36" steel pipe

[moooose102]

i just had a thought while thinking about a bullet trap. i went and looked up the specs, and they make 36" steel pipe that is .750" thick. do you think that would be sufficent enough for .30 cal centerfire rifles with jacketed bullets? what i was thinking was cutting it in half (lengthwise) and planting 1/2 of it in the ground leaning slightly forward with a couple of r.r. ties to hold it.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

36" wide?

3/4" is not enough to effectively stop the rounds. My uncle made a gong target out of 5/16" or 1/2" steel plate, and at 200 yards 7.62x39 cut clean through. .30-06 cut clean through and sent it back and several feet through the air.

 

[moooose102]

36" diameter. cut it in half, so it would be a c shape. shoot into the top half of the "c" (18" above ground), burry the other half. i also thought that if i made it right, i could take 2 peices and weld them together in an inverted "v" shape. that would give it additional strength, and make it harder to loose a bullet.

 

[Hank Zudd]

make sure it's cold rolled steel, not ductile iron; DI is the most common type of metal pipe, mainly used for water transmission mains, but ductile is very brittle.

a hot .357 would probably crack it, then next round thru it.

 

[Superlite27]

My uncle made a gong target out of 5/16" or 1/2" steel plate, and at 200 yards 7.62x39 cut clean through.

Many variables.

Depending on the type of steel plate, and the angle of approach.

As Hank said, pipe is very brittle. (Note pipes tend to crack when frozen, or over pressurized.....not to mention SHOT WITH BULLETS)

Soft iron will tend to dent easily. After a few hits the dent will "stretch" causing it to get thin....then break.

Much of this can be cured by "redirecting" the energy.

My uncle made a gong target

.....

....which he was probably shooting at directly? (at a right angle?) This would mean the plate was receiving 100% of the energy of the bullet. By turning the late at a 45 degree angle, it cuts the absorbed energy in half. (Of course your bullet keeps half....and shoots off at an angle or "riccochet".)

But..if you were to use a fairly hard, heat treated steel, and put it at a 45 degree angle......say...downward into some sand.......I bet 1/2 inch plate would work just fine with 7.62 X 39. I bet it would work for .308 fmj as well.

 

[22-rimfire]

I have shot through 0.5" steel plated with a 30-06. Be careful of your angle.

 

[ezypikns]

Sounds like.....

a ricochet factory.

 

[Ballistic Mule]

Just made a 12" gong myself.Welded chains on the corners hoping it would help by swinging.Plus,I can hang it on my ridged treeline and just move back as far as I like. Another plus is these fields aren't brush hoged often so this should be better than the steel framed swingers I've been using to get the target above the grass