Show your targets! What do you use?

[Joe Link]

Shooting with others after the last NWFA cleanup, it was painfully obvious that I need to step up my target game. Being a big fan of cheap improvised targets, I'm surprised I haven't heard of the potato on a stick (thanks @Joe13!)

We can use this thread as a reference for what others are using and recommend, and I'll pin it to the top if it gets popular.

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[Joe13]

Yessir! Potatoes are awesome targets for .22's all the way up to hunting rounds; they make great explosions (sometimes a .22 will cut them in half but most often they will explode like a watermelon) and nothing to pick up as it is 100% biodegradable. @ $3 for a big sack they are also the cheapest reactive target I've yet to find.

 

[Caveman Jim]

With my aging eyes I use the Shoot N See targets.
Back in the day a paper plates with a cross stapled to a stick did the trick.....
I hate wasting food of any kind at home or out in the field although when both my kids needed indoctrinating about guns I did shoot 2 grapefruits to show what their head would look like if they shot someone while playing with a gun. They learned.

 

[Joe13]

For target holders, a pair of metal sawhorse brackets sold at the big hardware stores for $20 to "make your own" with 2x4's are great as well.

Once you invest in the brackets, 2x4's are easy to cut to size (I've used 4' up to 8' legs and tops), cheap @ $2ish each, and very portable and fast to put up with a couple wood screws. Idiot or new to shooting friend shoots your legs all up or the top beam and it's almost nothing to replace.


I've hung gongs to potatoes on spikes or hanging on fishing line.

The possible combinations are limited to your imagination.

 

[Joe Link]

For target holders, a pair of metal sawhorse brackets sold at the big hardware stores for $20 to "make your own" with 2x4's are great as well.

Once you invest in the brackets, 2x4's are easy to cut to size (I've used 4' up to 8' legs and tops), cheap @ $2ish each, and very portable and fast to put up with a couple wood screws. Idiot or new to shooting friend shoots your legs all up or the top beam and it's almost nothing to replace.


I've hung gongs to potatoes on spikes or hanging on fishing line.

The possible combinations are limited to your imagination.

If I didn't live in an apartment this is probably the route I'd go. Unfortunately storage space is limited, so I need something more compact.

 

[Norwestr55]

This is what I have mainly because I was too lazy to make my own as Joe13 did. Pretty much infinitely adjustable as far as width and height, and breaks down into small easily storable pieces.
https://www.amazon.com/CTK-Precision-Ultimate-Target-Stand/dp/B00KQX0XEE

 

[The Nothing]

I didn't have anything until I found a decent wood stand someone left behind at Wildcat earlier this month.

Prior to that, I used paper targets on folding cardboard displays

 

[Sgt Nambu]

This is what I have mainly because I was too lazy to make my own as Joe13 did. Pretty much infinitely adjustable as far as width and height, and breaks down into small easily storable pieces.
https://www.amazon.com/CTK-Precision-Ultimate-Target-Stand/dp/B00KQX0XEE

Really like that rig, Norwestr! Ordered one this AM!

 

[Kristina]

I made these stands. I used longer wood stakes because that's what I could find at home depot and they are long enough to staple two targets to. I didn't glue mine together though - easier to transport that way and the three I made fit in a 5 gallon bucket so easier to store.



I did have to shave down the sides of the stakes for them to fit in the PVC but like I said, they were the best option at home depot and a 6 pack of the stakes was less than $10 IIRC.



I've used them twice but I don't have any pictures of them put together. Guess I'll have to go shooting again . I think I paid $30-40 for all the materials and I get produce delivered to my house in a cardboard box twice a month so that's where my actual targets come from (the cardboard, not the produce ).

Edited to add: I put two rounds of 45 (one was poor aim, the other a bad flinch ) into one of the stakes and it's still usable so I guess it was a good idea to use the larger ones.

 

[Norwestr55]

Really like that rig, Norwestr! Ordered one this AM!

You'll love it! I left an extra 6-8 inches either side on the 1x2 across the bottom in case I get some wider targets. And so far nobodies hit any of the clips but I always bring my staple gun just in case. I need to pick up a few spares at Staples or Office max because its not if its going to happen but when.

 

[Member 34319]

The last stand. I have a bunch as well as various size rebar.

 

[Joe13]

It's the guys with the tools and shop space to bang out a dozen targets and stands in a day and not give two cents as to how much abuse they get that I'm envious of lol.

 

[nammac]

So it used to be Shoot n See on corrugated plastic, looking like this... But the wife got tired of just shooting paper... So now it's steel and clays on tomato plant stakes...

 

[nammac]

Here's a better shot of the steel setup...

 

[rubberband]

'bout $15 worth of PVC & 2 furring strips. The PVC is friction fit so you can take it apart for storage/transport and I drilled holes halfway up in the furring strips every 2" so you can make it height adj by using a dowel/screw/pin/whatever. Edit: same thing as Kristina's link.

 

[Kruel J]

I shoot AR400 steel plates. I have a ratty steel frame that I robbed off a utility cart we trashed at work. I use 3/8" quick links to hang the plates from the rack. What I don't like is how much it spins when I shoot it. But I've got a couple ideas on how to stop that.

 

[Andy54Hawken]

When not on a range , my friend Dave and I try to find the smallest , oddest colored or shaped rock and we each try and hit it.
Stray leftover shotgun shells are also great for this.
My wife makes soap so the ugly odds and ends make for fun targets.
Andy

 

[maddog]

I print these out Free Targets for Shooters! page 8, target #10115 then color in the inner box with an orange highlighter. Really thinking of going to the next bigger box.

 

[Joe13]

When not on a range , my friend Dave and I try to find the smallest , oddest colored or shaped rock and we each try and hit it.
Stray leftover shotgun shells are also great for this.
My wife makes soap so the ugly odds and ends make for fun targets.
Andy

THANK-YOU!!!!

At least I'm not the only one who thinks leftover shot shells are leftover targets!

I'll set those suckers up everywhere and shoot till I can't see them anymore.

Wasn't until the site clean and shoots that I was exposed to them as trash. I try to bag them all now but can never get everyone else's every time.

Leave with more then you take and all.

 

[Kristina]

I print these out Free Targets for Shooters! page 8, target #10115 then color in the inner box with an orange highlighter. Really thinking of going to the next bigger box.

LOL, I feel your pain . That is good site to bookmark though, thanks!