Target ideas

[Guest chimpinator]

Last weekend my cousin turned 19. For his 18th birthday we got him a rifle. It was nothing special. Just a single shot bolt action .22, but still his first gun. Unfortunately he hasn't had a chance to go shooting. As a bit of a late birthday present I plan to take him shooting next month. What are awesome cousins for right?

So I want some cheap but fun target ideas. Any of your favorite printable targets would be a great idea. Any other ideas would be great.

I'm kinda thinking of putting some red food dye in some bottles of light corn syrup to simulate the consistency and color of blood. Too gory? Too sadistic? What do you guys think? It won't traumatize him. Still it might be a bad idea. His parents baby him too much. The poor guy only has a middle school education at best because he's autistic. Really his parents held him back more than the disability. Anyway I digress. What other target ideas do you think would be good?

[RWF]

something like dollar store root beer, dr pepper, etc. shake them up and let them set in the sun to build up some pressure and blast away!! some will explode and others blast out a stream of soda like you hit a main blood vessel. it is a blast! you can never have to many soda cans.

[Guest chimpinator]

something like dollar store root beer, dr pepper, etc. shake them up and let them set in the sun to build up some pressure and blast away!! some will explode and others blast out a stream of soda like you hit a main blood vessel. it is a blast! you can never have to many soda cans.

Yeah some dollar store bottles might be a good idea. Usually I save up 2 liter bottles then pressurize them with warm water and yeast, but I don't have that right now. Sounds like a good idea to just get the cheap bottles though. Thanks.

[RWF]

to me the soda cans give a better explosion over bottles. but i never thought off saving the bottles and use water and yeast.

[Jonnin]

there are tons of printable targets online, google it.

You can get some fairly cheap reactive targets like the rubber groundhogs (rotate 360 when hit) or metal gongs or resetting targets for the .22. They last a long time with a small caliber but its still going to be around $30 or so initially, depends on what type you get.

You can make some good ones as well, one we had was golfballs on a string (use a small eye bolt or something) dangled down, when you hit them they wind up around whatever they are hung on, like a U wire/rod stuck in the ground or whatever.

Skeet clays are very cheap to hang up & bust. But a .22 will not break them if you hit it in the center, gotta hit the edges.

Any sort of hard container filled & sealed with water or the like will split open when hit even with a .22. It works better (more dramatic) if you have no air in them, so you fill them to overflowing then put the cap on tight to get a bigger reaction when hit. Soda cans work I suppose but that just seems wasteful to me. If you fill an empty soda can with water it will split open when hit but not as exciting as a shaken one.

If you think he will like the colors, use the food coloring. It wont change anything apart from the color, and at 19 he should be amused and able to handle it. This is really on YOU: you have to decide if it will upset him or his units and you have to deal with them if they get angry, so only you can decide what is a problem. Clear water and watching the junk split open and jump around should be sufficient for the first time out anyway, that is pretty cool the first time.

[peejman]

There's all sorts of fun things to shoot, though some are less fun than others to clean up afterwards.

Balloons with some baby powder inside, any old aerosol can, various melons, ...

[Dave Shooter]

Sticky sugar splatter from soda will attract bugs if you care. Diet doesn't though.