targets (not paper)

I just ordered a 12" "gong," target made from AR500 steel off amazon for $45. The reviews on it were pretty good good with people listing different calibers they shot it with. I plan on making a frame and hanging it from chains using supplies around the property. It claims to be rated for .308 and 30-06. although i'll probably stick to pistol calibers and 5.56 primarily at 100 yards.
 
I shoot half-inch AR500 with handguns and rifles. You can slightly ding the surface of that plate with high-speed .223 at 100 yards -- varmint ammo will lay down minor abrasions, but nothing that compromises the plate or the life of the plate. At further distances, pretty much no typical rifle will damage half-inch AR500 unless you are shooting some kind of AP ammo.

If you have a rifle with an optic, you will probably find that a 12" gong is too easy to hit at 100 yards anyway.

I have a heap of fun shooting handguns at my 6" and 8" half-inch AR500 plates at 100 yards. No damage to them whatsoever.
 
I have a full range of the ar 500 gongs. Very fun to shoot if you build your course portable. Favorite targets we let our kids shoot at are balloons, some with water some without and different length strings so some move more than others. Eggs are very fun for the kids. Both boiled and raw. We also use the plastic easter eggs. These are very cheap and we have a true easter egg hunt on easter evening. A cheap necklace or strand of beads hanging down. Start at the bottom and race going up. Any kind of ice mold works great. My ol lady uses all different kinds of molds for cakes and candies so they get double duty.
 
Just incase some of you on here are as crazy as me let me put this bug in your ear. Get a few ice molds for $6 or $7 dollars each. A week before your trip to the range empty the ice into a empty bag and repeat. Do this everyday and by the time u head to the range you have a cooler full of cold drinks and lots of targets. No mess to clean up either
 
Almost forgot.
Back before the local club adopted such restricted rules on the type of allowable targets, I used to make my own breakable ones from plaster of paris.
Using bottle caps and other molds of various sizes and shapes, they were easy, cheap and fun to make.
Made on the soft side, they didn't leave much behind.
The left over pieces could be stomped into tiny ones and blended into the scenery, or easily scooped up and bagged.
Better ecologically than clay birds.
 
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I've shot at just about anything inanimate at one point or another; used to be a "family dump" on our farm years ago (still haven't figured out which of them thought that was a good idea; been cleaned up since then).

I think the most impressive target with my .308 has been a cantaloupe; line up 3 or 4 of them and compare a Match King to something like a Nosler Ballistic Tip... OOOOOHHH!! One gets a clean entry and exit.. the other explodes the melon. Wicked fun. :D
 
These are my favorite non-paper targets when I can find them

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AR500 steel is also fun to shoot, sure beats walking down range to look at groups when you start going past 200 yards.
 
I have never understood the "biodegradable" label on clay targets. My first experience on skeet/trap fields was in '88, like mere moments before Sporting Clays became a "thing" and even back then all the boxes of targets claimed "biodegradable" but anyone who has seen even a private piece of land where folks have thrown a box or two of targets will agree...

They may not be "environmentally harmful" but that stuff goes NOWHERE. It piles up and sits there and best as I can tell, isn't ever going to go away.
 
I shot a few golf balls with 45-70 cowboy loads, meh. You can send them flying over the berm I guess if you hit the bottom. I think I'll use them for handguns and rimfire. But I'll try the magnum lever rifles too.

My favorite 45-70 target is taking apart a wooden pallet, it doesn't get much better than that.
 
I made a set of six swinging bowling pins (3/16 inch hot rolled steel), with an angle iron frame and 5/8 thick cold rolled rod for an axle. Every so often I have to re-spray them with a cheap rattle-can of flat White. They swing from the top so hits are indicated by movement and the lead fragments (I only shoot home-cast bullets), are directed down.

I use this set-up in front of a berm I had push-up on my own property. I shoot mostly .32 S&W Long and very light loads of .38 Special so the targets hold up pretty well. Anything bigger, .44 Spl., .45 ACP, etc., beats the targets up and I have to do a repair weld on them every once in awhile...but I do my own welding so that is not a big problem.

If I had it to do over again, I would use heavier steel for the "bowling pins" and a few design changes to the set-up to accommodate what I have learned about weakness in design.
 
Speaking of bowling pins, as anyone who has attended a pin shoot can testify, regulation bowling pins hold up very well with even hefty loads.
And few to no ricochets.
Available from your local bowling alley cheap or free when they get less than pretty.
 
I have a set of metal spinners,,,

I have a set of metal spinners,,,
They have Remington's name on them,,,
I bought it at Wally World for just at a 20-dollar bill.

I like reactive targets that move,,,
These things do get beat up after a while,,,
But a minute with a hammer and anvil and they are fine again.

The one I have has a 3", 2", and 1" circle,,,
It does help to carry a can of white spray paint in my target box.

Aarond

.
 
Google "walking targets," usually for .22s. Fun to shoot, reactive, keeps moving further away, packs flat and small.
 
My son and I like to make 55 gal drums look like Bonnie and Clyde's Ford!! Then you have a nice trash burning barrel. Clay targets and old water filled oil and milk jugs can be fun also.
 
Couple comments on the bowling pins: agree they hold up very well, however -- if you leave them out in the elements... they don't hold up well at all. They rot and insides turn to mush and the durability goes out the window.

Extremely fun to shoot bowling pins!
 
Milk jugs

I tend to use old milk jugs full of water and other left over empty containers like bleach bottle and so fourth. I like the targets that absorb the rounds. I also buy metal targets from Amazon from time to time. It all depends on the caliber of round I am using.
 
Must be careful with clay targets around hogs, the pitch in them can be fatal. Other than that they make great shotgun, rifle, and pistol targets. Hate setting up bowling pins.....so we turned them into swingers.

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