Looking for ways to have more fun when shooting

[t-squared]

crack kills

 

[aztec777]

We used to tape targets to tires and roll them down range to see if anyone could get a bull. We also used to hang bowling pins and get them swinging faster and faster or try to stop the swing. We would also use the bowling pins to train while moving off the line. Ricochet shooting is always fun, but it takes time to set up the shot.

 

[Leo]

Empty shotgun hulls full of flour gives some immediate gratification at 100 yards with a .22. Heck it is pretty fun at 25 yards. With the kids I had a board with a router notch in it. The notch was just deep enough to stand up old stale cookies from the thrift shop. 50 targets for 75 cents, the kids had fun and the birds and animals like the crumbs.

 

[bulldogs42]

Fill up used water bottles with water and some baking soda. Food coloring optional.

 

[LP1]

I get great enjoyment from shooting small groups with the rifle or pistol. On demand. From position. At any distance.
...

Small groups of what?

Milk jug, 1/2Gasoline, 1/2Kerosene, candle lit behind it. Homemade Mushroom Cloud. ※※※ Don't try this at home※※※

Hey y'all, watch this!

 

[TECKS]

Take me with you

 

[Spear Dane]

Liberals down range...

 

[MostCrucialMarsupial]

good suggestions from everyone, will be trying a few of these.

Just to be clear regarding trash, this will be on private land and Im pretty sure he wont let us leave without cleaning up first. Are there ranges around where they let you do this kind of ****?

 

[Leo]

I have seen people leave trash at unsupervised places like Willow Slough, but I always picked up trash, trying to leave the places a little better than I found them. What a great country it would be if everyone did that! I belong to private ranges now and everyone is supposed to pick up after themselves.

As a guest on private land I would be even more vigilant to respect the man's property, even if he lets trash lay.

 

[42769vette]

dueling tree

 

[Cool Breeze]

Clay pigeons are fun, but clay pots like Hickok shoots produce much more smoke. At Hobby Lobby, over on the wall behind the fake flowers they have tons of tiny to large clay pots. Many times they'll be half off. I usually buy the little 2" ones- very cheap for a pack of 4. Balloons could be tedious to fill with flower, but shotgun hulls would be a piece of cake (pun?)

Also, any old spray paint cans - especially ones that are clogged and still half full. And, empty (almost) blue propane torch bottles. I try to always leave a bit in them when i swap one out.

One last tip, if you have a cross member to hang stuff from, using any string is futile, but chain is expensive. I keep scraps of 12awg romex, strip the wire out and hang stuff with that. You can set stuff on the cross member, but its going to get torn up. Even shotgun hulls can be suspended with an ugly hole gouged into it and some wire to make a hook.

 

[bulldogs42]

You could try using blank CD's. Makes a good vitals size target.

 

[BehindBlueI's]

Bikini girls make everything more fun.

 

[MikeBrennan]

Nude even more so!

 

[Fullmag]

Another vote for clay pigeons? Fun making the pieces disappear from the backstop. No cleanup is even better.

Anything over 3000fps does amazing things to tomatoes and watch it though a scope at 100yards. Good times. No clean up except maybe couple drops of juice. Lol.

Btw, don't let the wife know your taking her tomatoes, got caught a few times. Lol.

 

[bulldogs42]

You could check with your local grocery store for expiring fruit and vegetables to use as targets. This will help feed the animals too. A neighboring gardener or farmer might be able to contribute to the cause.

 

[Dirty Steve]

You need some room to do this, but its a fun shooting game I used to play with my boys. We called it Sniper Mission. I would blow up balloons to about 6-10" in diameter and tie them on a string. I'd then scatter them around our woods at different distances, some in the open, some partially hidden behind brush, some behind a tree so that when the wind blew they would be exposed for a few seconds. All balloons would be visible from the kids backyard elevated fort, aka "the sniper's nest". Shots were thus directed down. I would not tell them how many balloons I had placed. When the course of fire was set-up, I'd bring them out of the house and we would climb up into the sniper's nest. They would then lay prone and scan the woods with binoculars. Once they found a target, they had to tell me the location from our nest and approximate range. They then had to eliminate the target with one shot from their fully camouflaged, scoped Ruger 10-22. It was a lot of fun and good shooting practice. As stated, you need a safe location to do this, which we have. It was a lot of fun for Dad too.

Dirty Steve

 

[DRob]

dueling tree

I would love to have a safe place to use a dueling tree. Or, better stated..........If I had a range, I would have a dueling tree.

Water balloons hanging on strings are good. Especially when there's a little breeze. The regular shoots we attend used to use chicken eggs but the residue attracted skunks for a week or so. At an egg shoot in TN we substituted a couple of those plastic Easter eggs filled with Tannerite. The eggs had been painted white so it was hard to tell them from real eggs...........until you hit one!

This video illustrates the balloon shooting. It is a shoot-off in the AR15 class between 2 shooters who had tied by hitting all 10 balloons in their initial relays. In the relays, they had 10 minutes to shoot 10 shots at 10 balloons, single-loading ARs. The white balloons are about the size of a baseball. The reds are about softball size. 200 yards from a bench. You can see there's a breeze. This is a little more fun than shooting groups, IMO.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ARk4vuw1a88

 

[bobjones223]

When I take the kids out with the 22s I pick up bags of peppermint candies from the dollar store.

Unwrap them lay them flat on a 2"X4" at 25 yards....great fun to get sighted in on one ready to pull the trigger and it explodes before you get a chance... It is a fun time, cheap, and between the rain and ants there is no clean up when you are done, just pick up the board and you are done.

 

[TheHUTMan]

When you can't bring things other than targets, I've printed some of these: Targets - Print your own fun game shooting targets and Free Targets for Shooters!

They have your basic darts games, along with battleship and golf. My kids really find it fun and makes for some competition without the mess.