Ideas for Inexpensive Targets?

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joey93turbo

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I usually shoot in 100 yard clearing in the middle a wooded area up on this mountain. We usually setup targets on our wood at 100 yards but it's pretty lame, so i'm lookin for something else. I like the idea of those steel target trees but I can't afford to spend $70+ on one of them since i'm a broke college student. I'm just tryin to think of ideas for targets that are durable (dont wanna replace often or spend lots of time cleaning up), visable, and cheap. I was thinking about hanging some round steel plates from the trees and shooting at those.

What do you guys suggest?
 
Used and broken kitchen appliances. Washing machines, dryers. Go to a junk yard and get car doors, hoods and busted up engine blocks. Fun stuff.
 
Paper plates. Cheap, you can hang them from string, and still see your shots. Some creative use of a magic marker can give you all sorts of aiming points.

..Joe
 
Heh blew a CD appart w/ my old Navy .35 muzzleloader... it exploded quite nicely - my more modern guns just knocked chunks off.

30.06 on a old bowling ball my gf's brother had exploded TOO nice...

the old fire extinguishers didn't do much...

Had fun plinking on an old section of rail road track.... the .22's hardly touched it and it pinged nicely. Then did my mini-14 on it and took out dime sized chuncks of iron... couldn't quite get it to hop off that box tho...

bought a 15 dollar steel target from wally world - its only meant for 22's tho... think my mini would shorten its lifespan considerably. Makes the spinnies spin tho - and its cheap fun since its 22 ammo =)

J/Tharg!
 
Ditto on the clays, hi visibility and Mother Earth Friendly :) (hey, I cain't hep it, I'm from California).

Also, golfballs are great reactive targets--if'n you can hit 'em.
 
AOL CDs. You get them free at the Post Office.

However, I prefer to be mother earth friendly too (must be that Kaliphfornia in my blood) and would rather shoot paper plates or even recycled paper. So, instead of throwing away your graded term paper, blow it away. Make a target frame, staple it (frame is wingnut fastened) and blast away. Collasped the frame, bury the paper (or burn it) and bury.

Let's hear from other cheapskates/misers/skinflints/tight wads/cheapos/tight fisted/frugal folks/broke blokes. C'mon, we know who you are. :)
 
Try blowing up some small balloons and hanging them from the trees. They'll move around in the breeze, making 'em a challenge to hit, and they aren't too onerous to clean up afterward.

pax
 
What ever method you choose, watch out for richochet (?spelling).

Paper plates with a broad tip sharpie works nicely. The advantage is you can see the hole with no problem (binocs may be needed).

Swinging golf balls work well also.
 
Why not make a trip to the local salvage yard, perhaps something like an old steel rim off a car might do the trick.
 
I used to shoot up the platters from old hard drives at 25 yards with my handguns. Might work well with a rifle at 100 yards too.
 
OMG - just tossed like 4 2gb to 4gb hard drives that have been in my toss old components here pile for ages... gonna have to retrieve those. =) They won't blow apart like CD's will... =)

Also - last outing my gf's brother setup a old flywheel.... the .22's wouldn't make it move at all - but the .357 would spin it =) hehehe

J/Tharg!
 
I'll 2nd (well, nth, really) the paper plates. For serious shooting they're pretty much all I use--though I do splurge a little and go for the orange sticky target dots. ;)
 
cans..you can shoot em up then just take em to recycling and collect the money later.aluminum is aluminum.I take them and tie a string on them or you can fillem with dirt..whatever if they keep falling over.old cookie sheets are fun for long range shots.some orange paper taped over it.the weight keeps them still and you just tape over the holes.
 
w/ a fast round - a 2 liter bottle full of watter will shoot in the air VERY high - can't get much more reactive than that... <grin> Not much cleanup either - grab the punctured bottle....

edit - fill w/ watter - cap - turn upside down.... shoot... watch the water works <grin>
 
For maybe 25 bucks I bought a spinner for 22s only and it has two different spinners on it. By spinner I am only talking a U shaped piece of rod with one or two targets on it. The targets are a large circle on one end and a smaller one on the other end so the thing will always end up upright. This one has 2 targets on it and it is hard to get both spinning at the same time.

I also bought one for 44 mag and under for around 30-40 bucks.

Both are for lead useage and both splash back lead at close ranges. I set them way out there and work on distance shots.

I am planning to get some chain and hang a few steel things from it so I can have a sort of heavy duty tennis ball on a rope target.

I shoot recycling. Plastic filled with water is entertaining. Cans are fun to just knock around.

I shoot anything that breaks down, from old car parts to computer parts to house things.

I scrounge golf balls and what not from friends who golf and I scrounge all sorts of stuff. Most folks now look for things I can shoot and in some cases want the evidence back because of all the trouble that little hard drive caused them in the computer.

I shoot this junk at home mostly, they cleaned up one junky range around here and I don't want to shoot stuff there even if I clean it up since it might start a downward trend.
 
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