I'm considering joining a local range (covered firing line, outdoors during daylight with berm backstop) and was wondering what to shoot, if I join? I'm used to indoor ranges with standard types of paper targets, and it's possible to continue to use that at this place. but, since it's an outdoor range and pretty laid back, you can shoot whatever you want pretty much as long as it's not glass and so long as all bullets impact the berm (no shooting at things on the ground in between you and the target area).
I was thinking maybe it'd be kind of neat to buy some bowling pins and do some of that, or maybe some of the metal targets that fall down when hit, or I don't know what else. Is there anything other than paper targets that provides some training or practice value? I was thinking of a few "science experiments" once in a while like the box of truth guys do, but I doubt there's much practice value in that.
I'm mostly interested in shooting my 380/9m/357 handguns, but perhaps also some 12 gauge and maybe 7.62x39 (SKS) rifle too.
Everything that has been said above, including the fruit and water jugs/whatever other liquid filled container is handy (I once recieved a free 12 pack of diet coke, and I dont drink diet, and had a good time shaking up the cans and using them as targets). I know that some bowling alleys will give away their old pins for free or very cheap. I have always liked using clay pigeons for target practice as well, you can tell when you have hit even with a rifle or pistol, and if you really want to try your skills see how many times you can shoot one pigeon until it is demolished. Car parts like doors are fun too,
Like the box of truth guys say "shooting stuff is fun." My advice would be to shoot as many different things that you can get for free/cheap as long as your range allows it.
I have a truckload of the stuff, that I got for hauling it away, before I realized that there isn't enough of any one color to actually tile a room. You can keep setting up the pieces until they get to small to mess with.
Soda cans have already been mentioned. I grab the cheapest fizzy stuff I can find, and show up with a couple of 24 cases.
Shaving cream cans. It is a bit more expensive, but you can find the cheap stuff for 1$ a can all day long. They arent spectacular or anything but you can tell when you hit one well over 200 yards.
O.T. I may get called a liar for this (already have once) I know I would have trouble believing this if I hadn't seen it, but on a recent outdoor range trip a friend of mine tagged along. He was hitting shaving cream cans pretty reliably at 225 yards, with my mosin nagant 91/30 open sighted and using cheap surplus ammo.
All I could see at that distance, were tiny silver specs out in the grass. When he hit them though, there would suddenly be a visible white area that looked as if it had snowed.
...that I really like. I have a couple up at my place. If you have a place from which to have a target swing like a pendulum (mine are suspended between two trees), it is a full motion target that moves in all three dimensions and its direction and speed of movement change with subsequent impacts.
Good use of cheap suckers from dollar store. You know the ones you buy indivadualy wrapped all in a row of plastic. I've seen them as cheap as $1 for 15 suckers.
Take a 2x4 and on the 2" side, drill 3/16" holes every 4". Nail board, hole side up across 2 trees. Insert in each hole 1 sucker with the flat side towards shooter.
Great for handguns, rifles, .22's, BB/pellet guns or even slingshots.
clay pigeons, steel pepper poppers, balloons, empty shotgun hulls, spent brass, out dated eggs, cans of any kind. For the .22's, I tape several aspirins on cardboard, its a challenge.
Balloons are my favorite, they are great training.
I used to live WAY back in the woods. I would set up gallon water jugs with colored water...then you could see where you hit. A center hit would drain the red water down 1/2 way...easy to spot.
Can't really do that any more...too many people around...
For handguns I like to shoot logs. They spin and roll when hit and hold together pretty well.
For rifles at ranges of 50 yards or greater I like to shoot rocks. Grape fruit sized rocks or a little bigger (6-9'')work the best, when hit they explode into puffs of white smoke. I've determined 50 yards to be the closest safe distance for rock shooting due to shrapnell concerns. Even medium powered rifle calibers such as 7.62x39 and .30-30 have pretty imppresive results on small rocks. The .30-06 at 100 yards is fun because you can hear the bullet impact the rock a fraction of a second after it desintigrates.
Lots of good sugestions here. I like the empty shotgun hulls for my 22s. And soup cans for the 9mms hit them just right and they takeoff flying. Also I have a dueling tree for the 22s its a challenge to hit those. With 2 people it can get challenging not to mention aggrevating. I use the exploding targets to but I see you cant use them where you shoot. I have a private area where I shoot so its not a problem. Lots of good sugestions tho as I always looking for something differentto shoot. Have fun.
I often thought it would be fun to build some small test walls using different materials for each one.
The thinking here is that you could test different realistic structures made with real materials under fire. Shoot a cinder block wall with a 9mm and then with a 45acp. Then move one out to 100 yards and hit it with a 308.
Hollywood would like us to think that a car door or 55 gallon drum is good cover when under fire from AK-47. Same reason why a SKS or AK is not suitable for home defense.
I built a range on my place and have been buying (slowly) 2/3rds IDPA targets in 520 steel from Arntzen targets. I've got 3 now along with their portable stands. I'm waiting till we have the house built to start buying poppers, those bad boys are HEAVY and right now I take everything back home after shooting.
The standing steel is great for drills because they don't have to be reset. I can get a lot of practice in an hour or so, then just hose them down again with paint. I also welded up some target stands to hold IDPA cardboard targets.
When the guys get together at my place we can run COFs. We usually finish up with Mano "E" Mano bowling pins with a steel target in the center. 1st one to knock down his pins, shoots the steel, then the loser resets.
I think that anything you can see react to the bullet strike can be good practice for transitioning from one target to another.
One of the biggest problems shooting multiple targets fast is the tendancy to try to see that you scored a hit before moving to the next target. Steel plates, water bottles or anything that you can see move when hit can help you develop the skill to call your shots.
A problem I had in competitive shooting was hitting multiple steel plates. Even on days when I was consistently hitting the "A" zone of paper, I would miss the plate.
It was explained to me that this was because of the natural tendency to look at the target to see if it falls (you don't do this with card board because you can't see the holes anyway). This screws up your followthrough.
Once I got to practice regularly on steel plates, etc. I noticed I could hit where I aimed on paper targets much faster than before.
And don't get me wrong guys. I'm not trying to give the impression that I'm some kinda gun guru - I'm not. I just saw a NOTICABLE improvement in my pitiful skills.
Buy cheap 9" paper plates from Wally mart when you go to pick up your WWB and Blazer Brass.
Its cheap and works better than typing or notebook paper, and approximates the size of your kill zone. Use scotch tape for sticking it to something. I use thin plywood cut into 6' tall x 2' wide pieces, with potted plant holder shepherd's hooks from Lowes to hold up the plywood. Stick the shepherds hooks into the ground and lean the plywood against it. I have my shepherds hooks just the right height (6") so that the top loop goes over and around the plywood from rear to front and holds the plywood up even in a good breeze. You can tape a plate for the upper-center chest zone and one for the head. Cheap and works great for a multiple target set-up. You ought to see my 64 year old mom with her SW642 shoot three targets at 5-15 feet from a concealed draw while moving, or my wife do the same with the G19. I pity the fool that messes with either of them two. Its fun to watch people progress from "where do the bullets go" to killing three targets from a draw, while moving, in less than 3 seconds.
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