Cast Iron as Gong Target?

Status
Not open for further replies.
C

Chipperman

Member
Joined
Dec 25, 2002
Messages
4,572
Location
Essex Co, MA
Getting a new furnace tomorrow to replace the 1940's vintage behemoth in our basement. With the current oil prices I believe this furnace will pay for itself in less than two years. :)

Anyway, the old workhorse has a cast iron door that appears to be 2x2 feet and about an inch thick. I was wondering if this might make a good reactive "gong" type target. I would think it would stand up to pistol calibers ok, but I'm not sure about rifle. Would .223 or .308 sail through it like butter, or would it stand up to that for a while? How about pistol?

Thanks.
 
I'm with ready on this one. There's a very good chance it'll shatter. Cast iron is far more crystalline in nature, it's not as mallible as forged stuff.
 
Really no need to post as you have your answer but will reiterate that yes - CI is by nature very brittle - a good smack with a hammer will often see several pieces!!

There are so many coarse inclusions in most CI - it has very little resistance to cracking and shattering.

Try and find tho if ya can - a used snow blade - that should be good steel and if sliced into suitable size portions will make excellent target material.
 
I can't speak for heavier stuff but I tried a shot at a cast iron skillet once with an AK.
It lasted for two shots. The first punched a hole about the size of a quarter through it and the second shot shattered it.
I was shooting incendiary rounds to it was cool to see. :D
 
I've been having similar thoughts as of late. At work, I've been cannibalizing an old platen press for parts. The mother must weigh a ton and a half...

Looks very similar to this in fact.
ehdnoguards.jpg


The two flywheels alone are 30" in diameter, made of beautiful half inch thick steel and weigh about 160lbs apiece. My boss is getting annoyed with my asking to buy them from him.

"What're you going to do? Shoot them?"

"Maybe...." :evil:

EK
 
Thanks for the replies. I was afraid it would not work out well, especially for rifle.

Maybe I'll call a scrap yard. I didn't know cast iron was going for much.
 
A group of us got together for a black powder shoot. We wanted a gong for long range shooting. Friend grabed his wifes CI skillet for a gong. It got a lot of 50 cal holes. She got a set of new skillets.
 
rdbrowning said:
Friend grabed his wifes CI skillet for a gong
Click to expand...

If you'd tried that in my familiy, that would have gotten all of you grabbed as targets...

Especially if you grabbed the 80 year old one. Cast iron improves with age. My set is still pretty bad compared to that one.
 
I'd have used you as a target with my cast iron skillet if you'd tried to use mine :neener:

Seriously, them things get better with age you shoulda went out and bought a new one if ya wanted to shoot it lol
 
For safety you need to buy armor plate grade steel. Others are not hard enough and will pockmark. Eventually these craters will start reflecting the splatter straight back at the shooter.

The plates on our plate rack are slighly convex to help deflect the splatter away from shooters and bystanders. They are not particularly cheap but they show essentially no wear from probably close to a million rounds -- mostly FMJ, .44mAg and below is allowed.

OTOH at long enough ranges it fun to shoot up old junk, but use the search for a video of a close call of some yahoos shooting at a truck tire that seemed far enough away at the time :) "tannerite" should bring it up as most of the discussion was if it was "help" with a reactive mixture or not.

--wally.
 
english kanigit, that is a beautiful little snapper. Not as pretty as a Kluge, but then, what is?

Those fly wheels would make beautiful gongs for thousand yard practice. :D

Pops
 
Cast Iron

I used to have a couple of well covers from a gas station (you have all probably seen them - about 10-12" dia.) that were salvaged during a "tank yank". I thought they would be great for gongs as they stood up to cars driving over them for many years. Not so good however, they did not stand up to shock well at all as some posters before have mentioned as they were likely made from cast iron. I didn't even hit them that hard, I shot them with a 458 win mag loaded with the 500 grain lyman gov't bullet(wheelweights) at about 1200 fps (28-30 gains of IMR SR 4759 if memory serves) at 200 yards. The well covers lasted about 2 or 3 shots and then turned into crescent moons/pieces...

I would say use something much harder :)

PS They didn't "ring" either
 
I made some from 1/4 " plate once. My first shot was from a hornet, at 25 yds. It went right thru!
 
So any ideas on what would make a good gong sound? I would guess that it would have to be suspended by string or somthing so it could resonate? but also be able to take the blow of a high power.
 
Mild steel works well for some time if thick - 1" plate for HV rifle bullets. Cast iron's brittle nature is what lets it down.

See if you can find someone locally who has some old snow plow blades - these when cut into smaller sections will survive huge punishment! They are tough.
 
I dont know about snow plows

Yes they are very tough but they arent to thick.

Plus with the curve I'd not want to be shooting at them. Shoot into the curve ) and all the energy is pushing right to one point. Shoot away from the curve ( and if the bullet doenst go through and it breaks up its going to send fragments who knows where. The curve on a smal lsection wont be to extreme but its stil la curve.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

A
  • Locked
Making Reactive Targets
Replies
12
Views
3K
nvshooter
N
E
  • Locked
Target stand to hold multiple clays as static targets
Replies
22
Views
4K
rr2241tx
R
Trey Veston
  • Locked
Target stands?
2
Replies
41
Views
2K
berettaprofessor
berettaprofessor
M
  • Locked
SHTF=Squirrel Hiding in The Furnace?
2 3 4 5
Replies
103
Views
19K
MovieDemocom
M
A
  • Locked
Building a homemade range - Need ideas
Replies
16
Views
2K
Rembrandt
Rembrandt
Back
Top