target practice...

[andrsn]

i was wondering what sort of setups you guys have devised for target practice?

i'm trying to think of an easy rig to drop in a pool that won't get too messy when launching spears through it time and again. the styrofoam breaks up too much and the "boogie boards" tend to shred. both seem pretty bad for any pool skimmers.

anyone have any ideas?

thanks,
anderson

 

[Erik]

If I ever find a pool that will let me bring in my JBL, then I promise to come up with a target:head
Cheers,
Erik Y.

 

[bam bam]

I'll ask one of the other member of my club, as he sometimes brings his gun along and a target.

From what I can remember of it was a plastic bottle wrapped up in duck tape suspended in the water by a float. I don't know if there was enything inside the bottle.

So I'll get back to you all with the specs!!!

 

[freediver48]

plastic bags

Hi,

My first response was ethofoam, which is very bouyant, and tough, but the archery targets that I use stop very fast arrows very well, and are almost free. Ethofoam is pricey, and hard to pull the shafts out of. Archery targets are made out of burlap bags that have compressed grocery bags in them. I usually paint the bag before stuffing them. Pools may not like the burlap, so you might try a bigger plastic bag with a fish and a kill spot painted on it.

I hear those fancy Italian guns shoot pretty fast shafts. I bet that
the bag will float and require some weight, and that the gun will not shoot through. A problem with really fast arrows is that they melt the plastic, the water will likely reduce that problem. A very big advantage of the plastic bag targets is that the shafts are easy to retrieve.

Best wishes,

FD48

 

[SASpearo]

Target Practice

I don't know about other people, but I tend to use scuba divers as targets. Sure, they're slow, and it's no fun after the first two or three shots, but they'e cheap and plentifull !

OK THIS IS A JOKE DAMNIT ........

Once again, being the elaboritist that I am, I use different setups ....

Favourite is plastic bottles - any type of plastic container that floats, really. Half fill them with water, and practice upwards shots. Be carefull where you do this.

Then I'm trying to set up a net system - I've got about 200 kg's of small mesh fishing net (holes about 3mm across) that I can use for this, so I'm trying to rig something .....
Maybe set it up this way - rig a square piece of net that's as big as needed, suspended from floats with fishing weights at the bottom end. The have another one of these 30 cm or so behind it to catch the spear .... mmmmm what do you guys think ?

Then I had a nice idea some time ago. Working in the computer industry and going to a fair amount of conferences, I get my gritty little paws on a lot of stress balls - the type made from some or other foam and about 10cm accross. Punch a hole through one, pass some chord or line through it, tie the other end to a weight and voila ... a semi - floating depth-adjustable very small target ... it improved my shots a LOT. I can now go down to 20 meters, aim, fire and hit it at 4 meters with either hand. Takes some practise to do that. I've used my small gun on it as well, but it doesn't quite go that far - can only hit it fair at about 2.5 meters (gun is only 65cm ...)

The stress balls tend to go quite chunky after about ten good hits, but it's normally not a lot of stuff you have to pick up afterwards. And as I get them from other companies, it's cheap

 

[Wishbone]

What about shampoo bottles?

I think I've mentioned that before here but that's what I use before almost every competition since you're not allowed to shoot real fish the day before it.
You just anchor an empty shampoo or any thick but not breakable plastic bottle. The shaft just passes through it but doesn't break it. To keep them floating after being "dead", fill them with pieces of whatever floating material you can find.
I usually leave the bottles floating on the surface since it looks like tide fishing, and that's when it's really hard to place a kill shot.
Just don't forget to cleam your mess after the practice. We're environment friendly, right?

 

[bam bam]

I'm back with the design I saw being used at the club.

Very simple, he used an empty ribeana bottle (though I am assuming that any empty plastic bottle would do), which had been taped up in duck tape. It was suspended by a float and to keep it in position a small weight was tied to the bottle. The postion of the bottle was horizontal, simulating a fish

Once you have destoryed the bottle it is a simple matter of taping up another!

So I hope that will help some of you.
Sam

 

[icarus pacific]

Anderson-
Grab a section of that orange barricade mesh from some open-pit construction project... Tape a 1/2 oz or so to the botom corners and shoot away. The mesh is open enough to let the shaft pass freely and still snag the line, showing where you nailed it. Cheap and easy.

Up for SB in April?

Sven

 

[andrsn]

svennie, that's a great idea. that sounds the easiest yet. you'll have pictures of it in about 2 weeks.

SB in April sounds good. AY in April sounds even better did i just say that out loud?!