This Ends the Caliber War

[Riomouse911]

Unless you hit the chain where it bolts to the plate the chain will last a good long time. When you see clint eastwood shooting the hangmans noose in half, that really does not work. It will move, we have tried it many times. Now if you hit the bolt, and it depends on what you hit the bolt with all bets are off, including on where the splatter will go, this includes carriage bolts.

Here is another fun fact, lots of targets have a "square hole" this is for the carriage bolt and the square "head" behind the bolt face. Put your chain behind the target and that will help you a bunch.

Hardened bolts, including wheel studs will not stand up to center fire rifle. Hand gun will be just fine with grade 5 bolts I have found. I just use the cheap hardware as you really have to try to hit the bolt, and it is way up there anyway you should not be shooting that part anyway, more likely for a crack.

Your idea would work well for keeping them pointed in the correct direction.

I’ve had a few chains clipped over the years and they’ll fall, the looping trajectory of a .45/70 will occasionally shoot a tad high, or one of my buddies will send a 5.56 from open sighted AR’s into the chain which will clip it. I even tried a hardened chain once, still didn’t hold up to a rifle bullet impact.

The conveyor belt was an idea I got from the sheriffs range. They use the 5/8” thick stuff from a local gravel pit as target backing. They last thousands of rounds before the center is all shot away and it’s replaced. Amazon sells the lighter duty stuff that I bought, which cuts with a drywall knife into useable pieces pretty easily.

Yeah, plant one on the grade 8 bolt and it’s going to be ruined. The hardened ones do take a ton of jacket splatter and hold up pretty well. Amazon sells those by the dozen, which for me may be a lifetime supply.

All of these solutions are good ones.

Stay safe.

 

[StrawHat]

Absolute proof of Hydrostatic Shock

You hit the target near the lower right corner and the thingy loop in the upper left broke.
Maybe there's no Hydro but it was some kinda weird shock stuff going on. Maybe trauma waves or energy dump. My money is on the energy dump.

But you know what they say, “doesn’t matter what you shoot, if you can’t hit what you’re aiming at it don’t matter”

I read that somewhere, don't ask me where.

Sorry, very good proof of knock down power, not hydro-shock. Pulease!

Kevin

 

[Remington1911]

I’ve had a few chains clipped over the years and they’ll fall, the looping trajectory of a .45/70 will occasionally shoot a tad high, or one of my buddies will send a 5.56 from open sighted AR’s into the chain which will clip it. I even tried a hardened chain once, still didn’t hold up to a rifle bullet impact.

The conveyor belt was an idea I got from the sheriffs range. They use the 5/8” thick stuff from a local gravel pit as target backing. They last thousands of rounds before the center is all shot away and it’s replaced. Amazon sells the lighter duty stuff that I bought, which cuts with a drywall knife into useable pieces pretty easily.

Yeah, plant one on the grade 8 bolt and it’s going to be ruined. The hardened ones do take a ton of jacket splatter and hold up pretty well. Amazon sells those by the dozen, which for me may be a lifetime supply.

All of these solutions are good ones.

Stay safe.

I enjoy the hell out of 45-70. Mine are very mild being shot out of a trap door, but the difference in that 405 grains hitting a plate going 900fps, and 80 grains going 2000fps is just amazing. The difference in how the plate moves is really interesting.

Personally I have never cut a chain, I have hit a chain and decided to replace it. I have hit the bolt holding the plate to the chain, but I have never cut a chain.

On the hand gun targets I generally use thick paracord. The hand gun rounds don't put enough oomph into the plate to bust the rope, and even with hitting the plate it takes a good bit for the splatter to cut the rope. Key is to put the knots in the back, behind where you are hitting so only a small part of the rope is on the "shooting side". I have hit the ropes before as well, but not often. It is a really cheap way to do it, and I like the light weight ropes as it really lets the plates move around, where the mass of chain will not.

I am a bit like you in your belt and set for life with chain.

 

[Pat Riot]

I know exactly what happened to the OP’s plate.

This is an effect of dissimilar metals in connection with water vapor gathered by the 230 grain projectile and deposited on the plate several times before electrolysis occurred between the aluminum and the very dense AR500 steel. The electrical charge, initiated from the polymer and steel pistol, excited the molecules at the least dense portion of the plate causing a rupture. Also, since the pistol was polymer and steel the bullet started of with a static charge which was also a contributing factor in this dissimilar metal electrolysis incident.
Had the plate been hung using only the polymer rope the static charge and the moisture would have had no effect. Polymer and steel make a perfect combination.
Quite frankly, this could have been caused by a Glock 42 .380 pistol and had nothing to do with the .45 ACP 230 grain bullet. Actually, the .380 bullet from the Glock would have carried Glock Perfection along with it and the break would have been perfectly flat so as to allow rewelding with little or no metal prep.

So, there you have it.

 

[Leon tP]

Well, the electrolysis theory does explain the hair loss on the steel plate.

 

[balin]

That actually shows you have to be hit by a .45 for years before it will drop you. A 9mm could do that in 1 shot!
As a side note a little JB weld should fix that right up!!!!

 

[MikeInOr]

I was out shooting with a friend yesterday. We were shooting at Allen Company 8”x1/4” AR500 steel plates. I bought them 3 or 4 years ago so they have been hit a lot.
My friend was shooting his Springfield Armory XD Mod2 subcompact 45 at a plate when one side of the rope hanging it let go. I figured a bullet probably hit the clip holding it to the rope. Went to fix it and found this
View attachment 1167879
This is proof positive that even being nicked in the wrist with a 45 will take your arm right off.
He didn’t even hit it where it broke.

It looks like a design flaw to me. Square holes concentrate the stresses at the corners. Round holes have no corners. Anyone familiar with the de Havilland Comet (First commercial jet passenger plane... with nice square windows)? Guess where it had a nasty habit of tearing itself apart from? Yeah, the nice sharp 90 degree corners on the windows. All commercial airliners now have very rounded cornered windows... the de Havilland Comet is why. A bit more meat between the mounting ears and the rest of the plate probably wouldn't hurt either.

(Yes, I know the square cornered holes are there to hold carriage bolts)

P.S. XD mod 2 3.3" subcompact in .45acp is my favorite plastic gun. Much nicer than any Glock I have ever shot and they came from the factory with a very good trigger.

 

[JohnKSa]

Yup. You can already see cracks forming out from the hole corners on the other ear.

 

[CDW4ME]

Meh. A "full power" 10mm would have broken the right side too.

 

[Old_Grouch]

This is proof positive that even being nicked in the wrist with a 45 will take your arm right off.

Thank you, Chuck Taylor.

 

[PWC]

I am old...my grandfather was born in 1880, and knew several of the legendary Oklahoma lawmen. He delivered mail on horseback at a time when mail carriers had to be armed because money was routinely sent in mail and mail robbery was not uncommon. He witnessed at least one gunfight where the bad guy was shot in the shoulder with a deputy's SAA and was knocked to the ground, ending the fight. The shoulder was wrecked forever. Don't know if it was .44 or .45, but it wasn't like H'wood, just grunt and grab the shoulder and keep on fighting.

Grandpa said a hit anywhere with a .45, arm or leg, would put a person on the ground and usually ended the fight.

 

[irishlad]

Grandpa said a hit anywhere with a .45, arm or leg, would put a person on the ground and usually ended the fight.

My dad was a WW2 vet(not a gun guy at all after the war), he said the same thing. I know ammo has changed, but he said there was a big difference from 9mm and 45s.

 

[JR24]

Probably just repetition and stress on the metal after many repeated impacts.

I’ve had to replace the mounting bracket on my heavy bag twice because the motion wore the apparently crappy steel out.

I don’t hit THAT hard