How ridiculous is this?!

[Muskett]

This level of art painting is found all over the place. On toys, Easter Eggs, flower pots, and just something people do to pass the time. To find it on a shooting target isn't too surprising.
Air rifles weren't cheep in the day, nor was the ammo. Not surprising such elaborate targets were made for the market either. No TV or Playstations then. Suspect it was their equivalent of a "shoot'em up" video game.

Really fun item from the past. Shame to shoot it up now, but making a reproduction and shooting that would be fun.

[Hsing-ee]

They seemed to like that kind of outlandish art on targets in southern Germany and in Switzerland. Who said that Germans have no sense of humour?

There were some spectacular colourful targets at the Copenhagen Museum that the old matchlock fellows used to shoot at.

[45flint]

Over here we call that folk art, a bit of a treasure really.

[Garvin]

Don't get me wrong, I like the historical artifact aspect of it. It was the subject matter that struck me as absurd when looked at through modern eyes. How our view of animal welfare has changed over the last century!