I'm looking for a "recipe" to make explosive targets -- short of mixing nitrates and diesel fuel ala McVeigh. If there's a formula that's storage/handling safe, I'd appreciate hearing about it. Please -- no finger-wagging lectures from the gallery, however well-meaning. And yes, I know they're available commercially but these are much too tame for my taste. Maybe there just isn't a sure way to stabilize any such explosive mixture; if so, I need to know that, too. Better safe than sorry. Thanks.

They all ready have self-setting, environmentally friendly, exploding targets they are called prairie dogs.

There are also blocks of ice. Take 1/2 gallon or gallon milk containers, fill em w/ water, freeze, then blow them to bits

Any chemical mix that detonates from pressure is extremely dangerous to mix and store, just the nature of the beast.

Jay,
Unfortunatly we don't get them around Ohio only groundhogs whic while bigger are a scarcer target so the opportunity to blow them up is tougher to come by.

Ice sounds like it would work to me!
Paint cans filled with water and a pop can full of water sitting on top makes for a nice shotgun double target.

You mean this ?

http://www.boomershoot.org/

Waitaminit, that's some smoke-filled trail you put me on! After two hours I feel like I've earned a master's degree in chemistry. This is not a hands-on subject for the foolhardy or the fainthearted. After serious reflection...

I like gallon jugs filled with water or any container will work just fill and shoot

There's also Daniel Tanner at Skylight (or is it Tannerite now?) who makes such devices specifically for this application. He's changed the name of the company lately, so he could be under either name. CRS again.

Redial

I use the Commercial Formula #1 from the third edition of the "Flashpowder Cookbook".

1 part aluminum powder
2 pars Potassium Perchlorate
1 part Sulfur flour

A 35mm film can holds 200 grains of it and if a Magpie should land and try to steal the bacon that's wrapped around the film can.....and I should hit the can with one of the K-Hornets kept handy for such a thing...... It takes several minutes for all the feathers to come down.