Shooting for fun!

[BT Sniper]

Lets here some stories of a paticular day of shooting that stands out for you. Or maybe about the day you had the most fun behind a trigger. I've been thinking alot about a fun day of shooting to get my entire family together and was trying to think of fun shooting games/compitions/whatever to make it fun for the entire family, men and women, boys and girls of all ages respectfully.

Here is some ideas I have come up with.

I want to take one of those self healing shooting balls http://www.midwayusa.com/product/124950/do-all-impact-seal-ground-bouncing-dancing-ball-reactive-target-self-healing-polymer-orange
or better yet this one http://www.do-alltraps.com/shootinggallery/targetinfo/OC1.html and place it in the middle of an open area. Take two shooters standing a few yards apart beside each other facing ball in middle of area. Maybe ball is 25'-25 yrds away depending on which gun is used. at 100'-75 yrds (again depending) on both the far left and right side of the area is two hocky size goals. Object of the game is to shoot the ball into your goal.

Been watching top shot a bit latly too. Hate the drama, love the shooting fun. maybe try and come up with some of those ideas.

I remeber a range trip long ago my dad hit a 2 liter bottle open sights with his Quigley 45-70 @ 300 yrds.

Every year it seems during down time at archery camp my dad and I put together some sort, hanging water bottles filled with dirt was fun with 10-22s. Then we hung 2 of the propane bottles (empty of course) from oposite ends of a yard long stick and hung it by a string from the middle in a tree so that the two bottles ballenced. When hit they moved a lot. Think we had those at about 125 yrds. Lots of fun!

Throwing sticks in a remote fast moving stream or river is allways fun to shoot at.

Maybe a bowling compitition? see how many shots it takes to knock them all down?

I was trying to think of a way I could make a clay pigion "roll" along a gide of some sort to try and shoot it?

Think I got a pretty good arsenal between my dad and I. We got nearly two of everything now between the two of us, I think it could be a pretty fun shooting compitions. 2 semi auto pitsols, 2 10-22s, two lever actions, severial long range bolt guns, short range too, couple revolvers, I would think that should be a good match up for severial different "class" of shooting.

One last story, When I was pretty young, must have been early teens, dad and I was driving in forest cutting wood. Don't remeber why we stoped but there about 50-75 yrds away was a big bird pearched on top of a tree. The very top limb of the tree, the trunk, where it cam to the top point. It was dead and dry, the tree :) So my dad says "I bet you can't shoot that tree limb out from under the bird." So I took carefull aim with my trusty 10-22 about a foot below where the bird was peached and all be dang if I didn't hit the top of that dead tree, that was no more then 1" around, dead center and broke the tree limb right our from under the bird. That was always how my dad got me and my sister out in the hills to help cut wood, we got to do some shooting when the truck was full.

Good times.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Did I mention the time I shot the first bullet I ever made/swaged? 44 cal bullet made from 40 S&W brass loaded in my 44 AutoMag....... I was standing behind a very large tree holding the gun one handed around the other side of the tree. Obviously at the time I had no experience shooting these home made bullets and I had know of only one other person at the time that did. A member here by the way whose post of his same bullet made from 40S&W brass got me into this hobby. This was back in 08. Well of course everything functioned perfectly and I no longer shoot from behind trees :) Well almost, the first 30 cal bullet I made that I shot from my 300WM I did the same thing :) Never know???? Who else at the time had shot a FN5.7x28 case out of a 300WinMag?

Severial thousand successful rounds later here I am looking forward to hearing some of your stories :)

Now that I think of it, this sort of first time experiences, makes me think of the 700*** and the projects of Mr. JT Knifes, a fellow member here. He has some good stories too I bet :)

Good shooting

BT

[b52fizzle]

I use to take my niece and nephew shooting when they were little.

My niece was and eight and I was practicing with a cz52, went through 2 clips and never hit this tin can, handed it to her and she double tapped it all the way through all 8 rounds, wish I could still take em she woulds been good left handed but right hand shooter and good.

My nephew was 4-5 and I started him out with clip of 45acp loaded with roundballs he got pretty good at rackin the slide, next clip was 230gr fmj never a hiccup. Shoulda seen his face he loved it.

Took my oldest sister on Easter one year shootin Easter eggs, first time shooting a gun and in her mid thirties she was always afraid of them till then, hasn't shot since but has a whole new perspective.

My other sister who never shot a gun either, when we were a lot younger I was aggravating her about shooting a can I had hanging on a string I kept on and on she stepped out the door grabbed my bb gun shot the string and broke it can fell handed me back my gun and walked back inside I never mentioned it again.

Caught a skunk in a live trap and two were loose, dad told me to hold the light and shoot the one in the cage with my Benjamin Sheridan pellet rifle, he had his 22 and was gonna pop the loose ones, on the count of three mine dropped never sprayed took it through the heart and lung same time, heard him empty is entire tube magazine, lets just say only carried one home still got the tail hangin in my old bedroom.

Went squirrel hunting with a friend and his dad and grandpa and cousin, squirrel was in the top of a big cotton wood they were taking turns and couldn't get it so, went ahead and took my turn shot it through the eye with my marlin model 60, first rifle my dad bought me, actually only gun he ever bought me and the rear sights hanging halfway out the dovetail for me.to hit anything.

[b52fizzle]

Like your idea about redneck soccer. There are lots of shooting games shooting shotgun shells with 22's, golf balls Ping-Pong balls, all sorts of reactive targets for some reason just makes it more enjoyable to see it fling fly or just plain blow up, and there was a write up in guns and ammo about peewee valley turkey shoot, guy replicated it using a turkey target at extreme distances with 38 specials and such shooting in the old one handed target style, walking the bullets and shooting 100 yards and over,

[runfiverun]

that 700 *** is done with paper patch. and 185 grs of 4831 as the low end load.
i forget how many grains the boolit is.
it does make a mess of a prairie dog, i think it outweighs the dog.

golf balls are fun to shoot with a handgun at 25 yds,put out 5 per side and let them launch them.
you won't find too many though once they get hit.
paper airplanes are fun too, if you have the right place to shoot them. they are like shooting a dove if you can fling them off a cliff.
and old cd's thrown from a target thrower make an eerie [ufo] sound and they are hard to see till they roll over.
for the other stuff, eggs or little juice bottles hanging from a string makes for some entertaining shooting.

[BT Sniper]

Cool ideas. I like the paper airplane idea. In the right place that would be a lot of fun.

Keep em up!

BT

[Rangefinder]

Who else at the time had shot a FN5.7x28 case out of a 300WinMag?

Brother, I get nervous firing a 5.7 out of a 5.7... LOL

Honestly, the most fun I've had was when I was shooting a competition a couple years ago. I fired my group, had to go to work, and the range master asked if my boy could stay to run targets, etc. "SURE! Put him to work!" The Range master brought him home later that night, and my boy handed me my target and an envelope (won my grouping) and then filled me in on the rest of the day. Seems they had some fun when it was all over with the serious business--all the "old guys", as he termed it, brought out their toys and decided to have some fun. He shot everything they handed him and had a great time.

NOW, the part I'm referring to as the most fun for me---I heard later from the range master. He informed me that not only was my son an exceptional shot with everything he picked up, but handled himself better than most adults he knew on the range, and was invited to come shoot with any of them anytime he wanted. My son was 14 at the time. THAT was the most fun for me.

Second for the day was the fact my winnings on my category paid for my wood burning stove and my son is the wood splitter. LOL

[alfloyd]

Took the 16 year old grandaughter pistol shooting Sunday. She had shot guns before, but not any handguns. I tool a small ( hehe ) assortment of handguns and ammo along. Set her up on the 50 foot pistol range and showed her all the things about handling and shooting handguns. Helped her with the loading of mags, inserting them into the handguns and how to rack the slide or cock the hammer. She realy liked my AK47 Pistol. She ran thru ALL the ammo I had for the center fire handguns ( not a small ammount either ) and then started on the big box of 22 LR. She got about 1/2 the 22 box empty, before she was ready to go. Took about 2.5 hours, and she shoot out the center of the targets she shot at.

When she got home, she still had a big smile on her face. She had a great time with g-dad.
Will need to do the same again soon.

Lafaun

[clodhopper]

I have been doing some shooting with long range rifles, unkown distances, and fireing from the earth as god built it (as opposed to a nice rifle range with a flat fireing point).
We shoot as teams, at each fireing box the team enters the box and has 15 minutes for four targets, or 12 minutes for three targets. Both shooters must engage all targets with either 2 hits or 4 total shots. The first target fired from each box must be ranged with means other than electronic range finder. The other targets fired from that position may be lazered for distance.
The targets are steel and most are from 350-800 yards, many are about two minutes in size.
All equipment needed for the day must be carried with you as this shoot involves walking through scenic Montana to arrive at the fireing points. The hike is about 1 1/2 miles mostly taken in short segments.
There are some pictures at www.sageflatsshooter.com look under match info for photo gallery
The best day I had shooting there was last June 2011 when the area was incredibly green.
On the list of things to bring, insect repellent for warding of ticks rates right up there with ammunition.

[BT Sniper]

Sniper challenge type shooting. I like the sounds of that.

Just checked out the sight. Looks like a lot of fun! Please keep me informed as I would be interested some day to make a trip up there do do some shooting like that. Won't be using my 338 edge from the looks of it, 300WM or less correct? Thanks for posting this info.

BT

[clodhopper]

They call it steel challenge, no running involved.
Something close to .243 winchester is just about ideal. Many locals are shooting everything from .25-'06, .270, 7 mag, .308 .30-'06
I am useing a .22-250 with 1in 8 twist, and 75 grain AMAX, running about 3050.
Drop chart, sleek heavy bullets, repetable optics, and bipod are needed.
There is a good chance of sageflats bringing targets to the Lewiston ID area for a shoot next spring.
He has an in on a ranch near Lapwai.
Other wise the Jordan MT location is a long way from OR.
It's about 6 hours east of my home, Bozeman.

[a.squibload]

We found a pile of red bricks somebody dumped
next to a bayou, powderized 'em with 44 mags.
That was fun.

[BT Sniper]

Red bricks sounds fun too.

If the Lewiston shoot comes about that is a bit closer for sure.

BT

[BT Sniper]

Got some range time this weekend with my dad. Got a few more memorable shots to share.

First memorable shot came at 300yrds. I set up a snapple bottle (small pop bottle) on a nail in the target stand. I had been shooting my 223 rem with my 55 grain custom bullets from 22lr brass at 100 yrds and getting good results. My dad was shooting his AR-15 with commercial bullets. So he wants to have a compitition in the first one to hit the bottle at 300 yrds. So I ask "what is the bet?" He thought about it a bit and nothing came to mind so I had a good prize idea to the victor.

In two weeks we have a week long antalope trip planed. He has a nice 5th wheel trailer with one nice queen bed and then the sofa sleeper. Of course I always get the sofa so I said first one to hit the bottle gets the bed for the week long hunt. He laughed long and hard. I did too.

We didn't come up with a good bet and never made any deal, just simply set up for the shot, me with my Savage BVSS 223 rem and he with his AR-15. He figured he would let me go first. I didn't have any idea of how high to aim or what my drop would be, I did look up the drop for a 53 grain Sierra match king bullet @ 3100fps at 300 yrds earlier that morning figuring I would be doing some 300 yrds shooting. Sierra info said 14" drop at 300 IIRC.

Sitting behind the scope with the snapple bottle centered in the Sightron 24x scope I dialed up 4MOA for a total of 12" at 300yrds worth of adjustment, wind was fairly calm and with dad watching threw his scope ready to take the shot after me, I pulled the trigger sending the 55.8 grain bullet on it's way.

With an awesome explosion the bottle shattered. I was all smiles, all my dad could do was call BS :) I was thrilled with a first shot cold bore kill at 300 yrds. To bad we didn't make any wagers. I latter shot a three shot group with these same bullets at 300 yrds into a small 1.4" group. More on that later.

The second memorable shot of the weekend came latter with our 10-22s. Shooting 22lr we figured we would attempt the impossible. The same 300 yrd challenge with a second snapple bottle.

Now if hitting a pop can size target at 300 yrds with a 22lr isn't challenge enough I had a red dot 1x power scope on my 10-22. Might as well have been open sights! Dad has a 3-9x scope on his 10-22. This time we bet dinner. Losser buys.

So away we went letting 36 grain lead bullets fly. After 30 rounds of spray and pray with no luck I shot at a rock in the dirt so i could see where I was hitting. Finally I saw the bullet hit and was able to get a very rough idea of how high to hold. Keep in mind I could not even see the bottle. I had put a sheet of paper next to it on the target board so I had an idea where to aim. My red dot scope has 4 choices of reticals from dot to cross hair to a combination of the two. I sellected the retical that had a dot in the middle outlined by a larger circle. The bottom of the larger circle was where the bullet was striking the dirt at 300 yrds. This circle happen to be 75 moa from side to side so I was holding half that circle width (37.5 moa) high at 300 yrds which equaled 112.5" worth of drop. TEN FEET!!!

Now I had it dialed in. My dad was still blasting away with 25 round clips and the bottle still lived. I loaded my 10 round clip and racked the bolt, put the bottom of this circle at the point where the bottle was secured to the target board and proceded to empty the 10 rounds at the target. With dad still blasting away at the same time he could see my bullets hitting awfully close.

I knew I was close and the impossible shot would be made soon or we would shoot till dark trying. We had plenty of ammo, in the neighborhood of 10k and this bottle had to die!

I had filled the bottle with dry dirt so when hit it would make a great ploom of dust. On my first shot of the newly loaded 10 round clip the bottle burst and I saw the dust fly to which my dad again called BS :)

It was a good weekend of shooting with a nice meal at the local mexican restruant. Now to see if we can get a nice antalope and if I can make that sofa sleeper any more comfortable.

Good shooting

BT

[lukewmtdew]

Some of my most fun has been with the 22s as well one day me and my buddy were drilling a hole in a log and putting shotgun shells in logs and trying to shoot the primer (prob not a good idea I know) we ended up hitting a couple didn't make As big a noise as I thought it would but still fun same day taking the shot shotgun shells and setting them up in a line and shooting them me starting at one end him starting at the other let's just say he was still on the first one when I shot it lol

My next goal is to make a dueling tree wow do those look like a lot of fun too bad can't get the lead back to melt down again

Otherwise that long distance shooting and hiking sounds like a lot of fun

I smoked a coyote from 300 yds away in the neck once I was pretty impressed with myself that 7mm made a pretty big hole!

[a.squibload]

Sounds like good times. Now get back to work on
our tools! :-P

Long ago we would throw a beer can in the bayou and
trade shots as it floated downstream. They would partially
fill with water so only an inch or two was visible.
When you hit 'em with a 44 they explode and leap up
out of the water.
I know sounds bad but I guess they rusted away before
they made it to the Gulf.