Rifle penetration 1/4 steel plate

[swampratt]

I found some mild steel plate in the back yard I was not using and made a 20"x20" steel target.

I had made up some powder puff 30-06 rounds with 11.5gr Red Dot powder.
1300-1450 fps depending on bullet used.
My wheel weight 170gr bullets would put the smallest dimple in the surface The diameter of a pencil eraser and .005" deep or so.
The bullets would completely fragment and leave a huge splatter pattern on the plate.

The 150gr flat point jacketed loads would not dimple it .. neither would the 155 A-Max.. same load.

So this would be a good pistol steel I would think.
I set it up at about 50 degree angle and bullets hit and fragmented and ended up in the ground directly under the plate.

I stepped up the heat with the 30-06 with a 150gr flat base soft nose spitzer round going just under 3000 fps. Hornady #3031 bullet.

Sailed right through the steel plate.
Next up was my .223
60gr Vmax just under 3000 fps.. Did not go through but made a huge divot and large bump on the back side.
50 yards.
Next round was the New sierra 69gr Tipped match king (TMK). Same FPS.

It made the divot a little bit deeper than the 60gr Vmax.

Next up was the 7.62x39 AK with factory loaded Wolf 123gr FMJ
Now I figured we would get another window in the steel like the 30-06 stuck into it.

NOPE!
So we shot it 2 more times.. NO DICE. The crater depth was actually about 1/2 of the .223 rounds

Now FMJ does not mean steel core..Do not confuse that.
But I really thought it would go through.

Happy shooting and be safe.

 

[doctorjj]

Speed kills

 

[dennishoddy]

Speed kills

55 grain 22-250 will pass through 1/4" mild steel like its not there.

 

[twoguns?]

HMMM, might be the angle?
I put up a piece of 6" schedule 40 pipe...AK762 rounds went through both sides...556 went through one side dented the other....?

 

[zghorner]

pretty interesting. The barrier penetration argument is a favorite for the AK>AR crowd.

 

[firefighterguy]

I saw a piece of steel that was shot with an ak and an ar. The ar made a nice crater. The ak round went straight through. I don't know any specifics on bullets used.


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[358norma]

Long ago, in a land far away, I used to get to "test" a lot of ammo/ bullet combo's on fun stuff like cast iron tubs, RR track, shooting range backstop's that I had access to, and other "hard" targets let's say. What I learned during those FUN years....

Speed is KING. If you can get a bullet moving fast enough, it will go through stuff it really shouldn't in theory.

Hard bullets penetrate. Doesn't matter if it's a critter or steel, if the bullet is hard enough it's going to penetrate.

Combine Speed and a hard bullets and some crazy stuff starts to happen. Load an old school black tip bullet (AP w/tungsten core) in a 300Wby and you would be amazed at what that will go through. Like VERY substantial trees, more steel than I could afford at the time, basically had a hard time stopping that stuff. These went through 1/2" plate steel like it was warm butter at 100 yrds. And YES, you would NOT be safe hiding behind a tree big enough to cover you at 100 yards. Those tungsten core bullets were tough to stop in about anything I put them in, from 308 to 300wby.

22 cal. Nosler ballistic tip bullets (50 grains) have a little magic where steel is concerned when you get them moving fast enough (speed). This is one of those weird ones. Take one up to 22-250 speed, and they start going through stuff they shouldn't. A cast iron tub won't slow one down (100 yrds). They will go through RR track web, but not the thick top (50 yrds). I saw them go through a plate steel backstop at an indoor range rated to 30-06, (very short range only 30 yards or so). That was a surprise, the concrete block wall behind the plate steel shut it down before it got away thank goodness. A "new" rule was in place the next day about ammo inspections. This is the only 22 cal bullet I saw do this with the plate, and RR track. I didn't have any green tip stuff back then, I don't think it was around when I was doing this "testing". Other "soft points" wouldn't go through the RR, let alone the plate. 223 wouldn't make it go fast enough (safely anyway) to go through the steel.

7.62X39 all depends on the bullet. With lead core bullets, they don't have any advantage vs. 223 in the penetration department. Shooting a cast iron tub, you are shooting through 4 layers of iron. 223 with lead core bullets would go through the first 2 layers, hit the inside of the tub on the back side (3rd layer) and stop every time. 7.62 with lead core do the same thing (3rd layer). Now add Chinese steel core 7.62 (hard bullet), and about half would go through all 4 layers. The other half we found inside the tub (stopped by the 3rd layer again) or on the ground between layer 3 and 4. I wish I would have had some green tip 5.56 to test back then.

 

[Rod Snell]

Now if we could just convince ALL the AR and AK shooters that the NO RIFLES sign on ITPSC pistol plate racks is there for a reason. Anybody need some perforated steel plates?

 

[Shadowrider]

I once saw a 7mm Mag handload punch through 5/8" steel plate like nothing. It was a Sierra SBT (hunting bullet). I thought it would just vaporize on impact. Nope. (ETA: This was at 100 yards)

More recently a guy I know bought some AR500 targets and was testing them. At about 60 yards nothing up to .300 Win mag phased them (all soft point, no AP or steel core). What did phase them was a .454 Casull, but just barely. It dented it a little but just barely.

 

[Fredkrueger100]

Speed kills

You must have seen Halloween a few times. Lol. Annie, " Hey jerk, speed kills". As Myers is driving by.

Seriously though, I wouldn't want to be hit with any of them. High speed or not. But I definately agree with what you said.