Looking for Unique Target Ideas

[trent/OH]

Split a ball on a axe blade to hit a card on each side at once.
Tac a balloon by the tail then shoot over the shoulder with a mirror. (More fun on a breezy day)
Small block hanging from a string, cut the string.
Under the table with hand gun at a close target with out being able to see the gun.
Shoot a plastic bucket at a unknown range. The ball must enter the bucket and stay there so you have to guess the charge to get in and not go threw or knock the bucket over.
These are some I’ve shot and enjoyed at various places.

I operate Woodswalk at Friendship, and am always looking for new and innovative target ideas to put in action. My comments on Phil's suggestions are:
Split a ball on an axe more frequently is scored by shooting clay birds with the ball fragments. The results is instantly seen, although cost and cleanup are greater.
Small block hanging from a string. I use a golf ball for weight to hold the string taut. The target frame is up a small slope, so ideally the string is cut and the ball rolls down the hill to you.
Set up a board and partially drive a shiny nail with a big head on it into the board. If your rifle is a real tack driver, you'll drive the nail into or through the board with your ball.
I'm partial to a stake shoot, where a 2x4 or similar is set up for each team (maybe 4 or so on a team, and everyone shoots at their stake until 1 team cuts theirs in two with their shots.
Depending on where you live, in the Fall you can shoot at hedge apples (Osage Oranges). They tend to really jump high when hit

 

[Rodd Boyer]

I shot a target at a rondy last year. A set of 1-1/2" inside diameter steel pipes about 3 ' long with a prescription bottle filled with baby powder in the far end. Pipes were mounted on a rack at 25 yards, 4 pipes. You walked up and told the score keeper which pipe you were attempting. It looks like a little black dot down there. If you do get a ball into it, the plastic bottle breaks and the baby powder puffs out the end. No question of whether you got you ball down the pipe or not

 

[Versanaut]

Some good new suggestions as of late! I have pondered the thought of a timed or pressure match. I keep thinking there is such a disparity between our normal shooters' speeds that there is a large part that would not be happy to be rushed... but then again, we ALL talk about the charging bear cover of muzzleloader magazine and we all know the sharpshooters in the bunch. I think it is time to see who we want by our side in 1776!

 

[Capnball]

For about a buck a piece you can buy a paper charging bear target. Let's assume you're hunting and come across a bear in the wild who's approaching, whether it be a walk or a run. The first target set a 50 yards doesn't seem like a hard shot but if you're shooting at a bear you really want that first shot to be a good one. That first shot starts the clock. A charging bear can cover 44 feet in one second. The second paper target is set at 75 feet representing a target at 150 feet giving you about seven seconds of reloading and firing time (give or take a second or two for assumed terrain and whether or not your first shot did any real damage.) There's lots of variables but it's something you can do at any range with a stop watch. The real variable is whether or not you could remain cool enough to reload and get a kill shot off in around seven seconds. While a wounded charging bear is running directly at you.
"My guns fowled" is not a do over, LOL
Have fun!
Neil...AKA...Neill

 

[smo]

Turkey quills - you gotta’ cut it into

Life Savers -hanging from sting

Marshmallows - hanging from string
Start with the regular size and work your way down too the miniatures.

Wooden Skewers -stuck horizontally into a 2x4 frame or tree

2 wooden skewers- forming an X , you gotta’ cut em’ both.

Freeze Pops -hanging stapled to a 2x4 frame

Balloons -hanging from a string

Playing cards - you gotta’ cut em’ into

 

[Tanglefoot]

What we used to call "Penny Lollipops." The kind with the paper loop handles. Party stores have them in big bags, cheap.

Potatoes, apples, tomatoes, lemons, oranges, and other produce that the market is going to throw out.

Crackers - various shapes and sizes.

Popsicle sticks. Hobby/craft stores have `em in sacks,
cheap.

All low cost, all biodegradable.

 

[rp77469]

Get a package or two of tongue depressors and as many different colors of paint you can find. The number of colors determines the number of shooters per relay. Paint 5-10 depressors each color, plus one popcicle stick. Hang or staple the sticks in random order all across the shooting line. If you staple them, put them vertical, horizontal, angled etc. such that the same colors are totally random up and down the line. There are two ways to play the game. Put the popcicle sticks in a bag and shooters draw their target color out of the bag. First contest is simple, shooters find their color and shoot their targets. First to hit all of them wins. Second way messes with their heads. Shooters draw their colors and shoot every other color BUT yours. You are out when all your sticks are hit. This contest needs 2-3 people keeping track of hits, otherwise you have to pause to check targets and really have to pay attention to who is in and who is out at the end if paying more than just first place. We'll be playing this game at least once at the Southwestern in March.

 

[Big Rviers]

One gun club I belonged to, had the most original targets for shoots. Two favorites were the Mike Fink and grouse shoot. Mike Fink was a wooden cut out of famous river man with a flat topped head. A whiskey glass (not real but a clay imitation) was placed on top of his head and a clay pipe in his mouth. You got it, the object to shoot the glass and clay pipe, negative points for body hits. The grouse shoot consisted of 3 steel plates about six inches across that were hung from a tree, and would move about in the wind.. The plates had a grove on the back into which a popsicle stick with a clay birds head was placed. The birds head were made in egg cartons into which the clay poured and stick was inserted. The object was to shoot the grouse in the head with one point for each hit. A miss was zero but hitting the grouse in the body was minus one point. Why? Because it's not sporting to shoot a grouse in the body with a rifle. Finally the favorite at our shoots was the raw egg contest. An raw egg was placed on a post as a target. If you missed the egg (only one shot) you had to go to the post and eat it raw. Here's the catch and what made this such a fun shoot that included the whole family. If you missed the egg you had to run to the post to eat the egg because the women folk would be stationed a couple yards behind the shooting line with buckets of water ready to douse you if you didn't run fast enough or tried to chicken out. Great fun.

 

[flntlokr]

We have hung charcoal briquets from strings of various length. They move around a bit in the breezes. shooter calls his shot. Also used avocado pits. glued strings on them, and put them in a bucket with the strings hanging out. pull a nut, and that's what you shoot at; big or small. Save those nuts! There was one shoot where you had to shoot a chunk of carrot off the end of your own tomahawk, which you stuck in a log with the handle vertical.