Favorite Targets?

[ord sgt]

I use clay birds for reactive targets. We get unbroken clay birds from the shooting club's shotgun range. Our gun club has a course for women who want to learn about shooting all types of firearms. My part of the course is black powder rifle. I load the rifle and instruct the women on how to aim and fire. Seeing the smiles and hear the laughter when they break the clay birds is wonderful. Feedback from the ladies through the course manager saying they enjoy the muzzleloaders better than other firearms is great.

 

[LME]

Pistol targets = human silhouette! Rifle = human silhouette! LOL!

 

[longcruise]

Outdated canned goods blow up nicely.

And shook up cans of warm soda pop .

 

[JEBMs]

Trespassers. Nothing like the sound that they make when you get a good solid hit

 

[Eutycus]

Punching holes in paper is fine and dandy but it gets old after a while. I like a little noise and a reaction.

 

[Frontier's]

At rendezvous, I absolutely love steel songs! Hearing the camps hoot and holler when a target gets hit is awesome lol

 

[Frontier's]

Punching holes in paper is fine and dandy but it gets old after a while. I like a little noise and a reaction.

Especially when it's the same old, crappy, faded, poor quality target they've been handing out for the past 50 years!

 

[wiscoaster]

Punching holes in paper is fine and dandy but it gets old after a while. I like a little noise and a reaction.

Ditto that, but also shooting the same beat-up old gongs at the same distance at the same range also gets a little tiresome.

One of the ranges I go to lets me blow up balloons and attach them to sticks that I stick out on the berm. That's a little variation from paper targets, at least as far as the challenge goes, but still not much more in the way of gratifying feedback for a hit.

 

[Rock Home Isle]

Hey yall!

Punchin’ paper is fun and all and great for load workup, but I’m curious…

What targets do you all shoot at? Mushmellons? Steel gongs? Cans of spoiled butter beans?

Or, something else entirely?

Thanks, gang!!

I’ll burn a lot of holes in paper during load development, but once that tedious chore is completed, nothing beats a woods walk and slapping gongs. Isn’t gratification with each & every hit….

 

[rp77469]

In my younger days I put on a lot of shoots and tried to make them different. Hot glue guns make it easy to hang dangly things in the wind: charcoal briquets, coffee filters with a scoop or two of flour tied inside, oranges (got them for 5c each), canning lids, crackers, balloons, golf balls, etc. Once made a giant sling shot out of surgical tubing, two trees, a quart cup and launched water balloons for trap shooters. Self-resetting gong targets are easier on the match organizer. There have been some good target threads here in the past, so check the archives too.

Best target I ever used came from a Brother. Wooden Hawk got a bushel basket of feathered birds at a craft store close out. They had real feathers, wire feet and ranged 2-5" in diameter. Unknown to anyone, the feathers and wire feet were stuck into a ball of styrofoam only 5/8" in diameter. My bride and I drug over a dead tree and wired the bird's feet to the thinnest branches and first used them on a windy day. Unless you hit the styrofoam ball, the feathers were just pushed out of the way and came right back into position...a MISS! If you hit the ball there was a puff of feathers and the only thing left was the wire feet.

 

[mushka]

I like shooting at things of irregular shape.

 

[extreme_fudd]

Wiffle balls or Wiffle softballs hung on paracord or string. Paracord takes a lot of damage before it breaks. These things take lots of hits before they are damaged beyond use (hundreds of hits).

 

[Kev308]

At our trail walks, it’s mostly reactives/steel. Plates, heavy chain, gongs, the gongs take all size and shape.
For the annual turkey shoot there are various steel targets, we also shoot apples, potatoes, charcoal briquettes chalk bamboo skewers string board, little army men you name it
One year we got a deal on shaving cream cans, should’ve seen those explode!
We made candles from a 3/8” dowel with a piece of candy corn on top.
You name it it can be a target
Kevin

 

[longcruise]

An egg shoot can be fun. Each shooter has a shot at a raw egg. Those who miss eat the raw egg they missed. the shoot continues until all but one, the winner, has missed an egg. It's especially devious if the winner is required to take one last shot.

 

[flconch53]

An egg shoot can be fun. Each shooter has a shot at a raw egg. Those who miss eat the raw egg they missed. the shoot continues until all but one, the winner, has missed an egg. It's especially devious if the winner is required to take one last shot.

I like primitive matches. Charcoal on strings pull the nail split the ball
For a steel target I like a loose length of chain

 

[smo]

I like killin’ steel..

 

[Mulebrain]

I like steel and all reactionary targets. I do however really like playing cards at different yardages

 

[smo]

Here’s a few more target ideas…

Cat food lids on string and tetter totter on the right. Set at 20-23 yards .

Shoot the lowest hanging target first on the tetter totter..
This event has a time limit, usually 5 mins or less.
Potatoes, fruit can be used instead of balloons.. but they don’t move as much…

 

[smo]

I like steel and all reactionary targets. I do however really like playing cards at different yardages

Cards are fun!

Along with golf tees… -1 if you hit the log.

Match sticks -1 for the log.

And the vertical hanging chain

 

[Thomas.bill92]

My range and woods walk are all steel targets but when I have a get together I will set up eggs, lollipops, And soda cans. I also have some bottle caps that let you put 100psi of compressed air in a 2 liter bottle and when you hit that you get quite a nice pop.