Rocks and milk jugs 500 to 1000 yards. Paper does get tiresome.
So there are lots of different targets to to shoot at out there. Other than sighting in and load development paper can become monotonous after while.
Occasionally I like to shoot something a little more reactive. There used to be an old black walnut tree at the range and I found that the black walnuts that were littering the ground made great little reactive targets. I would line them up on the berm and the kids and I used to love to go down the line smoking them. Just something satisfying about drilling something so small with a centerfire.
So what are some of the things you guys enjoy shooting at?
A good wife and a steady job has ruined many a great hunter.
Rocks and milk jugs 500 to 1000 yards. Paper does get tiresome.
Paper to sight in and work up loads. 800-1200 yards, metal gongs, boom......................(3-4 seconds).....................DING! My kids love to go to the family dump and shoot bottles, light bulbs, cans or anything that will react with .22 LR pistols and rifles. I'm pretty found of shooting rabbits, squirrels, turtles and sparrows/black birds off of my purple martin boxes with a .22 LR rifle as well.
The dump is was our shooting range growing up. I think my favorite thing was to shoot off knobs off appliances. Lately (last 20 years) ground squirrels and prairie dogs.
.223
Crows on a corn pile
Clay targets
Big paper or card board at 600yds, helps learn the fire arm and load with wind.
And 8” steel plates at 400-600yds
Makes me smile with the light round in the wind.
And deer under 250yds
I love the can’t kill deer with a .223 comments
They are 100# NC deer though
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I used to buy targets, then moved up to paper plates, for sighting in. I love a can or a plastic bottle. Some people will put a furring strip stake in the ground to attach their targets to, and I like to see if I can hit the top of the strip.
Back when Nixon was president my brother and I would take the family pump 22LR (Remington M12) down to the Susquehanna River at the back of Grandpa's property where there was a "community" dump. We'd take turns throwing bottles out as far as we could in the current and then shooting at them. There was nothing on the far bank except corn-fields for miles (it was and is a flood plain) and then a hill. Weather and ammunition (earned by chores) wasn't always with us but we'd go to Grandpa's two weekends a month year-round.
Lord knows with the value of some old bottles what we destroyed.
I think I still benefit from those early days as I've always been a better than fair "wing shot". Still have the .22
Certainly targets that show dust or movement are more fun . . . but paper is more informative. On my property I keep several steel gongs for "plinking" or set up stones (tons of shale bits around) for "reactive" targets.
"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Last words of Gen. Sedgwik
I switched to using those small single serving cans of pop. They’ll explode,confirming any potential impacts,which can be a godsend to us,saving a handful of trips to the target to inspect.
we kids(12-14) would grab a 2x4 and lay it across some bricks and get ice cubes from the freezer and lay them out in a row of 6, the longer it took to shoot them, the smaller and harder it got as a target, done at 50 yds. It was a blast to see them explode. This was done behind the barn. All we had at the time were 22 shorts, 22lr were about $.80 a box of 50 back then, $1.00 a week allowance is what we got at that time.
I used to shred tin cans back in the day before the State changed the rules at public ranges to paper targets only. Shooting a steel plate was always fun too. I have an old Winchester 75 22LR that was given to me by my Dad. He says his favorite targets growing up with that rifle were the ever plentiful rats at the local dump.
For new shooters, I like to use clays and balloons. And if you want an extra special kick, fill the balloons with powder or water.
David
Sent from my moto g(6) play using Tapatalk
22LR spent brass at 25 yds. and shotgun hulls at 50 yds. with
a 22 rim fire.
something different and readily available at the range.
Paper for load workup and then steel. 3" circles at 300, 5" at 500. In my early days it was Busch beer bottlecaps at a hundred.
I do most of my shooting at an indoor range,so paper for me.
Everyday I wake up,is a good day. The day I don't wake up,it won't matter!
My range limits us to paper targets. But get out to the Eastern part off the state. Steel plates
Bookmarks