Does Your Range Allow Plinking?

paper only. seems silly to me, but it their range, their rules. If I'm just shooting .22's, i'll do that in my back yard. I shoot against a stacked firewood backstop with a 60 acre field behind that followed by dense woods. I'll plink my plinker, or cans, tomatoes, etc.

If I want to go shoot stuff, I go out to the desert past the Great Salt Lake. I've grown up though, no more shooting cars, computers, tvs, etc. I will take gallon jugs of water, or sometimes a case of light beer in cans to shoot, and I pick up when I'm done. I leave pumpkin carnage.

Mine is plinking. What would be the probable solution for it?

In Nevada, it was as simple as driving 5 minutes down the road, turning left into the desert and hitting up the makeshift range at the base of a Mesa.

Only 'paper targets' were cardboard zombies.

Other than that, it was shooting cowbells hanging off of "T posts" at 100+ yds and cans / bottles off saw horses.

Now that I am back in Indiana, the rules are different. The closest range to me is kind of nice, and they try to keep it that way. This means no bottles, no glass. Just paper targets.

While I don't get the same satisfaction from shooting a paper torso as I do popping 5 glass bottles down the line on top of a saw horse, I'm still grateful for having the opportunity to go there and play by their rules.

Other than the normal safety rules, my range only has three rules.

1. Under no circumstances are you to allow a bullet to go over the berm.

2. No shooting at stuff that's not easily cleaned up.

3. Under no circumstances are you to shoot the range owner.



Not necessarily in that order.

Our club range is a 50' indoor pistol range. It's not safe to shoot anything other than paper targets at the end of the range.

If I wanted to shoot junk, I could go out to a local outdoor range which allows you to shoot most any kind of crap. Since I shoot bullseye pistol, it's not worth the trip for me.

At the club I belonged to in MA, we could shoot little stuff like clay pigeons or a can on a string. People brought stuff to shoot at, though. Some people obeyed the rules and others didn't. The main reason for no plinking is that people would lean stuff up against the target stands and shoot up the dang stand. There was also some concern about ricochet and messes people would leave. The club my friend went to would allow plinking in a certain area as long as the bullets terminated in the berm. You also had to keep your target/victim item close to the berm.

Paper only at our outdoor County range, but it's free...........

I guess I never realized that "plinking" implied shooting at nontraditional targets. I always thought it was just casual shooting.

You learn something every day. Especially when you're a relative noob like me.

I shoot at a public outdoor range with no range officers so basically anything goes.

I belong to a members only shooting club with no range officer or supervisor ever. They give you the combination to the gate with your membership and they simply ask that you clean up after yourself. One time $50 a year, it's great.

I go to two official ranges: the private range (outdoor-300meter) is paper and metal only, the public one (outdoor-550meter) is a free-for-all.

The only restrictions at my range are no full auto, and you can't shoot steel with anything more than .22LR.

Other than that go nuts, be safe, and pick up your mess.


I was popping full Coke bottles last time with some hot 5.56 rounds and watching them explode in a gushers Coke.

The local range has a rule that any non-standard targets have to be approved. I've been meaning to take a dead laptop hard drive out there and ask if they'll let me shoot it. I don't see why they wouldn't. It's made of aluminum. Even a .22LR would pass clean through. I mostly want to clobber it with a 7.62x54R soft point, though.

One public range I shoot at is paper targets only. The other public range lets you shoot anything but glass, just clean up your mess. I shoot a lot of vegetables there. Any thing left gets eaten by the wild life. This is a great time of year. I hate green peppers and cucumbers and they are cheap and plentiful right now.

It would be a sad day if I couldn't go out and see to what extent my 500 S&W Handi-Rifle reloads could destroy various things.
Bystanders like it as much as I do.

I hav'nt belonged to a private club for 60 years--there we could shoot anything ( except people) 100 yard.
Now I have to drve 70 miles to a state range.
Paper only.
No fee---helps pay for the gas...............................

My range will usually just let you shoot paper, but there are also bowling pin comps and steel shoots as well. You can't shoot whatever you want, only the things that are in the comps. We can't shoot at whatever we want because the firearms registry will have a sook.

I bought my own, never had a problem since.

No, if you define "plinking" as being able to shoot at just about any type of stuff that you can toss out there.

We are allowed paper, their steel, hanging targets and balloons. That's about it.