Interesting shooting games(?) for young air rifle shooters?

[bandur60]

I'm an instructor for somewhat advanced (3-4 seasons) 4-H air rifle shooters, and am trying to find a couple of activities besides shooting targets for score, to fill in some nights of the program. We shoot 1-1/2 to 2 hours, one night a week, for about 3-1/2 months during the winter.

We've shot playing cards sideways, shot with eyes closed, shot on black paper, name-your-own handicaps, no rear sights ---- the kids are surprised at what they're capable of, and I'd like to keep bringing in new approaches to hold that interest level up there. But I'm drawing pretty much of a blank right now.

We'll be starting in mid-November, and some of you might have some ideas you've used, or done, that you'd be willing to share. I realize this falls more into the training category than competitions, and I looked over some of the stickies without any success. If there's a thread relating to this would one of you post it up, please?

Otherwise, if this is a legitimate thread, thanks for any input offered.

Bandur 60

 

[~z]

How about all that you have been doing at twice the distance?
~z

 

[JImbothefiveth]

Have you tried running target? How about sillhouete? Field target?(This is air rifle after all)? Maybe long range shooting? You could put up a fan to make them compensate for wind.

Edit: Z beat me to the long range idea.

 

[bandur60]

A little more info--- We have a fixed indoor 10-meter range available from mid- November until March 1.

Shooters we've sent to national competitions have had a real blast on silhouettes, even though, the first year, they didn't even know anything but 10m bullseyes ... (an air rifle can have a scope??? and shoot 45 YARDS???) But the closest I can come to that is scale-sized paper animals .... thinking, thinking.... maybe scale- sized metallics at 10m, if pellet bounce wouldn't be a safety factor, which I'm thinking it would be at that range.


Also bear in mind, I'd like to keep them inside the equivalent of the 8 ring, only 10mm dia. Challenging, but possible; interesting, and fun. 4- inch balloons would be a (yaaawnnn...)

 

[orvpark]

how about some of those spinner targets that you "race" with? They are designed for rimfire but might work for air.

 

[Loomis]

Strike anywhere wooden matches. The object is to light the match without damaging it.

One of my favorite targets as a kid was grasshoppers. also marbles or ball bearing thrown on a gravel road. Sonetimes you had to shoot the rocks out of the way first before you could get to the marbles.

 

[Old Grump]

Nephew and I like to shoot swinging balloons suspended from about 20" of string. Outside we use water balloons or just let the wind move them. Inside we put a few tsp of sand in the balloon, blow them up and start them swinging. Easy to sweep up the sand and balloon without the water mess.

 

[Owen]

Man on man, sudden death, 10-ring or x-ring matches.

Set up an elimination tree.

Each pair of shooters competes to hit tens. first one to fall behind is eliminated from the tree.

 

[Hoplophile]

Remember games like "HORSE" for basketball? I imagine it'd work for shooting, too.

 

[lazyeye]

Tic Tac Toe. Another classic game made better by the addition of firearms.

 

[g.willikers]

Wooden reactive targets do the same thing as metal ones without the ricochette danger.
Cut them out of 1/2 inch cheapie pine in all kinds of shapes and sizes with your trusty jigsaw.
Either hang them from something so they swing or use a perch to knock them off.
Wine bottle corks are good, too, and no whittling.

 

[lil ski]

This is a rim fire game we use but I think it will work for air guns. We take a practice golfball (they look like a wiffleball) and hang it on a string about 15" long. we shoot 5 shots in 1 min see how many hits they can get if there is a tie we shoot 5 shots in 45 secs and so on.

 

[JImbothefiveth]

Also bear in mind, I'd like to keep them inside the equivalent of the 8 ring, only 10mm dia. Challenging, but possible; interesting, and fun. 4- inch balloons would be a (yaaawnnn...)

Can they hit this at least some of the time allready, or would it just frustrate them?
If so, which position can they hit this from? If they can only hit it from prone, maybe have them try sitting. If they can hit it there, have them try it offhand.(Sitting is comparably stable to prone, but when you go offhand it's just increadibly more unstable, they might not be able to hit the 8-ring, and might get frustrated.)

 

[Lewis130]

A nail half hammered into a tree used to be popular. Perhaps a small nail in some fairly soft wood like balsa would do for airguns, the objective being to fully hammer it in.

 

[taliv]

ok, here are some ideas for you.

get a 4x8 sheet of plywood and put a covering on it and make it incline, and then roll a ball (perhaps a 3-4" plastic squeeze ball) down it. have the kids try to keep it from reaching the bottom. adjust the incline for difficulty. since i assume the airguns are single-shot, organize the kids in teams of 4 and put them all prone together and then have them fire in sequence so as the ball nears the bottom, have the first kid shoot it back to the top and then the 2nd kid shoots it etc so hopefully the first kid has reloaded by the time it's his turn again.

4" moving target is less yawny

idea2
spice up their position shooting with obstacles. barricades with low ports, shooting around barrels strong and weak side, etc.

idea3
put a 1" square styrofoam block on the floor in front of each shooter. put a piece of tape on the floor for a finish line. have them shoot their blocks to the other side. whoever gets it there in the least number of shots wins.

idea4
affix a target (possibly a metal gong of some sort) on top of a remote control truck. sort of a fox and the hounds game... objective for one kid is to drive the truck from one side of the room to the other without any of the other kids ringing the gong. give them each a turn driving

 

[PaulBk]

Candy

How about an "M&M" contest. They are just about the right size for your purpose. Most hits out X number of shots. Most hits in X seconds. Use plain m&m's for advanced shooters and peanut m&m's for novices.

-Paul