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Posted: 4/11/2017 5:56:03 PM EDT
So I took some people shooting last Sunday to the 90 yard rifle range near where I live.
My sister never shot a rifle before but was consistently hitting a 6" metal moving target at 90 yards. She was thrilled and had no idea how much fun it would be. Her only complaint was that she wished she could shoot at a more fun or interesting target. Something that actually does something. Any ideas? |
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Dueling trees, Texas star or poppers are more fun but having to go down range to reset sucks. Also shooting steel at dusk is quite the spark show and makes it more interesting
I find having multiple silhouette targets at different ranges and not shooting from a bench to be the most fun. |
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We mix it up. Steel plates, paper targets, clay pigeons, fruit, eggs, whatever really. Mostly clay and steal though. I like to buy rhose cheap spinning targets for 22's and annihilate them with 556.
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Tell her to enlist, they'll give her some interesting shit to shoot at. Seriously, I like to weld a plate onto a garage door spring that's about two feet long, that'll bounce and sway all over the place, great for pistol practice.
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A buddy of mine bought a bunch of ball type targets that have dips and cuts in them and we go out, throw one down the field, first guy shoots and when you hit it, it becomes very unpredictable on where it is going to go, but the ideas is to get it moving and the 2nd or 3rd shoots trying to predict and lead the target, we try to get it up in the air which you can do if it is hit right and then keep it up for a few seconds.
I was surprised it is actually quite fun and I was surprised it is real durable, we have shot those things a lot and they have not sustained much damage at all! |
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Most interesting targets I've fired at were fire extinguishers and propane tanks (do not do what I do)
And I once was shooting at a target somebody left at my local range and it KB'd. Turns out they left an ass load of tannerite in it too, and none of us knew it. |
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Expired canned food.
Best were a bunch of #10 cans of several-years-beyond-use-by-date that I hauled off for a food processing company once. Kids pulled the labels off and painted zombie faces on all of 'em. Makes a pretty nice ka-splooey. Chickens had fun too afterwards picking through it all. |
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Cans of shaving cream are really fun, you can find Barbasol for real cheap at drug stores.
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Balloons, full pop cans, 2 liters, fruits, coyotes, milk jugs full of water....lots of things.
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Just my 2 cents...
I have one of those metal wire frames they put political ads on (Hillary supporter put it in my yard, I shot the sh!t out of that), I also live next to a golf course, so I get LOTS of golf balls. I put a screw in a golf ball and tie fishing line to the screw, the other end is tied to the top of the frame... it moves pretty good and hard to hit at 50 paces. With the pistols, I put it out about 20 paces, but it's lots of fun. (My paces are large steps, but not accurate)! |
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If you fill a water or soda bottle 1/4 and cap it. Place it upside down and shoot it in the neck. Most times a precise hit will launch it like a rocket.
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Excellent ideas here! Not only my sister, but I have a bunch of friends in college who want me to take them shooting because they've never shot a firearm. I especially like the barbasol/aerosol cannister ideas as well bottles filled with water. I think fruit would work well, however, this is a public outdoor range (albeit not a very busy one during the week, when we would likely go) and they probably would not to find rotting food laying about. Targets that are easy to clean up are a plus. As for the bottles filled with water, I am assuming the caps should be tightly fastened. Wouldn't you want the bottles to be 100% filled with fluid? Why do you want some air inside?
I want to try the hanging golf balls idea too, but maybe on a day when I just go out by myself and can take my time. I just want my friends to enjoy the experience. My sister said she was surprised by how much fun she had. She really enjoyed the immediate feedback of seeing the metal target spin with each hit. |
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Water bottles, sodas, charcoal, lollypops, neco wafers and old produce re some of my favorite targets.
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Mellow cream pumpkins hanging from strings. Marshmallow peeps stuck on nails
Gumballs. Any other candy Charcoal briquettes I like those cause rain or a hose for easy clean up. Don't be one of those that leaves their shit all over |
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1-pound Coleman propane bottles. Pour kerosene on top, light them on fire, wait for the safety valve to fail, and then shoot it for a nice fireball.
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Fill Solo cups and freeze. The ice chunks fall out and you have less trash to pick up.
Plan ahead, it takes time to freeze them solid. |
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For a tougher target hot glue paintballs on fish line . White paper behind helps them show up better when hit.
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Bowing pins. My buddy picked a dozen up from a bowling alley and they didn't even charge him. Stand them on a rack or build two uprights with a rope between them. Hang them from the rope, either with rope around the neck of the pin, or drill eyelets and hang em. Can also hang clay pigeons with clips or just water bottles with food coloring.
Real cheap and easy is paper plates with numbers. Arrange them randomly and then call out a series of 3 or 4 for the shooter. Check out pistol-training.com for printable target drills. Dot torture is always a favorite. Texas stars are great but expensive. Same for dueling trees. They have spring loaded poppers so you don't have to reset. Check MGM. Again, not cheap. Whatever you shoot, don't be an ass. Clean up after yourself. Food (fruit, juice, canned goods) etc. will bring rodents and not cool to do at ranges. Fine for the desert or something I guess. Don't be that guy that shoots up an old washing machine and leaves it there. |
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Who build a 90 yard rifle range?
Do they have a 21 yard bay for pistol shooters? |
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Oranges and lemons are really fun to shoot, especially with .22 and 556. I have orange and lemons trees in my back yard so it cost me nothing for targets.
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I like to use organic dynamic swine targets. Only downside to them is that you have to wait for the target to come to you
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Blocks of ice are fun to shoot.
eta and when you're done there's no trash to pick up. |
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Hitting a popcan in the air three times with the pump shotgun was the trickiest thing I ever did. You need to work up to it staying safe and knowing where the shot is going.
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store brand soda bought in bulk although it doesn't seem as cheap as it used to be. however, when you are shooting 20 cent bullets at them, saving money isn't really a thing anyway. just use diet, much less sticky.
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Quoted:
store brand soda bought in bulk although it doesn't seem as cheap as it used to be. however, when you are shooting 20 cent bullets at them, saving money isn't really a thing anyway. just use diet, much less sticky. View Quote |
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Quoted:
A buddy of mine bought a bunch of ball type targets that have dips and cuts in them and we go out, throw one down the field, first guy shoots and when you hit it, it becomes very unpredictable on where it is going to go, but the ideas is to get it moving and the 2nd or 3rd shoots trying to predict and lead the target, we try to get it up in the air which you can do if it is hit right and then keep it up for a few seconds. I was surprised it is actually quite fun and I was surprised it is real durable, we have shot those things a lot and they have not sustained much damage at all! View Quote I just draw a line in the dirt and drop a pair, then I race my buddy to see who can get their target across the line faster |
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Fiction is replete with tales of using "The Most Dangerous Game" as an 'interesting target' - always with the same result at the end.
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I stock up on Peeps after Easter. They melt away after they are shot and are biodegradable.
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To get 100 at my range, I'd have to cross the road. Same side is 90 yards.
Not a big deal, as it's my road, but still... Sorry, meant to quote an earlier reply from Fightinghellfish |
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Fill water balloons with water and coloring. Put them in the freezer overnight. When you shoot them they will sort of sparkle because of the ice. Video it and play back in slo mo.
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Coming from somebody that used to be a farmer... blackbirds! Take out as many of those damn things as you can!! The last year I raised sunflowers I had a 70 acre field next to some cattail sloughs and those damn birds took about 50% of my yields! I may not farm anymore but my war on those damned birds continues with an unabated passion!! Another good option is gophers. When I was a kid, my dad gave me a few lessons on shooting then turned me out with his old .22 Winchester 69A. He kept the magazine though and would give me one round. Go out and kill a gopher, bring it back to the barn cats and you get another round of ammo. Miss, or the gopher gets away, you're done for the day. I got pretty good at being accurate and patient so they wouldn't get back down the hole when shot! By the end of that summer, gophers on our land were wiped out and we didn't have to worry about the cattle stepping in a hole and breaking a leg.
But if you're lacking those wonderful targets, I've set old eggs that were well past their prime on a fence post and would shoot them with my .22 rifle. Playing with my Iphone slow motion camera setting, I got some pretty cool videos of those things coming apart. Not as cool or as helpful as blackbirds or gophers but still satisfying. |
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