There were so many good posts when I asked how far away from targets people shoot, I thought I would try another one. What do people use for moving targets... when they're not hunting and when they don't have someone else to throw something? Thrown or kicked balls? Rolling discs? Swinging cans? Catapults? I'd love to see some clever or simple ways to do it. Shandor
A large target, my current soy bean sead bag crate stuffed with silage plastic is 4 by 5 with a 3 by 3 bag to put on top if I want to lay it all on the side, then i use a tall step ladder with cheap bamboo fishing rod, about a 12 footer, with a fishing line to swing small objects across my target. sometimes tie a light fishing line loaded to an spinning rod and real, so my wife can retrieve and swing form the comfort of a lawn chair off a bit to the side. Anything that is small and has enough weight to swing nice can be a target, like a Copenhagen can stuffed with dirt and taped up with Gorilla tape. I have run out of good coin tossers.
Last one of note, little impromptu round of miniature golf..cross the road from my cousin Dwayne,s place, in a school yard with a long abandoned golf club and a stray golf ball..Happy Gilmored it, went waaay farther than predicted, straight at a couple maintenance guys at the tennis courts..
Couple random ricochets, some quick moves and a fair bit of cussing on the part of said maintenance guys, and my short but fun filled round of miniature golf was OVER..
Living on a hill side made it easy, sunk a couple 4" fence post and stretched a cable then a couple pulleys and a homasote deer cutout. Have a pull rope that comes back to the shooting line.
old basketballs shoot them till they get flat then fill them with a can of spray foam keep it flat until the foam pushes the ball back to round they will take hundreds of shots maybe thousands
We used to use a big spinning rod 12-20 pound test and a gallon milk jug with a bit of sand in the bottom.
Used judo heads and had a rule that after 2 hits you quit shooting until arrows were pulled. After you get used to it we didn't miss at anything 20 and under.
An industrial garage door opener. Mounting Velcro tabs on the chain and on the bottom of styrofoam small game. Have to move the drive motor to the side. We lost our indoor range for 4_H, so it is not finished
I've used the swinging bottles like Dude, but never thought of the spray foam, thanks. Swinging tennis balls and other different sized balls, balloons, but one of my favorites has always been an 8-12" tire with a piece of cardboard or the "sheet" type insulation wedged in it. You need somebody to roll it for you, but you can have a lot of fun shooting with a buddy and taking turns rolling it for each other at different speeds and angles.
If you cut out part of the sidewall out on one side of the tire, It's easier to get whatever you want inside it.
Just chasing tennis balls around the yard with a Judo point is fun, but they don't move until you hit them.
Running rabbits, in season, are some of the best practice there is, in my opinion. Good eating too.
Tennis balls are great, IMO. Just nock an arrow, give the ball a swift kick, and let 'er rip!
You have to plant the kicking foot and take one step forward to get back into a shooting stance (assuming right hand/right footed kicker), so it's hard to get a shot inside of 7-8 yards; sometimes I rush it to see if I can hit that way and sometimes I let the ball get out about twice as far. Beyond that, they can really slow down, depending on the surface.
When I was doing this every day, we had longish bunch-grasses out back; so the ball slowed down fairly quickly, but took a lot of erratic hops to keep things entertaining...
My running bear got the target cheap at Denton. Had to buy the cable the rest is stuff out of the garage. Cost less than $200and has been up for years. And just once my wife has the timing down I adjust the cable and change the speed. Lots of fun. The pull rope is set up so the shooter can run it if needed. The picture was taken when we were putting up the backstop because the whole family was coming over to shoot.
Thanks for all the GREAT ideas! While I don't plan to shoot at a fast moving deer, it seems that I do end up shooting at a lot of very slow moving ones. And it can really throw you off if you're not used to it.
