Your Favorite Target(s)

[Ohio Joe]

I was wondering what some of your favorite targets are? I like shooting the NMLRA 50 and 100 yard buffalo targets from cross sticks... I also enjoy the standard 25, 50, and 100 yard NMLRA offhand targets... My favorite target is my 1/4 inch steel gong that is 15 x 18 inches... I will hang this gong at challenging "patched round ball" ranges of, 150, 175, 200, 225, and 250 yards from the portable gong hanger I made and go to shootin' at it from all positions, offhand, kneeling, setting, prone... I load lite and play the windage and elevation game. To me, there's nothing quite like firing at the gong two-hundred and fifty yards out and hearing the report of the ball striking metal seconds later... Naturally I don't always hit it, but it doesn't take long for others to get involved in trying their skill's at the gong...

 

[Zonie]

The only NMLRA targets I have tried so far are the standing bear and the white crow on black.

Of those two, the Standing Bear is fun but I've run out out them. I have a hard time with the stupid crow.
If you've shot this target, you know the bullseye is off center from the image (about where the birds heart would be) and my mind wants to aim at the center of the big white bird. Of course when people tell me I missed the bulls eye I just say "I didn't want to ruin the breast. Besides, hitting them over here (pointing) pre guts them nicely."

Being a plinker at heart, the target I enjoy most is a nice golf ball. Great fun to see how far you can "drive" them. It also lets me relate to the die hard golfers at work!!
Those guys look at you like you are some sort of "he man" when you tell them you shot 20 "rounds" (balls) of golf on sunday!!

 

My two favorite targets are buffalo silohuettes I cut out of 3/4 steel from the center web of an I-beam. They are approximately 24 in. long by 18 in. high at the hump. I welded up a frame from 3/4 sucker rod and with the addition of a couple uprights and a cross piece from the same material welded to the silohuettes I had permanent swingers. They've absorbed literally thousands of rounds of 500+ gr., 45 cal cast bullets and many hundreds of 400+ gr., 40 cal. cast bullets, to say nothing of all the thousands of rounds of handgun cast bullets and round ball I and friends have fired at them and they are still going strong. I've shot them out to 500 yards with my Sharps and as close as 25 yards with handgun and 50 yards with muzzleloaders. They are no substitute for putting any rifled firearm on paper but they sure are fun to shoot!!!!! You get this really nice "thunk". At 500 yards it takes a while to get back to you.....and if it's windy it doesn't. I also absolutely do not allow any jacketed bullet to be fired on them.

Vic

 

[TwoShadows]

Anything that clanks, dings, bongs, breaks, or falls down. I use paper and shooting benches for sighting in purposes only. I attend matches where paper shooting goes on, but it is not my favorite. Our Stump Bluff Militia shoots mostly gongs at various distances along wooded trails through the property. Some of which require "toeing the stob"....meaning you must have some part of your body touching a stake pounded into the ground. This often results in your having to stand in awkward positions to align with the target...much like hunting situations can produce. Shooting around trees....over logs...across the ravine..etc. Gongs for us can mean animal shapes or any geometric shape. Targets may have holes cut in them to the point that edges are all there is to aim at. On special occasions, like our annual "doins", we like to have the usual gamut of novelty[url] targets...clays...eggs[/url]...lollipops...card cutting...briquets...One of our favorites is to have an egg hanging at about 15 yards and a gong behind it at maybe 25 yards...the object being to line up on the egg and break it while having the ball travel on and ring the gong at the same shot. This is sometimes difficult because the egg has enough mass to deflect the flight of the ball. Larger calibers normally prevail in this situation. Shooting at a hanging piece of chain is fun too, and calls for a sharp eye. Situation Woods Walks are popular among us too.We feel that such monthly shooting is one of the reasons that our group ususlly places in most shoots we attend. Several of our group have won National shooting matches and one even has a record score still standing on the records from the late 70's. Our club is pre-1790 and of course fixed sights and flintlock only. Our property has a large gas line right-of-way cut through it and provides distances that make our "Long Gong Dong" match one where we can bring out the dark side of most anyone's character trying to figure the distances over rolling terrain. A cannon range and primitive archery will be our next projects. Check out our website by typing in Stump Bluff Militia and then following the leads to where you want to go OR stop by Stump Bluff Tavern at Manskers Station next month to say hello and sample our victuals. I am the big curmudgeon behind the bar. We are always interested in "fresh blood" for our small club.

 

[musketman]

During the late fall, usually after halloween, we gather excess pumpkins and shoot them... :winking: :haha:

Talk about fun, carving a JACK-O-LANTERN with musket balls... :: :haha:

 

[tucoblue]

My favorite target.......a 12 pointer broadside at 9 yards.

 

[blckhrn]

Revenewers

 

[jtmattison]

Here's my favorite target :winking:

Huntin

 

[musketman]

Here's my favorite target

Is that the deer, or the tree? :winking: :haha: ::

I shot a few trees in my life time, the .75 Brown Bess sure helps in tapping for maple buckets... :haha:

 

[Rocky Johnson]

It would be exciteing just to take his picture. Rocky /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[musketman]

Out_A_HUNTIN, here's a target for you...

Non-Typical Antlers (thru 2000) Missouri Monarch (was found dead)
World Record
333 7/8 Mo. Dept of Conservation
Found by Dave Beckman St Louis 1981

 

[jtmattison]

I would probably soil my britches if thet guy came walking by me in the woods :shocking:

Huntin

 

[Liver eatin’ Johnson]

Here's one you might like to try when yur out shootin' with a pard. Dig a hole and burry a 6 foot 2x4 bout a foot in the ground. Then see who the first one to cut it clean in two edgewise. You can use one board and take turns or two boards and rapid fire til she foulds over.

My favorite paper target is the black V Draw a big V on a piece of paper and see how close to the bottom ( within the V ) you can get without cuttin' the line anywhere.

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

I was wondering what some of your favorite targets are?

A life-size picture of the Dixie Chicks. ::

 

[SquirrelsaurusR]

Take an empty soda can, fill it half-way with small rocks, attach a string, hang it over a high branch (like twenty feet up) and give it a push. With weight in the can and hanging from a long string, it'll swing for a long time. Now try your hand at hitting a moving target.

For roundball shooters, you can do a 'Robin Hood'. Take a double edged axe and stick it in the target so one edge is facing back at you. Attach a balloon on each side of the axe. Now try to split the ball on the axe and pop both balloons.

 

CATS; All the stinking, game eating, desease carrying, stray cats the city folks keep dumping on my property!
Here kitty, kitty, kitty, KA-BOOM.
Now don't you cat lovers get excited. If you don't want me to shoot the beasties I will be happy to live trap them and send them to you at my expense.
YOU can get clawed to death, spend about 300 bucks getting them shots, spayed, neutered, and wormed, then thay can spray and pee in your house and poop in YOUR garden. Yeeeech!
Now for the record I LOVE cats. I've always had a house cat. The sucker is fixed, declawed, never goes outside, sits and the couch and purrs and is well pampered like a proper house cat should be.
Ahhh, there, I feel better now. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif

 

[musketman]

For roundball shooters, you can do a 'Robin Hood'. Take a double edged axe and stick it in the target so one edge is facing back at you. Attach a balloon on each side of the axe. Now try to split the ball on the axe and pop both balloons.

I keep shooting the axe handles every time I try that trick... :winking:

 

[Flintshooter in Indiana]

My favorite target would be the one we shot at last year's National Shoot at Friendship. Saturday afternoon after the primitive range closed, we had the first annual flintlock inline shoot. :: Flintlocks only! The target.........an inline suspended by a rope tied to the barrel, up on the hill on the Fer-du-Lac range. And I'm pleased to say, my shot was the one that severed the wrist of the gun and dropped the butt to the ground. /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif We commenced to shootin' again until the forestock was dislodged from the barrel and then, shot the barrel until someone cut the rope. A great time was had by all and we plan on doing it again this fall, if someone can find a cheap inline and wants to donate it. :applause:

 

[musketman]

Saturday afternoon after the primitive range closed, we had the first annual flintlock inline shoot. :: Flintlocks only! The target.........an inline suspended by a rope tied to the barrel,

Its a shame you didn't get any pictures to post along with that story...

We use to shoot zucchinis, a local farmer raised a small field just for his yearly zuc-shoot...

 

Flintshooter,.... You might have jest give'n me a good reason to travel all the way to Friendship Indiana,.... the "flintlock inline shoot",... alone,.... would be "well worth" the trip!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif :haha: :haha: