Cheap Stuff to Plink At?

[Swifty Morgan]

So let's assume you're a degenerate plinker, and you want something you can throw on the ground and pop over and over with a .22, making it dance around on the grass. But it has to be cheap, and it can't be something that will fall apart right away. Something the size of a grapefruit would be about right.

What's the answer?

[Shoots Left]

These maybe?

[tangolima]

Soda can. Half loaded with dirty. It takes 20 to 30 shots to disintegrate. Back to recycle bin it will go and a new one will be fetched out.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[603Country]

We use those small round orange balls that Shoots Left mentioned. I don’t think you can chew em up with a 22. They’ll take abuse from a 9mm, a 357, a 223, but the 6.5 Grendel punishes them.

[105kw]

Old golf balls are fun targets for a .22, very active when hit.
They used to make a smaller version of that orange ball, but I haven't seen on for a while.
I just read the specs on the orange ball. It's rated for .22, I might grab a couple.

[Swifty Morgan]

Geez. Those orange balls look ideal. Thanks.

[Pumpkin]

Well, not the size of a grapefruit but we have used old empty 55 gal drums for years.

Shoot one shot and aim for the hole. If you and your gun are up to it you can just make the hole bigger. When the drum starts resembling Bonnie and Clyde’s old Ford you can retire it to make a great burning barrel.
Obviously this only works with the landowners permission or if you happen to be the landowner. If you have any kind of a backstop you’ll notice that you have less ricochets than shooting at a can on the ground.

[Swifty Morgan]

Are the squares better than the balls? Seems like the balls would roll off.

[44 AMP]

You could just use real grapefruit. OK, they don't last long, and explode when hit by high velocity rounds, but they are 100% biodegradable, no having to deal with sharp metal edges picking up cans for recycle.

[Swifty Morgan]

Citrus is vanishing due to the incurable plague from China. A lime costs 89 cents here.

[tangolima]

I just don't feel right to use food for such use. Don't mean to pass judgement. I went through hunger growing up.

-TL

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

[Shoots Left]

Originally Posted by Swifty Morgan

Are the squares better than the balls? Seems like the balls would roll off.

We only shot 'em with pellet guns and a "good" hit would move the ball nicely but not so much as chasing down a pass fast ball. Can't speak to what a 22 might do to the ball. I'm thinkin' for 22 and up I'd probably start out with the square ones and see what happens.

[Swifty Morgan]

I just don't feel right to use food for such use. Don't mean to pass judgement. I went through hunger growing up.

-TL

I shot up some Van Camp's Beanee Weenee, Vienna sausages, and soy milk with a Desert Eagle, but I think I was on the side of justice there.

I have 4 cubes on the way.

[44 AMP]

I shot up some Van Camp's Beanee Weenee, Vienna sausages, and soy milk with a Desert Eagle, but I think I was on the side of justice there.

You were!
especially the soy milk!
Which caliber Desert Eagle??

In the old books, you often see a recommendation to use NECO wafers as plinking targets, they're small, cheap and disintegrate when hit.

[Swifty Morgan]

At the time I bought the gun, I was annoyed at antisemites, so I bought the biggest IMI Desert Eagle possible: the .50 AE. Brushed chrome. And I made it known on the web.

I know of no other legitimate use for this gun. It might be good for driving tent stakes.

Shooting the vile food was pretty difficult. For one thing, this gun shoots casings into my face no matter how I hold it, and for another, I didn't know the little plastic Jujube extractor spring had melted, so I got one stovepipe after another.

Someone told me to replace the spring with one from an AR-15, and it has not melted yet, being steel and all.

People think this gun is hard to shoot accurately. No, it just hurts a lot.

[44 AMP]

I know of no other legitimate use for this gun.

I don't have any personal experience with the .50 AE, but I do have decades of experience with the .357 and .44 Mag Desert Eagles. If you can physically manage the size of the gun (grip size and weight) they will do any and everything you can do with revolvers in those calibers, except for shooting cast bullets.

Velocity is higher than a revolver with the "same" length barrel, they are accurate, and don't hurt me, at all. Recoil is significantly less than a revolver in the same caliber. The gun is heavier, and the different grip shape change the feel considerably.

[Swifty Morgan]

If I shot it more, I would look for a gunsmithing solution to the problem of getting hit in the face with casings. Magnum Research blamed customers for limp-wristing, but what was really limp-wristed was their gaslighting. "Push with the right and pull with the left." Yeah, okay. That really helped.

It shoots just as accurately as a Glock, but the trigger is horrendous. I have never tried scoping it to see what it does farther out, because I don't care.

Now that I think about it, the only pistol I've ever shot that was seriously inaccurate was a Keltec P9. A friend of mine who couldn't shoot let me fire a few rounds at his splattered target, and I honestly could not tell which holes were mine. There was nothing resembling a group.

The Desert Eagle is a ton of fun. I remember taking it to a public range. They would call the range hot, I would fire one shot, and everyone else would turn and look at me.

I can't even imagine what an S&W .500 is like. After a point, these huge novelty guns start to get stupid.

[zukiphile]

If you don't like shooting real food, you could use these:

[Swifty Morgan]

But...but I didn't shoot real food.

[44 AMP]

Magnum Research blamed customers for limp-wristing, but what was really limp-wristed was their gaslighting.

They were "shining you on" about limp wristing. Or, perhaps they were simply ignorant and actually thought that was the problem. It can't be. The DE is gas operated, NOT recoil operated. It doesn't care how tightly it is held, it will function with a limp grip. HOWEVER, they will not run right if you "Cup and Saucer" the gun. Any pressure on the magazine can result in feeding issues. The magazine needs to "float" in the gun, or it won't work well.

The problem of getting hit in the face with the empties is almost certainly due to the extractor tension. You mentioned replacing the spring, that might be the cause. Also possible to be the extractor itself, or both together.

Unlike a recoil operated action with a fixed standing ejector, the DE uses a spring loaded plunger as the ejector, so the speed of slide movement play almost no part in ejection. But the extractor (assuming the correct face angle on the hook) has to be under the right amount of tension to both hold the case while extracting, and pivot enough to let it go at the right time so it goes out the side, not straight back and up into your face.

I'd say, get the right spring, install it, and see if there is any change. I've never had any issue like yours with any of my .357s, or my .44, mine are what is today known as the MK I, got my first .357 in 1984 and my .44 in 1990. Hold them the right way, feed them ONLY what they want to "eat" (jacketed bullets and full house loads) and mine work well. The triggers on mine aren't "match grade" but they aren't too bad. Better than any Glock I've ever shot.

[ballardw]

Originally Posted by 44 AMP

You were!
especially the soy milk!
Which caliber Desert Eagle??

In the old books, you often see a recommendation to use NECO wafers as plinking targets, they're small, cheap and disintegrate when hit.

I actually prefer to use "creme wafers", those little sandwich cookies with a waffle like texture and filling. They often are available in high contrast colors like neon pink or orange. Feed the birds and insects.
I can't stand to eat them for the past 60 years. NECCO wafers however, I love so wouldn't shoot them (and don't buy them often).

[Spats McGee]

If I'm out on the farm, I prefer biodegradable targets. Shoot 'em up and leave them for whatever wants to eat them. Oranges, apples, grapefruit, cabbage, ... those all make nicely reactive targets.

[jmr40]

I like to use clay targets. Especially if placed on a dirt bank. Hit them once and they break into smaller, harder to hit targets. It may take a little while, but they eventually break down and into the ground.

[bamaranger]

We recycle a bit. Strip the paper off .....into the bin. Take the cans and perforate them a bit, then into another bin.

Not sure what your household is like, but soup, veggie and other tin cans seem prolific around bamahouse.

[KMAX]

"If I'm out on the farm, I prefer biodegradable targets. Shoot 'em up and leave them for whatever wants to eat them. Oranges, apples, grapefruit, cabbage, ... those all make nicely reactive targets."

If I'm out on the farm I shoot the sh**, literally. Dry cowpies make pretty good targets.