I had some time to think about reactive targets recently and I know of another material to use rather than the increasing difficult to obtain ammonium nitrate.  The good news is that I know it will detonate with handgun fire and shotguns.  I’ve done it with handguns before.  I did some pricing yesterday and it appears it would cost about the same as the current solution.  It also would not have the problem of spontaneous combustion at some later date.  The bad news is that it is much more bulky to obtain the same boom (the energy density of the material is much lower).  It also does not generate much of a visual effect.  It’s just a loud noise accompanied by the sudden going away of things from the places where they were before.

I may do some experiments to see if it could be modified to provide more visual effects and how we might be able to store and distribute it to the target area.  Ry says, “It’s an inspired solution.”  I’m not so sure.  I did my first experiments with this in my childhood and then again a few years ago.  I rejected it because of the MUCH larger target size.  The only thing I came up with that made me reconsider it was that I could change the aspect ratio and give the target a greater depth to compensate for the lower density while still making it a challenging for the long range rifle shooters.  Not exactly “inspired” thinking.

Also Ry and I came up with some shotgun target scenarios.  There has always been a great deal of interest in this sort of target.  I’m certain we have a solution for that now.  It’s just a matter of creating the launcher for the unconventional targets.  There has also been some interest in a handgun Boomershoot.  This new material should work very well for that application.  I’d want the targets to be at least 25 yards away and supported above the ground to avoid turning gravel and other small objects into projectiles.