There is now incontrovertible evidence that I should not be allowed to watch television late at night. And certainly not without serious supervision, the kind of high-level supervision that involves electrodes, neurologists, and technicians squinting at readouts.
Why? Because I blew the hindquarters off a camel today with an air pistol, that’s why. But I get ahead of myself. Let’s hit the rewind button for a minute and get back to the beginning.
It all started innocently enough. Some months back, El Rancho Elliott decided that we would subscribe to the online streaming version of Netflix. Then one day my Better Half discovered that the first season of Top Shot was available for instant viewing.
If you’re unfamiliar with Top Shot, here’s a quick synopsis. It’s a History Channel show that each season brings together 16 shooters to compete in a series of challenges. The challenges might involve shooting a .50 caliber Barrett, a .22 Ruger, throwing a tomahawk, shooting sporting clays, popping balloons with a blowgun, or nailing targets while hanging upsidedown. The challenges are fun, often difficult, and frequently involve not just accuracy but strategy. Week by week competitors are eliminated until there is just one remaining – the Top Shot – and he or she goes home with $100,000
Both my wife and I got hooked on Top Shot pretty quick. By the time we had finished watching the second season (I had been staying up late so I could see what happened in the next episode, and the next, you get the picture), my wife asked if we couldn’t create some similar challenges using airguns. Sure, I said.
Then, for some reason known only to the Powers That Be, the following popped into my head: why not go to the grocery store and buy some targets that the wildlife in the neighborhood could eat when we were done destroying them?
So I trundled off to my local supermarket and purchased the following: some big round crackers, some medium-sized round crackers, some cheese puff balls, and some animal crackers. I was on a roll now, but how was I going to secure the aforementioned targets to a board in front of my pellet trap?
Out of my fertile brain came the answer: frosting! Spread a generous portion of frosting on the edge the board and then stick the crackers into it. It would work, I thought; it had to work. I decided to get chocolate frosting for contrast in the photograph and also because I like chocolate frosting.
Arriving home with the goodies, I clipped a fresh target into the holder on my pellet trap and grabbed a hunk of 2 x 6 board that I usually use to support cans in front of my pellet trap. I buttered the thin edge of the board liberally with the chocolate frosting and then began sticking crackers into the goo. They stood up pretty well. You can see the results in the picture below.
The scene of the great grocery store shootout.
Next I needed to select a pneumatic weapon. I didn’t want to make it too easy, but neither did I want to make it too difficult either for my first experiment. So I chose the Smith & Wesson 6” revolver in black. Mine has a red dot mounted, I figured at 10 meters, I ought to be able to hit the large round crackers easily, but the cheese puff balls and the animal crackers might be difficult.
My weapon of choice: the Smith & Wesson 6" revolver with a red dot..
I inserted a fresh CO2 cartridge, loaded Crosman 7.9 Premier pellets into the rotary magazine, and let fly. Bang! My first shot was obviously high. I steadied my grip and fired again and again. No telltale holes appeared in the paper behind the targets, and none of the edibles had moved. I strolled up to have a peek, and I could see there were holes in the big crackers.
Aiming a bit lower, I knocked one of the big crackers off its perch. Next, I blew the hindquarters off one of the animal crackers, the camel. Aiming lower, I found it was easier to break the targets or send them flying.
In all, I used up some 40 pellets before just one of the cheese puff balls and some fragments were left.
- The aftermath of the great grocery store shootout.
Who knew that chocolate frosting splattered so easily? It cleans up fairly easily with a little soap and water. Maybe peanut butter will work better next time.
Still more evidence of the carnage.
Bottom line: It was a lot of fun but messy, and definitely worth doing. And it wasn’t bad eating the leftovers.
So now, dear reader, it’s your turn: how about sharing some of your favorite fun targets? You can post a response to this blog or email jock.elliott@gmail.com.
Til next time, aim true and shoot straight.
– Jock Elliott
Put a small hole in each end of an egg, blew out the innards,then filled with glow fluorescent tempera water soluble paint. Shot at night under a black light setting, it was very reactive. Here’s one done in daylight (my camera doesn’t work at night).
[URL=http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/squirrelman335/?action=view¤t=pinkeggpow.mp4][IMG]http://i32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/squirrelman335/th_pinkeggpow.jpg[/IMG][/URL]
Ken,
Thanks for the egg-shot idea. I think your album is marked private and requires a password.
Darn! Don’t know how to post the vidio direct. It’s only 15 seconds long.
I have two favorites:
– Wine corks. They are a nice size, they are plentiful (ahem..), and they really go flying when hit. I spray paint them orange to make them easy to find in the grass. For a harder challenge, lay them down with the end facing you.
– Paint balls. They’re cheap and small (about 3/4″), good for scoped work. I stand them on piece of clay or golf tees. Put a piece of white paper behind them and admire the abstract artwork you’ll create.
Jim
Hey Jim,
Those are great ideas. I’ll have to try them. Thanks!
Thanks, Jim! I knew there was a reason I keep throwing those corks into a bag…just hadn’t discovered it yet! 🙂
Uncle Jock,
I just laughed my butt off reading this latest blog, hysterical!!
Army men, nothing is more fun to me than army men at 25 yards. Its always fun going center mass with a 25 cal, cause those poor guys just disappear to another dimension. Using something a bit smaller, 177, and some zip ties, you can shoot the weapons out of their little grubby green hands, or the arms clean off. A nice solid shot would take any part off. I also set up paintballs around the army men kind of like a grenade. After a hit, it shows exactly where the “shrapnel” has landed.
Just two days ago, I put a different scope on my newly acquired BAM B28 in 25 cal, and was zeroing it. I started getting really tight groups, so I decided to aim at the colorful thumb tacks holding the paper targets up. I hit 9 of them in a row and they absolutely exploded, so much fun!!! All the best!!!
Chris Pabon
Chris,
Thanks for the kind words.
Army men are the best. I never thought of a paintball grenade. Great idea!
Uncle Jock
Aspirins are good, I stick them to clear scotch tape. The small Dum-Dum lollipops are very good. Just drill holes in a board about a half inch deep and several inches apart and insert the sticks in them. Nice exploding effect when hit dead center. If you are really good, you can take out the sticks as well.
I like free targets too. Anything that might be laying around like pecans, pine-cones, crabapples, and the spiny seed pods from a sour gum tree. The best natural target I shot was a round seed pod at my neighbor’s house, about the size of a quarter and it was soft and dense with seeds like a cat tail. Shot with a .177 cal CPL from a TX200 at about 25 yards, it exploded into a dense cloud of fuzzy seeds that were carried away by a brisk breeze that suddenly came up.
At first your idea sounded like a waste of perfectly good peanut butter, but after further consideration, using it as an anchor for targets is pretty shrewd.
Slinging Lead,
Thanks for your comments. Free targets are good; they appeal to my Scottish “thrift gene.”
How about peanuts in the shell? Either drill holes and hang them up with monofilament fishing line (moving targets, in the wind) or stick them down into your peanut butter. Leave the left-overs for squirrels and chipmunks, and THEY become targets too!
Smaug1,
So the clean up agents become targets? Not bad. My brother-in-law would love that — he has had great trouble with squirrels and chipmunks. They ate the starter cord to his mower and his TV cable . . . no kidding.
Necco Wafers! (but not the chocolate ones–I EAT them).
Jock, you’re a heck of a writer. If I ever grow up, I wanna be just like you.
-bp
Bill,
Necco wafers — great idea. Now I have to go find some.
Thanks for the kind words, but don’t grow up — I hear it’s overrated.
Acorns spray painted orange with cheap marker paint are fun to shoot at fifty yards with all of my sripngers(7 of them).I like watching them turn to mist in my scope.Small cat tales that I pull out of the ground sparay painted orange and set up at 100 to 130 yards are a blast also(white fuzz flys everywhere when hit)using my 22 cal.FX Monsoon I purchased from AOA and my AA S410 Extra FAC and 25 cal. Condor.
Vance,
Acorns at 50 yards with a springer??!! I bow to you, sir. That’s great shooting!
We’ve had great fun with Cheezits placed in nooks and cranies in a stack of logs at 25 yards . The next morning we were pleased to find out that all the “mini -bears” had cleaned up our mess!
Buffalo Bob,
Cheezits — excellent suggestion and keeps you from starving during a prolonged shooting session.
Sorry to be a pain but I just figured out how to post the video clip of my reactive target egg.
http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d27/squirrelman335/?action=view¤t=pinkeggpow.mp4
Ken,
Wow! When you put together a reactive target, you don’t fool around!
Gummy Bears! They can really take a hit from any of my .177s. I can usually find them and shoot them several times. One cool feature of gummy bears is that, like ballistic gelatin, the track of the projectile is visible through the medium. In other words, you can tell exactly where you hit them.
Jim in KS,
Gummy bears — what a great idea. Thanks!