How Can I Make Steel Gongs Ring Louder

[ATLDave]

Yeah, all that contact with the firehoses is going to cause dampening of the vibrations of the steel. Remember that sound is just vibration. You want the steel to vibrate as freely as possible. Area of contact with other objects should be minimized.

Go look at how cymbals are mounted on a drumset for an example of how to get a metal plate vibrating very freely. You can't copy that, but the closer you can get to it the better.

 

[Chuck R.]

This is a youtube video of a company claiming to have the loudest. It appears that the target is bolted to a backer with a spring in between.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6nimIC7oGU

I mount mine with either springs or chains and they seem loud enough. As others stated, go as thin as you can, the majority of mine are 3/8ths AR500and they usually sound pretty good.






Chuck

 

[mwsenoj]

Yeah, all that contact with the firehoses is going to cause dampening of the vibrations of the steel. Remember that sound is just vibration. You want the steel to vibrate as freely as possible. Area of contact with other objects should be minimized.

Go look at how cymbals are mounted on a drumset for an example of how to get a metal plate vibrating very freely. You can't copy that, but the closer you can get to it the better.

Most helpful post award!

You can't see my mounting setup beyond the carriage bolt and fire hose, but it sounds like I'm on the right track according to your "small area of contact" theory. I have several extra thick 3/8 washers on the back side of the plate, then I have a fender washer on each side of the fire hose and finish it off with a nylon nut.

 

[rondog]

Yeah, I shoot at an 8"x3/8" AR500 plate hung with chains and all I get is a rather unsatisfying "whap". I wish it would give a nice ring too, be lots more fun.

Someone mentioned ropes? Might have to try that. Sure cheaper and easier than chains! Easier field repairs too, .30-06 M2 ball flat destroys 3/8" chain links. That brings a rapid halt to the festivities.

 

[jmorris]

The spring lets them ring pretty good.

Fast forward to 5:30 in this video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l-SRRvbVgGg

 

[anothernewb]

Without getting into a whole bunch of complicated stuff about sound waves, let's just use the principal of a brass bell. as with any noisemaker, bigger is louder.

Different steel will make different sounds too. The more brittle, the louder and sharper the sound

If you want a loud gong, make it big, big as you can get, stiff as you can get. also let it vibrate freely, don't add any rigid extra mass that might deaden sound if you can avoid it.

a bell is loud also due to the properties of it's shape. now, making a bell out of a piece of AR steel will make it pretty dang loud, but also be rather impractical from the standpoint of ricochet. Unfortunatley, the safest position to mount a gong, is also the worst for sound. angled forward into the dirt, that's where all your sound is going.

The only options you have left for safely doing it, is to hang it the minimum angle off vertical necessary to deflect the shrapnel.

finally, where it's at make a huge difference, the range is also a sound chamber, IF your range has earth walls and is slightly sunken in, this can help you. think of it like a speaker cone, position yourself and the gong parallel to the walls as best you can, and away from any dirt mounds between you and it. the berms will focus the sound back at you.

 

[au_prospector]

Ack! My head hurts from all the sound wave physics lessons here.

 

[mwsenoj]

Ack! My head hurts from all the sound wave physics lessons here.

I appreciated anothernewb's take!

 

[CB900F]

Mwsenoj;

Rig your target plate to act as a striker for a gong. Hit plate, ring gong. You may need a lever, 2 foot maybe, to act as the striker. But, an off-center hit would complicate that unless the gong was tubular. Hang the cowbell by a short chain from the target plate?

I also have other ideas but they are not politically correct. Oh well.

900F

 

[susieqz]

i use great big U bolts to hang gongs on coral type fences.

 

[Drail]

How far away are you shooting from? Is it a case of you can't hear it - or nobody else can either? I've shot 40 lb. steel rams from 200 to 300 yards and we can all hear it strike (as well as see it rock or fall over).

 

[mwsenoj]

How far away are you shooting from? Is it a case of you can't hear it - or nobody else can either?

I use my steel for tactical pistol AND long range rifle. 15 yds to 1400yds. My ears are fine though, and I have heard my full size silhouette at 1400yds on a still morning. My main motivation is the aural satisfaction brought about by the harmonic resonance of the hardened ferrous metal when struck by nonferrous metals at high speed.

 

[spitballer]

Barn doors. Open them up like a dartboard.

 

[horsemen61]

I like the bell idea

 

[Drail]

1400 yards? You might need you a spotter with a long glass. That's a little far to be relying on your ears to call a hit.

 

[mwsenoj]

1400 yards? You might need you a spotter with a long glass.

Got it: http://youtu.be/qCo2oUOjwoY

 

[mwsenoj]

And in no way am I claiming a first or second round hit IIRC, it was the fifth out of my 260 Rem Savage

 

[jmorris]

I like the bell idea

If you are far enough away and have a way to hang it an old high pressure cylinder with the bottom cut off will make quite a "ring". Gigantic wind chime of sorts.

I prefer to shoot bowling balls out of them if they are the right diameter.

 

[mwsenoj]

Heres a video of my gongs ringing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEaqHBUkolg

 

[Walkalong]

Hung loosely, AR500 will ring louder. Ropes, chains, conveyor belt material etc.

Plates ring louder the larger they are in comparison to the thickness, and thinner tends to ring louder than thicker, but you still need to be thick enough for the calibers used.

 

[jmorris]

It havent played with them in a while but the Texas Star targets I have built always seemed to "ring" pretty good.

Got one of them out today and this is a video with sound so you can hear it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=02FNsp4-6NQ

A noticeable difference between them and the plate racks.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIOcNNcLxnU

Will note I had the camera 10-15 yards further from the plates with the star target as well. All steel is 3/8" thick.