Do you use empty cases for 22 targets?

[Geobru]

I was wondering if anyone else uses empty cartridges as reactive targets for plinking sessions?

I started off using shotgun hulls stuck onto the end of branches on a sapling. If you hit the metal end, they go flying. Hit the plastic and it just moved a little.

One day I found some 380 cases and some 9mm. I put them out at 20 yards and had a friend who is a new shooter try to hit them. With a little practice, he was able to hit them pretty regularly. The next step was 22 lr cases. Same result, but the hardest thing was being able to see the case.

The guns are 22 levers with an old Weaver V22 scope. It makes a fun target if you can see them!

[CastingFool]

I have used spent shotgun shells I found, but not 22 casings. Discarded bricks make good reactive targets when shot at with a 30-06 or 308Win. Found a bunch of those out in the woods behind a friend's house and we had a good time blasting them. No scopes, just open sights.

[bangerjim]

Best thing I have found is water bottles! Hang them from a line stretched between 2 trees and have at it. Excellent action when you hit them. And you are watering the plants. If you hit high, you can get at least 3-4 hits B4 all the water is gone. Then you hit the string and drop the bottle. Works great for me at 50-80 yards.

[big bore 99]

I like shooting the heads off dry cat tails. Get a puff of seeds.

[jsizemore]

Flies at 50 and marbles at 100. Set the marbles on golf tees. Hitting the tees is a miss and makes a follow up shot difficult.

[GhostHawk]

Set those shotgun hulls sideways and aim for primers at 100y. Yes it is doable.

[Geobru]

This reminds me of a gun a friend put together. It was a 30 caliber (I don't remember exactly what it was) He put a 2"(?) diameter machinegun barrel on a mauser action and topped it with a 20 power scope. He would put small pieces of hamburger on his fence at 100 yards, and shoot the flies off when they landed on the meat. I asked him about it and he just laughed and said he put it together just to prove that it could be done. You had to use a rest because that gun had a LOT of weight forward!

[needausername]

Set those shotgun hulls sideways and aim for primers at 100y. Yes it is doable.

My preferred 17HMR target right there.

[HarryT]

I shoot through the center of 1/4 inch washers. That way I don't have to keep walking 200 yards to replace them. When I finish shooting I turn the washers on their side and make them disappear.

[22cf45]

Boy, this is getting deeper and deeper.

[Tenbender]

I use a lot of shotgun hulls at 50 yrd's with my Ruger Mk ll pistol. Plastic bottle caps at 100 with rifles. I have a bucket half full of cull brass. Might start using that. Scrap is not worth anything unless I'm the buyer ?

[WebMonkey]

Try round toothpicks.

[JeffinNZ]

I used to shoot at shotgun wads at 100m with my sillywet rifle off the bench. Very doable.

[GhostHawk]

I am looking at a target hanging on my wall at the moment. Shot at the pistol range, 10 rounds, you could fit them all inside a pop bottle cap, offhand.

Ruger Mk III 22/45 with 4" bull barrel and a Red Dot sight.
My other Ruger is the Mk III 22/45 with 6" stainless steel bull barrel and target sights.

It will do the same, better even, but it is harder with my old eye's.

I will admit that shotgun hull primers takes a good scope turned up around 9 and a good rest.
But other than that it is a stock Ruger 10/22 from early 70's with mostly original parts. I did add the extended mag release, worked over the bolt hold open, and put in a recoil buffer where that big steel pin was.

None of which makes it shoot any better, just more comfortable, less noisy.

My scope until it died was a late 80's era Bushnell Banner that came off my Dad's .270. He was not really happy with anything until we found him a 1.5-3 power.

Even then shotgun hull primers was always an end of the session trick. You had to warm up to it.
You needed the confidence, and reading wind helped.

[Garyshome]

380 cases have a pretty high re-sale value. I shoot at cardboard man shaped targets, I got a large amount of cardboard a few months back from a kitchen re-model.

[Iowa Fox]

I started my boys off shooting when the were somewhere between 3-5 years old. They are in their 40's now so they have had a lot of practice as they love to shoot. One of the things the oldest one does to show off is to take a plain sheet of white paper on a cardboard backer, he uses a iron sighted common 22 rimfire rifle fires a 22 LR hole into it offhand at 20 yards. Then he ejects the spent case and pokes it into the hole in the paper to the rim. He takes one shot offhand at 20 yards, one hole empty case gone. Makes for some good fun when the family is all home.

[merlin101]

Try round toothpicks.

Sideways or from the end?

[shooter2]

I am not out to make anyone mad, maybe just a little envious. I had just finished sighting in my Suhl at 50 meters. Then noticed that flies liked sitting on the target. So I spent 30 minutes or so shooting flies. Just leaves a little hole where the fly was sitting. Suhl 150, BR stock, 36X scope.

[Hogtamer]

Sounds like some fishing story threads so I might as well chime in.....Personally I like to stir up a wasp nest and shoot their stingers off, flying @ 100 yds of course! Oh that's with my bow and this is a gun thread!

[jhalcott]

My buddy and I shoot 22ruger pistols and 17 hmr contenders at pint water bottle caps laying on the 100yard berm .6x Burris scopes and sand bags. Many people think it can not be done. Then they try it and usually succeed, going away with a new respect for the lowly 22 rd.