Balloons as targets

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  • PBK
    Senior Member
    • Mar 2019
    • 372

    Balloons as targets

    I'm for the most part a non-popper, and pretty phobic in enclosed spaces or indoor rooms with balloons.
    That being said:
    I do use balloons as targets on the handgun/rifle ranges. They make excellent reactive targets to show if you've made a hit. Especially at long range. I usually only use the old balloons I purge from my collection that are too unreliable to blow up at home.
    I got the idea from Boot Camp. When I was in the Basic Military Qualification course in the Canadian Forces we used these dark green head and body doll balloons (about 4 feet tall blown up). Anyone who did Basic in 2004 or prior will know exactly what I'm describing. We had to blow them up ourselves and place them downrange for our 300 metre C7 rifle qualification.
    When you're in boot camp you have absolutely no quiet time or privacy. Your every move is scrutinized and every piece of kit you're issued has to be accounted for. Needless to say I was unable to ever get these balloons for personal enjoyment while I was in because we were only issued 5 per shoot and they all had to be blown up and shot. There was no "sneaking them out" in your pocket or hiding anything. That included ammunition or spent casings and anything else you can think of.
    We had some female recruits in our class and it was cool watching them blow up their target balloons. You didn't really have time to enjoy it because if you weren't busy blowing up your own the Corporal would come over and tear a strip off you.
    Anyway, with later research I found out they were manufactured exclusively for the Canadian DnD in Quebec by Tilco/Prestige. When Tilco went belly-up of course the Canadian DnD couldn't get them anymore and just discontinued their use altogether rather than find a replacement.
    I managed to get a few many years later from a website selling military surplus gear, but they were old and weren't stored properly and couldn't be inflated to full size.
  • Infl8
    Senior Member
    • Apr 2017
    • 124

    #2
    Re: Balloons as targets

    That's cool, PBK. I have a question about those dark green head and body doll balloons. i was wondering, how did you properly inflate those balloons?

    Comment

    • PBK
      Senior Member
      • Mar 2019
      • 372

      #3
      Re: Balloons as targets

      We just blew and blew and blew and blew and they inflated. Couldn't be too complicated for a bunch of Army/Navy/Airforce recruits. Lol.
      They were made out of a thick, really high quality latex. To my memory, none ever popped on inflation.

      Comment

      • Danniballoon
        Senior Member
        • Mar 2018
        • 553

        #4
        Re: Balloons as targets

        I have a few of them that I got off the internet a few years ago. I think they had neoprene or something similar in them as they didn't smell like normal latex. They felt amazing to ride. Sadly, they have now deteriorated quite badly and usually pop when I try to ride them :-(
        I have recently got some of them to inflate though and I used one recently for it's intended purpose.. a target for my airgun :-)

        Comment

        • LuciferLooner

          #5
          Re: Balloons as targets

          Done this a fair few times myself for urban room clearing training for Airsoft in my own home, the problem being when you set up alone you know where ''the enemy'' is lol
          Also used to do this in archery when me and my GF at the time had the indoor range to ourselves.
          Also with Airsoft I had to be an Alien queen once, which sore me strapped with lots of little water balloons which unfortunately when you're getting shot at by about 30 people at close range soon starts to bloody hurt so had to be rescued by the marshals....
          Oh yeah they were told by some whore girl who found out about my fetish hence being the alien queen though i did not care at all as i was liked by all at the site and they soon forgot.

          Comment

          • Canloondude
            Junior Member
            • Aug 2023
            • 12

            #6
            Re: Balloons as targets

            I was always curious about those balloons. There was one being inflated in a video by a cadet years ago.

            Comment

            • srob2
              Senior Member
              • Dec 2017
              • 352

              #7
              Re: Balloons as targets

              They made you blow up 4 foot balloons by mouth for every shot? What a waste of time.

              Comment

              • PBK
                Senior Member
                • Mar 2019
                • 372

                #8
                Re: Balloons as targets

                That was the way the CF rolled.

                Comment

                • PoppaB1
                  Junior Member
                  • Aug 2023
                  • 12

                  #9
                  Re: Balloons as targets

                  ...not exactly the same, but I taught my nephews to shoot using balloons as targets!

                  Comment

                  • Loonorm
                    Senior Member
                    • Mar 2019
                    • 214

                    #10
                    Re: Balloons as targets

                    A childhood friend and I use to shoot BB guns in the basement at them. We would get the huge (or so it seemed) large round monster-face balloons from the quarter-gum ball machine at the local Eagle grocery store. Sometimes we would even set something up outside and shoot at them. This was back in the care-free days of the l70s Chicago suburbs!

                    Comment

                    • Danniballoon
                      Senior Member
                      • Mar 2018
                      • 553

                      #11
                      Re: Balloons as targets

                      I used one as a target for my bb gun. (barrel can be seen in top RH of picture).
                      It wasn't completely wasted though, before I bust it I stripped naked and had a lovely ride on it

                      Oddly, the bb also hit the silver balloon behind, which slowly deflated. It didn't penetrate the other side and was rattling about inside the balloon.. I even managed to patch it with some liquid latex
                      Attached Files

                      Comment

                      • TheBiggertheBetter
                        Member
                        • Dec 2020
                        • 58

                        #12
                        Re: Balloons as targets

                        I’ve used balloons as targets for some time. I usually use them when shooting a rifle at long range. Sometimes it’s really hard to see where you hit a paper target at 200+ yards. But there’s no mistake when you hit a balloon. But the downside is, for smaller challenging targets, you have to really underinflate the balloon!

                        An overinflated 17 TT is just too easy to hit!

                        Comment

                        • BalloonFun
                          Senior Member
                          • Apr 2022
                          • 222

                          #13
                          Re: Balloons as targets

                          Originally posted by Danniballoon
                          I used one as a target for my bb gun. (barrel can be seen in top RH of picture).
                          It wasn't completely wasted though, before I bust it I stripped naked and had a lovely ride on it

                          Oddly, the bb also hit the silver balloon behind, which slowly deflated. It didn't penetrate the other side and was rattling about inside the balloon.. I even managed to patch it with some liquid latex
                          Poor balloon!!!

                          Comment

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