Anyone Shoot Steel?

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I like to shoot steel too.
 

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If you shoot mild steel, ejected steel from the plate can come straight back at you.
 
If the bolts are exposed I prefer plow bolts, to keep everything flat, more important the closer they are placed to the shooter.


This is a pretty neat video that shows impacts on both hard plate and softer steel, pretty easy to see radial dispersion vs where craters send stuff.

The impacts at the beginning are soft steel, FF to 7:30 or so for hard plate.


An impact crater is about the best shape to turn something that would otherwise be moving parallel with the flat plate 90 degrees back to where it came from.

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I ditched the linked chains for strips of rubber from aircraft tires. Much more durable than the chains and a lot faster re-set time. Looks like BS and I are of like mind when it comes to plate hanging. Pic to comes when the sun comes up.

Bill
 
We started using old tires, 2 i bolts on top with chain connects to bolts on 500 steel, I like to put a nut between chain and plate to create a downward angle, we paint the tire white and the steel another color, rebar and ny-ties keep the tires up. I'm hoping they last until I need another set of tires for my truck, use gloves when moving due to
steel wire. We shoot them at 100, 200, 300 and 600yrds and have not been hit with ricochet.
 
As a replacement for chain, fire hose will take many, many hits before breaking and a single trip to your local fires house can get you a lifetime supply.

A single loop and bolted behind the plate is also enough to give a square presentation of target to shooter and much more of an impact reaction that two chains will. Sometimes it only takes one hit on a chain the hose takes a lot to fail.

I have also used bar stock 2” x 1/4” on this one. It’s several decades old now and has been used in matches where it’s been hit all over and it still works.

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This is the leg/cross bar no need for tools parts.

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And the adjustment for the flasher portion. You will save trips of you have someone at the firing line with a radio or phone, so you can adjust the black plate to block the red one at rest. So it only rises above when the target is impacted.

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Agree on the speed. I've accidentally dimpled some plates with 223/556 rounds at 100 yards. Definitely don't use high speed varmint rounds on steel unless you need to drill some holes in the plate. I had 2 accelerator loads pass clean through a 5/8" plate with just a slightly raised copper ring on the front.
 
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