Homemade Target Options?

you just have to try old bowling pins at 50 yards...then when you think you're good 75....boy they looked big!

For my indoor pellet gug shooting I got an old cast Iron skillet.For real gun shooting I just trace circles on news paper.

A carpenter's target goes something like this:
An old sawhorse with an irregular plywood cut-off left over from the job slipped in between the cross-braces of the horse to hold it verticle. On the plywood I nail a peice of fanboard styrofoam insulation (left over from the job, of coarse) shaped into a tri-angular target with a utility knife.

If I'm sighting in a new gun, I use the traditional bull type target. Most of the time, for practice though, I use game targets. Some I make myself by downloading sketches of squirrels, groundhogs, etc, and then blowing them up to life size on the copier at work. Someone mentioned an open V target. This was popular in early times, and it's a tough one. The idea was to place your bullet in the V as close to the point as possible without cutting either leg of the V. For variation, try it with the V at various angles. If you ever get a perfect one, it's worth framing!

I shoot a variety of targets from the traditional bulls to paper animals that I've downloaded cleaned up and made to size along with variations of different animals cut out of 1/2 inch steel haning at different ranges. Love to shoot at a variety keeps me on my top of my game.

...remember to police your trash.

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I shoot on the Pawnee National Grasslands regularly at paper targets stapled to cardboard boxes. But that's not why I am posting. Can't say how embarrassed and discussed I am by the trash that gets left at many of the shooting banks. Computers, TVs, refrigerators, glass of all kinds, plywood, paperboard, oilcans, not to mention all the shot shells. The grassland is a beautiful place, but some shooters have destroyed the beauty of the places they use in the grasslands by leaving behind their trash. It's the same in many of the National Forest sites that shooters use. I'm sure everybody on this forum is responsible and picks up all their trash plus some when out on public or private lands, but all of us still get the bad reputation from the bad behavior of other shooters. We all have the responsibility to honor all parts of the Mother planet (...I know...bla bla bla, there goes that liberal tree hugger again...but he loves his muzzleloaders and kills animals?). Enough...

When I first started looking for targets for my Revwar militia it was just after Christmas. Despite the cheap clearance price, the red coat and "army" boots, and the ample size to help poor newby shooters, my wife would not let me buy an inflatable Santa Claus!
:nono:

If you'all have a little free time and reems of paper, Here are a few sites with free target downloads. Enjoy. PSP (range rule) POST, SHOOT, POLICE! :thumbsup:
http://www.ammoman.com/targets/
http://www.huntershooter.com/netmatch/
http://home.earthlink.net/~hwsportsman/CompTargets.htm
http://www.ammoman.com/targets/
http://www.gamecalls.net/free_stuff/52_free_targets.html
http://mytargets.com/
:master:

I couldn't agree more Sneakon. I have seen a lot of public land trashed by idiots. Not always shooters, but far to frequently. :curse:

Another fun thing to shoot is milk jugs filled with water...

Get two pop cans and fill one with water. Put the pop can that is full of water on the bottom and set the empty pop can on top. One guy shoots the bottom can, when the top can goes up in the air the guy next to you shoots the flying can.
Olie :m2c:

Get two pop cans and fill one with water. Put the pop can that is full of water on the bottom and set the empty pop can on top. One guy shoots the bottom can, when the top can goes up in the air the guy next to you shoots the flying can.
Olie :m2c:

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I wonder if that would work with propane torch tanks? :hmm:

Beautiful pattern. I recall reading one magazine gunwriter's suggestion that if a person simply draws the outline of an average claw hammer onto pain target paper, it approximates the size of a turkey's head and neck vitals, it sure wouldn't have as much personality as your bird though! :winking: