Targets

[Molly]

Always challenged to come up with a novel target for our bp events.  Did one yesterday with a novel idea dreamed up by myself.

Make a small target of a laminated nature.  The back section is ply wood.  Cover it with at least two layers of heavy conveyor belt material.  The face should then be covered with a heavy denim material.  Then a cardboard target over all that.  You need a spacer between the denim and the outer cardboard target.  The object is to hit the bulls eye but with a charge that will NOT penetrate the denim/rubber layer and then have the ball drop into a container under the target.  Believe it or not we had several successful firings with a 45 cal loaded with 20 gr of fff at 25 yards.  We also had several which bounced off the target but did not hit the container AND several that embedded in the rubber.  Of course two jokers used 50 cals with 85 grains and blew through all layers and out the back.  Seemed to be a hit with all 12 of our shooters wanting to take a crack at it.

Any other cool target ideas out there??

[bob in the woods]

The NMLRA has a novelty target that has some fun stuff on it.

[trentOH]

Mount a 45 rpm record on a backward target or piece of paper, so that the hole in the record is easy to see. I've even put red duct tape behind the hole, but it just needs to be plainly seen. From 25  yards, you get 1 shot at it. Just 1.

Scoring is: Ball all in the hole, 25 points (A huge score for just one shot)
                  Hit vinyl, even nick it, minus 50 points
                  Don't shoot, or hit off of the vinyl, minus 10 points.

Is a 1 1/2" bullseye doable? Certainly. But throw in the possibility of a huge negative score, and the psychology of the shot gets just crazy interesting.

[Daryl]

One of the clubs that puts on a steel gong trail walk at BC Rendezvous (Hefley Creek) usually has a bonus target. There will be two gongs, larger and very small, or simply the chain hanging for the small gong. 

2 points for the small one, but only 1 point for the big one.  With the shooting as close as it usually is with a tie breaker deciding between 1st and 2nd, a bonus of one point becomes important.

I always take that chance of opportunity - sometimes it pays, sometimes it doesn't (with a miss) and you are down 2 against the man chose to shot it and hit it, thus may not even be in 3rd.  place.   
 

[OldMtnMan]

There's always the axe that faces edge towards shooter and splits the ball to hit two targets.

Not original, but still fun.

[nosrettap1958]

The most fun I had at a target shoot was with pop up targets. They would pop up and you would have only so long to train on it and fire before it dropped out of sight again.  Great stuff. One shooter at a time so everyone had plenty of time to reload his rifle.

[Candle Snuffer]

Gongs of any size and distance. Perhaps not as cool as some of the other target ideas out there, but always fun to shoot at. 

[Molly]

We once made what I called the "flagman" target.  Actually, three colored paper plates on paint stir sticks.  One up, one to the left and one to the right mounted with a center pin.  A counter weight at the bottom would cause them to swing.  The motion was triggered by pulling a prop with a string.  Movement was short lived and the distance was only about 14 inches initially but shortened as the momentum slowed and then stopped.  The object was to shoot any plate before the movement stopped.  We generally did a count to "5" out loud and the shooter had to fire on or before 5.  Probably not a good technical explanation as it all had to be mounted on a stand.  The idea began with a rotation target, sort of like a fan but I was never able to rig up something to provide the rotating motion, like a slow battery operated motor.

[Fyrstyk]

Our club sponsored trail walks feature a variety of gongs at different ranges, a running boar target, a running squirrel target, a pendulum, and several bio-degradable targets ie. potatoes, carrots, necco wafers, loli-pops, charcoal birquets and clay pidgeons.  We shoot the backs of playing cards, and the best "21" hand is the tie-breaker.  Points scored on the cards are 1-point for a nick in the card, and 2-points for a ball fully within the card.  We also have a battery operated clock mechanism that turns a cardboard circle about 10" in diameter with loli-pops stuck in the edge of the card board.  Only the top half of the circle, with 3 loli-pops is visible at one time and you must call the color of the pop you are trying to hit.  Very challenging.

These are fun trail walks for the club, easy to set up, and great competition.  We even allow BP hand gun shooters to participate, although we have to shorten the ranges on some of the gongs by providing a second shooting position for hand gunners.  All shots are standing off-hand.  Any sight is allowed, including scoped in-lines, but we do have a powder charge limit of 80 grains, and lead projectiles only.

[pitted bore]

At the October 2016 shoot of the local ML group, the shoot organizer produced a novel target, shown in the photos below.

It's an elaboration of the traditional shoot-through-the-hollow-log target.  The hollow log was put on a frame of rough lumber at a height suitable for shooting offhand.  A heavy disc brake rotor fastened to the front of the log protected the wood from getting chewed up by stray shots.  The reactive hit indicator was a steel plate flapper hinged at the top of the log and  covering the hole at the rear of the log. A small white flag was secured to the flapper, extending well to the side of the log as a visual indicator of a hit.

As a separate target, a pot was hung at the front of the frame below the log with a steel plate suspended from bungee cords on the back side of the frame.  To score a hit, shooters had to put their shot through the pot and strike the plate.  This required shooting from a sitting or crouching position.

The arrangement worked well, although occasionally a good hit would pass through the log and cause the flapper to pivot upwards and come to rest on top of the log.  The range would be closed for a bit to drop the flapper back into place.
--Bob

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[Molly]

Well, that sure is novel!!

How did you sneak that pot out of the kitchen and what do you say when the questions comes up....

"WHERE IS MY 2 QT STAINLESS COOKING POT?"

[thelongrifle]

At our shoot with the Tennessee Long Hunters we shoot a pointed spike with 3 balloons around it. A dead center shot on the spike busts all 3 balloons for ten points. It's all or nothing.

[thelongrifle]

Try setting an axe on about a 45 degree angle to split the ball and bust a clay on each side. The angle makes it tough to hit.

[horsetrader]

Shot in a woods walk back in February that had something different. They had a section of copper tubing wound around a tree from about 5 feet down to about 1 foot. You drop a marble or ball bearing in the tube and before it drops out the bottom into a steel pan (about 3 seconds) you have to shoulder, cock, aim and shoot at a gong. Was a lot of fun.

Ed Radzinski

[smylee grouch]

An elimination match where two shooters on the command  of fire would raise their rifles and shoot a balloon, slowest shooter or a miss disqualified shooter and the winner advanced to the second round and all those second round shooters did it all over again and so forth untill one shooter remained.

[pitted bore]

Well, that sure is novel!!

How did you sneak that pot out of the kitchen and what do you say when the questions comes up....

"WHERE IS MY 2 QT STAINLESS COOKING POT?"

Molly-
The pictured pot was a surplus item from a Yooper deer camp.  It was not stainless, being made of thin but shiny aluminum.

When household items including pots become discardable at hunters' principal residences, they often get shuffled off to deer camps with the blessing of resident kitchen magistrates.  After decades of this process, the camp may appear to be going to pot.  Excess camp pots can be donated to local shooting clubs as targets.

Most of our matches feature one or two pots or pans.  After the conclusion of a shooting match, usually the perforated pot is given to a first-time shooter during the awards proceedings, with a recommendation that it be used as a coarse colander.
--Bob

[David R. Pennington]

We have a lifesize bear outlined on black mine belt. A sheet of black construction paper with an x marked corner to corner is stapled over the kill zone. Neither the paper or x is distinguishable from 100 yards. Closest to center on the paper is winner. Good bonus target or tie breaker.

[Lee44shootercnb]

[HAWKEN]

The hardest to hit targets I ever shot at were charcoal brickets hot glued to a 10 to 14 inch piece of butcher string, hung in the shade.  They were hard to see and swung in the breeze.  Keep yer powder dry......robin 

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

For the briquette targets, we just tie a figure 8 knot in the end of the hanging string, and staple the string to the briquette.  The knot stops the string from slipping right through the staple.

Another target we use, and which is usually well received, is a four x four sheet of Coroplast with a grid drawn in felt pen.  Numbers across the top and letters down the side.  A 3/4" hole is cut in the centre of each square, and into it a 12 gauge shot shell (empty) is inserted from the front, so that you are looking at the primer.  The shell must be punched clean out of the board.  Range on our trail is about 6 yards.

When all the shells are gone, we change the target to a 'cut the lines' target.  A shot touching the intersection of the horizontal and vertical scores 4.  Each cut line scores a point.  This target is about half way along our trail, and it is a reassurance target for those thinking their sights must be off, having missed so many of the previous targets!

[Hungry Horse]

To upgrade any target from humdrum to exciting, all you have to do is add a timing device ( it also speeds up the rotation of the shooters). Ours is piece of plywood with 2x2 runners to accomidate a 3/4" ball bearing. The shooter drops the bearing in the top, and steps up to make his shot. The bearing courses down a couple of ramps and stops when it hits a bell at the end of its course. Elapsed time is about 15, or 20 seconds. We have a couple of these that run different amounts of time. The side that faces the shooter is plexiglass, so spectators can watch the progress of the ball bearing.

  Hungry Horse

[oldtravler61]

  We do two different hanging targets on string. 3 shots at three eggs. You eat the ones you don't break. Second round you have to cut the string. Same ending. You learn to really consentrait.
  Especially if you hate eating raw eggs. Oldtravler

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

HH:  I totally get the elapsed timer.  On our trail are two positions with timers, and they consist of a length of black plastic pipe wrapped around and around a tree, and a matal pail hanging from the end to catch the ball.  But elapsed time is only around five seconds.

[Daryl]

Now- if the @!*% bears would stop  biting the tubing to see if it's edible, we'd be in good shape. The bite marks with impressed plastic around the punctures, stop the ball, mid-stride.

[Smoketown]

Now- if the @!*% bears would stop  biting the tubing to see if it's edible, we'd be in good shape. The bite marks with impressed plastic around the punctures, stop the ball, mid-stride.

I'm purty shure that would stop me in mid-stride too !!   

Cheers,
Smoketown