Favorite "primitive" targets?

[Tumblernotch]

Here's a few old favorites at our range:

One is a 3/4 inch steel rod hanging at a slight angle from vertical between two trees at 27 yds.

Another is a length of log chain hanging vertical. Both are harder to hit than it would seem. If you use a big enough chain, a smaller caliber ball can pass through a link, so you have to aim where two links touch, or at one side of a link. The steel rod hanging at an angle can really throw you off although it can be hit. Even I managed to smack it with a smoothbore musket once.

There is another interesting way to shoot your targets. And that is the use of a rattlebox. This is a narrow wooden box that contains ramps that zigzag vertically with an opening at the top and one at the bottom. At the bottom hole there is a bell. You can use about any target you want, but what we use are paper targets. Each person is assigned a target, usually with some kind of small game animal printed on it. There are different scoring rings with different values on them. You have to hit the target in the head or chest area to get points. A gut shot or rear leg shot counts as negative points. A miss is a miss.

To shoot this target, the shooter loads and primes his gun, leaving it at half cock. He then places a marble on a mark at the top of the box. When he lets go of the marble he must cock his gun and aim at the target, preferably at the head or chest. He must fire his weapon before the marble makes its way to the bottom hole and rings the bell. If the bell rings before the shot is fired, it is counted as a miss, even if there is a head shot. We usually shoot three times at a target and the one with the highest aggregate is the winner. With the box we use, the shooter has about six seconds to cock and shoot. You can't help but hear the marble drop from one ramp to the other and it can be nerve-wracking. But it's a lot of fun.

We also use the charcoal briquets and bowling pins. We're always looking for new things to shoot at. One of our gongs is an uneven triangle with a square hole cut out of the biggest part. (We made another target out of that piece). It's hanging from a log about 40 yds out and it's deceptively hard to hit.

 

[Soinkuhndog]

How about a "Poker Run"?
Tack up 52 cards and each person gets 5 shots -- best hand wins.

Trade prizes hung from strings. You win what you can cut down.

Wasn't there a scene in a John Wayne movie where he's drunk on his a$# shooting at hardtack being thrown into the air?

 

[Tumblernotch]

Those are good ideas! I'll have to remember those.

Seems like I remember the Duke doing something like that but I can't remember what movie it was.

 

[paulvallandigham]

The movie was True Grit, and he was shooting at corn dodgers, according to the script. YOu can use soda crackers, neco wafers, and other easily frangible targets out to about 50 yards, but then it gets almost impossible to see them for most shooters. Clay targets held up with rubber bands, and fishing line( the old stuff you replace each spring makes good line to hold these targets on a " clothesline", so that they swing in the air. However, if there is too much wind, no one wants to take a shot, We then use a second string of fishing line tied to our uprights so that the string is behind the clay birds, so it stablizes them and doesn't allow them to spin in the wind. Occasionally a shooter breaks the string, but generally you only have to make a few repairs in a day of shooting. The bigger target can still be missed, particular with off-hand shooters, but it does give the guys a chance to hit something and see it " explode ". Shooting matches should be about having fun, while also testing the skills of the shooters.

You can also take empty pop cans, put them on the ground, out at 35-45 yds. and require the shooters to not just hit the can by send it up in the air, by shooting under the can. At the longer distance that is much harder than it seems as first. Since the cans are rarely shot, they are reusuable several times, before going to the aluminum can " goat ".

 

[Dave Rosenthal]

Good morning Paul and everybody else on this thread! You folks just keep coming up with more ideas for a "Fun Shoot" than there's space to set-up all of the targets!

I'll add another 2 cents' worth: Take 16 oz. water bottles and re-fill them with water that has been treated with left-over easter egg coloring. Put a peice of watercolor paper or artist's canvas underneath the targets that are suspended with strings. Make your own artwork and then donate it to a hospital and you can write-off the cost of materials to boot!

Also works with paint, but it gets messy :nono: .

Dave

 

[paulvallandigham]

Sorry Dave. I was never into " Modern Art " that much. I think I will pass on the paintings. And, keep them away from the Psych wards. You might just drive patients into even further states of depression with that stuff!