Boys Camp Activities With an Air Rifle

Air rifle shooting is a popular activity for boy's camps. Skill, patience and the immediate thrill of popping a pellet through the center of a target make it an exciting activity. But more thrills can be had and more skills can learned if a little creativity is used in setting up air rifle challenges.

  1. Hunting Trail

    • Set up some targets off to either side of a path. Hide them fairly well in the trees, or poking out from behind logs. Give each boy a set number of pellets and a time limit. Take each of them down the path in turn and tell to look out for the targets and try to shoot them from the path. They get one point for each target hit and three for targets hit in the middle. They only get one shot at each. This game will sharpen observational skills.

    Moving Target

    • Set up a small zip line and hang something from it which will break or make a noise when hit with an air-gun pellet. Clay pigeons are ideal for this, but empty drinks cans are good as well. Have the boys take turns trying to shoot the object as it whizzes down the zip line. They can face the zip line at an angle or be positioned to shoot along its length.

    Balloon Shooting

    • Fill some helium balloons and tie to very long strings. Release the balloons and challenge the boys to shoot them down before they reach the top of the tethers. If you have more than one rifle you can make two teams and use two different colors of balloons. The team which shoots down all its balloons first wins the game. Make sure that the length of the string will not put the ballons out of range of the guns.

    Dizzy Shooting

    • Get a boy to spin round on the spot for one minute until dizzy. Guide them to lie down facing the target with everyone else well out of the way behind them. Once they are lying down and facing the correct direction give them a rifle and challenge them to hit the target within 10 seconds. Use caution -- it is very important that the barrel is always pointing towards the target throughout this exercise. Give them the rifle loaded with only one pellet and do not allow them to try and reload the rifle or do anything else but aim in the direction you have already pointed the rifle.

    Safety

    • With all these games it is absolutely paramount that safety is first. Guns should not be pointed at anyone, whether loaded or unloaded. The barrel should be kept in a broken position and unloaded when the gun is not use. The finger should be off the trigger until the shooter is ready to shoot. Safety rules need to be absolutely clear to everyone involved.