Ah, range boredom perhaps? Not a problem. A dash of inventiveness and a pinch of creative thinking- with just a few $$- will go a long way to liven up those boring range sessions.
NUMBER ONE CONSIDERATION in adopting any of these methods, or any other "unconventional" training formats, is SAFETY. Everyone who participates in this sort of thing needs to have had enough trigger time to have the four rules throughly ingrained, or they need to stick to traditional range practice until they do. A novice shooter's target fixation on an improperly set up homebuilt target system can get the pange partner/operator shot. Don't shoot the target puller- or anyone else.
NUMBER TWO CONSIDERATION in using these methods is to have some repect for other shooters and for property owners. Not many public or private ranges will allow shooters this much freedom, not many are set up to allow this sort of shooting to be done safely, or to be done safely with buckshot or slugs. If you are not on an established range with proper berms and safety fans, look for a suitable place for this kind of training. We used to have rented access to an old gravel pit, which was perfect. But do not get so caught up in the ideas that you go places you shouldn't, or do things that will upset other shooters or property owners.
That said:
Number one, think of it as training, not practice. ANY trigger time you get with your shotgun is good as long as you are properly ingraining good habits- "perfect practice makes perfect" as they say. Hand thrown or machine thrown clay birds are not to be sneezed at for practice in hitting moving targets, they help 'program the computer' between your ears. Sporting clays is good because it gives you such a variety of target movement to deal with.
Even on a flat range you don't have to limit yourself to just stationary paper targets. Or at least to one stationary paper target at a time, that is. Put up three or four targets, relatively close together. With different colors of spray paint, graffiti 'em up a little- use one silhouette target as a pattern and paint its outline on plain paper, or just paint an X corner to corner or a line down the middle with a crosshatch. Have your range partner call a color, from low ready or an unmounted gun, shoot that color. Having to shift targets and work for speed will add a degree of pressure that will help liven things up, use a range timer if you have one- press the start button at the color call, let the timer tell you how fast you were getting the shot off. For a change of pace designate one color a 'no-shoot' and have your partner call that color in the rotation too- no shooting the no-shoots! Or paint different geometric shapes on the target paper, and call circle, square or triangle, or paint numbers or letters and call those. Some folks do this drill with steel gongs (left! right! center!), and granted the feedback is better in some ways shooting steel, but you don't need a couple hundred pounds of steel scrap to do it on your own. A newsprint end roll from your local newspaper, your own target frames and staple gun and a few cans of cheap spray paint will do.
And then there are balloons. And string. And breezy days. Stationary targets are boring? Get some that move! You want a challenge, blow 'em up small and use a long string to hang them from an overhead support string. Just a ball of kite string and a bag of party ballons will keep you busy for a while (clean up after yourself though). And you can use the color- call routine as above with them too.
There are easy-to-DIY ground movers like sm mentioned, the push lawn mower deck is one of the best of those- just set it up with a detachable target frame, and voila- instant mover. It can be run side to side, or as a charging target, or any variation thereof. For safety's sake use care in setting this up so you don't blast your partner. A couple of dog tie-out stakes and maybe some small pulleys, with a long enough loop of rope, and your partner never has to go downrange to move the target, it can be pulled back and forth from the same operator position using the rope loop.
Or you can set up an overhead track for a suspended charging target we've always called a garboon. Take a look at the thread at
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=120768 to see how. Again, this is simple, pretty inexpensive and, since it's operated from behind the shooter, safe. There's a commercial variation of this out there now, but you can DIY- people have been, for a long time.
No doubt with some work you can come up with other variations too. Be generous and share 'em when you do.
lpl/nc (who hereby disclaims any and all reponsibility for and obligation to anyone careless enough to shoot themselves, their range partner, innocent bystanders, nearby houses or anything else at all save properly designated targets located on a properly established shooting range, while using any of the constructs, methods or ideas posted above, or any derivation therefrom, for any purpose, at any time or in any jurisdiction)
