What do you shoot at?

[ampleworks]

I ask this question because everyone has their own ways, do they goto a public range, setup a picnic table in their backyards and plink off cans, have a permanent target holder, etc.

I'm looking for ideas for my own place to make a permanent/semi-perm. contraption to hold my targets.

Any links to DIY targets would be awesome too!

Thanks :)

[Alfa One]

Hi,

I'm from Belgium. Here we can only shoot at a shooting Range. I shoot normally at 50m range targets that have a max. diameter of about a 1". I do this with a .22 CZ452.

I also shoot 9mm at 25m.

[don't shoot it's me]

Anything that moves.

[FallenPhoenix]

mostly paper, plan to do some silhouette shooting when I get a good .22 semi-auto

[2400]

I made a dueling tree, some steel poppers and various target holders. We also use CD's, clay pigeons and we've got a couple of hundred bowling pins to shoot at.

[wyrdone]

Defunct computer parts.

Nothing is more satifying to an IT person that plugging that cranky old 9GB SCSI drive that has finally died with a good .45cal round. :D

Seriously, do you realise that one of the old Sun 360 machines will stop a full clip of 9mm FMJ rounds? I kid you not. (then again the base of those things were almost a 1/4" steel plate.)

We also shoot at Fruit & Gourds and such (pumpkins in October are fun....easy jack-o-lanterns). 2-liter soda bottles & milk jugs filled with water.


Paper targets are also a given.

[No4Mk1]

My range has what I think is a great idea for target stands. They put in fence posts about ever 6-8 feet and string construction fence (you know, the plastic orange stuff) between the posts. Then you can use clothes pins to pin any sort of paper target to them. For that I mostly use paper plates and mark a black dot with a sharpie in the middle. The construction fence is surprisingly resiliant, if if it was just you I wouldn't be surprised if a roll of the stuff would be enough to last through your great-grandchildren! :p

[ampleworks]

I've seen a few places have 4x4s in the ground in concrete and chicken wire hung between them, that or construction fence would both be a cheap way I'd assume. All you'd need would be is a staple gun...what's the cost a roll of that construction fence and how much is in a roll? :D

[bigbadbotts]

Where I live in Australia we have an innovate solution to the range problem, our targets reset them self’s after about ten minutes, every target that we shoot helps the environment, we have no range fees and in some cases we get paid to go shooting. Haven’t figured what I am on about , simple answer to your problem go shooting rabbits. :)

[No4Mk1]

Link doesn't work, but if you go to www.homedepot.com and type "safety fence" in the search line you'll find it.

[sageowl]

What 2400 and wyrdone said, basically.

We shoot paper, cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, bowling pins, dueling trees, self-standing auto-reset units, ringers, cardboard cutouts / silhouettes in the fun house, and a variety of moving targets for qualifications. Above list is not all-inclusive but covers most of what we qualify with for pistol, SMG, long-rifle, and shotgun.

My favorite hands-down is outdoor range, handgun, and bowling pins. Take one per person, start at the bottom of the berm, and keep shooting them until they're most of the way up the berm (more berm = more fun, ours is about 50'). Obviously requires a good-sized caliber ... my experience it works best with .40 for some reason, also works okay with .357 and .45. Also fun with SMG and shotgun but I find pistol more challenging personally.

Hope you get a chance to try some of those out.

[ampleworks]

Bowling pins?

Hrm, they seem to be reasonably priced on ebay (link (http://search.ebay.com/bowling-pin_Bowling_W0QQcatrefZC12QQfromZR8QQsacategoryZ20846QQsosortorderZ1QQsosortpropertyZ1))

Any other places, bowling alleys give them out for free or find them in the dumpster or something?

[sageowl]

We get retired pins free from the local bowling alley practically by the pallet whenever they cycle in new ones - gets them off their hands and saves the taxpayers money. Just a box of used standard pins will last a light to moderate shooter a couple months or more, figuring you shoot them couple at a time and re-use them if they're still in good shape.

Best bet would be to just call a local alley and see if they will give / sell you box(es) of used ones. Probably be a cash-and-carry deal without tax or shipping costs.

[ampleworks]

I figure they would be good to shoot at several times considering competitive shooting competitions exist that involve pins. I suppose it always depends on how they get hit and with what caliber, load, and range of the shot.

There is a seller on ebay that is selling 10 pin lots for $15 Buy It Now, she quoted me as $15.82 shipping, so $30 for what hopes to be a ton of fun looks like a fairly good deal for me!

I do see where a holster will come in handy for safety reasons since I shoot a XD-9 with no way to decock, holstering it would be the safetest :D

I appreciate the feedback fellas! :)

[OrangeSkies]

I mostly shoot at paper or balloons, but love the occasional bowling pin (when I can get my hands on them). Old football helmets are fun too. Ebay has the bowling pins fairly cheap, but you have to pay some pretty high shipping costs - they're heavy).

A programmer friend of mine that I often shoot with wrote a program that takes a complete deck of playing cards and prints them on a single sheet of paper (I use 65 lb. cardstock @ 8.5x11). The software is written so that you can have each page randomly "shuffle" the cards (so no one can memorize where the good cards are) or you can print hundreds (or any number) of the same layout, so everyone has the same target.

Using these, we like to have casual "poker meets" using .22 handguns only from about 25 feet. We each "ante" a buck per "hand" (or whatever) and get 5 shots each (sometimes 7) at each target. Highest poker hand wins. If a round goes into the same "card" twice, only one hit is counted.

Tons o' fun and a heck of a lot cheaper than buying pre-printed targets! This is especially fun when we go camping, as we just in our lawn chairs in camp and plink away all day. (We camp in the Mt. Hood Natl. Forest, where shooting is perfectly legal and no one else is anywhere near us. Very private, very primitive, and very nice!)

Here's a shot of the creek that runs right through the camp site (and no, I won't tell anyone where it is!) ;)

http://bartsnell.us/images/lc.jpg

:cool:

[PzB41]

Clay pidgeons, plastic jugs filled with water (frozen and unfrozen), playing cards, computer monitors, old oil drums, cinderblocks, even a couple of old junked cars on occasion. Oh, yeah, and paper targets too.

Pz

[Rager]

Similar stuff... clay pigeons, water jugs, bowling pins, and bricks. Paving bricks are very hard material though.

A buddy also suggests bowling balls. With a powerful round they'll sometimes last for only one round. :cool:

Plastic wrap bowling pins get pretty thin, wood get's blown away, after a while.

I like the paper plate idea. One range uses several large equipment tires stacked as a mounting spot.

[Derius_T]

If you have a place to shoot, (ie. private land) you can construct a simple 'backstop' type target area.

At our range we took 4x4's and 2x4's and built two 10'x10' walls, one 3 feet behind the other and filled the space in between with sand and earth. You can tack darn near anything to the wooden surface, and I have yet to see any caliber handgun or rifle go through the 'backstop'. ;)

Happy Shootin'

[Jason Demond]

I am a member of a private club, and bring my own targets.

For pistol I shoot at an 8" steel plate, for rifle I have a wooden target stand that I built.

























2000th post. It took me just over five years, but I made it. :)

[madmurdoc]

I took out my frustrations from 4 quarters of Calculus and higher math on an old text book. Calc is a heavy subject it stopped the .22 and .380 I threw at it every time, but it couldn't stand up to my M1 Garand. :D

Gotta try the computer parts, I got tons and I dropped my engineering major for IT work and a whole new set of frustrations.

[Dogjaw]

I shoot into a dirt pile on a farm. I made a square frame about 3' x 3' (less chance of shooting the **** out of the frame) with the 2 veritcal legs extending below several feet. The ground is soft, so I sharpened the too legs like stakes and shove it into the ground (digging holes and making it permanent would work also). I now have a 2 legged sign with the middle missing. I staple cardboard to the wood frame for a backer, then staple my targets to the cardboard. When the cardboard has had it, I simply yank off the old and put new on. Cardboard works well, because whatever you shoot at it (for example BB gun, shotgun,) won't bounce back at you. The larger size also allows different target sizes, or multiple targets.

[Avizpls]

Bowling pins and an old muffler.

Alternativly, anything thatI can find that isnt going to lose some of its allure by hving half-inch holes in it.

[MAUSER88]

My favorite targets are any plastic bottle that I can fill and cap with water. I also put a couple of drops of food color in them so my tired old eyes can see them out past 100 yards. I shoot at them with soft points. Anything from .223 to 300 Weatherby magnum. When the Weatherby slams into them it looks like someone hit it with a baseball bat. Sometimes I'll add a little dish detergent and shake them up a bit for a real blast.
As you can tell, I get bored putting holes in paper after a while!! :D

[ed1921]

Paintballs can be fun w/ a .22 if you don't mind the mess.
Be carefull w/ bowling pins that are to close. I've seen a .40 bounce back from 7 yards & smack the shooter in the forehead. It bled a bit, but w/out glasses it could have blinded him. (Your mother was right about putting an eye out)
Pin shoots are fun though.

[Dogjaw]

I ask this question because everyone has their own ways, do they goto a public range, setup a picnic table in their backyards and plink off cans, have a permanent target holder, etc.

Here's some ideas taken from a club in SW Michigan. Look through the photo gallery. They hang wood target frames from steel cable, using screw in hooks in the frames to hang them. Each person hangs their own frame and removes it when done.
Berrien County Sportsman's Club (http://www.bcsportsmansclub.com/photogallery.htm)

[wyrdone]

One note on shooting computer equipment:

Don't shoot CRT's. They contain lots of lead and toxic materials.

Either buy a large tarp your willing to dispose of to collect the bits, or don't shoot them.

That being said we once did shoot up a running 21" monitor (it's sync circuit had died). We brought an old UPS unit and turned the monitor over to it's test pattern. No real effect except a lot of "buzzing" (from the flyback transformer) after the 7.62x54 round went through it. Kinda disappointing.

[Doerdie]

Be carefull w/ bowling pins that are to close. I've seen a .40 bounce back from 7 yards & smack the shooter in the forehead.

True Story:
I was shooting at cans (aluminum) in Florida at about 10 yards, a .32 magnum went thru the can, bounced off the sand, flew 150 yards and bounced off a cabbage palm tree, revesed direction and landed at my feet :eek: .
I fiqure with a bit more practice I should be able to hit the can twice with one shot? :rolleyes:

As for shooting CRT's, arn't you shooting at them WITH lead? :confused:

[klondike]

Living in Alaska, there is plenty of open space to go shooting :) There are several places which are just like large sand pits that ppl go shooting, just wutever teh heck they want to shoot. Appliances, Computers, TVs stereos even some cars :) My favorite target is (being very safe about it) tape a hand flare to a 16 oz campin propane tank, light the flare and shoot the tank :) very nice. You could also just shoot the tank w/ a tracer round for same effect, saves you money too ;)

[wyrdone]

Doerdie: Most modern firearm rounds are actually an alloy of lead (usually antimony lead combo) designed to be non-corroding. I think due to EPA regulations all-lead rounds cannot be manufactured anymore.

That and most of the lead inside a monitor is thin foil and corrodes very easily.

Most of the leachable toxics from a monitor aren't from the lead but from the phosphor coating of the CRT tube, mercury, chromium & cadmium from several components, copper from wire windings, brominated plastics, etc. Most of the lead in a monitor is contained within the leaded glass.

Not saying don't shoot them, just practice good range cleanup afterwards.

[rkc]

I like to open a can of whup ass and shoot the neighbor's chickens.

[slimshot]

I tee up cheap golf balls on the longer 3 1/4" tees, set in a cross-beam in the target stand at 50 yards. Have an old CMP Mossberg .22 with peep-sights that works well even with these 50+ year old eyes. It's amazing how many .22 slugs a golf ball can suck up! We've had contests for the longest "drive" off the tee. (a dead-center hit is good for about twenty yards with a new ball) They also work with .38's @ 25 yards, but ain't quite as durable. FORE!
Be safe and have fun. :D

[BillCA]

Slimshot posted my idea except that I use a handgun for shooting golf balls that are simply tossed onto the range at different distances. You can put them on berms, on top of wood posts or like Slimshot, tee them up for fun.

Hitting one squarely with a blunt nosed bullet can drive a ball several hundred yards at mach 3 so be cautious if you have trees, large rocks or other hard objects downrange. One rampaging golf ball hit a rock and came back at us without so much as a "Fore!" :D

To develop "instictive" point shooting skills, use a standard backer but staple paper plates to it and number them with a broad-tip felt marker (1,2,3). Have someone call out which target to hit, draw & fire from the hip or w/o bringing the gun up to eyelevel.