Besides Paper Targets what do you shoot?

[mainebear]

Stuffed Animals! We get them by the bag from the salvation army thrift store. You can get the old ones that are usually too dirty to sell to kids. A great big bag for $3.00. Loads of fun.

My wife was shooting her 10/22 at this dog with huge ears. she'd hit him on one side of the head, and his ear on the other side would flap straight out. I know it's corny but try it, beats targets for reactive shooting. Kids just learning will laugh themselves silly.

Be careful who you tell though, drives the soccer mom types insane. Happy Shooting

 

[JamisJockey]

Fruit.
Ceramic figurines from a thrift store.
Golf balls.
Bowling pins.
Full soda cans (buy the cheap stuff in bulk), shake well, run back to the firing line, grab a .22 and let 'er rip.....
Crackers (no, not white boys....I mean like Ritz)
Clay pigeons make great stand up targets
Balloons, especially if you can fill 'em with helium.

 

[bogie]

This coming weekend?

Cars. Boats. Trucks. Buses. Appliances. Explosives.

Heh, heh, heh...

 

[Gord]

One thing I enjoy doing with my .22s is setting up empty shotgun shells for knocking down at 100 yards. They're free, they're all over the place at the range and they're brightly colored - can't beat 'em.

When I'm feeling particularly Zaitsevish, I go for the stems on the yellow road daisies that grow all over the place up here. I'm getting pretty good at cutting them down with one shot, but I haven't been able to make a ten-flower bouquet for Mom on a single ten-round mag yet. Oh well, practice makes perfect.

Cheap Shasta/Sam's Club soda cans are usually around two bucks a 12-pack or less, and are great fun to shoot with anything from a BB gun on up to a 12-gauge (whereupon they will basically explode in such a way that there will be little evidence they were ever there). After you're done, take the aluminum in for recycling and get a bit of money back - win/win

Shoot-n-C stick'ems are about fifty cents a sheet for one large ~6" target and four small ~2" targets - good for helping confirm hits on small things that don't jump around, like tin cans weighted down with some sand.

I don't bring my junk to dump anywhere but the actual dump, but if it's already there and in decent shape I'll shoot it and leave it for the next guy. As Utah is by and large not irreversibly fawked up like most of southern California is, I've taken up the habit of carting out more than I bring in.

Any jackrabbit or chipmunk dumb enough to walk into my field of fire while I'm in the process of unloading is fair game, as far as I'm concerned - only had one jack back in SoCal do it, and he was promptly dispatched (a better word might be "disintegrated") by three redneck guys and a woman, all with Mosins. You can tell we're family.

I figured I was doing the rest of rabbitkind a favor.

 

[Detritus]

well on ranges that allow it i've fired upon the following at various times.

Ballons, which will a little bit of ingenuity can be used for all kinds of reative target setups, including build some drills that have legit real world uses.

charcoal Briquettes, chunks of kingsford make really great targets to get new shooters going on. that POOF! is rather satisfying to a newbie in a way that a series of neat little holes isn't likely to manage. and you don't even have to clean it up, the bits will in biodegrade (what parts aren't blown to dust)

of course cans, sometimes if i find a case or two cheap enough, with the soda still in it and shook up good.

golf balls, golf tees, cheap ripoffs of "barney" stuffed dinos....

if it's cheap/free and does not pose a hazard of fire, or other harm/contamination to the range or those using it, and wasn't a total PITA to clean up, I or one of my shooting buddies back in NC, likely tried it.

 

[MSgt B]

For competition, rig up a couple 1 X 4's suspended crosswise. Draw a black line down the middle of each for reference. Who can chop their board in half first?

For the kiddies, get a 1 foot square piece of scrap drywall and suspend it by the top corners. You can tape whatever target you want over it. Each hit makes a nice little puff of white smoke.

 

[BigBlock]

I like to shoot CDs. They're bright and shiny and explode nicely if you hit 'em right. I've got TONS of old AOL CDs and other stuff I've burned that I don't need anymore...

 

[Mikhail Konovalov]

Bottles, cans, snakes... Pizza boxes... Squirrels... Keyboards... You know what, I'll shoot just about anything that moves. And if it doesn't move, I'll shoot it and make it move.

 

[American_Pit_Bull]

Steel head plates on stands that I made.

 

[learn2shoot]

I like the little exploding targets, old hub caps, clay targets, steel plates, printer ribbons, old toilets, those "Believe" bumper stickers (with wad cutters), bowling pins, rusted out cars, glass, crows, rats, and rats with the little exploding targets taped to their backs (haven't gotten to this one yet).

Heard the idea of Necco Wafers from another guy on this board.

 

[Neo-Luddite]

large marshmellows are a good challenge, will float (for a bit), and bio-degrade quickly.

As said punkins--but filled with expired jello mix and water--allow to set overnight.