Range Report---3/4" Plate Steel

[Edward429451]

Had a blast at the range today. My & one of my buddies have been welding up our own steel targets and tried a bunch of them out. 1/4, 3/8, 1/2, and 3/4" plate steel. welded/hung with rebar to be swingers. Some interesting shooting with 22lr, 380, 40S&W, 44 Mag, 12GA, 5.56MM, 7.62 X 39. .308 Win, and 30/06 SPFG.

A couple real interesting results, one being that 40S&W will blow right through 3/8" steel at 50 yds (Unknown jacketed ammo of another guy's at the range.)

The other reeeal interesting showing was that 3/4" plate defeated anything we threw at it. Solid square hits with
7.62 X 39 (Slight dent)
308 Win (Divot (150g Sierra spitzers, mildish handloads)
5.56MM (almost 1/2 way through, Federal 55g FMJ)
30/06 (1/2 to 2/3 of the way through, 165g Federal GM 165g Partitions)
44 Mag (Lead splash, 320g Keith handload 17.5g 2400 7.5", blew target over)
12GA Slugs, Foster type (slight dent, blew target over)
380 auto (Chipped paint)

Time constraints and range chaos prevented trying the .30's on 1/2" plate. Maybe next time. I'm curious to see what a 62g SS 109 would do also, maybe push on through.

 

[Cal4D4]

Thanks for great report. Indoor ranges frown on creative splash targets so your info is interesting. Wonder if 180 gr @ full load of H110 would perk up .44 penetration?

 

[Edward429451]

Probably would. If it was jacketed it would have did much better also. It might have done the 3/8" but I didn't get to shoot the 3/8" with the 44.

I sure didn't expect the 40S&W to blow through the 3/8" like that, but it did. Sure opened my eyes.

 

[artherd]

I wonder what my +p+ 9mm would do? That is surprising!

.30-06 black tip M2 AP should go through ) (and is specifically legal for civillian ownership and use too.)

 

[jsalcedo]

Back when I bought my first can of surplus steel core 7.62x39 It would zip through Steel construction beams up to 3/8 the 7.62x54 would go through
1/2 inch or more.

The only thing I could find that would stop both rounds was a flywheel off
some old 70's car the 7.62x54 would shatter a layer which would fall like
broken glass and the 7.62 x 39 would take a small chunk out.

 

[Redlg155]

I wonder what my +p+ 9mm would do? That is surprising!

Not very much I'm afraid. I've shot 115gr 9mm FMJ out of my 16" (14.5 + 1.5"
brake) barreled AR on a 1/4" steel plate and it didn't do much more than make a slight crater. Even though it was standard pressure ammo it would give +P velocities out of the AR. What surprised me is that the S&B 230gr .45 out of a HK USPC made even less of a dent than the 9mm.

7.62 Port Surplus out of a G1 FAL at 25 yards punched clean through, but left a good bit of the bullet jacket inside of the plate.

Good Shooting
Red

 

[Edward429451]

I've done 1/4" with 223 55g'ers before so that 308 should walk right through 3/8" (especially if a 40S&W will.) The question now is will 308's do 1/2" plate? And will the M2 AP do the 3/4"? I'm curious to look into that.

Do you think if I pounded the divots down on the 3/4" and filled them with braze that it'd still be an honest test to use the same plate again, or should I get a fresh piece of 3/4"?

 

[artherd]

Also, 180grain Barnes XLC (solid copper small-hollowpoint hunting bullets) are semi-AP.

They will go clean through 1/2" steel and leave a very small hole.

Neat Stuff.

 

[sm]

Thanks for sharing. Mirrors some testing I have done.

FWIW in design of a business below the double glasses one -way mirror we placed two 3/4" steel plates - one either side of bricks. In the event things went serious. We had about 4' from the floor.

On some friends houses remodled we have used steel plates, with or without bricks,or bags of pea size gravel, about 4' or so from floor, in some rooms. Just don't take cover near the outlets, phone jacks. Another reason to use 4x6 instead of 2x4 in construction .

All bedrooms had this "update" , kids were taught to duck and roll and had pre practiced plan with parents.

 

[duckfoot]

Ed
What kind of steel did you use to make the tgts out of? I and a coworker of mine a few years back made a tgt out of 1/2" 1070 plate steel and then harded it to about 50+ RC. We hit that thing with every load we could come up with at 100yds. Best we could put into it was with a hot loaded .270 win pushing a 150gr fmjbt, and that put the first hole in it all day. Now the mild steel tgts that we made up had about the same results as you had.

 

[larry_minn]

I trust the range is near empty and you are using eye protection. There is a real danger of splash back in shooting steel. IIRC the first rd can dimple the steel and another rd hit that area and the lead core will (bounce) back toward you with sufficient force to do serious injury. I doubt problem at 100yds but 10yds I would take steps.
This was reason we were always told to have metal targets non rigid and angled slightly JIC. (course the angle also protects targets as it takes much less to divert a bullet then stop it. )

 

[Edward429451]

Eye protection, lots of clothing (cold), not a lot of people people there but some. All targets were swingers, buddy wanted to make a rifgid one but I talked him out of it, JIC. The only people I've ever heard of who've been hit by bounce back projectiles were people who shot steel at much closer distances, like 10 yds or less. The only ones that got placed closer than 50 yds were the 1/4" ones for 22 RF's. Closest ones were about 30 yds.

I've no clue what kind of steel it is. Scrap steel from the welders on jobsites, and rebar that they've run over with heavy equipment. It must be mild steel plate. I doubt if anything residential calls for hardened plate, but I really do not know much about steel cept what the tape measure tells me...Is there a (cheap) way to test what steel I get?