Target shooting tip…

Here's a target shooting tip for all you youngsters out there. Don't try THIS at home:


My target tip could easily end with that photo but it would make for one short blog essay.

If you have an outdoor place to shoot at shit, you need shit to shoot at when you get to the outdoor place you have to shoot shit at.

I strongly endorse shooting at something that’s responsible, safe, fun and cheap. After all, the only reason to shoot at a target is to visually record your results and make adjustments.

When my grandfather introduced me to the shooting sports at the age of ten we used empty beer cans for targets, as fast as he would drain them. Using beer cans on a fence post he demonstrated the visual difference between buckshot and bullets. When I witnessed one can virtually destroyed with lead shot compared to the other can with only one hole from a bullet, I quickly understood the concept.

Beverage cans work well as cheap targets and so do glass bottles but we don’t use them anymore. When using glass bottles someone could get hurt :D Use plastic bottles if you have to. And be sure to clean up your mess too.

Being a big fan of The History Channel's Mail Call program, I love it when Gunnery Sgt. R. Lee Ermey shoots up watermellons and other organic objects with classic military small arms. It's fun to watch green orbs explode into a bright red goo. But it costs money for me to replicate that and it's a waste of good food too. It also wanders from my basic concept of using safe cheap range targets. So let's just eliminate using food objects from the list of target options, cheap or not. This also includes the use of cabbage, eggplant, turnips, beets and anything else your mom made you eat as a kid. There are better objects to record your target results or take out your frustrations on.

Consider available retail manufactured target holding devices. If you check out Cabela’s, Bass Pro Shops, online supply sites or your local shooting supply retailers you will find a wide assortment of spinning iron targets, clay pigeon racks and target holding gizmos in all shapes and sizes.

What about those target objects themselves? Again, there are a lot of choices. Birchwood-Casey came out with the Shoot-N-C® target. These packaged targets come in day-glo plastic shapes coated with black ink. Puncturing a target gives the bullet hole a bright green outline visible from a long distance so you can see the results without walking up to it or using a spotting scope. Neat idea, high cost.

Then there are the less expensive paper targets available that resemble bad guys along with the head and body silhouettes like the ones used in the Dirty Harry movie gun range scenes. Some paper targets have graphic photo likenesses of BinLaden or generic terrorist images. Others are imprinted with lots of rings and a grid pattern on them. Classic bulls-eye targets are commonly found for sale at public ranges too.

While each serve a useful purpose I don’t want to get into that here. My intent is to to hip you on how to improve your aim, have some fun and save money at the same time.

All retail target options cost money, reusable or not. It's bad enough being forced into paying outrageous amounts for ammo (even in bulk reload deals or military surplus online) during a time of war along with the high price of gasoline necessary to get your ass out to the target site. So why pay a lot for something that will get blown to bits when all you need is a safe recyclable object to record how good your aim is?

The answer to this question is simple. Three words. Democrat lawn signs.


I have been using democrat lawn signs as targets for years. They are abundant, cost nothing and are easy to stick into the ground. The best time to get democrat lawn signs is the day after an election which is usually every two years. We are in the full swing of an election cycle this year and I expect a really bountiful harvest.

Soon democrat lawn signs will be sprouting all over the place. Just like weeds. Since I want to do my part in cleaning up the local environment I drive around the day after an election gathering worthless political signs

I figure it’s stealing if you grab democrat lawn signs before an election takes place but once it’s over and they (hopefully) lose who cares? Clean 'em up. Git-R-Done.

After I have collected a few dozen lawn signs (enough for two year's worth of target practice) they get stored in my shed for future use. The ones that have images of little donkeys on them are my favorite.


Once out at the range:

•Take some paper plates (is this cheap, or what?) and place an orange sticky dot on the center of the backside of each plate. You can buy rolls of day-glo orange Hoppe’s Target Dots ® at Chuck’s Gun Shop or get them even cheaper on sheets at an Office Despot.

•Tape a plate or two onto the lawn signs.

•Stick a few plate-prepared lawn sign targets into the ground (they go in easily) against a safe backstop.

•Pace off your approximate measured yardage points and mark the spots.

•Safely clear the area and then fire away. Always, ALWAYS exercise caution.

Once you have shot up your paper plate with the orange dot simply tape another plate onto the lawn sign. Most lawn signs last all day but if you are a crappy shot and hit the metal frame with a large round, just plant another lawn sign.

That’s Gerry From Valpo’s shooting tip o’ the week.


Please practice safe and responsible target shooting. Do not give the gun grabbers any excuse to take away out right to have fun, and most importantly, to take away our Constitutional right to self defense.