Shooting skeet can be fun and challenging. However because skeet is descended from bird hunting, and because the clay pigeons are small and fast, shotguns are the only practical weapon.

I propose balloon skeet. This would be a skeet style range, where shooters walk slowly along a path with bushes and other visual impediments on either side. Instead of concealed clay pigeon launchers, hidden boxes would contain helium balloons which would be released unexpectedly. The balloons would vary in size, buoyancy and appearance. The slower ascent and larger size of the balloon would give bowhunters a fighting chance. Such a range might also be played with slingshots, handguns or blowdarts.
-- bungston, Jul 31 2006

Urban dictionary: "skeet" http://www.urbandic...fine.php?term=skeet
In case you're wondering what ye_river_xiv is on about. [jutta, Aug 03 2006]

(?) Oxyacetylene bag bomb http://www.youtube....6yU&feature=related
Disappointingly unfloaty [bungston, Mar 24 2008]

Skeet T http://www.snorgtee...eetskeet-p-829.html
Just in case anyone was wondering whether there was a t-shirt making a skeet joke. [nomocrow, Mar 18 2010]

Bloon Popping Games http://www.ninjakiw...Games/Bloons-Games/
Pop bloons with darts. [goldbb, Mar 22 2010]

Balloon Hunter http://www.onlinega.../Balloon-Hunter.php
Similar idea, but limited to video. [jurist, Mar 22 2010]

after actually shooting traditional skeet in windy environs, i can see this as being a very very bad idea. so bun [+].
-- tcarson, Jul 31 2006


just be sure you're clear of houses and populated areas, seems like those arrows would fly pretty far...

[+]
-- bleh, Jul 31 2006


With arrows costing upward of $10 each (more if you like "good" arrows), this could get really expensive. There already is an archery event based on shooting a bird on the wing, where a special arrow is used (the name escapes me...), however the fletches are enormous, giving the arrow a very much reduced range. Only instead of baloons, a flying-fox supported target is used. Much more practical, and by the way, baked.

Good idea, though, would be quite challenging.
-- Custardguts, Aug 01 2006


From an archery/fletching site: "Flu-Flu arrows are used for shooting at flying targets. They will fly straight and fast for about 20 yards, then rapidly slow down and drop to the ground."
-- baconbrain, Aug 01 2006


I like it. The blowgun idea could be cool, but also could get expensive as well. Maybe .22's with low velocity rounds so they dont carry as far...? [+]
-- Hunter79764, Aug 02 2006


We used to let balloons go over a campfire and shoot them down with BB guns.
-- Mr Burns, Aug 02 2006


Ah, youth. With us it was blunt flaming arrow night fights. We all still have our eyes, miraculously.
-- normzone, Aug 02 2006


[Phlish] I've gotta ask. A real restraining order? or do you just hate Skeet Ulrich?

Over here (USA), "Skeet" has some connotations which would make it somewhat inappropriate as a boy's name...
-- ye_river_xiv, Aug 03 2006


I was thinking that flammable balloons would be a fun addon here. One could tape a magnesium sparkler to the arrows. I had in my head that an oxygen / acetylene mix should be buoyant - 2 carbons and a hydrogen + some O2 weighs less than 2 nitrogens, plus some O2. But this youtube video shows a pretty unbuoyant balloon. Maybe it could be doped with some hydrogen.
-- bungston, Mar 24 2008


. . . --->(+)

Don't know how I missed this one.
-- 2 fries shy of a happy meal, Mar 26 2008


BUNGCO now offers rifled-barrel nailguns at its three Balloon Archery Skeet sites.
-- bungston, Apr 16 2008


When I was about twelve my dad bought me a proper bow and arrow set and I got quite handy with it. One day I wondered just how high up I could fire an arrow. One heck of a long way, was the answer. I was very lucky not to lose sight of it, because I remember very clearly the feeling of instant dread when it became apparent it was coming down a great deal faster than I thought it might, and to pretty much the same place too.

Hence a proposal for boomerang to be added to the approved list of projectiles.
-- james_what, Apr 17 2008


[-] what [Custardguts] said... a shotgun's range is very limited, so you don't worry about somebody over the hill getting an arrow in the butt.
-- FlyingToaster, Apr 17 2008


What you need now is an arrow picking-up machine. Then people could pay by the quiver.
-- nomocrow, Apr 17 2008


The boomerang would have to be sharp, like that one in Road Warrior.
-- bungston, Apr 17 2008


Brilliant idea - as an archer, I want to try it!
-- Angua, Mar 17 2010


//I was thinking that flammable balloons would be a fun addon here. One could tape a magnesium sparkler to the arrows. I had in my head that an oxygen / acetylene mix should be buoyant //

Isn't methane quite buoyant? It flames up nicely, too. Although, I don't know if the flames are visible...
-- BakedRiemannZeta, Mar 18 2010


Maybe you could use a shotgun arrow. I wonder if a flu-flu arrow with a small flechette-filled can on the tip would work. The initial force is imparted to the arrow and flechettes, the arrow slows, but the flechettes keep moving.

The flechettes could be made of something cheap like bamboo. Difficulty could be increased by decreasing the number of flechettes and the size of the can.
-- nomocrow, Mar 19 2010


I like the idea of a contest in which a balloon popping projectile weapon would be devised by competing teams. Teams would be constrained to only provided materials. Each year the new competition would provide different starting materials: materials might include a complete newspaper, a Barbie doll, a pack of diapers, whatever $10 will buy from McDonalds, etc. - added text "science project!" because of my fantasy that science teachers scout the HB for good ideas.
-- bungston, Mar 22 2010



random, halfbakery