Cheap and Fun Target Ideas

[Guest seawolf138]

Dicks sells clays? the one in Knoxville has nothing firearm related...I asked the greeter at the door...she said they stopped carrying anything to do with firearms...was I lied to?

The Dick's in town doesn't have them, the one in Alcoa does the last time I was out there (almost a year), but Gander Mtn over in Turkey Creek carries them.

[JAB]

The back section used to be all guns and such for hunting but they moved all of that to the store in Alcoa because of the remodel but that's what I was told about a week after it happened when I went in to look at their selection.

Apparently, Dick's decided that they can make more money in that location using the space that used to be the hunting/shooting/fishing section to expand departments related to stuff like soccer, softball, baseball and the like. That is what the Dick's employee told me when I was in there while they were moving all the shooting, etc. stuff out.

On another forum, some time back, one guy was talking about filling his old prescription bottles with flour and using those for targets. Said they explode with a nice puff of flour. At the time, I didn't take enough prescription medications to make that much of an option. Unfortunately, since my medical troubles last August, I now have enough empty prescription bottles that I am thinking of giving that a try.

Of course, spent shotgun shells are fun. I've also read folks saying that they liked using Necco wafers (biodegradable) and the like. I imagine that cheap vanilla wafers, saltine crackers so on would work, too - might even be a good use for cookies, crackers, etc. that have gone stale (although my chickens usually get such things at our house.)

Edited June 10, 2011 by JAB

[Caster]

Necco wafers are fun.

[Rebels010]

My dad and I used to "trim" shooting lanes in late summer for our deer stands with 10/22's. We would fill up the 30 round mags. Not the quickest way to trim limbs but a lot a fun and actually fairly effective for the higher limbs that were normally tough to reach.

[Guest clownsdd]

Paintballs are becoming a favorite target of mine of late... Set them on golf tees in front of a sheet of poster board and you get some pretty cool splatter. I also sometimes tape them to my zombie targets. I have been known to set up the little green army men at 100 yards to shoot with my 17HMR, too...

I do the same thing.

[Guest TackleberryTom]

Paintballs are becoming a favorite target of mine of late.

Me too. My boys love shooting them with their BB guns too.

[Guest m&pc9]

freon tank, or whatever they recharge your home AC with. I swipe them from the dump all the time and use them as rifle targets. At 122 yards .22's will penetrate but not exit, .30 cal makes a pretty good mess of them.

I like using leftover food cans filled with water, shoot them from the top down and they are fairly reactive with water coming out the top. Fill up used pop and beer cans with water and the explode on the first hit.

I especially like shooting OS's garbage too.

They are freon tanks. I have a bunch if anyone would like them.

[7dogguy]

So shooting at paper targets gets old pretty fast... and steel targets are fun but expensive... let's hear some inexpensive targets that are fun to shoot...

Plastic milk jugs, golf balls, charcoal briquettes (spelliing?) - all work OK for the trusty .22 (Buckmark) and are cheap (recommend not using the prefueled charcoal even with a .22).

And I can recyle the jugs when done and be a good citizen, ha ha. As to the the golf balls - what a better fate for that disobedient orb that refuses to listen to me once hit and seeks only rough and water hazards than to get plugged!

[Guest btjudge]

ballons. fill with air, tie the ballon off and carefully staple to target backing at the fill hole so as not to burst the ballon. the wind blows the ballon around and this makes for a good moving target.

[Caster]

Empty freon tanks are easily converted into nato thugs.

[Guest Bronker]

Empty freon tanks are easily converted into nato thugs.

For the WIN!!!

[LastRebel70]

Balloons with flour in them then blown up a little gives a nice white cloud when hit.

[Guest TackleberryTom]

Balloons with flour in them then blown up a little gives a nice white cloud when hit.

and if that cloud of flour is ignited, you will have an awesome explosion.

[BJB]

After Christmas we buy discounted ornaments and put some baby powder in them. give a great report and easily to see at 200 yrd

[Mdunntn]

They are freon tanks. I have a bunch if anyone would like them.

I would take some off your hands if you want to get rid of them.

[gregintenn]

Excess garden vegetables, walnuts, green apples, clay pigeons and store brand sodas all make cheap and responsive targets. Shooting a pumpkin or watermelon close range with a 12 guage is a great way to illustrate to children the danger of firearms. It makes a lasting impression on them. A shaken can of soda turns into a flat sheet of aluminum when struck solidly with a 220 Swift.

[MarkInNashville]

Awww a watermelon... the favorite target of R. Lee Ermey. Damn I miss Mail Call!

Yall do have some wonderful ideas!!!

[Oh Shoot]

After Christmas we buy discounted ornaments and put some baby powder in them. give a great report and easily to see at 200 yrd

Even though it's thin, those are all still made of glass, yes? Okay if you have your own junkyard range, I guess.

- OS

[Jonnin]

Excess garden vegetables, walnuts, green apples, clay pigeons and store brand sodas all make cheap and responsive targets. Shooting a pumpkin or watermelon close range with a 12 guage is a great way to illustrate to children the danger of firearms. It makes a lasting impression on them. A shaken can of soda turns into a flat sheet of aluminum when struck solidly with a 220 Swift.

An empty soda can (used, that is) filled with water will explode with most major calibers without wasting soda. A 9mm will blow the can in half, a 44 will make 3-4 fragments. No need to waste soda unless you only have a .22 or something puny.

Anything you can make pressure in is better. fill a 2 liter with COLD water, cap it solid, put it out in the sun for an hour, and it will stretch tight as a drum and blow apart dramatically with a decent energy slug, again 9mm and up are pretty cool to watch. The open top cans require a harder hit as the water has a way to go, but since it goes straight up, its still cool to watch.

[Guest knuts311]

I really like shooting at pizza boxes. Top and bottom = 2 free targets, the size of center mass!

[peejman]

Dicks sells clays? the one in Knoxville has nothing firearm related...I asked the greeter at the door...she said they stopped carrying anything to do with firearms...was I lied to?

Both Walmarts and the K-mart here sell boxes of clays. They make fun targets.

Ballons, cans, plastic bottles, tennis balls, golf balls... are fun. Add a little flour or baby powder if shooting at long range to verify impact.

The tannerite stuff is awesome! You can split a single package. We put some in soup cans and sealed them with duct tape. BOOM!

[shoota40]

cheap cola cans 24 for 5$ BLOW UP GREAT!

[Guest pfries]

cheap cola cans 24 for 5$ BLOW UP GREAT!

Especially with the .17 HMR ballistic tips

[Guest Roadkill Bill]

I live by a golf course and have hundreds and hundreds of free .22 targets. I like to insert a small eye screw and hang them from tree limbs at different distances. There is no guessing if you hit it. It's a drag when you cut your line.

A friend and I have played .22 golf with them, too. You make a 6 foot circle in a field. Then get fifty to sixty yards away (closer when first starting), place your golf ball on the ground, back up about 10 feet and shoot it. Then chase it and shoot it from where it landed. You each get the same number of shots and the first one to get theirs to land in the circle wins that round. Needless to say, practice basic downrange safety, and stand behind the person shooting. Distance, size of circle, etc. depends on you. You can tell we were bored one day . . .

I like the balloon thing, too. Never tried it with powder. I'd probably inhale it trying to blow up the balloon!

Edited June 30, 2011 by Roadkill Bill

[jeff43]

Find a black walnut tree and shoot the walnuts off of it.

Jeff