# Suggest portable, reactive shooting targets **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 15, 2009, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492 "2009-05-15T03:50:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/21 "2009-05-16T02:02:13Z")
Milk jugs full of water are loads of fun. So are empty propane tanks (OK, there’s a bit of a story behind this one). We also take old phone books or (if you can still find it) fanfold computer paper. It’s fun to stop the round and see what it looks like, post impact. ---
**Author:** ![chacoguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/50afbb/32.png) [@chacoguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chacoguy)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/22 "2009-05-16T02:40:14Z")
Get an RC car and a couple of different colored helium balloons. Tie the balloons to the car with equal length string. Designate one balloon as the ‘Terrorist’ and the other, the ‘Hostage’. Have a buddy drive the car around and try to make the shot. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/23 "2009-05-16T17:51:08Z")
I can’t find one for sale, but a [Ritz Cracker launcher](http://www.twodorks.net/wordpress/?m=200710) sounds like fun - using the round crackers as skeet. Cheaper than clay pigeons and environmentally friendly. ---
**Author:** ![Rack-a-Bones](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rack-a-Bones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rack-a-Bones)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/24 "2009-05-16T20:11:14Z")
> [@gaffa](#): > > I can’t find one for sale, but a [Ritz Cracker launcher](http://www.twodorks.net/wordpress/?m=200710) sounds like fun - using the round crackers as skeet. Cheaper than clay pigeons and environmentally friendly. [The cracker launcher](http://www.crackerthrower.com/) looks like it could be fun in a number of ways. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 16, 2009, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/25 "2009-05-16T20:16:20Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > 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? Last time I needed actual metal hangars, I went to a dry cleaner (they buy them by the caseload) and asked if he would sell me some. He just gave me a few dozen for nothing. ETA: You can also go to any home improvement store and buy a few marker flags. They come on ~3-foot metal wire rods that you jam into the ground to mark things like buried cables or property lines and such. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 17, 2009, 1:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/26 "2009-05-17T01:31:21Z")
> [@Rack-a-Bones](#): > > [The cracker launcher](http://www.crackerthrower.com/) looks like it could be fun in a number of ways. Cool, thanks for the link! Yeah, it looks like it could be a truly devastating weapon in a food fight, especially if you load the crackers with Cheez Whiz. Freaking expensive for something that I could whip up out of a broken handle off of something, a bit of scrap sheet metal and two bolts. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/27 "2009-05-19T12:17:30Z")
> [@Erasmus\_Darwin](#): > > 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. What calibers were you shooting it with? It seems hard to beleve a nerf ball would hold up well to rifle fire. ---
**Author:** ![Scumpup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce73a5/32.png) [@Scumpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scumpup)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 1:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/28 "2009-05-19T13:45:42Z")
I fill empty milk cartons with water and freeze them to make blocks of ice. You can add food coloring, if you like. You take the ice out of the carton before shooting at it. It shatters, giving you all the joy of shooting at glass, only with no mess to pick up. The big blocks work best when you’re shooting something with enough oomph to really make the chunks fly. Larger caliber pistols and intermediate cartridge rifles work great. If you’re shooting smallbore stuff, just use smaller containers to make smaller blocks of ice. ---
**Author:** ![Chopper9760](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/cdc98d/32.png) [@Chopper9760](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chopper9760)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/29 "2009-05-19T14:05:23Z")
This might not be cost effective anymore considering the price of food but we always had a lot of fun after Easter because we got to shoot those brightly colored eggs. If you talk to your local grocer, you might be able to get a deal on old eggs. Even though it’s biodegradable, it’s still pretty messy, not a polite target for a frequently used venue but if you can get out a ways where no one will smell the aftermath, good times. Also, those bags of army men are awesome for .22’s. We always set them on an old saw horse and watch the little plastic limbs fly. ---
**Author:** ![NurseCarmen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/5daacb/32.png) [@NurseCarmen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NurseCarmen)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2009, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/30 "2009-05-19T14:21:08Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > What calibers were you shooting it with? It seems hard to beleve a nerf ball would hold up well to rifle fire. The bullets fly right through them, and the heat self seals the hole. There isn’t the usual exit being larger than the entrance, the exit is just as tiny. Nerf would make a bad choice in ballistic vest material. ---
**Author:** ![Erasmus\_Darwin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c57346/32.png) [@Erasmus\_Darwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erasmus_Darwin)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 12:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/31 "2009-05-20T00:06:00Z")
> [@SenorBeef](#): > > What calibers were you shooting it with? It seems hard to beleve a nerf ball would hold up well to rifle fire. .223 and .30-06 mainly. Just this past Saturday, I tried out a Nerf-style soccer ball (same brand as the football I tried before), and it survived fairly well: [ImageShack - Best place for all of your image hosting and image sharing needs](http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/9128/soccerball.jpg) It tends to spin every time it gets hit, so it’s not getting hit in the same spot over and over. It does end up wandering quite a bit, though. Depending on where you’re shooting, that can be frustrating or fun. Oh, and I was wrong before about the color. They’re red and black rather than orange and black, although I seem to recall other colors being on the shelf, as well. ---
**Author:** ![Kevbo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e47774/32.png) [@Kevbo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kevbo)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/32 "2009-05-20T04:31:45Z")
> [@NurseCarmen](#): > > The bullets fly right through them, and the heat self seals the hole. There isn’t the usual exit being larger than the entrance, the exit is just as tiny. It would be nice to have a high-speed movie of this. I’ve observed this with silicone rubber membranes, and that stuff doesn’t melt. I’m pretty sure the material stretches forward quite a bit before the bullet pierces it, and when it rebounds, there is a only a small sub-caliber hole left. Or it may have something to do with shock waves off the tip of the bullet traveling in the material and opening a hole for the bullet to go through. Also bullets that ricochet and tumble before hitting the membrane will leave big nasty holes in it. ---
**Author:** ![SenorBeef](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senorbeef/32/2220_2.png) [@SenorBeef](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SenorBeef)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 4:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/33 "2009-05-20T04:48:59Z")
Yeah, I’ll definitely give some nerf targets a try. I’ll have a mountain as a backstop so I can try to pull off mid-air shots when it gets kicked into the air. I’m thinking balloons (regular air filled ones) taped to those marking posts mentioned above will make nice cheap and very portable targets. ---
**Author:** ![phreesh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/9fc29f/32.png) [@phreesh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/phreesh)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/34 "2009-05-20T19:31:49Z")
That RC car idea is awesome! ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/35 "2009-05-20T19:59:49Z")
> [@VunderBob](#): > > …I like sealed water bottles and cans of shaving cream. Both go all splodey when hit. Counselors would confiscate the cans of shaving cream we campers brought for cabin raids and shoot them at the range. Good show. That makes me wonder about other pressurized containers, especially flammables like hair spray. We use Final Net to launch our potato gun tubers. If you could insure ignition that’d present a pretty good bang for the buck. ---
**Author:** ![LunarPlexus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@LunarPlexus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LunarPlexus)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/36 "2009-05-20T21:08:58Z")
Dwarves? ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 20, 2009, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492/37 "2009-05-20T21:12:18Z")
Yard gnomes. Watermelon. Remember whatever you blast, you should clean up. ( So food, you could leave behind for any animals.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/suggest-portable-reactive-shooting-targets/496492.md?page=1)