Exploding Targets?

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

My wife gave me several exploding target canisters for my birthday. Anyone ever used them? The instructions say to set them up at 100 yards, do they have to be that far away? How large is the explosion?

[SCLoyalist]

Might depend on the brand of the target.   Cabelas sells a "Star Exploding Target" in a little white jar.   The Cabela's product description  embeds a video clip of one going off.   (And, Cabelas says 50 yds minimum safe distance, but maybe what they are selling is different from what you have.)  If the product label says 100 yds, I'd at least shoot the first one at 100 yds.   

[bosteldr]

Some Exploding targets require a high volocity rounds such as a modern centerfire rilfe to set it off.  Black Powder is low volocity.  Take a look at the instructions

[William Worth]

I have a couple of the exploding targets that I got out of curiosity.  But now I'm reluctant to shoot them after experiencing a neighbor that was combining them and making some real noise.  The neighbors around here were getting upset and we're all shooters.  One guy closer than us said it was knocking stuff off of the walls.  I don't want to ruin my situation here by adding to the kerfuffle.

The subject neighbor is right at 1,000 yds from us (Google Earth measurment) and we thought he was firing a cannon or something.  The real problem was he would go at it all day long.

[Roger Fisher]

I had a notion slip one behind a clay bird at 50 yds to give a charge to the 1st guy that hit it during our silohuette agg.  I have now set that notion aside.

[PPatch]

I had a notion slip one behind a clay bird at 50 yds to give a charge to the 1st guy that hit it during our silohuette agg.  I have now set that notion aside.

Heart attack territory.

[Robby]

Milk jugs are about as explosive as I get, but if it goes boom and has lots of smoke, I'm game!
Is this the stuff?

Robby

[Hungry Horse]

 My gun club is one of the few nationally that shares range space with our local sheriff's department. We ask them as a courtesy when we intend to do something out of the ordinary. They warned us, when we  told them about this stuff, that if they got complaints from neighbors, we would have to stop using it. We were given some of this stuff from one of the manufactures, for our youth shooting sports program. The stuff we received is designed for centerfire  rifles, and definitely takes a high velocity round to set it off. It is ring your ears loud, even with hearing protection, at a hundred yards.  Some of the deputies wanted to try some with handguns. It wouldn't go off, even with Plus-P's. They then made up a big charge, and had the S.W.A.T. team shoot it with their tactical rifles, at two hundred yards. The S. O. got phone calls from Lakeport three miles away. The ground at the sight of the detonation was absolutely cleared for about forty yards in all directions, there wasn't a blade of grass left standing. If it hadn't been for a tall berm between our rifle range, and the S.O.'s pistol range, the windows in their classroom would have been toast. This stuff turns common gravel, and small rocks, into shrapnel if the charge is set off on the ground, so we always hang ours on a target frame, for safety.
 I don't think you could make this stuff go off with a hit from a muzzleloader. Indirect hits with centerfire rifles sometimes don't set it off.

                        Hungry Horse

[smokinbuck]

I don't know what it was but a fellow at our club had a concoction that you mixed and shot at. It made a $#*! of a noise and a lot of smoke. More of a pain in the a$$ and a distraction to most of us.  I hope he doesn't bring any more.
Mark

[rsells]

We had a policeman in our shooting club purchase an exploding target at a gun show last fall and caused a bunch of issues with our clubs neighbors.  Our club member thought it wouldn't be very loud!!  When he shot it, it blew a big hole in the ground, threw rocks, parts of the target, etc. higher than the trees!!!  Was so loud that all the neighbors (club's property is in the country) called the police and the officers of our club.  Big problem.  Our bylaws has rules about how the range is used, and the policeman was kicked out of the club because of the issue.  I would follow the instructions to the letter.  I don't have experience with this type of target or the differences that are available, but the one this fellow used was a bad boy!
                                                                                     Roger Sells

[Dphariss]

My gun club is one of the few nationally that shares range space with our local sheriff's department. We ask them as a courtesy when we intend to do something out of the ordinary. They warned us, when we  told them about this stuff, that if they got complaints from neighbors, we would have to stop using it. We were given some of this stuff from one of the manufactures, for our youth shooting sports program. The stuff we received is designed for centerfire  rifles, and definitely takes a high velocity round to set it off. It is ring your ears loud, even with hearing protection, at a hundred yards.  Some of the deputies wanted to try some with handguns. It wouldn't go off, even with Plus-P's. They then made up a big charge, and had the S.W.A.T. team shoot it with their tactical rifles, at two hundred yards. The S. O. got phone calls from Lakeport three miles away. The ground at the sight of the detonation was absolutely cleared for about forty yards in all directions, there wasn't a blade of grass left standing. If it hadn't been for a tall berm between our rifle range, and the S.O.'s pistol range, the windows in their classroom would have been toast. This stuff turns common gravel, and small rocks, into shrapnel if the charge is set off on the ground, so we always hang ours on a target frame, for safety.
 I don't think you could make this stuff go off with a hit from a muzzleloader. Indirect hits with centerfire rifles sometimes don't set it off.

                        Hungry Horse

I have not tried one with a ML and only saw one shot, but it was by a kid with a 260 Remington at about 170 yards or so.
They make them for 22 RF now IIRC. They also some in different sizes. I would not shoot a big one at 50 yards I don't think. They are Tannerite I believe but I don't know how powerful it is compared to C4 I do know its not a HE by the sound of the explosion.
It takes a very big "boom" to clear grass for 40 yard radius. Something like the things that fell off B-52s in VN. And they will break windows at 200 yards without any shrapnel.

Dan

[Daryl]

They are also made as small disks about 1 1/2" in diameter, that are stuck inside  thin steel cups screwed to the bottom of the wings and fuselage of SPAD's (Simple Plastic Airplane Design) made from corroplast materials.  These 'planes' are radio operated and flown past a number of fellows armed with shotguns with bird shot.  The normal flight is around 100mph at about 40 to 50yards distance and sometimes, even though 1/2dozen (or more) shots are fired, no one hits. When they do, REAL shooters KNOW who hit and who didn't.  When hit by a single pellet, these 'disks expload.

[Dphariss]

If the detonation velocity is 7000 MPS its an HE.

Dan

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

OK.  I went to the range today and blew up a couple of the exploding targets.

I set the first one at 50 yards and hit it square. It made a pretty good bang about twice as loud as a 65 grain charge in a 50 Cal. Didn't notice any flames but the top I think flew about 40 straight up. I thought it was a hoot. I don't think the bang was worth the bucks. But it was a gift.

So to dispel some of the rumors. A 50 cal ball at 50 yards will blow them up. Fifty yards was absolutely a safe range for shooting them. I think 25 yards would also be safe.

[dagner]

 they all been wattching  the so ccalled tv  reality shows top gun -son of a gun and rest of tv shows with exploding targets.have to agree with smoking buck .please shoot them at your home not club ranges

[Dogshirt]

A very impressive "exploding" target a can of Coke that's been allowed to get warm in the sun. And you can recycle the leftovers.

[mjm46@bellsouth.net]

A very impressive "exploding" target a can of Coke that's been allowed to get warm in the sun. And you can recycle the leftovers.

Shake it up a little then shoot it.

[Hungry Horse]

 I was once at a rendezvous that had a target that was a large redwood round with a hole just the size of a can of beer in the center. They put a cheap beer in it in the morning, and told us it was a sudden death target, and that it  would have a special prize. It was a pretty long shot, so the target survived most of the day. Finally about mid afternoon, a young man stepped up with a old C.V.A. mountain rifle, and made his shot. The report was had about died  away, when the block exploded. It seems the guy that cut the hole in the round, cut it a little small, and had to enlarge it the day of the shoot, with a rasp, so it was a press fit. A half day of summer sun on the end of the can, plus a dead center hit, generated enough hydraulic pressure to split the round wide open. It didn't make much noise, but it didn't have too, you could have heard a pin drop when that block exploded.

                        Hungry Horse

[hanshi]

Cans of about any bubbly makes a good explosion.  Even plastic bottles full of colored water do well.  The most spectacular explosions were two squirrels I shot one morning with my deer load in a .45 flinter.  They DID explode.  Not a good idea.