Shooting steel targets safely

[27hand]

The guy on this site selling AR500 goes by the handle of Mcosman. It's been a few years so I'm not sure if he's still doing it.

That pic I posted is 1/2" thick mild steel.
I set up a paper target next to the plate to verify impact point.
The plate was not secured to any type of base.
I shot from behind some sheet steel and had no frags impact the shield.

Rifle fire at mild steel is bad unless the steel is at least 100 yds out and sacrificial ( one time use).

1/2" AR500 should stand up to almost any rifle fire but I'm not sure about heavy magnum rounds and how much they might dimple hard steel.

 

[General Lee]

3/8 ar500 takes a 300 win mag at 300 yards with no damage. I am getting minor damage with 223 fmj at 100.

 

[1SOW]

Proper steel is basically safe.
The primary cause of problems is MONEY.
Hardened steel is very expensive, especially when the word "target" is put on it by the the manufacturer.

MANY ranges/clubs/people will let steel get pretty ragged before they replace it because of the high cost. At one match I shoot regularly, the large "gong" is shaped like a curved jai-alai stick.

At a league shoot, I shot a metric USPSA target twice and went on. When scored the target had three full size 9mm holes in it. One of the holes was punched from the back side. Turns out a piece of steel was in some grass about 15-20' behind the target. This wasn't caused by a small piece of the jacketed round. It was very close to a full size hole. Looking at the shot, the bullet/portion of the bullet literally turned 180 degs.

 

[coolluke01]

I found that speed is what kills steel targets. I have some 3/8 AR400 plate. At 100 yards my 223 was pitting them good. I loaded down some loads and now it barely puts a little pit in it.
It doesn't matter how thick the steel is really. 3/8", 1/2", or 1" will all pit the same if the round is going too fast. If the pit is big enough in the thinner steel it will become a hole.
If the round is going fast enough the lead and copper heats up to a point that will melt a hole or a pit out of the steel.
I found that keeping my loads under 3000 fps saved my steel. AR500 plate is much better than the AR400 that I have. But hey I got it for free.

 

[Serenity]

The site where I bought my 8" round AR500 plates recommended shooting both sides of them equally. The following excerpt from their website explains why:

http://www.arntzentargets.com/SteelTypes.htm

T520 or AR500 or Armor plate is a heat treated alloy with hardness about 470-521 Brinell. This is the best steel for targets that I know of. This will handle .308 ball ammo at 150 yards or .223 at 200 yards with minimal damage. (Steel Jacketed, Steel Core or Armor Piercing Ammo may damage the steel. Copper Jacketed Lead bullets are recommended for rifle use.)
All Steel will warp when you shoot it. The softer A36 steel will cave in or become concave. The harder steels will become convex because you are stretching the surface when you hit it. It is important to use both sides of the target so it will move back and forth and stay relatively flat. Because of this stretching, if you weld on the back of a target it will always crack off eventually. We never weld on the target plates themselves. All of our targets bolt on so you may turn them around and use both sides. The bolts we use are grade 5 heat treated carriage bolts. These have rounded low profile heads to minimize any chance of lead spatter coming off of the bolt head.

 

[27hand]

steel

Here's a bit of the same info from MGM.

http://www.mgmtargets.com/faqs/index.php#targetLife

Here is a great steel target although a bit pricey.

http://www.letargets.com/estylez_item.aspx?item=6-RII+STOCK

I have purchased from Mcosman on this site ( [email protected] ), MGM and have shot at the Rotator.

All good

 

[Fatelvis]

weld a couple of rings or hooks on the back of the plate near the top and then suspend them with bungee cords. The location of the hooks make the plate hang canted toward the ground,

I do the same thing using chains. The plate naturally angles down nicely

 

[targets from us]

Any A36 or equivalent (Mild Steel) steel is not hard enough to dissipate the bullets energy into non dangerous fragments thus resulting in ricochets which everyone knows can be very dangerous.

AR500 has a Brinell hardness of 500 where as A36 (mild steel, cold rolled, hot rolled, etc) is 150-180 Brinell

There are other hardness' of steel like ar225, a514, ar400 etc that are also high carbon and some heat treated with a hardness of 225-400. AR500 (and other milspec plate that we also carry) are the toughest through hardened steel you can purchase easily.

AR500 has a Brinell hardness of 470-520 aprox. It is so hard that the bullet literally breaks up into a bunch of pieces and loses energy very quickly making for safe shooting. It is also so hard that the face does not deform like "mild steel" (within a given distance per projectile type, grain size and velocity etc.) which also creates for a safer shooting environment.

AR500 was primarily manufactured for the mining industry to cut down on rapid wear of metal components that are abraded by earth in day to day operations.

AR500 is much more costly and harder to come by in CA. Mostly due to the lack of mining industry here.

All of our targets are made from AR500. We are also starting to Armour our target stands as an option,with the AR500 steel angled to deflect splatter towards the ground.