Favorite Air Rifle Target

[gbinga]

What is your favorite target for plinking?

I've tried 9mm shell casings, but unless you are using a scope, that is a short range proposition. Works well in the basement. Need the casings stuck to something or a very heavy platform, so that stray shots don't knock over the casings just by shaking the platform.

Wine corks work well, too. They are obviously a lot easier to hit, and are also more durable. Empty cartridges get mangled up pretty quick when you hit them solid, but a cork will soak up several pellets without coming apart.

A golf ball is fun in the back yard. Perfect size for simulating a squirrel or rabbit noggin, you get nice movement when you hit it, and you don't have to go set it up again, so you have a continuous target. Nearly indestructible, so far as I can tell, but there is the problem of ricochets. From 50 feet away the shooter is not in any danger, but Lord knows where the pellet is ending up, so that isn't real responsible unless you have a lot of space to work with.

I haven't tried ping pong balls yet. I suspect they will make good targets, but probably won't last long.

Here is an interesting link about people who get very serious about shooting 9mm casings - from 35 yards away!! You definitely need a scope for that game. http://www.minisniping.org/

George

 

[jdupre']

I'm kinda partial to sweet cumquats. Just ask Piper. :mrgreen:

 

[bearridge]

animal crackers 'er pecans (I set 'em on top of my plank that I tack my targets too)....jest fer fun, but most of my shootin' iz at squirrels, feral cats, pest birds 'er paper targets that I measure with calipers.

 

[Wannabe]

Sure is alot of paper out there that needs killing, Huh Bear.Used to shoot cumkuats like Joey, but I used a .32 cal. black powder rifle. Anymore I let the cumkuats live out their life in peace before eating them and just shoot paper. Not many pararie dogs on the coast.
Bob

 

[bearridge]

Friend Wannabe San,

9mm cases aint all that eazy targets fer a airgun, but shootin' near bout anythin' that ya dont measure groups iz "fun". Sometimes ya jest gotta shoot fer plain ole "fun". Worryin' bout .25" off a group kin drag ya down 'n mess up with yer good life. Somethin' that explodes iz always good fer relaxation.

regards
bearridge

ps I like cuttin' centers ta win a cow 'n then raffle it off so I kin buy some bottom land....but ya gotta wipe some spit on the front sight..........ta cut the "haze".

In nature their are neither rewards nor punishments - there are consequences. R. G. Ingersoll

 

[seedtick]

hunted in the atchafalaya basin in the 70"s and rats in the camp were air rifle targets - after dark using flashlights for illumination

somebody brought in a cat and we switched to roaches for a while but the cat got them also

 

[Wannabe]

Bear,
Save the 9mm cased for reloading. Never know when you'll need em. Brass is getting expensive. Little caps that goes in the bottom of them are getting hard to get alold of too. Mite be fun to shoot at .22 brass, if your good. :roll:
Bob

 

[bearridge]

Friend Wannabe San,

I dont have no 9mm. I aim ta save whatever I got, but no harm in shootin' Wolf .45 cases 'er CCI Blazer aluminiumumum. I dont aim ta pay no more jacked up prices fer none of it. Hoardin' iz kinda like dope.....ya gotta git off it 'er life iz gwine ta be hard. In time the prices will come back down....if folks come back ta their senses. [I buy 2-3 years worth of pellets at a time cuz the shippin' rips ya a new one.]

regards
bearridge

ps Like Ole Paul Harvey used ta allow, there is a page two. I figgered handloadin' ('n reloadin') wuz a good idea back in '07. Some of the last of my stuff come in whilst Miz Bear wuz in the ICU. I had ta wait til she cleaned out the extra bedroom ta set up. That took near bout a year. I seen a fair deal on some factory load 'n picked up enuff ta do me til I wuz able ta roll my own. Most of the time I buy gas after it jumps up, same with Wall Street, so it wuz time fer this blind hog ta find a acorn. I'll take Winchester brass over Enron frum now on. [painful smile]

The mystery of government is not how Washington works but how to make it stop.  P. J. O'Rourke

 

[shawnkfl]

i like to fill ping pong balls with that expanding foam. just a quick squirt does the trick. the BB's and pellets mostly stay inside then and i don't have to worry about strays. although, it doesn't take many hits to render one useless :lol: it's fun to float them on a string too. gives you a moving target to try for.

 

[gbinga]

Good ideas here. I like the spray foam in the ping pong balls in particular.

The wine corks are still my favorite. You get to enjoy the product twice. :mrgreen:

George

 

[gbinga]

The wine corks are still my favorite. You get to enjoy the product twice. :mrgreen:

Just remember - not at the same time!!!

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

Mite be fun to shoot at .22 brass, if your good. :roll: Bob

Bob,
("Don't try this at home" or in 'civilized' areas!)
Brass Hell! A couple of years ago my airgunning buddy introduced me to a much better game. Thus:

Use a Marks-A-Lot to make + sighter marks on a piece of heavy corrugated cardboard. Using an awl or icepick puncture 10 holes in the cardboard where the + signs intersect. In the resulting hole insert some of the junk unfired .22s that all serious shooters have accumulated over the years. Set up the 'loaded' cardboard at 25 yards. (much more spectacular at night if you have a GOOD floodlight to illuminate the target!)
If you can run all 10 without a miss you're GOOD! I'm not. :cry: My buds' 25 year old blonde step-daughter even beat me a couple of weekends ago. But I've seen my bud run the board several times. He's good!
I claim old eyes and deteriorating eyesight and I'm sticking to my story! :wink:

 

[Wannabe]

Tom,
That is just neat. Thanks
Bob

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

That is just neat. Bob

Bob---true story------

A year or so ago a loudmouth showed up down on the river at our mutual buddys' place where my bud Kevin, who showed me the .22/airgun target idea, stays when he comes over from the 'left' side of the state to trout fish. There was a wee dab of beer drinking going on among those gathered that Saturday and we were doing some airgun shooting to pass the time. The 'big talker' sailed off into a bunch of self aggrandizing hero stories involving his shooting and belittling airguns and the stories got better as the beer flowed. Kevin listened politely and while doing so prepared a 'loaded' piece of cardboard, set it up and ran it. Then asked the loudmouth if he'd like to try it. He simply shut up and left shortly thereafter. If it wasn't the best put-down I've ever seen then my memory is worse than I thought. :wink:

Now granted Kevins' airguns are a little better than what you get at Wal-mart (OK, OK--a Helluva lot better! Weirauch and Walther barrels seem to help :wink: ) but they still require a competent operator. Beverage cans at 100 yards are our usual targets but emptying the cans is an onerous task. Nasty task but I try to uphold my end. Tom

 

[jdupre']

As a little tribute to the men who fought for our freedom to do so, I did a little pellet gun plinking in the back yard. I have 8 cypress trees at the waters edge of the bayou that runs behind my house. These trees are chock full of these handy targets.

They run 3/4" to 1" in diameter and I have shots ranging from 20 to about 28 yards, depending which carport post I'm using. Some of them hang in clumps and some are just single balls ( really cones) and offer challenging shots with a $25.00 WalMart rifle with a 8-10 lb trigger. I can dust them pretty regular when the wind is calm. VERY challenging with a 10MPH breeze swaying the branches.

Joey

 

[Tom @ Buzzard Bluff]

Nice targets! Looks like the muzzle of a Daisy 880 in the pic. Some of them have excellent barrels if you're the lucky sort. Tom

 

[jdupre']

Well, I must be a lucky guy. Put it on paper a little while ago to adjust the scope for the 20-28 yard shots I normally shoot. 3/4" to 1" at 25 yards leaning against a post. Probably could do a bit better from a proper bench rest. Still has the creepy trigger but has smoothed out some with a little grease and 1000 pellets through it in the last month or so. Good starling medicine.
And it is a Daisy 880-circa late 1980's. Good eye.

Joey

 

[bearridge]

Good starling medicine.

Friend Joey,
Kill 'em all. Kill 'em fast. They will wipe out yer songbirds. They took over much of our city. I walk. I know their shriek. If ya shoot 'em on sight, they will stay away frum yer house. They ARE that smart. They will peck out yer eaves 'n raize young in yer house. My neighbor spent some big money ta repair the damage they done ta hiz house. It they werent so dang sorry, I woulda offered ta pop 'em 'n keep 'em off.

good shootin'
bearridge

ps Did ya buy a pellet sampler frum StraightShooters? Ya done some good shootin', but pellet guns, like all rifles, love some ammo 'n hate others.

 

[jdupre']

Bear, I guess I was lucky. I bought a tin of cheap Daisy pellets and the gun did not like them at all. I happened to spot a tin of Crossman Premium Pointed hunting pellets at a local Ace hardware and tried them. The gun turned into a good shooter. I had a few Daisy Copperheads left from years back and put 5 into 3/8" at 15 yards. Haven't been able to find them locally, but I could always go online.

 

[bearridge]

Lotsa good info 'n supplies here. http://www.straightshooters.com/
Pyramid Air iz good.
Mac1 Airguns.
Pomona Airguns.
uh....then there iz....uh.....sorry, my hard drive crashed....there iz a few more good places ta order frum, but ya gotta git a deal or the shippin' will put a can of whup ass on ya.