Scavenging For Free Targets: "When You're A Hammer, Everything's A Nail"
by
Doug E
Published: January 16th, 2020
Using tin cans, plastic bottles, appliance cardboard and scrap steel for shooting targets can be completely free
With the exception of the guys that seem content doing mag dumps into the dirt, shooters typically want to shoot at something. The targets that people choose are almost as varied as the firearms they choose to shoot with; anything from professionally made targets bought online or at a sports store, to a piece of garbage found along the roadside. I’ve run the gamut of all sorts of targets myself, but sometimes, the best targets, are free targets.
SCAVENGING FOR FREE TARGETS, recycling bin
On occasion, I’ve had access to steel targets, and I’m not sure there can be anything more invigorating than having a friendly race to shoot the middle of an odd number of steel plate targets. However, since my access to steel targets is limited, I turn to far cheaper options for my standard range trip. First stop, the recycling bin. Cereal boxes, either in their boxy, or fully flattened state make for nice, free targets that can be of a standard size if you only subscribe to one brand of cereal, or mostly standardized if you switch up your morning sugar grains once in a while. The cereal boxes can either be used as a backing to catch misses on a smaller target or used at various distances. My favorite use of a cereal box is to open them fully and try my pistols at 100 yards. That way I have my own set standard size to measure my improvement.
Half a cereal box makes for a chest box sized target for defensive drills. Image from the S2Delta scope review.
Add a bit of spray paint for an aiming point or for better visibility. Image from the CZ Phantom review.
The next option for free targets is, of course, tin cans and plastic bottles. Used tin cans can be a great target that gives some instant feedback for free, compared to much more costly steel targets. Since tin cans are such time-tested free targets, I won’t spend more time discussing them, other than to say that even if you don’t cook, tin cans can be gathered from recycling bins that are next to the street if you’re not too bashful.
This option may not be available to everyone, but my small town has a dedicated appliance shop that has given me permission to grab larger appliance boxes from their cardboard recycling bin. Using large pieces of cardboard can be great for shooting at longer distances with pistols, shotguns or rifles.
Author's first time shooting at 500 yards. A large piece of cardboard helped! No, the boy wasn't a target.
TFB’s Luke C. wrote about a couple other free targets that you can read about in his Rimfire Report HERE.
SCAVENGING FOR FREE TARGETS, FREE STEEL
Although steel can be found for free, you really have to be looking for it. I’ve been fortunate enough to find several pieces of steel on the roadside, town-wide “junk days” and even buried in my own yard. Thus far, the best piece of steel I’ve found was a broken road grader’s blade on the side of the road that I was more than happy to introduce some bullets to. There is a difference between hardened steel, which can shrug off rifle rounds, and rolled steel which will stop pistol rounds with ease, but hardly seem to slow a rifle bullet down at all.
Steel pipe I found during a town's "junk days". Image from the S&W 625 review.
A 1 thick road grader blade took 7.62x54R rounds like a champ.
You can see TFB’s Miles V. discussing the safety considerations of shooting steel HERE.
The cardboard, steel, and clay pigeons (found intact at the range) were all free.
UPDATE: Whether you shoot on public or private ranges, remember to take your used targets with you, or put them in a trash bin if they’re provided. Leaving your range better than you found it can benefit everyone. It’s also important to remember that others may be coming to shoot for the first time ever, and first impressions matter.
What kind of free targets have you scored for your range trips? What’s your favorite free target to shoot at?
Doug has been a firearms enthusiast since age 16 after getting to shoot with a friend. Since then he's taken many others out to the range for their first time. He is a husband, father, grandfather, police officer, outdoorsman, artist and a student of history. Doug has been a TFB reader from the start and is happy to be a contributor of content. Doug can be reached at battleshipgrey61 AT gmail.com, or battleshipgrey61 on Instagram.
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Feral cats. A timely topic...my sister in law created a similar issue to Granny and the barn cats. Couldn't bear to see them starve or freeze so she started feeding them. In no time they were ignoring the mice ( we don't have rats in Alberta) and breeding like...feral cats. When the numbers were high enough they were eating $300/ month worth of cat food, she asked me to come and eliminate some. Easier said....
They are crafty and easily spooked critters. As soon as they saw me with a gun, they booked. I eventually had to set up a little one man blind near the house, but the gun on a tripod and snipe them. From 50 yds or so. The first few we're fairly easy, then they figured out where I was shooting from. The next six took three hours. Every shot they would disappear for 15 min. Then slowly creep in ( I was baiting them with canned tuna) they eventually stopped coming in to the food, lying down first 60 yds, then 80, eventually out past 100yds. That's where I stopped; I had only brought a .22 LR with me (Ruger precision rimfire), and I could hit them easily with great accuracy, a.22 just doesn’t have enough oomph to put them down humanely every time, even with headshots. Next time I’ll bring the .17 HMR.
Around here, shelters wont accept feral cats, and spaying is impractical and expensive. The county will loan you traps, but you deal with what you trap. I'd rather they had a fighting chance than to trap them and shoot them. There would not be a feral cat problem if people in town would stop bringing their unwanted ”pets” to the country and dump them so they can find a ”nice barn somewhere full of juicy mice”
We get a lot of packages delivered to the house. When breaking down the boxes, I keep all the large sheets of cardboard I can. You can use them as a backing for multiple paper targets, or cut silhouettes out of them and set up your own bad guy/hostage targets. Our outdoor "range" is behind one of the local landfills, so we have a lot of flexibility in how we set up our targets.