I need better steel targets

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jwxspoon

jwxspoon

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Valrico, Florida
I had a welder friend of mine make me a 12 inch hanging target out of 5/16" steel. Set them up last weekend with some friends at 100 meters and was surprised to see that virtually everything penetrated easily.

target440.jpg

I'm going to have him make a double thickness and a triple thickness disc and see if that helps. I guess I need better steel too.

jw
 
Untempered steel is OK for non-magnum handgun rounds. For a real rifle plate, you will need something serious.
 
I've got a set of 1/2 inch AR500 plates from http://www.metaltargets.com (on a spinner) I've been really happy with them. I made some of my own 1/4 inch out of mild steel plate for use with my .45 acp and they even beat the heck out of the plate. (the plate gets "dished" out after a couple of hundred hits)

FWIW.
 
Remember that the bullet is going somewhere and if it doesn't penetrate the plate there is a good chance of it ricocheting back to you.
 
Remember that the bullet is going somewhere and if it doesn't penetrate the plate there is a good chance of it ricocheting back to you.
Click to expand...
No - at least not with the right plates.

I've shot, and supervised, approximately a gazillion rounds fired at steel plates and other steel targets.

Mild steel that becomes pitted, cratered, and penetrated like the photo in the top post will send bullet fragments back towards the shooter. It is imperative that if a plate is in this condition, it be used only a long way away from the shooter. These are the kinds of steel targets you're not supposed to use.

However, when a bullet impacts a hardened, armor steel plate with a trajectory normal to the surface of the plate (ie, perpendicular) it splatters on impact and the fragments splash in a disk parallel to the plate. Most action shooting sports mandate a 10 yard minimum distance to steel targets. Using proper armor steel targets and correct shoot and target position, the bullet isn't going anywhere-- it's getting disintegrated safely.
 
AR500 appears to be a proprietary, abrasion resistant factory hardened steel similar to Hardox or Algoma, probably full of manganese and chromium carbide precipitation. Their spec says 500 Brinnell (in the name itself even) so that works out to 48-52 Rockwell C scale. You can probably get a steel plate in AISI 4140, heat treat around that hardness and get decent results if you're cheap. Finding scraps of proprietary steels like that locally at scrap yards isn't easy unless you luck out.
 
My shooting buddy spent the cash on an actual steel target w/ frame, and I have to say that it is worth every penny he paid for it. Between he, me and the rest of our normal shooting group, we have dumped at least a couple of thousand rounds on it, and the only mishap we had is that someone hit the bolt that holds it to the frame, shearing it and necessitating a field replacement.

That target has taken .308, 7.62x54, 6.5 x55, 7.5x55, .30-06, .30-30, .45-70 and probably a few others that I don't know about. They might be a tad expensive, but I am convinced that they are worth every penny.
 
T1 (ammor plate) or AR400 are the 2 best choices. 1/2 inch minimum. The higher the AR number the more brittle the steel and the more likely it will be to break. The 300RUM won't even make a dent in either of these types of steel. Any "divots" should be filled with weld and ground flat, as any bullets that hit these will not splatter into nothing and may come back and get you. Mild steel (A36) will work well for 22lr's, cast bullets in non-magnum handgun loads.

I use 9" plates because this represents the average kill zone of big game animals. If I can hit the center of a 9" plate out to 500 yards I'm doing good.

Plus there's something satisfying about hearing the BANG-WHACK and watching the plate go flying after it gets hit with a 250 grainer out of the 35 Whelen at 300 yards. :D The split-second time delay between the shot and the hit is pretty cool with big, slow bullets.

RJ
 
I have been using GT Targets AR400 steel targets for a few years with no problems. The first pic is of the face of a 6" plate with over 15K rounds on it. Most were .45ACP 200gr Berrys plated at 820fps. A couple of thousand were .40S&W 165gr Berrys plated at 1150fps. The rest were various from 357 sig to 357 magnum from a lever action rifle.
DSC_0068.png

The next pic is the mounting system. The plate protects it from hits and makes easy setup and makes a good ring when they are hit.
DSC_0069.png

Next is a AR400 plate cratered with .223 69gr FMJ from about 25yd. Later I was shooting this cratered plate with 45 from 5yds and got a hard ricochet on the hip that left a nasty mark but didn't draw blood. It is now for 100yds rifle and that is how it got cratered badly.
DSC_0072.png

Steel plate shooting is safe provided you do a few things. Use plated bullets at normal speeds. Hit the plates straight on. Use double eye protection if possible. Don't use cratered and holed plates under 25 yards. :)
 
Remember that the bullet is going somewhere and if it doesn't penetrate the plate there is a good chance of it ricocheting back to you.
Click to expand...
No - at least not with the right plates.

I've shot, and supervised, approximately a gazillion rounds fired at steel plates and other steel targets.

Mild steel that becomes pitted, cratered, and penetrated like the photo in the top post will send bullet fragments back towards the shooter. It is imperative that if a plate is in this condition, it be used only a long way away from the shooter. These are the kinds of steel targets you're not supposed to use.

However, when a bullet impacts a hardened, armor steel plate with a trajectory normal to the surface of the plate (ie, perpendicular) it splatters on impact and the fragments splash in a disk parallel to the plate. Most action shooting sports mandate a 10 yard minimum distance to steel targets. Using proper armor steel targets and correct shoot and target position, the bullet isn't going anywhere-- it's getting disintegrated safely.
Click to expand...

I'm with Zak on this one, and BSlacker is correct as well.

I too shoot a lot of steel, and a good piece of 3/8" or 1/2" AR500 will stand up to lead core, copper jacketed bullets up to a .338 Lapua at 100 yards and about all you get is bullet dust.

Soft stuff like T1 (yes, it's hard, but not hard enough) and cold rolled materials crater and squirt back frags toward the firing line.

In the pic below, the piece of T-1 in the center hanging target was cratered by a .308 at 300 yards, and the .308 is really not even that impressive. At closer ranges, much of the bullet mass will squirt right back out of that crater. The other plates are 3/8" AR500 and the bullet totally fragments, with the biggest pieces recovered being the flat base disks, as seen in the second pic, embedded in our sawhorse stands.

Bullet splashes paint right off AR-500 and there is almost no surface damage at all. The exception to this is extremely high velocity bullets striking the plate at close range, which damage almost anything commonly used for targets.


Steel-01.jpg

Bullet-frags-01.jpg
 
What happens when you shoot one of the hardened plate steels with an AP bullet? Not saying that I would do it, but just out of curiosity.
 
What happens when you shoot one of the hardened plate steels with an AP bullet? Not saying that I would do it, but just out of curiosity.
Click to expand...

You find out exactly how AP it is :D
 
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