Flintlock shoot target ideas

Each year my family hosts a 12 shot flintlock shoot and we have a variety of targets. Mainly novelty type shots ranging from 5 to 100 yards. Always looking to add something new to spruce it up a bit. Any one have any fun ideas for a target?

Charcoal briquettes on a string.
If that gets too easy, swing them.

Potatoes and carrots on a string are fun biodegradable targets. At our club we also shoot the small disks that are used as BB gun targets, and for close range shooting try Necco Wafers.

There was recently a lengthy thread on this very subject.
My suggestion was a "bark the squirrel target," where the object is to not hit the mark, but be the closest to it. Maybe a neco wafer or something similar glued to a piece of graph paper? Whoever comes closest to the water without destroying it wins the round.

It can depend on how much "resetting" that you want to do...
Take 3 pieces of "steel", and you mount two to a 2x4 using bolts, and leave a gap in between. Then you hang a third piece of steel, painted in a contrasting color, behind the first two. IF they hit the target they get a nice "PING!"...if not, they get a sad "thunk"....


IF you can reset targets, you can do the breaking of clay birds but with water and whole wheat flour, made into a stiff dough, some color added, and then rolled and cut with cookie cutters into shapes that may be dried in the oven. These won't hurt the environment. Just be sure to put a hole in them so they may be suspended by string or a nail.

One variation that doesn't need much "resetting"..., Say you have 20 shooters participating..., so you make targets of clubs and spades. Ten of each, all suspended down range. The shooter approaches the station, and the person running the station allows the shooter to choose one card from a pair held face down...whichever suit is on the chosen card the shooter must shoot one of the same suit targets downrange... IF all of one suit is shot away before the 20th shooter arrives, then dispense with choosing a card and the remaining shooters simply must hit one of the remaining targets...

This also works for teams, one team is spades one is clubs, and each member gets one shot. The team with the most broken targets wins that portion of the shoot....



LD

Thanks for the ideas guys. We try to keep all or almost all of the targets so they reset themselves. With 40+ shooters we really try to limit the amount of time anyone has to spend down range for safety and time management. Any thoughts on a moving target?

A bit more complicated, but sure was fun. This shoot was in early November by the Simon Girty Long Rifles from WNY.

I was at a shoot where the first target was a raw egg on a string at twenty five yards. If you missed the egg you had to go get it and eat it. I'll never forget one shooter that missed. He put the whole egg in his mouth and a few seconds later spit out the shell. For some reason it made me think of a snake eating an egg, lol.

I shot a rondy where they had 4- 1.5" inside dia. steel pipes approx. 2' long mounted on a stand that at 25 yards when you looked at it, it looked like 4 black dots.... they filled a Rx pill bottle with baby powder and stuck it in the far end. You called your "tube" and shot at it. If your ball made it in the hole, it would poof the powder on the far end.

River Rat hosted a shoot a few years back and he had raided a bunch of garage sales and had cast iron skillets hanging for woods' walk targets. They ring nice when hit! Or just fragment. Not too close for safety's sake!

woodsman1118 said:

We try to keep all or almost all of the targets so they reset themselves. ….. Any thoughts on a moving target?

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So no reset, and moving...
Well there is the battery operated "Electric Pendulum" which moves the target back and forth and you can hear it "ding" when hit. A bit elaborate to build but once done it's pretty cool..., The electric motor revolves the wheel and like a train wheel, since the line to the bottom of the pendulum target moves back and forth as the wheel spins...the target moves left and right, without stopping nor needing to be "reset" once turned on. The trick is finding an electric motor that is slow enough to work the target at a reasonable speed and not eat the car battery that one normally sees with these....



LD

We have several moving targets at our club shoots. One is a pendulum made from an old truck axle hub. You have someone pull the target to the limit of its swing and let go. shotter has to shoot before the target makes 4 complete swings. Our other two moving targets are a running boar cut out of an old rubber conveyor belt with an opening in the heart lung region where a steel gong is hung. The boar runs down a cable attached to two trees on a slope. Have to pull the boar to the top of the cable with a rope. The shooter must hit the gong to score as a hit. This target moves pretty fast. It has roller bearings that fit on the cable. The last moving target is a actual sized running squirrel cut from 1/2" steel with a plasma cutter. This target is also suspended from a cable with roller bearings and must be reset for each shot. Pull the rope to reset, and when the shooter calls for it the rope is released. We have this target set up so it appears that the squirrel is running down a log. Lots of fun. I think I only hit the squirrel target twice in the 8 years we have been shooting at it. It moves pretty fast, and I am not used to shooting at moving targets. I prefer my squirrels sitting still so I can concentrate on a head shot.

Grimord said:

We have several moving targets at our club shoots. One is a pendulum made from an old truck axle hub. You have someone pull the target to the limit of its swing and let go. shotter has to shoot before the target makes 4 complete swings. Our other two moving targets are a running boar cut out of an old rubber conveyor belt with an opening in the heart lung region where a steel gong is hung. The boar runs down a cable attached to two trees on a slope. Have to pull the boar to the top of the cable with a rope. The shooter must hit the gong to score as a hit. This target moves pretty fast. It has roller bearings that fit on the cable. The last moving target is a actual sized running squirrel cut from 1/2" steel with a plasma cutter. This target is also suspended from a cable with roller bearings and must be reset for each shot. Pull the rope to reset, and when the shooter calls for it the rope is released. We have this target set up so it appears that the squirrel is running down a log. Lots of fun. I think I only hit the squirrel target twice in the 8 years we have been shooting at it. It moves pretty fast, and I am not used to shooting at moving targets. I prefer my squirrels sitting still so I can concentrate on a head shot.

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woodsman1118 said:

Each year my family hosts a 12 shot flintlock shoot and we have a variety of targets. Mainly novelty type shots ranging from 5 to 100 yards. Always looking to add something new to spruce it up a bit. Any one have any fun ideas for a target?

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When I run our clubs novelty shoot I usually have crackers hung from strings. Spaghetti noodles standing in blocks. Clay birds hanging from strings at 50 yds. Cards on edge, and about anything my demented mind comes up with.

Rodd Boyer said:

I shot a rondy where they had 4- 1.5" inside dia. steel pipes approx. 2' long mounted on a stand that at 25 yards when you looked at it, it looked like 4 black dots.... they filled a Rx pill bottle with baby powder and stuck it in the far end. You called your "tube" and shot at it. If your ball made it in the hole, it would poof the powder on the far end.

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That sounds like Standing Stone woodswalk.

Helium filled balloons tethered on 4-5' strings to dance in the breeze. Set at 50-100 yds. they are a challenging target and best of all they bring with them a built in excuse for a miss.

ppg1949 said:

I was at a shoot where the first target was a raw egg on a string at twenty five yards. If you missed the egg you had to go get it and eat it. I'll never forget one shooter that missed. He put the whole egg in his mouth and a few seconds later spit out the shell. For some reason it made me think of a snake eating an egg, lol.

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Been there, done that. Yuk.

One of the funnest primitive/flint shoots my group ever had was held at a location the rancher who owned the property brought dead cattle. There were many bones laying around. We built a frame and hung bones from strings. They waved in the breeze making hits difficult. The hardest to hit were ribs because of their shape, flat and curved, they rotated as the swung making hits very-very difficult. But, that is what makes it fun. Price was right too. Choice of novelty targets is limited only by your imagination.

Split the ball on an axe head ... but when the youngest one there goes to shoot ... you load it up with shot! And don't let anyone know!

That child will be the HERO for the weekend!

Corn cobs hanging on string at 25yds makes a fun dandy target. Chaulk nubs at 15 yards are challenging and real fun too! Pine cones can take many hits

Tater Teeter …..

5 minute timed event or until all taters are gone.

Start with your gun loaded & shoot the lowest hanging potato first.

Continue loading and shooting until all are gone or time expires..

Rules are always shoot the lowest hanging potato on each shot.