Novelty Pistol competition suggestions?

Question

Hi, I'm running the Christmas competition at our local pistol range and I was looking for suggestions. We usually shoot static paper at 10 and 20 metres and hope to look into practical in the new year. We use .22 up to .45. I want to do a competition that doesn't just favour the experienced shooters and that will be a bit of fun with a good chance for novices to win a prize. There'll be probably only 15 shooters at max. Suggestions regarding reindeer mounted targets are not welcome!

Answer 1

put tannerite into different parts of toy reindeer. Give each person a shot at the reindeer. The person who blows it up wins. You will have to use rifles for that.

Have pistol bowling. You know put up ten bowling pins and see who can knock down the most in two shots. or have teams where each member of a team gets one shot.

have someone shoot a can and the competition is who can take the best picture with a digital camera of the can exploding.

Let everyone bring something to shoot and then have three judges with score cards rate each of the explosions.
I can see it get the worst crumedgeon in the bunch in a sport coat writing 7s on poster board

Fill balloons with paper and gift certificates cover a board with them so no one can miss and have people shoot at the board. whatever falls with one shot is theirs.

have poker where you draw three cards and shoot two cards on a board. The two cards are face down so you have to bet on cards you don't know. I have already thought of 5 different variations of this so give it some thought

have teams square off each with a steel can see which team can "walk" the can past a line first. Imagine it cases flying as everyone on the team is shooting at their can. No one knows if the good shot is getting it to walk or the novice lots of reloads and laughing.

Answer 2

I like the oversized dartboard idea, we play that same game(cricket) with our rifles at 200 yards sometimes. For pistols it would be a blast, literally.
Something that would be fair to everyone would be hard, since the more experienced shooters will always have the upperhand when shooting against less experienced shooters.
You could always give the experienced shooters smaller targets at the same distance as the less experienced shooters.Example, Experienced shooter at 20 meters gets a 3 inch target, the less experienced shooter at 20 meters gets a 6 inch target.

Another idea would be to a few reactive targets(poppers) and hide them underneath paper targets, don't tell anyone where they are, everyone gets 3 shots, or 5 or whatever, whoever happens to hit the reactive target wins a prize, this way skill is less important than blind luck. maybe post a board with 20 or so targets on it, and hide 3 or 5 reactives on it.If you can't find reactive targets, simply write "winner" on the backside of a few targets, so no one knows which targets are prize winners.Since it's for your Christmas shoot, wrap the prizes like gifts and let each winner pick which box he opens, that way NO one knows who gets what. Make one prize WAY better than the others, maybe have 5 prizes that are 20-30 dollar value, and one prize that'll have the guys drooling, like an all expense paid hunting trip, or a new rifle or pistol, or a years supply of ammo.

Answer 3

You could have a luck of the draw 2 man team competition. everyones name goes in a hat and you get to shoot with who you get drawn with. Or have a handicap. Rank the shooters by how good they are. If a "A" ranked shooter is shooting against a "B" ranked shooter, the "B" ranked shooter gets a distance advantange. Or, get targets of big dart boards and play a game of Cricket. We did that in a bow shooting club I was in and it was a big hit. hope this helps

Answer 4

You put a curtain in front of the shooting positions or targets, have targets which are just white sheets on which are marked "FIRE" or "DON'T SHOOT". All shooters are pointing downrange when the curtain drops and the scores are based on the number of "FIRE" targets shot minus the number of "DON'T SHOOT" targets shot.

Another variation is to disqualify anyone who shoots a "DON'T SHOOT" target.

Answer 5

Use hanging Christmas ornaments for targets.
Use the cheap foam balls covered with that satin string, in various sizes and colors...or, if you don't mind sweeping up, use the glass ones. (you could hide a paper card with a secret prize on it in one of the glass ones.)
Hang about 4-5 on each target rail.
Use your imagination.