Does anyone get bored target shooting?

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fulloflead

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I've been target shooting at the very-nice indoor gun club I belong to for years with handguns; especially with the magnum and bigbore revolvers I love so much.

I, personally, don't care to hunt and I can't really go "plinking" because the Colorado Mountains are so crowded and regulated now-a-days that I'd have to drive for several hours to find a deserted spot that's safe and legal for shooting.

Sometimes I put up a silouette at various distances and practise "double-taps" from a "ready" position. But drawing and shooting from a holster is against club rules for safety reasons so I can't do that. I also can't shoot very rapid fire for club safety reasons as well. (1 shot per second is the rule of thumb.)

I don't mind shooting for score or shooting for groups; heck I've been doing that kind of shooting for years and I could probably do it forever and probably will.

I've considered competition, but I only like to shoot leisurely sometimes and sometimes I don't feel like shooting at all for a month. I couldn't ever commit to doing once-a-week competitions or even be sure I could even be there the day a monthly competition was held.

Basically, I just shoot for fun and I'd like to KEEP it that way.

But, do you ever get bored with score or group target shooting?

What could someone do (alone) to "spice-up" a day at the range instead of hanging a target and shooting groups but still be safe and follow range rules? (I don't mind burning a lot of ammo!)
 
I find myself in the same situation. I'm just tired of shooting paper. I want to shoot something more fun and reactive. I also want to shoot from a position other than standing, facing my target.

Public ranges can never allow that kind of shooting because there is no way for them to know the safety of people who shoot there.

Most private ranges allow you to shoot what and how you like because they require you to have specific training/safety classes before they allow you to join.

Finding a spot to shoot for free on public land is also problematic. As you said, public land if filling up. There are a few places you can go but I'm working on finding new places around Denver. I recently got leads on 3 places but they need to be scouted since the information that lead me to them is from 1996.

Check out my web site from my signature. I'm gathering information on places to shoot on public land and also on private ranges. I have some descriptions and some maps. There are a few economical private ranges bordering Denver. There are also a few expensive ones. You choice depends on a number of factors but location might be one of them. There are a few east, a few south, 1 west, and I'm still looking for North (most of our development is leading north)

Pawnee National Grasslands is the most popular place to shoot for free but it is a drive. Not something to do for an hour or two.
 
I got bored with standing around, so I shot IDPA for a while.

Then I got bored of driving 45 minutes each way to a match. So I started my own IDPA club.

Now I get to do whatever the hell I want!

I like stand and shoots, but every month I manage to squeeze in one "USPSA Lite" course just for ????s and grins. Everyone has fun with it.
 
Same problem here.

Legend has it that somewhere around here in OK City, there's a "River" that numerous people have gone shooting... .50 BMG, tree stumps with shotguns, full auto; the trouble is, of every local shooter I've talked to, all have gone shooting there, but absolutely never have I ever been told exactly where this place is.

So what do I do? When I get bored of groups, I try to draw pictures on the target with .22 holes. Spirals, attempts to blow out whole circles, even an not-too-bad X.

I really wish I knew where this River is... :mad: *hint hint*
 
I got tired of punching holes as well so I started shooting trap. In shooting trap, I'm not really going for score....just proficiency. When I get more time to go out there, I'm going to start shooting sporting clays.....with my 870:cool:

Shooting clays with a pump gun will be interesting to say the least.

I'm also going to order some of those spring loaded metal targets from Cabelas for when I go out to the National Forest range. Never have to go down range again.....
 
I gotta agree! Living in California, there's nothing to shoot at except paper. And its BORING!

My solution is also trap shooting. But that is expensive also. Approx 50 bucks for 4 rounds (ammo included) around here. Hopefully I'll try skeet again, but I was so discourage by my last score on the skeet field that I'm afraid to shoot skeet again... :eek:


Finding outdoor ranges that lets you shoot whatever you want is rare around here. And there's no outdoor land to shoot here also.

So many regulations, so little place to shoot.
 
Finding outdoor ranges that lets you shoot whatever you want is rare around here. And there's no outdoor land to shoot here also.
Click to expand...

Same deal here in MD, but when I escape back to the United States in Virginia for a weekend there's a range in the George Washington Nationa Forest that is pretty much unsupervised. It's actually a nice place with a covered firing line and several shooting benches. I've never seen a ranger there.
 
i would like to second (or third) the clay targets suggestion. i was in the same situation a few months ago until i found the shotgun sports. i talk about it here: http://thehighroad.org/showthread.php?s=&threadid=69541

i think, shotgun sports are the most popular of the shooting sports in the US.


Norton,
tell me more about the shooting ranges in GW national forest. i was checking out the web site. it looks like a great place, but it's big. where do you suggest going? i've also been planning to go on a weekend camping trip in the near future. GW would it be a good place? i could go camping and shooting in the same weekend - woohoo!
 
fulloflead,

Same problem here...boring! But, look at it this way. At least you live in beautiful Denver and not BORING flat Ohio.
 
Tgts Boring

Join the service, they can send you where the tgts shoot back!!! Believe me when i say it is NO fun!!! Thats why i love tgt shooting its safe! HaHa!!
 
I shoot at a private range. When I get tired of paper it's targets of opportunity. Unbroken clay pigeons, rocks, pop can, whatever.
After I built my target 10/22 I would sit at the bench and pick off bumble bees hovering over wild flowers at ranges of 25-50 yards. Kind of like hunting dove, don't hit 'em all but it's neat when you do!
 
Guess I'm lucky. Get to go to my club during the week, and usually have the place to myself, even though there's almost 900 members. During those solo sessions, I "modify" the rules a bit to get in more useful practice. Yup, draw and shoot on the move, jump behind my vehicle for cover, etc. etc. And, let's not forget to mention the usefulness of a shot timer to chart one's progress. The random delay start feature is most handy.
 
Legend has it that somewhere around here in OK City, there's a "River" that numerous people have gone shooting... .50 BMG, tree stumps with shotguns, full auto; the trouble is, of every local shooter I've talked to, all have gone shooting there, but absolutely never have I ever been told exactly where this place is.

So what do I do? When I get bored of groups, I try to draw pictures on the target with .22 holes. Spirals, attempts to blow out whole circles, even an not-too-bad X.

I really wish I knew where this River is... *hint hint*
Click to expand...
Oh yeah, my parents live in OKC, and that's where we always go to shoot. It's a great place. The river banks are lined with all sorts of stuff that makes great natural targets. A little while back, someone put up some self resetting reactive steel targets. A little ways down from that is the automatic clay machine.


:evil:

Seriously, I know what you mean. Everyone around here talks about some river that they shoot at, and noone will tell me where it is either. If you're bored, shoot IDPA, IPSC, etc.
 
dghboy,

The range we go to is about 35 minutes west of Staunton, VA in a little town called Augusta Springs. Once you get to the little burg, you hang a right and drive 2-3 miles back up into the mountains.

My in-laws are from down there so it's convenient for us......
 
I don't get bored punching paper...as long as I'm using a rifle.

Handguns and shotguns require moving, multiple targets, dynamic enviroments. I have my own range and can do what I want. For those where that is not an option: IDPA, 3 gun, etc.

Smoke
 
In the dead of winter I enjoy shooting indoors, but once spring rolls around I love to get out to the range and shoot outdoors. I love to draw and shoot, and also setup two targets. I will shoot twice at the first and twice at the second.
 
Absolutely! When I first began shooting, a little over 20 years ago, the person that introduced me to it had a truck and it didn't take terribly long to get to an area where we could do some fun plinking at various targets such as cans, paint can lids etc. placed in assorted arrangements. He has since moved away, I don't have an offroad vehicle, and urban sprawl has taken over so much of the area that once was available for shooting that now it would take twice the amount of time to find a spot to shoot at even if I could get there. I do get tired of shooting at only paper and would love the opportunity to get back to real plinking.
 
I despise shooting for groups. Shooting for group is right up there with watching grass grow or looking at a display of Glocks. Visual Valium.

I found an ex-forest service landing strip that is almost 400yds end-to-end. No RO's or gun snobs.

I set up multiple targets at varying ranges from 50-300 yards and then let the lead fly. Usually with my Tupperware Special, lately I am using my 91/30 for a change of pace. Even with targets as big as pop-cans trying to knock all of them off as fast as I can is pretty difficult.
I also play golf. Golf being setting up golf balls on tees sunk into a 2x4 and trying to knock the ball off at varying ranges from 100-250yds. I won a bet against my cousin by shooting the tee out from under the ball at 100yds three times in a row. He was pretty P.O'd. But he wouldn't bet me double or nothing.

For pistol practice I go through thousands of paper plates to simulate a wannabe IPSC stage. Not fancy but keeps the skills semi-sharp.

ZM
 
This is so funny,

This weekend on the way to the range one of my buddies was talkin bout groups. "I said crap man, are we gonna have to worry about groups?
Let's just spray bullets while firing from the hip."

Sooo, I proceeded to demonstrate how much fun it is to engage old applicances
with an M-16!
 
Seriously, I know what you mean. Everyone around here talks about some river that they shoot at, and noone will tell me where it is either.
Click to expand...
I get that, too. Read a post or hear a comment like: "Oh, I love shooting in <some national forest>" then I ask for directions to the spots they like, and I'm totally ignored.
Or I get directions, but they're so vague as to be worthless.
Maybe it would be possible to 'trick' people like that into telling you where the ranges are: "Hah, I don't believe that river exists, and I've got $50 that agrees with me!" :)
Or tell them you've got a case of ammo they're welcome to help you use up if they'll show you where it is.
 
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