What to shoot at...

[Seancass]

me and a couple buddies are going to go out this weekend and do some recreational shooting to blow off some steam now that college is done for a while.

My question is: What do you guys shoot at when you're just out screwing around?.

my personal favorite is 2x4's with a little base so that when you hit it you get the satisfaction of watching it fall over. we also do this with firewood. we have a couple swinging targest where you shoot them and the flip up until you shoot the one that resets them. i also have a Do-All Traps Round-up style target, but .22's dont knock em around and .22 mags knock em around and back and leave a big dent.

so, what do you guys shoot at for fun??

 

[nadeem]

alll kinds of stuff, i only have an air gun tho, but still great fun to shoot, generally targets, pidgeons, squirrils and other stuff. great fun

 

[kfranz]

Tide bottles

 

[ID_shooting]

milk jugs and two-liter soda bottles filled with water are fun, be sure to clean up when you are done.

 

[Low-Sci]

I like glass bottles, if you're at a range where you can get away with that. Also might visit some yard sales and pick up some dirt cheap pottery or vases, that's fun too.

 

[ARTiger]

If you have a lot of room to work with and can hit these at 100+ yards away - 1 lb. propane bottles are a blast (literally) to shoot. Use a fast FMJ round (.223, 7.69x39 etc.) I wouldn't get ANY closer than 100 yds though. They make a heckuva a boom . . . little mushroom fireball cloud and all. Even more dramatic at dusk. Not every one goes off though sometimes for what ever reason a round will go through and not ignite the propane.

 

[dawgtraxx]

MAJOR APPLIANCES

 

[Yakko]

Milk jugs and other plastic bottles filled with water.

Take the caps off before you shoot them, the caps fly a long ways and are hard to find when you clean up.

 

[Rockrivr1]

I've always loved shooting things that make a distinct sound when you hit them. I've wired full Coke cans to a hanging target stand. They explode nice when you hit them for the first time and then you can work at trying to cut it in half. It becomes difficult because it's swinging after each hit. I think it's decent practice because it gets you used to hitting a moving target.

If you want something that's fun and frustrating at the same time, try shooting golf balls. You'll miss most of the time, but the time you do hit, that little sucker flys. I Got a direct hit on one with a 45 rnd and that ball flew easily 150 yrds. Hell that's better then some of my hits when I play golf.

 

[Seancass]

golf balls is a really good idea. we're golfers too. we would do more of the trash/junk shooting, but because of the location, we have to clean up after ourselves a little. i may also work on the hanging soda can targets.

 

[WayneConrad]

My nephew and I won't shoot anything that we can't clean up after, and lots of fun things to shoot are too much hassle to clean up. Pop cans are easy to clean up, but don't always move when a .22 goes through 'em. Tin cans move better, and are just as easy to clean up. We've had good fun hanging animal crackers from branches with pieces of string. The critters take care of cleanup for us, and it's easy to tell when you hit 'em.

 

[Deanimator]

When I was stationed at Fort Knox in the '80s, I bought a set of miniature iron silhouette targets. I used to take them to the public range and shoot them with my handguns, especially my Ruger MkII. They make a nice sound and fall over when they're struck.

 

[hso]

I hang paper targets on a target frame I built on my home range. This allows any target type.

Vanilla wafers. You don't have to clean up after and they make a very satisfying target.

Cheap dog chew toys. The rubber squeeky types. They take tons of abuse and when hung from a target frame by a cord hop and bounce all over.

 

[LoneCoon]

Old tennis balls will leap into the air after being shot with a .357. Plus they're bright green and easy to see down range.

 

[Seancass]

also, do you guys have any good shooting "games" for some friendly competition? we're open to anything simple. we do a lot of races to the middle with rows wood blocks, or how many you can kill with a clip with whichever gun.

 

[Just_a_dude_with_a_gun]

Jugs, plastic bottles, cantalopes, watermelons, paint cans, smack-n-flip target systems...etc

 

[Otherguy Overby]

Balistitec

Has anyone tried targets from these guys?

http://www.ballistictec.com/index.html

And specifically this?

http://stores.ballistictec.com/Detail.bok?no=54

And for small caliber:

http://stores.ballistictec.com/Detail.bok?no=60

 

[lucky_fool]

Charcoal briquets if you have a light-color backstop.

Spent shotshells at pistol distances, they hop around pretty well and force you to move your POA.

 

[Zero_DgZ]

ARTiger: Propane

I found that if you leave a burning road flare in front of the tanks you not only have a nice bright thing to aim for (helps at night!) but a surefire source of ignition for the fireworks.

Do this stuff at a safe distance, people! I shot a little camping propane tank with a deer slug once from 50 yards or so and we found a piece of it later at about the 40 yard mark, no idea where the rest of it went.

 

[Mikee Loxxer]

A couple of years ago I bought this stuff called Pepsi Spice. The girlfriend and I tried and decided we didn’t like it. So with most of the 2 liter bottle being full I spat in it (to introduce microorganisms) and let it sit and room temperature for a month or so while it pressurized. I then took it to the range and nailed it 200 yards with my FAL. It exploded quite dramatically. Aside from that 2 liter bottles full of water work fine.

 

[mbs357]

A bottle behind another is big fun.
Creates a hostage situation that can only be defused by making a 'headshot' on the evil terrorist.
It's always fun when the hostage pulls out a weapon and turns out to be a terrorist too!

 

[Deanimator]

If you have a pig roast, the head makes a good target.

When I was in college, our dorm had a pig roast. My best friend and I sat the head aside to shoot later. Things got busy and we forget about the head, as it sat in a bucket full of water outside the dorm. It came to our attention that a female friend was being mercilessly harassed by some fraternity pledges (threats, thefts, vandalism, etc.) That got us motivated, so we bagged up the head, threw it into the bed of my friend's pickup, and took it out to the claypits where we used to shoot. I shot it with my Series 70 Colt .45. He used his Browning Highpower. We took the head back to the dorm and left it behind the building. Early the next morning, we took it over to the freshman dorm where the bullies lived. The head was in a shopping bag, and by this time it was pretty ripe. We simply leaned the bag against the door. Knocking on the suite door, we walked away. Apparently when the door was opened, it rolled out of the bag and into the room.

There was no more harassment.

 

[JackOfAllTradesMasterAtNone]

When the location is right, we look for dead trees. Trim the branches at challenging distances. Then if we've still got enough ammo, we cut it down. Just helping Mother Nature...

-Steve

 

[real_name]

Birchwood Casey Shoot N C targets.

 

[Biker]

I enjoy shooting at empty beer cans.
Biker