Steel Target Help

[rebelracer79]

Well I tried my hand at making a steel target. I used 1 1/8 steel plate, built a stand.

first round, .22lr, no problem not barley chipped my paint

round 2 .45 acp knocked a little paint off but thats it

ok enough of this small stuff, round 3 .308 win

cuts about a 1/4" indention with every impact.

now my main question, has anyone tried hardening the steel on your own? in welding school we hardened our pipe wedges by heating them red hot and dropping them in used motor oil, same process be worth it on these plates? my plates are 6x6"

 

[Bevenue]

If I remember right(if not oops!). At tech we tried to harden some steel, but had started with the wrong steel. You need high carbon steel, and depending on if you want to case or though harden. Will depend on how long you keep it at the high temp (2 hours is what we did). Maybe someone else can chip in and spread more light on the subject.

 

[rebelracer79]

i got to doin a little research and apparently I need AR-400 or higher, but I'm kinda a tight wad so I will just shoot this up then put another on there as long as I can find more free stuff...

 

[tul9033]

Dimples and chips especially on the edges are what cause bounce backs. Be sure you give yourself plenty of distance.

 

[rebelracer79]

we were shooting at 150 yds, the target is also a swinging target. is it dangerous to keep shooting this target despite the big dents the .308 is plowing?

another question, when I shot this with my 308, I was using 150 gr. soft points, would FMJ bullets do more damage?

 

[dlbleak]

Dimples and chips especially on the edges are what cause bounce backs. Be sure you give yourself plenty of distance.

yep,shoot at an angle just to be safe. every now and then, take a cordless grinder out and take the ridges off the dimples. it will cut way down on bounce backs and bullets fragmenting

 

[dugby]

Be safe, Get yourself some ar500 steel and mount it with some angle to it.

We have a fellow at work that was shooting some badly pitted steel.

He was at the range alone and a bad bounceback hit him in the upper thigh.

He nearly bled to death getting himself to the hospital.

You won't see him shooting any soft steel.

 

[Rod Snell]

We have a serious problem at the Duke range with rifle shooters walking by the "NO RIFLES" sign and shooting the crap out of our plate racks.

Those "little dings and dents" cause potentially DEADLY bounceback, and the damaged plates have to be removed immediately at the next match.

"Gee, I didn't think my little 22 (223!) would hurt them"

 

[dugby]

I would suspect that the steel would have to have the right chemistry and you would have to be pretty experienced or have the right tools to get it hardened.

I built some targets out of AR500 3/8" . I just ordered the circles and big square pieces from the machine shop. He could buy it and cut it for me cheaper than I could buy the material outright on my own.

The worst thing you can do is shoot them flat on at close range with a 22-250 or a 204 ruger. Those little bullets will make nice holes in it. Put it at an angle with some distance and you can shoot them from now on without making dents in them. Mine will take 308/30-06 no problem. All of calibers were fine after 100 yards and just a little bit of a slant.

 

[jtischauser]

I have seen and taken some pretty good richoets from dented steel targets. Get AR500 steel or DO NOT shoot at steel no matter how far away it is.