A free bottle shooting game: cannon target practice
This bottle shooting game gives you a brass spring cannon at the end of a field and a row of things that break beautifully: wine and beer bottles, jars of jam, wine glasses, light bulbs, watermelons, pumpkins, clay pots, eggs, balloons and tin cans. It aims like a slingshot game: pull back the plunger, watch the coil spring squeeze through the slot in the barrel, and let go. The ball flies with real gravity, air drag and wind, and every target breaks into pieces cut from the spot you hit, finer where the ball went in.
How to play
- Drag back from anywhere on the field, away from the targets. The direction of your pull sets the angle of the barrel, the length sets the power.
- Let go to fire. Drag back to the start point to cancel.
- Fine tuning: the − and + buttons change the power by half a percent and the angle by half a degree. Press FIRE to shoot with those settings. On a keyboard use the arrow keys (hold Shift for finer steps) and the space bar.
- Learn from the last shot. Its path stays on screen as a dotted line, and gold marks on the gauges show the power and angle you used.
- Clear the stage by breaking every target before you run out of shots. Spare shots are worth bonus points, and using no more shots than there are targets earns three stars.
Scoring and accuracy
A hit is not just a hit. The game measures how far the ball's path passed from the centre of the target and shows it in centimetres. Close to the centre is a bullseye worth triple points (and a moment of slow motion), then come great shots, good shots and clipped ones. Far targets score more, breaking two or three targets with one ball multiplies the points, a ball that skips off the ground first scores extra, and hitting with several shots in a row builds a streak bonus.
Three shooting ranges
- Easy (morning): no wind, extra-big targets from 5 to about 13 metres, and dots that show the start of your path.
- Normal (golden hour): a light, steady breeze, targets out to about 19 metres, no guide. Bulbs hang from frames and balloons float on strings.
- Hard (dusk): a gusty wind that changes while you aim, targets out to 21 metres, wine glasses and eggs, and fewer spare shots.
The physics
The cannon stores energy in a coil spring, E = ½kx². All of it goes into the ball, so the launch speed is proportional to how far you pull: full pull compresses the spring 30 cm and fires the ball at 17 m/s. In flight the ball feels gravity and air drag that grows with the square of its speed through the air, so with no wind the longest shot is at about 42 degrees, a little flatter than the textbook 45. Wind changes the air speed the ball feels: a headwind of 6 m/s takes about an eighth off the range. Broken pieces are rigid bodies that bounce, spin and come to rest on the ground and on the stands.
Frequently asked questions
Is this bottle shooting game free?
Yes. It runs in your browser for free, with no download and no account.
How do I shoot?
Press anywhere on the field and drag back, away from the targets. The direction you pull sets the angle of the barrel and the distance sets how far the spring is compressed. Let go to fire. For fine adjustments use the − and + buttons under the field, then press FIRE.
What can I shoot?
Glass bottles of every size, jam jars, wine glasses, light bulbs, tin cans, clay pots, watermelons, pumpkins, eggs and balloons. Each one breaks its own way: glass shatters into shards, watermelons burst with juice, balloons pop and eggs splat. Bottles and jars sit on crates, benches, hay bales and barrels, bulbs hang from frames and balloons float on strings.
How is accuracy measured?
When the ball hits a target, the game measures how far the ball's path passed from the centre of the target, in centimetres. Within about a fifth of the target's size it is a bullseye and scores triple points. Great shots score double, good ones one and a half times.
How does the spring cannon work?
Pulling the handle compresses a coil spring. The energy stored in it is one half times the spring constant times the compression squared, and almost all of it goes into the ball. So the launch speed grows in proportion to how far you pull: half the pull gives half the speed and about a quarter of the range.
What does the wind do?
The ball feels air drag against the moving air, so a tailwind carries it further and a headwind holds it back. On Normal the breeze is light and steady. On Hard it gusts, so the same shot can land differently a few seconds later. Watch the grass, the dust in the air and the wind gauge.
Does it work on my phone?
Yes. Drag with your thumb to pull the spring. Turning the phone sideways gives a wider view of the range.