Quiet targets?

[inonickname]

I need something quieter to shoot at, currently I'm shooting at layers of cheap dodgy ply with marbles, and the sound of the marble breaking through each sheet is much louder than the report from the gun.

Seen as I'm in a residential area, this is a bloody pain. When I start pumping hydrogen through it's veins GGDT tells me I'll go well past mach, so that's something I won't be doing in town often.

So, any ideas for a quieter target? Another idea would be that the target could absorb some of the energy, and not shoot a marble back at me at half mach.

Police here are pretty fair (and we're on the highway, so a lot of their time goes to catching speeders/drink drives) and my neighbor's don't really have a problem with it.. But it's bloody loud, and it would piss me off if I was next door.

Any ideas would be much appreciated

[far_cry]

make for you a target from meat (just kidding)

a4 paper a lot of it

a mud

or just an old cloth ,make 100 layers

or just talk to the marble and tell him to be quiet like a gentleman in the entering and exiting

[john bunsenburner]

Some like sounds, and a gentleman's job is simpyl to please the lady

Perhaps you could make balistic gel like here. This should be quieter, gelatine can be replaced with agar.

[jackssmirkingrevenge]

gelatine can be replaced with agar agar.

For some reason (the unnecessary repetition, no doubt) I imagined "agar" being said like this.

Unfortunately quiet targets tend to be boring ones, I use pillows and cushions when testing silencers in order to judge noise reduction independent of target impact it's a safer alternative to shooting in the air but no fun.

[inonickname]

I'm going to order a haybale for shooting in town with..

Though when I get an o-ring for my pump I might just head down the river once a week and go plinking there..

[jmadden91]

Couple of blankets hung loosely over a rope mate, if they're tight the marble will go through like they're not even there, but if they are loose and you have enough layers, they should absorb the shots nicely

[inonickname]

I aint puttin my money on some old blankets, considering the marble will be going up to around mach 1.2 if it goes past the blankets it's gonna go through the neighbor's fence and into their house, no doubt destroying something.

[skyjive]

You want a layered target probably, with a soft outer layer to absorb the impact and a hard inner layer to make sure of stopping the round. Think a loose blanket or something backed by a thick piece of wood. If the round penetrates the blanket it will have less energy to make noise on hitting the wood, and the blanket will contain any richochets.

[velocity3x]

I'm going to order a haybale for shooting in town with

Are you sure a hay bale will stop a marble @ mach 1.2? I was shooting hay bales with my GB cannon from a distance of 100'. Using low pressure around 100 psi, the GB's go completely through a 16" thick hay bale and travel an addition 200' beyond. A marble at high speed might easily pierce a hay bale.

Maybe you could cover the bale with a piece of heavy carpet.

[twizi]

arrow targets work well they stop thing very well