lots of dirt - ends up on the National Guard property. They get upset about it.
The other problem we seem to have is nothing exclusive. Cleaning up after one's self. Every time I use the range, I end up picking up trash, usually shot up targets or target backers (card board). I find the idea of naturally decomposing or wildlife edible items very attractive. Except too many folk would leave about 600 miles of string.
A similar problem is old propane tanks. Someone would bring out a tank that hasn't been opened or purged and some other someone would shoot it with a heavy centerfire rifle.
Living in the Great Central Plateau of North America, summers are usually dry. At least dry enough a goodly portion of the summer. Fire is a concern.

I do love gong type targets. Getting the proper metal to withstand 'rifle' rounds is key. Or just segregating the targets so the lighter pistol only stuff doesn't get shot up by the high velocity rifle stuff.

For .22 rifles I like to set up spent shotgun shells. 40-50 yards with open sights, a little further with a scope, and a mixture of 12 ga, 20 ga, and even some .410. It reminds me of shooting at plastic army men with my bb gun as a kid.

These candy pops are cheap and shatter nicely when hit with a .22 LR. The paper handles are easy to staple to any target stand and the whole thing is bio degradable

jmorris' post made me remember this of years ago...I am not advocating this, (especially now, being so dry that I am afraid my spit may spark a fire)

A gallon size jug filled with gasoline with a glowing road flare 2-3 feet away. Done in Winter with snow on the ground here.

Shoot that jug'o gas with your high powered rifle near dusk....COOL!

Now go pick up that plastic after the fire is out!

Use care out there!
B.L.

If you want tactical training you can set these up at random spots low on the berm.



If you want practice for the hunting season you can use these held up by a small base of modeling clay