Novelty shooting set ups for kids of all ages?

[Texantothecore]

If you have some fun ways of entertaining yourself or your kids with a rifle or pistol please post them here. Steel targets, shots made into pipe elbows redirected to a plate, let's hear your ideas.

The reason I posted this in the muzzleloader section is that bp shooters have more fun.

[country gent]

An axe in a tree trunk targets on both sides is a old one that got a lot of attention for many years. Splitting ball. Golf balls and see who can knock thiers the farthest with a set number of rounds. Eggs are an interesting target but need to be away from buildings and occupied areas. Cans of outdated soup make a big splatter also. Again away from occupied areas. Swinging targets where safe and allowed. Up close with small calibers ( even pellet guns) Neco candy wafers make a nice little cloud when hit. For really proving skill set asprin tablets. Imagination is the limit here.

[Texantothecore]

I have never tried the axe shooting but will do so this year. One of the variations I have heard of is to place clay pigeons on either side of the ax and try take to take out both with a split ball. Should be a blast!

[Pipefitter]

Egg shoot, take a bunch of eggs and hard boil half of them. Take a shot, if you miss you either eat the one you shot at or pay and shoot again. The only one who knows which ones are raw and which ones are cooked is the person who set them out.


Blackjack shoot: Shuffle 2 decks of cards and staple them face down on a large sheet of backing. As many shots as required to hit 2 cards, which becomes your blackjack hand.

[Texantothecore]

Both of those look great. The added grossness of eating a raw egg would be a bonus for the kids.

[waksupi]

If you do the egg thing, keep them in a cooler until you are ready to shoot. There was an incident of salmonella poisoning a few years ago from eggs that were left sitting in the sun too long.
We use vegetables and fruits quite a bit. A grape or raisin on a toothpick is a tough target. Small wood blocks on a string are good. So are balloons on a string, and old cd's or canning lids. All spin and swing in the breeze.
Candle snuffing is fun, you can build a box to block the flame from wind. Paint the inside back of the box black to make the flame easier to see.
Trading guns can be interesting, as every one shoots a bit different for each person. Also shooting left handed, if you are right handed.
We also sometimes shoot with the rifle held upsidedown on the top of the head, and backwards using a mirror. Safetly glasses are a real must for these.

[koehlerrk]

I have never tried the axe shooting but will do so this year. One of the variations I have heard of is to place clay pigeons on either side of the ax and try take to take out both with a split ball. Should be a blast!

You mean like this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV4qAo4o6Q0 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GV4qAo4o6Q0)

Yup, that's me splitting a 38 Special at 20 yards. Lots of fun, but all too often you get this.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UGFUk_MpBg0

So, are you entertaining kids, or letting them shoot? Balloons, chalk, crackers, ice cubes, charcoal briquettes are all fun for kids to shoot.

[Texantothecore]

Some great ideas. And they are extremely valuable for teaching the shooter expertise in shooting.

Keep them coming.

I think trying to drive carpet tacks might be interesting too.

[Texantothecore]

My nieces and nephews are going to be doing this. 10 kids in the family and they don't get to shoot much because of the cost. So I want to get them going with black powder and they can shoot all day playing different games along the way. This also is good training, much like stump shooting at targets of different sizes at unknown yardages. You really learn how to shoot quickly.

[Squeeze]

when I take the kids with the .22's they get bored with just paper, so I got a couple of boards with a V groove cut lengthwise that I line up paintball ammo on. they get a kick out of getting to wreck things and watch them splatter. Its biodegradable and supposedly food grade, so environmentally harmless. longer range clay birds are always nice, but they will break through a box of them before you can turn around. paintballs are cheap enough and plentifull

[Texantothecore]

Squeeze,
That is a great idea. I am going to look into it. Splatter is good.

I can see some great variations too.

[LIMPINGJ]

I save up the out of date cold drinks and beer from work for when the grandson visits. They explode nicely and the can fragments are not hard to clean up after we finish.

[Beerd]

Almost anything breakable makes good targets. If it's eatable the bugs help with cleanup.
..

[sundog]

Post shoot is fun for multiple players or team play on a timer.

[waksupi]

Post shoot is fun for multiple players or team play on a timer.

I can remember five instances of broken ramrods going through peoples hands. Every one, during a speed shoot. We outlawed them in this part of the country, and know of no shoots that allow them here. If you do it, be sure everyone has synthetic or metal ramrods.

[aspangler]

Darn! Most of these ideas will work for 22 or even cast boolits in ,say, a 30-30. Subscription add to my profile. I'm watching this one.

[Pipefitter]

Another one: go to the local goodwill and buy some old tablespoons. Cut a slot in a 2X4 just deep enough to hold them up straight.
25gn of black behind a 50rb is enough to knock them over, younger ones can shoot at 25 yds, expert marksmen shoot at 50yds.

[EOD3]

My nieces and nephews are going to be doing this. 10 kids in the family and they don't get to shoot much because of the cost. So I want to get them going with black powder and they can shoot all day playing different games along the way. This also is good training, much like stump shooting at targets of different sizes at unknown yardages. You really learn how to shoot quickly.

I collect out-of-date eggs throughout the year and set them up on golf tee's for my grandkids when they're out here for the summer. The first time an egg explodes, that youngster is hooked for life. My 8 year old granddaughter went from her first time touching a rifle to "poofing" eggs at 50 yards in less than a week. She wanted grandma to go to wally-word and buy more eggs for her. This summer, I plan to graduate her to an AR at 100 yards. I'll probably set up some swinging water balloons for the 100 yard range too.

[Texantothecore]

1 x 2s cut to abut 18" long and staked into the ground. Cheap, fun and historically correct. Hahaha....

[Texantothecore]

A paper lunchbag full of flour, swinging in the breeze would be exciting. Actually I would love to do that!

[Texantothecore]

The egg shooting is on. It will probably be our first event.

[Pipefitter]

I would like to see pictures of the kids faces when you explain the rules to them, maybe a pic or two of the youngsters eating eggs after the shoot........

[JeffinNZ]

You can't go past clay targets. Burn a hole in them with a soldering iron or hot wire, thread a string, hang them up. I get buckets of 'pick ups' at my club. No one else wants them.

Oh, and for a small target, try billiard chalks. The wee blue cubes make a great target.

[longbow]

I went to a good shoot many years ago that had some good novelty shoots (best shoot I was ever at actually, in Bend Oregon):

- chestnut hanging on a string at about 15 yards (any small target would work)
- small steel gongs across a creek (the creek or any difference in landscape changes seems to make it more interesting)
- playing cards (aces) stuck to a tree with YOUR knife ~ shoot the center "ace" not your knife!
- playing cards on edge ~ cut the cards in half
- double bladed axe stuck in a tree with clay pigeon on each side ~ split the ball and break 'em both
- tape over the handle loop of YOUR tin cup ~ shoot through the tape not your cup! (the guy making tin cups had a booming business, no pun intended)

All doable and all good fun hit or miss, and good spectator sport as well.

Have fun!

Longbow

[Texantothecore]

Those are excellent Longbow. Thanks.

[GREENCOUNTYPETE]

I haven't tried this but I have been thinking about cardboard target with a block of wood behind the vitals and set them up so it knocks them over when the block of wood catches the ball/bullet


I have tried the 22 type targets poppers , spinners and such , a rb and 20-25 gr of powder does not seem to beat them up at 25+ yards

I ran out of golf balls cause we play pistol golf starting at about 5 yards , 1 ball 2 shooters you have to move the ball if you don't the and the other shooter does at that distance you loose , often this was just 1 pistol passing it back and forth after each shot so that the gun was no advantage (it probably started this was when we only had 1 pistol but it keeps it even)

we also play a pistol game where we use spent shot shell hulls on stick about as big around as a pencil , but what ever we can find , stuck into the sand a hit will take the hull of the stick usually you can get a few uses of the hulls when shooting 22lr , winner gets to make up the next challenge

pop bottles , water bottles , 2 liters, milk jugs ,all full of water , colored water makes it easier to see , who doesn't like a mist of water when they shoot

but I would gather the materials show them what there is to work with and let them design the game and the course of fire they will use their imagination (they can outrun you an make you work much harder than necessary let them invent a bit put them to work building , cutting out cardboard targets , coming up with the ideas you provide technical assistance and some advice)
simple rules apply , no steel at unsafe distances , see the USPSA safe steel distances , I know not muzzle loading but they are sort of the experts on safe steel shooting and they shoot it with about everything but muzzle loaders. for kids add a few yards to all of their numbers as we still get splatter at those distances with pistols
no targets positioned so that rounds won't go into the berm of safe backstop
and all guns handled properly in safe direction , for kids and not a bad idea for adults keep the caps at he firing point and they can only cap or prime when at the line pointed down range

DON'T shoot cratered steel plates , they are not safe if what your shooting at them craters them stop

safety glasses for everyone including spectators is a MUST as is hearing protection , run a safe range they will have a blast without blasting you out of powder designing their own shoot

most safety catalogs have safety glasses for about 2.50 a pair , Sam's club had 6 packs last year for 12 dollars

SUN GLASSES are NOT SAFETY GLASSES , I shoot a pair Every year with a pellet gun to prove this point to my junior shooters and their parents at my air rifle shoot , when they see those lenses explode out of the frames and the safety glasses be only scratched you have never see so many reluctant parents go grab safety glasses from my loaner bin

[Texantothecore]

Pete, thanks for the ideas. I will be using quite a few of the.

[Schrag4]

I got the idea from a Hickok45 video to put tin cans on top of rebar posts (the kind used for small electric fences). Most shots will cause the can to just rattle around on the post, but sometimes they fly off. I like to set up a big can close to the shooter, a medium can further, and a small can even further, for an extreme variation in challenge. My nephew and I took turns shooting 5-round magazines with the cans scoring 1, 3, and 5 points, near to far, so the shooter gets to decide whether to take the easy close points or go for the difficult far points. The steel posts are pretty soft - they hold up well against handgun and 22LR, but 223 will go clean through them, severing the post entirely if hit squarely enough.

[John Taylor]

Some of the rendezvous that I use to go to had some great targets to test the skill of the shooter. One shoot was plastic spoons, wonder if they make those biodegradable. A piece of spaghetti ( un-cooked) stuck in a slanted hole in a board makes for a hard target to hit, got to have windage and elevation right on to hit it. Potatoes hanging on a string was fun. Balloons are always fun with a BB gun.

[fastdadio]

Allow me to add charcoal bricquetts. Biodegradeable, drill holes in em and hang them up or stick them on nails. They puff good when you hit them. Also, buy a big bag of the penny suckers (lolly pops). Drill a bunch of holes in a board and stick them in and fire away.

[bubba.50]

what kid wouldn't love the surprise & excitement of some BLAMMO targets goin' off?:redneck:

[bob208]

thread through a ritz cracker. hang it up when they get good at that try cheese-it crackers.
cut out a steel silhouette of a 1gal. stone jug. hang it up put a charcoal briquette on top like a cork. shoot out the cork without hitting the jug.

[Boogieman]

Give each shooter blank sheet of paper ,9 1/2x11" have them post it & fire 1 shot any who miss is out. then fold the paper double & repeat after each round fold paper again.repeat till you have a winner , the last shooter standing. That paper shrinks fast after the first few rounds.