I’m headed out to the desert next week with some friends to do some shooting. Unfortunately, I’m going to have my car crammed full of people and the only targets I can bring with me are what will fit in my average sized trunk. Paper is pretty boring to shoot and one of the advantages of going out to open land is that you can blow stuff up.
So what do you take shooting with you? Empty cans is a classic and fine idea. I’m thinking a few bags of potatos would be cool - very cheap and they explode when you hit them. Some sort of reactive target (that you could tell when you hit) but that didn’t need to be constantly reset would be nice. We’ll be using everything from .22 up through 8mm mauser, rifles and pistols. Suggestions?
Straighten out some metal hangers and stick one end in the ground, and support a aluminum can on the other by just sticking the other end in the opening of the can.
Makes an nice ‘reactive’ target that will move a bit each time it is hit.
Clay pigeons, they shatter when hit
spinner targets are fun, make sure you get the right ones for the caliber(s) you’re shooting, don’t go shooting a .22 spinner with anything more than a .22, unless you want to destroy it a Training Cube
if you have a .22 with you, pick up some coconuts and see if you can’t answer one of the more popular discussions on some firearm websites, “can a .22 be used to put down Zombies with a headshot”, the coconut is a reasonably good approximation of the human skull, a hard shell with squishy bits on the inside
anything above a .22 will clearly work as an “anti-zombie” weapon, but the .22 has the advantage of small size, easy carrying, relatively quiet operation, and gives the shooter the ability to carry lots of ammo in a small space, 500 rounds of .22 are easily carried in the space that 100 or 50 rounds of larger, more powerful ammo would occupy, the one thing the .22 lacks though, is “stopping power”, shot placement is even more critical with a .22 than it is with larger calibers
The explosive isn’t cheap, but it’s legal. Not so say that you won’t attract unwanted attention (we did, last time we were shooting). Note that a handgun round won’t detonate this stuff - you need a rifle.
May get a little pricey if you’re looking a shooting a lot of either; I like sealed water bottles and cans of shaving cream. Both go all splodey when hit.
I save my empty water bottles and refill them, BTW.
That’s clever, I like that. Looking around the house I found that I only have plastic hangars - where do you actually go to buy hangars?
I’d definitely like a spinner target, or the ones where you can reset knocked down targets by hitting one of the targets - but I’ve only ever seen them in .22 versions.
I actually met the guy who makes the stuff - we used to blow up lots of it at bulletfest. But ammo prices being what they are now I’m looking to get cheap targets so the cost doesn’t get too out of hand.
If you can locate some calcium carbide, put a chunk in a plastic bag with some water and let it inflate with acetylene. Anything supersonic will detonate the acetylene due to the shock wave when it passes through hit. Take care not to start fires, as this can throw bits of flaming plastic a few yards.
I use bowling pins, sometimes with scavenged doll heads on them. A lot of bowling alleys, if you ask, will give you their old pins for free. And believe it or not, they can take round after round after round. Even from 7.62x54 rounds! I swear one that I have, that is still more or less intact, has more lead inside it now than maple! The downside is they do get knocked down, but you can still shoot them while they are lying down. One such lying down doll headed pin I hit with a head shot and the pin spun around on the ground. And since they remain pretty much intact, there is less to clean up when you are done.
Not a shooter here, but what about water balloons filled with shaving cream? Or shaving cream with food coloring added?
Do you have room for a frame built from PVC? I’d think you could easily rig something you could hang cans from and thus not have to reset them. Or does that cause too much movement?
I’ve had some great results with various balls. I just went to Target (which made for some fun albeit obvious jokes) and loaded up in the sports aisles. For golf balls, I’d recommend going for the high-visibility ones – at least where I shoot, white balls don’t show up too well on the sand. Tennis balls worked really well, and I found a decently priced bunch with a nice mesh carrying bag. Hitting a tennis ball just right will cause it to pop up in the air. Baseballs were a little pricey, but they were the most interesting to look at post-mortem.
However, the best thing I got was an orange and black Nerf-style football. It was also the most expensive ($5 or so), but it also was the most fun. The orange was a little more exciting than the yellow of tennis and golf balls, and hitting the football just right would result in some dramatic spins. Also, it held up well enough that I was able to reuse the same football for the next range trip.
There is one big caveat with the balls: Shooting them obviously causes them to move around. Make sure that the shooters stick to proper range etiquette and don’t endanger others because they’re tracking a ball that’s moved too far to the side.