Steel targets

Local range has a nice steel target gallery. The rule are as follows. No rimfire, no rifles/rifle calibers. No magnum loads. No shotguns. There is a large table 15 yards back with a sign that state " no one is to walk past this point. Do not shoot from closer than the table. Eye protection required."
 
I prefer 25yds at a 45* angle .At the sides of the plate welded on 3/4" angle . This works very well up to 44mag. Eye and ear protection.
 
And just to add, you will never want to go to another indoor range again once you are outside shooting steel. It is FUN!!
 
My only experience with shooting steel is with pistol calibers. I've seen cast bullets that only have a dented nose, same with fmj, nickel size flat mushroom head shaped lead, fmj that shatter with the copper fragments on the ground, cast that shatters, basically everything you can think of.

If properly angled downwards you won't have any problems.
 
When I first started shooting steel, I once made the mistake once of putting my AR500 gongs aligned with my paper targets to one side. The bullet fragments or splatter shredded the adjacent targets. Now I put them just a few feet behind my paper targets and don't have any more problems.

I always hang my steel plates at a downward angle, suspended by flexible material and hung at about 3-4 feet high. You can see the ground get torn up directly under the plates where the fragments or splatter is impacting the grass.

I've heard from 3rd parties that very low powered rounds (very light loaded handloads, black powder or Cowboy Action loads) are actually more dangerous, because they can bounce off, rather than fragment. I only use commercial or milsurp FMJ, so I don't shoot light loads on steel and have no personal experience with that.
 
I'm not a fan of steel targets unless then are 50+ yards away for rimfire, 100+ for centerfire.
Click to expand...

Poppy cock, horse manure.

I use steel all the time and I use it at 25 yards for handgun, but usually 50-100 yards for centerfire.
Click to expand...

Over kill on distance.

My post from October,

At our competition matches we maintain a 23 foot distance from a shooting position to the steel target.
Click to expand...
 
I hang my steel from a shepherds crook in the backyard, minimum distance with .380 is 7 yards, .40 and bigger I move back to 10. Lots of fun shooting especially with big bores because the target bounces adding to the challenge.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
What happens to a specific round depends on a whole mess of things from velocity to mass to target angle, etc. I did a fairly in depth write up on it a while back. Generally it will disintegrate, and a lot of its kinetic energy gets converted to thermal energy (heat).
https://www.redhoundtargets.com/blogs/red-hound/the-science-of-shooting-steel

Full disclosure: that link goes to a blog post on my own website but I think it’s got a lot of the information you’re looking for.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top