"Fun" targets suggestions please.

FrenchieBoy

Well-Known Member
I have some members of our gun club coming a week next Sunday to go up to a quarry where we are going to have a bit of a "Fun Shooting Session". Even though the morning is meant to be fun safety will always take priority and one of our guys is a registered NGO Safety Officer.
We will all be using Centrefire rifles of differing calibres and shooting at ranges from around 100 yards out to maybe 250 or 300 yards. We have had these "fun sessions" before and we have used hens eggs at about 200 yards as targets. (When you hit a hens egg with any centrefire there is no mistaking it) However I want to try something a little different without breaking the bank or I would have used Firebird Exploding Targets.
What sort of targets do you guys use or would you suggest to make a Sunday Morning Centrefire session like this a bit of fun?
 
Small tins of schwepps tonic or similar mixer sized cans of fizzy stuff
lay them on their side and the silver base in about 1.25"

go off with plenty of pop...
 
Small tins of schwepps tonic or similar mixer sized cans of fizzy stuff
lay them on their side and the silver base in about 1.25"

go off with plenty of pop...

Sounds good to me. I'm off to Lidls with the wife tomorrow and will have a look at what they have as long as they are not too expencive!
 
One idea which I saw on a Danish forum was to drill a 14mm hole in the lid of a plastic soda pop bottle, then install a valve from a car tyre. Put it back on the bottle (perhaps after putting a in bit of talcum for extra visual effect), then inflate to around 7 bar.

Hey presto, legal and cheap exploding targets. You should also be able to reuse the lid and valve as long as you don't shoot them.
 
I'm guessing that you are 'zeroing' at these targets. :D

Depending on distance, I save up some used 500ml bottles of water, refill them with tap water and set them out at various distances (although they might be a bit big at 200 yards). You could hang some extra-strong mints up on pieces of string- they are a demanding target. Equally, you could hang up biscuits or anything that is appropriate size-wise. The good thing about hanging targets from string is that the shooter has to make a direct hit.

I read somewhere that a guy used cheap shaving foam cans to good effect.
 
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what about 2 litre bottle top caps you could sit them on canes if its still or just use a bit of tape if not, it isnt going to cost you anything and all the targets are going to be the same size should be easy enough for most to hit at 100yrds but once out past that things will get a little more tricky and i will take my hat off to anyone who can hit one at 300yrds you could have a sort of shot off where you nominate your distance and for each shot and you get a point for every yard out which could be doubled if you take it edge on and zero points for a miss, 5 shots each and see who gets the most points at the end
 
or what about the little plastic army men row up ten glued to a peice of wood teams of say 5 shooters fastest team to hit all there's down at say 150-200yrds so as you will get a few missis wins you could have teams shooting against one another aswell to ramp up the presure
 
You can probably buy or scavenge some clay pigeons from a local ground for not very much. Very satisfying when hit and if you don't announce the ranges before hand, you will be able to catch people out with the mini and midi size ones. Otherwise conkers can be a challenge (dip them in bright paint for easy spotting) or empty drinks cans. Another fun game I used to play with the air rifle was to put a 3 matches in a piece of plasticene and stick it in front of a paper target. Each person has 3 shots to shoot them with 5 points for each one hit. Bonus 10 points if they can light one without it disappearing (it is possible). We used to do it at 30yds with air rifle or 10 yds with air pistol/ open sights, but with a centre fire 50 or 100 may be more appropriate assuming a high power scope.
Have fun.
 
"Fun" targets suggestions please.

Milk cartons or Coke bottles with water & bit of food colouring

Bags of flour ..even better if a breeze

Balloons , blown up , bit of summit flammable inside then a candle ( if not windy) behind , ballon goes fluid gives fireball

Paul
 
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Some useful suggestions, many thanks guys. Whatever I use the targets will be set out at random ranges just to make things interesting and so we all have to work out any hold over/under if needed.
I haven't tried it before but I was wondering how fairly ripe oranges, tangerines or even apples might "behave", whould the be likely to "vapourise" if hit square on?
Another option open to me is the chalk (40mm dia) targets which I already have.

Edit: I obviously wrote this reply out while Hereford was posting his reply!
 
I've used cheap cans of pop (already mentioned.....but I gave me a bloody good shake up first as well!!); I've also used pears which splattered quite impressively when hit.....a cheap but effective dynamic target which either rots down or gets eaten by birds etc. No tidying up!!
 
Clays are good size to be shooting at 250 ?
or them exploding discs you can buy for about £12 for 10 from gun shops.
 
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