Edible Reactive targets

2 Bear Arms

2 Bear Arms

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When I was younger we used to shoot at glass soda bottles with a 22 out on a farm. Now that is a frowned upon practice at any target range I am familiar with and even if it wasn’t I wouldn’t want to have to clean up the glass.

I always enjoyed seeing the reaction on what was hit better then trying to see the tiny holes in a paper target. I would usually start at the top and break it up slowly. I thought I had read somewhere about shooting at crackers or should I call them saltines? I though if I could come up with a device to hold a bunch of crackers across then I would be able to see them disintegrate as they are hit. Does anyone have any experience with this? Do you think a public range would object to this? I am thinking of making it out of wood and hanging it off or the top of a normal target frame. I am sure I will have to keep making them as the missed shots chew them up.

Part of the reason for doing this has to do with me taking my wife shooting (22 rifle) last year for the first time in our marriage and she liked it. So I want to give her something a little bit more exciting them paper targets. She shot at bottles also in her youth. This is just to break up the shooting of the paper targets.

And of course I think this could be a cheap way to have reactive targets and then the animals or the insects can feast on the crumbs after the range shuts down for the night.

I want to stay away from shooting metal targets for this.
 
How about a piece of wood with a couple of alligator clips attached by a stiff wire. You could put 5 or 10 of them on there easily. Even if the clips get shot by accident they wouldn't be stiff enough to cause a ricochet because of the wire that supports them.
 
Mike_Diako said:
How about a piece of wood with a couple of alligator clips attached by a stiff wire. You could put 5 or 10 of them on there easily. Even if the clips get shot by accident they wouldn't be stiff enough to cause a ricochet because of the wire that supports them.
Click to expand...

I was thinking along those lines at one point but I was concerned that the clips themselves would crush the crackers. I will have to play with that idea. Thank you.
 
OK - animal crackers on the end of pretzel sticks using cheeze whiz for glue and rice cakes for a base...

The rice cakes double as skeet targets

On a serious note - why not some steel squares, etc for the 22lr? Or even a series of wood blocks a la shooting gallery - they get hit and fly off to get shot another day...

Spinners, "woodchucks", etc?
 
Just put some clays on the berm. Or build a holder for them. Whatever.
If shot in the center, a .22 will only punch a hole through them. So the challenge becomes hitting the outside of the clays, and if you hit them somewhere other than the center, they fall apart.
 
Steel plates are great - can buy/make reset systems so that you don't have to go down range. Spinners are also fun. I like the 'shooting trees', one shooter can swing the target one way - the other swings it back.
Clays are also fun and not too expensive.
Wooden clothes pins could be used to hang the saltines with a string - swinging can make it even more challenging. I believe you can even weaken the springs if you find that they break.
 
Necco wafes are great. I use a piece of 2x4 with a groove cut in it. Just stick the crackers or Necco wafers in the groove. I also shoot at charcoal briquettes hanging from strings. They move in the breeze and disolve when it rains.A bonus is that all of these can be shot at in the back yard with air rifles or handguns.
 
I, too, prefer to shoot "things" instead of just paper. Clays for shotguns work the best, I think. They are extremely cheap, bright colored so at 100 yards you can see them with your eye, and disintegrate in the weather. No range will ask you to pick up the debris. With a little ingenuity, you can easliy make a hanger using clips or bent wire to hold multiples in place. Food of any kind, otoh, may attract animals including skunks. Not something I'd want to see at my range. Hitting that small 4" disk is a feat in itself and very rewarding.

Rome
 
Another vote for clays.

They're not too big for pistols at 25 yards, but big enough for a rifle at 50 or 100, brightly colored, and very reasonably priced.
 
I'd go with crackers. Cheap, get them anywhere, no mess to clean up. Have you though of crackers on paper with cheese wiz. Though they might frown on this for the indoor range.
 
If you can get spoiled/expired ones from a local supper market watermelons would be both fun and cheap.
 
Instead of alligator clips, use wooden clothes line pins. They are super cheap and could be easliy replaced if shot -

Arrangement - flat board with dove-tail like grooves milled in perpendicuar to the long side of the board. The clothes pins can then be slipped into the grooves to hold them (pressure fit) - Have fun shooting - if you shoot a pin, simply pull out and insert new one.
 
flying_pheasant_imagelarge.jpg


Here you go.
 
when i was a kid, i used to shoot at plastic bottles full of water with my bb gun. i'd get prone on the upper part of the lawn behind my mother's flowerbeds and shoot through them across the yard. water pouring out of a tiny hole is easy to spot at 100 feet. plastic leaves harmless debris behind, easy to police up.
 
Use ritz crackers they have holes in them. You can use straigt pins to pin hhem to a sheet of card board an staple the cardboard to a frame. Only concen would be if you hit one an the others fell off. I think it would work.
 
rattletrap1970 said:
Necco wafers make good targets. I always thought they sucked as candy. They are cheap, about an inch in diameter, come in bright colors and turn to powder when you hit them.
http://www.necco.com/
Click to expand...

THIS!!!

We'd lick one side to stick them to the cardboard backer and then shoot 'em before they fell.
 
The club I belong to frowns upon using clays on a berm or on a holder for targets. Every target needs to be on the backboard or at the height of the backboards with the berm behind it.

When I was a teen I used to shoot hornets (the bees) off of a concrete bridge form in the woods. It is an abandoned bridge in the middle of nowhere. A few sweets on the ledge and a rock or 2 into the hornet's nest would give me ample targets for hours. I probably wouldn't be able to see them now without a scope. I also used empty brass for targets. An empty veggie can on a stick in the ground makes a cheap spinning target too.

Cabinetman said:
I, too, prefer to shoot "things" instead of just paper. Clays for shotguns work the best, I think. They are extremely cheap, bright colored so at 100 yards you can see them with your eye, and disintegrate in the weather. No range will ask you to pick up the debris. With a little ingenuity, you can easliy make a hanger using clips or bent wire to hold multiples in place. Food of any kind, otoh, may attract animals including skunks. Not something I'd want to see at my range. Hitting that small 4" disk is a feat in itself and very rewarding.

Rome
Click to expand...
 
swampy, I used to shoot flies with my bb gun as a kid. We had goats and chickens so there were plenty of flies available. I got to be a pretty good shot.

Wal-Mart has these miniature clay pigeon things that are about 1 1/2 inches in diameter. I can't remember what they are called, but they were next to the regular clays. I buy these because they are smaller although they cost the same as a case of clays. I think Daisy makes them. I'm not at home for a couple days so I can't verify the name.
 

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