steel targets

B

Bezoar

Moderator
Im curious on just how safe these steel targets are.

The bullets hit and then what? In all the youtube videos i see, the gun is fired, you see and hear the bullet hit, then 20 feet away you see dirt, twigs, leaves get kicked up.

So is there a better way? Like one of thoserubber coated fiber matts from hornady up against a wood pile?
 
A properly constructed steel tgt is built of hard enough steel that bullets dont dent or deform the tgt face but flatten themselves (pistol velocity) or fragment into small pieces (rifle velocity)

Now that steel is hung at a downward angle to the shooter and the result is a safe tgt

Mild steel tgts deform and crater causing the bullet or fragments to be redirected back at the shooter. Not good

A way to make this even better/safer is the use of "frangible" ammo. This allow the bullet to powder out at lower velocity and allows the safe shooting of steel tgtgs at closer range

Look at the thread here titled 1,000,000 FPS
 
USPSA rules state a minimum distance between the firing line and the target of 32 feet. Even then someone occasionally gets hit with splatter. The results are anywhere from "what was that?" to blood. This is for handguns; I don't know about rifle.
 
Lead bullets are usually less concern than jacketed.
Pieces of jacket can turn into sharp edged shrapnel, while lead bullets tend to flatten out and lose energy better.
 
I have shot 1/2" AR500 gong style targets at ~50yards and with pistols we had not issues. Now we did shoot some rifles at it and it did cause some pitting. I will not do that again, we now shot them at at least 100yards. Which is what is recommended.
I have also shot static steel targets as close as ~7yards and had no issues. The hanger for them sort of angles the target so that everything slides off on to the ground.
 
I hear you about splatter. My electronic muffs amplify sound and I can hear fragments falling down into trees a couple hundred yards behind me.
 
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