Does anyone shoot any milk jugs,phonebooks and other items just for fun ??

V

vyper005

New member
Since I live in the suburbs I really dont get the chance to shoot something different other then your normal paper targets which can get downright boring at times....I was wondering....For all you lucky people out there....What items do you shoot for fun ?? Which caliber out of 9mm,40,357sig and 45 has the best/greatest explosion ?? Have you ever recovered any of your bullets,hollow points in particular ?? Which brand expanded the most and looked like it would do the most damage ?? Damn...I guess I'm gonna have to go to PA and rent a machine gun...you know...just for the fun of it !! :)

[Edited by vyper005 on 02-10-2001 at 10:09 PM]
 
blow them up!

I think velocity is the key, any water jug that I have shot with a handgun was not near as exciting to see as the same hit with a high velocity rifle round. A .22 mag does a job on a milk jug, better than a hot 158gr. 357. 12ga. slugs aren't that impressive either, at least the ones I have tried. The perfect thing for recovering bullets is a snowman. Shoot the hell out of it, and then wait for a thaw.
 
I know that any round will do spectacular things to a warm, shook up can of beer. This is how I "baptize" my handguns. It is like the champagine thing with ships...sort of.;)
 
During my last leg of shooting - I like to make one-shot attempts at the wooden clothes-line clips used to hold my target from 100yds. So far = 4 out of 7 using a Ruger 77/22 Target in .22 magnum.

$20 bucks sez that I can hit a "strike-anywhere" match from 100yds. in 3 tries...
 
As in anything that's not glass or terribly explosive?
Come to Knob Creek Range any regular weekend.

Pumpkins, lawnmowers, empty propane tanks, pictures of Hillary, cans of black powder, vacuum cleaners, large plastic toys, bowling balls, eggs, marshmallows, spray paint cans, poly-urethane cans, golf balls, bowling pins, computers, ......
 
I shot a gallon water jug not long ago to show my 4 yr old son how much damage a gun can do. He has been verrry interested in guns since old enough to see, but also very well trained with safety rules already. Thought it would be a good idea to give him some visual affects, so he could see for himself what can happen.
 
I shoot milk jugs filled with water all the time just out my back door at 15 to 25 yds. Ball ammo in any of the calibers you mentioned pretty much have a clean entry and exit. Water just starts running out. JHP on the other hand have a totally different effect. Clean entry with an explosion blowing out the back of the jug entirely.
 
Milk jugs have to be my favorite "explosive" target. Shoot one with a .45 185gr Silvertip and the thing just explodes. The effect is somewhat similar, but less dramatic, with 230 gr hollowpoints (Gold dot, SXT). Shoot milk jugs with 230gr hardball and you would hardly know you hit the thing, it just stands there, water trickling out of it in a lazy stream. Round nosed FMJ does indeed suck...

Hardball is just fine for shooting bricks, however, they desintegrate in a most satisfying cloud of debris.

Shooting soda cans (unopened), there is no difference when they get hit by JHP, flat nosed, or round nosed rounds. They explode similarly, at least for the .45 ACP. Hit one with a .223, however, and the effect is far more dramatic, the whole can turns inside out.
 
Funny you should ask--I've got four 2-liter soda bottles in the freezer right now, filled with water. I'm hoping that when they're frozen solid I'll be able to use them a little like bowling pins, though I wonder if they'll be too heavy for a .45 to take them down cleanly. Anybody else tried this? I'll be using 230 grn LRN.

I'm hoping that with ice rather than water, the bullet if it does much at all will only break up the ice inside the bottle, not be able to explode it, thus allowing the bottles to be reset and reblasted until all ammunition stores are exhausted.
 
FWIW, I used to shoot all kinds of shootable stuff--cans, plastic bottles, etc.--at the local plinking range. It was great fun. Then the range closed due to encroaching development. IOW, suburbanites moved into this formerly rural area, knowing full well that there'd been a range nearby for decades, then complained about it loudly enough to get it shut down. Anyway, all of the newer ranges hereabouts are "sanitized:" only paper targets, no plinking allowed. Bummer. :(
 
I was lucky enough to find some Bureau of Land Mgmt. land about an hour out of Monterey, California. I've got the documentation from the BLM saying shooting is fine there, provided it's legal firearms ("assualt weapons" aren't allowed). So it's a fun daytrip to pile some jarhead friends in a car and head up into the hills.
So far, the best targets have been the classic jugs of water, potatoes, watermelons, cantalope, a coconut, and this one cheap import guitar I just couldn't repair. The guitar was novel, but not overly interesting.

The coconut was great: a single 7.62 Communist slug produced a sharp crack and a spray of white flakes coating all the nearby targets.
Watermelons were cool to: a 5.56 round from my Contender just made it deflate down upon itself, no splatter outside, insides liquefied. A .44 slug cracks them in half, a .44 shell full of birdshot produces a nifty "fountain" effect.
Best of all, when I bolted a 16" 45-70 barrel onto my Contender (break action single-shot pistol). We didn't have sights on it yet since I just got the barrel the day before, so we tried our best shooting blind at 20 yards, randomly hurling 400 grainers downrange and destroying the area _around_ the target and beating the heck out of our hands. Then one guy steps up for his first shot, raises his hand without even sighting and hit it dead center. A watermelon is considerably smaller than the buffalo this cartridge was designed for. Chunks of watermelon flew literally twenty feet high. We actually found a shard of watermelon had a penetrated into a nearby cantalope. No joke: fruit shrapnel.

Check around to see if any BLM of Nat'l Park land, or any other federal/state land allows any hunting/shooting within a drive of your city. It can be a hell of a lot of fun to pick your own targets, ranges, and settups.
 
Dynamite is pretty darn fun, given the appropriate amount of adult supervision.

But blasting a car has got to be not only the most fun, but highly educational, providing great insight into the realities of terminal ballistics.
 
Pumpkins filled with water or apples. Pumpkins that are the size of a human head are particually interesting. Shoot one with a 230grn. Hydra Shock and you will realize why a large slow moving projectile is so devistating.
 
I like to shoot old spray paint cans and clay targets hanging on trees....my sister is a police officer and she gave me her old bullet proof vest...I love to shoot that vest and watch as it folds up and catches the bullet.
 
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