Self resetting targets

[BNoll]

Anyone have any experience with something like this? It sure would be nice to have some make a sound and move when you hit it, instead of a piece of paper just having a hole ripped through it.

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[MLB]

On the suggestion of a few members here, I picked up some used bowling pins (don't pay for them, you can just ask at the alley). I drilled a hole in the neck so I can hang them from a sawhorse with string.

My first time out, I started with the Ruger .22. They dance a bit. Enough that you can tell if you hit them anyway.

That grew old fast though. My shooting partner and I decided to unleash something a little more significant on them. The .45 Glock of his and my .40 Walther got those pins moving.

Even after quite a few mags each, you really can't wreck those things. A bit deformed no doubt, but still in one piece. Just last Sunday a friend let loose with his Bushmaster AR-15. At least some of his went through it.

I think a few of those pins are going to meet the 870... ;D

[redneckruss]

I love'm all. I first used bowling pins in the desert SW with everything from 9mm to 45's. My first shot with a 7.62 SKS was aimed at bowling pins. After hearing how cheap and shoddy and inaccurate these SKS's were, I was impressed to be able to knock the pins around using iron sights at ~40yards. OK so it's not MOA, combat accuracy was impressive, and I'm sure I would have done better with optical sights.

The steel resettable targets are great for "organized" target games. We would use a few (4-5) 'gongs' and each shooter gets one shot per target. The number of gongs you hit (or were downed) would be your score for that round. Run for 10 or 15 rounds with two to five people, and you can have a pretty good competition going. We've used anything from airguns in the basement at 10 yards to .22's at 25 yards, and 5.56 and 7.62x39 rounds are 50 yards. You could do that with other rounds, but it gets very costly. When shooting the airguns, we would shoot more or less continuously for 4 or 5 hours for less than the cost of a single box of premuim loaded ammo.

I think that one of the benefits of reactive targets is that is helps people develop "center of mass" shooting skills in addition to the target skills that most everyone is taught when starting. (Nothing wrong with target shooting, just a new skill..) The american handguner world shootoff championships uses steel poppers in their competition. The prices might be a little cheaper here: www.azshooters.com/Merchant2/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=azs&Category_Code=Handguns
YMMV

RR