Steel targets and ricochets

Steel targets at any range need to be just slightly tilted towards the shooter. If you do shoot steel with a high velocity jacketed bullet you will put pock marks on the target surface and they will cause a bullet to come back at the firing line, it's just a matter of time.
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That's true. Your steel target, for close range pistol, should have no pock marks for the reason stated.

My Evil Roy Portable Steel targets have the rectangle or circle slanted so the bullet fragments travel straight down into the dirt. Sometimes, when shooting straight away, fragments can hit the support legs and come back a ways. They recommend 7 yds. min. When I shoot that close, I shoot at an angle so the fragments impact away from the legs of the target. You can also get heavier gage steel for use with carbine, and other rds. They handle buckshot fine, and bird shot is good practice when using two targets. NO SLUGS--big chunks can break off and come back.

http://www.officerstore.com/store/p...ion_target_evil_roy_portable_practice_target/
 
I caught a .22 ricochet years ago when we took the troop to scout camp. I expect one of the kids hit the edge of the 'champion-like' bullet trap, where it came back and left a nice bruise on my head. Glad it wasn't anything larger, and was pleased safety glasses were a requirement.
 
Ontario police range inspectors require minimum 10 yards to steel targets, and wooden shrouds to prevent travel of splatter. Dished or pock marked steel causes serious ricochet, even with light lead loads.
 
Well, we have three steel target threads now. It seems to me that we have two kinds of less than optimum groups of opinion here.

The first group thinks that any metal should be shot and is always looking for a piece of "steel" to shoot. Well, there are thousands of kinds of steel. If it is not flat(wheel rim) or if it holes or craters when shot it is unsafe steel. Pock marked or dished plates that started life as suitable targets are not safe. If it is not hardfaced AR steel, don't shoot it!!!

The second group, possibly due to exposure to the first group, thinks all steel is unsafe. Again, flat, non-pocked steel suitable for caliber is safe. You don't have to do elaborate things angling the target. Non-fixed plates will fall, poppers will send a spent bullet off relative to their direction of fall. Some prefer forward falling poppers because they think they put bullets into the dirt better. In truth a forward faller moves back before forward, it still usually kicks the bullet up. Doesn't really matter, they don't come back. I've shot plates with 5.56 10 yards away, it really doesn't matter. Small fragments may come back, wear your glasses. I may equal R, but a whole bullet will not come back off of flat steel unless you can get a plate that does not move at all and a bullet that does not deform at all. I do not know anyone shooting hardened round steel balls, so that is not a concern. The guy with the .50 ricochet was undoubtedly shooting something that shouldn't have been shot.
The best bullets I've used for steel are plated bullets, mainly because they are dead soft lead. I believe they hit falling steel harder than a comparable FMJ because they spend most of their energy in contact with the steel. You can often find a plated bullet several yards away from the plate, fully flattened. If you see a FMJ kick up 50 feet in the air that means it still has energy that it didn't impart to the plate. The worst offenders for sending fragments back are JHP with jacket pieces and hardcast with lead splinters. Again, both usually occur with steel that is pocked up.

So, shoot good steel in a safe manner. Wear your glasses. If you get hit by a piece of jacket, you did not get shot, so no reason to whine on the internet. I've seen more dangerous crap come back from rocks in the berm. Anytime you shoot, unless you habitually shoot 4 ft of jello, assume something may come back your way and act accordingly.
 
Navy joe said:
So, shoot good steel in a safe manner. Wear your glasses. If you get hit by a piece of jacket, you did not get shot, so no reason to whine on the internet. I've seen more dangerous crap come back from rocks in the berm. Anytime you shoot, unless you habitually shoot 4 ft of jello, assume something may come back your way and act accordingly.
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Hmm, don't see any whining here, just folks trying to help others be safe.
 
Anyone ever order from here? http://www.shootsteel.com . There prices seem very reasonable and they have a good selection of different grades of steel in all sizes. I am thinking about ordering one of the 3/8 thick AR500 steel plates.

Also does anyone know if it's safe to shoot rimfire at these heavier AR500 steel plates compared to the rimfire AR200 steel?
 
You're not going to hurt the heavier plate with rimfire.
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What I meant was will the .22's be more likely to ricochet off of the plates designed for heavy centerfire rounds compared to the thinner and lighter ar200 plates that are meant for rimfire.
 
Hang steel targets from the BACK side, so that they naturally angle top towards the shooter and downwards.

Nothing but AR500 steel. If the steel is cratered, you cannot control the direction of the frags...

But, some like to play the odds...not me. I do it the right way, the safe way.
 
I posted this in another thread regarding steel targets and ricochet... I think its appropriate here too.

My kids and I shoot at steel targets all the time.

I have lightweight spinners set up at 25 and 50 yards for the little ones and their .22 rifles. I then have heavier weight (1/2" thick AR500 gongs) at 100 and 200 yds for those of us shooting centerfire rifles. I also set up those same types of gongs at 25yds for handgun practice. I don't use the rifle gongs for handguns.

Never had a ricochet with rifles or .22lr yet. Maybe in the future but not so far. The key believe it or not is high velocity. At high velocity the bullet strikes the target and simply shatters. I HAVE had handgun rounds come back though... I learned the hard way although it wasn't too painful, just scary. I figured I'd save money and hang the rifle gongs (which get dented and cratered from rifle fire) and hang them at 25yds to shoot handguns at. One fateful day I shot at a gong (and by the looks of the gong) the fmj .45 bullet struck a crater that had been made by a rifle bullet and pulled a U turn. It buzzed past my head and I almost soiled myself.

With clean faces on the gongs the handgun ammo tends to ricochet into the ground or strike, expand and fall. The slower the round the more chances there will be of a ricochet.
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There are a couple of guys here who have it right about steel targets - they can be safe if used properly... well as safe as any action involving lobbing high velocity projectiles at a target. Basically if you use good steel targets, hang and handle them properly and use appropriate weapons/ammo with them you're in no more danger than if you were shooting at paper targets in front of a berm. Start getting reckless and well any time someone gets reckless with anything regarding firearms things get hairy.
 
Steel or not, nobody should be allowed anywhere near a range without proper eye and ear protection, and that includes spectators as well. Regarding steel, I've never been to a CAS shoot, either as a spectator or competitor, where I wasn't peppered at some point with lead splash - no big deal with eye protection, but potentially blinding without.
 
Thick Phone books and Big old books.

One thing that i have used for a Long time is Old Phone books, or since i get HUGE catalogs at work like the big Grainger or HD supply books i use the old ones i get. Tape them up real good and use them, If after a few shots they are not totally destroyed I'll tape them up again and use some more. Sometimes I get to dig out some spent bullets to see how they did. Everyone else can keep their Steel targets.
 
Go back & read the first sentence of FlyFish's post above. Eyes & ears, ALL THE TIME. Pistol shooters, take a look at your pistol while holding it up towards a light. Move the pistol & your head around a little. See any light coming through anywhere? That's the same place a particle of burning powder can travel to reach your face or eyes. FROM EXPERIENCE --
one shot, one time, absent-mindedley forgot to put my glasses back on. Felt like I had been stabbed in the eye with a white-hot ice pick. It was a few minuteds of flushing my eye out with running water before I was reasonably sure that I was not BLINDED in my right eye. It was as red as a '59 Ford tailight though.

Steel targets will also return STEEL BB's from air rifles back to the shooting position with about the same velocity that they left. NO STEEL BB'S AT STEEL TARGETS, EVER!!!
 
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