Some fun things to shoot.

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sks

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Thought I'd share some of my "fun shooting" experience with you and see if anyone has some other suggestions. Because if you're like me, the stopping power debate isn't the only thing out there, I just LOVE TO SHOOT!

Here are some of the things that I've found to be fun, entertaining and enjoyable for recreational shooting.

3x5 INDEX CARDS:
Place these on a backstop at different angles, horizontal, vertical and different heights. If you can empty a magazine into a 3x5 card then that is very acceptable self defense shooting. It helps to break up the monotony of punching paper. You can make many "games" or "competitions" out of this and even get to where you shoot for the top only, middle only or bottom only.

FRUIT:
This is great because you can actually "see" the effects of your shots as they hit. For single shots use tomatoes or small potatoes. Normally, one hollow point shot will disintegrate these. For multiple shots you might want to try watermelons or canteloupes as well as grapefruits and sometimes oranges. Around holloween, pumpkins are great also and will withstand many shots. You can definitely tell the difference between the "entrance wound" and the "exit wound" on these. Put them up on dowel rods, leave them on the ground or suspend them with string from tree branches.

EXPLODING BALLOONS:
The exploding targets out there on the market are too expensive for my pocketbook but I've found a way to nearly replicate them. Take some cheap, small round balloons and put a little bit of baby powder in them. Blow them up just a little, tie em off and tack em up. They will explode in a white poof but there will be no sound. Not quite like the real exploding ones but they're only a fraction of the cost.

CHARCOAL BRIQUETS:
These are fun, cheap and simple because they explode into a puff of black smoke when hit. More of a visual effect than anything else and if they are at any distance they keep your shooting skills sharp because they are so small.

JUGS OF WATER:
Any type of plastic or aluminum jug filled with water is usually good. Depending on what type of ammo you use and the caliber, you can sometimes get good explosions. Only drawback is that it can get a little expensive, heavy and one shot is all you get.

These are just some of the things that I've found through the years to turn a paper punching session into a fun, enjoyable and challenging time to sharpen my skills.

Anyone else have other "things" to shoot? Please post your suggestions so that I can have even more fun.

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The best weapon for self defense is the one you have when the need arises!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by sks:

Anyone else have other "things" to shoot? [/quote]

I have a buddy who hits all the salvage yards, pawn shops, and garage sales looking for what others didn't and which he can get for free, or near free. You'd be amazed at what he has gotten for free, but mostly he takes broken things to gut them for the good parts inside. Anyways,....

A year or so ago he rolls up with a big box full of broken bowling pins. Some were cracked, some just had bad cuts and chunks taken out, but all were intact - just too bruised and battered to keep them knocking at the bowling alley. He didn't have any plans for them, just thought they were neat so he took them and gave them to me.

Initially I just sat them on the ground as targets, fun enough for a while and they provide a good response when hit, knocking over and spinning around. The best fun is stringing them up and suspending them in front of the backstop so that when you shoot them they dance around (moving target) but don't have to be picked back up, as they do when just placed on the ground. They can take an amazing amount of abuse and still be useable as a target, I've laid hundreds of rounds in from 10/22's to Ar-15's and SKS', not to mention handgun rounds - have yet to have one deteriorate to where they were unusable.

Probably the best so far has been an empty metal tank that some helium came in for blowing up baloons. Thin walled steel or aluminum, not sure, so not many worries about ricochet's... and when you got a hit it rang out like a bell. The only problems were that it was irresistable to the others on the range to shoot as well and I had to "educate" some other shooters as to proper etiquette, and when the day was over it was so shot up you had to be carefull not to cut yourself on the sharp edges.

I might go out to the range today, if so I think I'll try the ballon with baby powder trick, sounds good. If one was shooting tracers an extra kick might be to fill it with flour though, as it is explosive when ignited in dust form.


[This message has been edited by Normalizer (edited June 10, 2000).]
 
Try using saltine crackers for plinking targets. They break when you hit them, they're small enough so you don't have to be very far away for it to be challenging, and when you're done, you just leave them there, and birds and other small creatures will eat the pieces.
 
Balloons.Blow them up to whatever size yoou want.Take them to your outdoor shooting area.You need a breeze.Let go upwind from shooting area and shoot as they go by.They bounce and fly so good moving targets.

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beemerb
We have a criminal jury system which is superior to any in the world;
and its efficiency is only marred by the difficulty of finding twelve men
every day who don't know anything and can't read.
-Mark Twain
 
Next time take the 3x5 index card and bend it and staple it to a piece of cardboard so that the edge is towards you. Try to split the card with a shot. Works with playing cards also.

How about those CD's that keep coming from AOL in the mail, I have quite a pile and plan on using them in the near future. Now If I can only figure out how to make them roll on edge at the range.


Geoff Ross

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One reason to vote in the next Presidential election.

It's the Supreme Court, Stupid!
 
<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by K80Geoff:
How about those CD's that keep coming from AOL in the mail, I have quite a pile and plan on using them in the near future.
[/quote]

Just be sure to use a caliber smaller than the hole in the center. That way, if you miss, you can claim the bullet went through the hole.
 
when M-80s were legal,I'd tape them to a
wooden backstop, 100 yards with a scoped .22
was a real BANG,black powder is cheap and
using less than a 1/4 ounce wrapped in paper
and taped with alot of masking tape makes a
very good bang when hit, I think its legal
if less than 1/4 ounce? water filled milk jugs at 200 yards with a AK is fun too.
 
try shooting large cinder block brick they use to build. I shot one with a 44 mag at about 25 yards and it exploded like a bomb.
 
DON't use 1/4 ounce of black powder!!! that
is really illegal! BATF measures fireworks in milligrams, 40 mg's is max for ground
displays, I wish I HADN't posted that previous post,their coming to take me away!
 
riddleofsteel-

I find you can bypass the skeet thrower if you grab them by the tail and launch them, kind of like the olympic hammer throw. Picking up your gun and shooting them before they hit the ground and start running is the tough part! ;) ;) ;) ;) ;)


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Cry "Havoc!" and let slip the dogs of war.
 
If you have any laying around, old computer equipment is cool. The monitor is the most fun on the first shot, and you can get your pinpoint accuracy down by shooting one key off of the keyboard at a time. The slots in the keyboard also hold up AOL CD's well. :-) Something else, for those of you that remember them, the old clay checkers turn to powder and blow away when shot.
 
Just a note: I love guns and I love wildlife I don't know which one I love more but I used to think I could shoot food stuff and leave it for the critters when i notices lead stains left in the fruit. So please avoid giving our furry and feathered friends lead poisoning.

ON THE flip side. Lettuce heads are awesome, especially if they are a little wilted.

FIRE! FIRE! FIRE! how about this one.....
use bailing wire to tie bottles of flammable liquid to a clothes line and drop a road flare on the ground underneath. Everytime you hit your target, more FIRE! HUH....HUH. I am cornholio....I need tp for my bun*hole -ddt

That last bit is a Beavis and Butthead reference for you Geriatrics out there.
 
Rex Feral: "Picking up your gun and shooting them before they hit the ground and start running is the tough part!"

My solution: Take a partner and switch off throwing the targets. :D
 
My buddy and I buy cases of cheap soda. Shake up the can first and when you hit it, the thing blows into a million pieces.

WARNING: if you just nick it from close range, you will be "maced."

You can shake 'em and throw 'em into the air, too ... but ... um, wear rain gear. :eek:
 
Dead harddisks. Most fun. I still remember these old crates that took
numerous 10mm's and even quite a hefty load of 7.5x55mm to blow to
bits. Now, we do some skeet shooting. :)
 
Here are some of my favorites:

1. Take a large bucket, grease its interior with Pam cooking spray, vaseline, crisco, etc. Fill with water. Add red food coloring to water (other colors are cool, too) and then freeze it all solid. Take frozen block of colored ice, invert so ice falls free from bucket (hence the grease on the inside of the bucket!). Shoot with large-caliber handgun or rifle.

2. Gallon zip-loc bags of raspberry jelly.

3. Ok, I DO NOT suggest you do this but...some of my <ahem> *associates* will take shotgun shells, put them on top of the target stands or in the cardboard with the primer facing us. They will then try to hit the primer with a .22. This is dangerous, this is stupid, this is cool.

4. Kalashnigolf - put one golf ball in front of each shooter, about 25 yards out. Spray paint a "hole" about 100 yards out. First guy to knock the ball in the "hole" wins.

Do us all a favor, though, if you do ANY of this at a range facility, please clean up after yourself. I hate seeing the range covered in shot-up cans and all.

have fun!

[This message has been edited by Chad Young (edited June 10, 2000).]
 
Neco Wafer candies.

God knows they're not edible. :)

Punch a hole in an old tennis ball, and hang it from a piece of string off some sort of support. Jumps really well when hit with a .22 LR.

Remember, always be sure that you have an adequate backstop when shooting at non-standard targets.

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Beware the man with the S&W .357 Mag.
Chances are he knows how to use it.
 
Hehehe, last time I was in Arizona my uncle, brother, dad, and I went in to the desert to shoot. My uncle found an old dried up cow pie that I wanted to shoot. But, my brother got to it first. It was funny. Kinda "poofed" into a cloud.
 
Morons who think it's funny to shoot cats....they make great targets and the world will be a better place without them! :p

And if your lucky enough not to have cat hating retards in your neighborhood, try pouring very sandy concrete into the container of your choice, (plastic cup, old plastic flower pots, etc) and put a stick into the concrete. Use aluminum foil around the opening and poke the stick down the middle to support it if the cement is too soupy to support the stick on it's own. You can leave the container on, or remove it and paint the concrete the color of your choice. Invert, shove the stick in the ground, and presto, instant "Pot-sickle". .22's will give the most target life, but they go up in a cloud of dust when you spank them with something powerful. WARNING: Don't use at close range! (I know that's obvious, but I felt I needed to say it anyway).

Love the powder in the balloon idea, by the way.
Regards,
SM
 
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