no, anything less the the AR500 steel 1/2in thick WILL NOT stand up to use with Rifle, no matter how's its "suspended"
Suspension has nothing to do with it.
Printable View
no, anything less the the AR500 steel 1/2in thick WILL NOT stand up to use with Rifle, no matter how's its "suspended"
Suspension has nothing to do with it.
Hanging it from a chain will not matter. I always keep my olg rotors for targets and hang them from a wooden frame. Swiss cheese with a rifle in no time.
Any time you're shooting steel targets there is an element of risk from the inherent nature of the activity. The way that you mitigate the risk to an acceptable level is to use well designed and constructed targets.
First and foremost, if you're shooting rifle rounds, you need AR-500 steel. AR-500 is the minimum hardness needed to fragment bullets safely. Anything less than AR-500 will crater and pock and will eventually send jacket back at you.
How the steel is mounted is another major consideration. Ideally, the mounting systems should have some "give" in it. By allowing the target to move when struck, you can dissipate some of the bullets energy by converting it to movement. The problem is that as the plates gets bigger, for instance moving from an 8" to 12", it moves less and you get less benefit from the movement. Also, the mounting system should direct the bullet fragments in a safe direction, which is generally into the ground underneath the target. The accepted optimal angle for this seems to be 15 degrees.
Finally, you need too consider the distance the target is placed. Steel is damaged by velocity. A good guideline is 3000 fps. If the bullet hits the target at greater than 3000 fps, you'll see accelerated wear. Thus, if you shoot a 55 grain .223 bullet from a 24" barrel and a 77 grain .223 round from a 14.5" barrel, they will damage the steel differently. The 24" barrel may require 125-150 yards to minimize damage to the steel while the 14.5" barrel may be good at 75 yards. If you're shooting less conventional calibers, like a 22-250, you may need several hundred yards to keep the steel happy.
FWIW, I think the best all around target on the market is MGM's Lolli-Popper. The flexible shafts really allow the steel plate to move out of the way of the bullet and you can shoot rifle, shotgun, and pistol rounds on it without concern. All of MGM's designs are well-made, my Lolli-Popper was bulldozed into a berm and had to be dug out, requiring two guys about fifteen minutes. The only thing damaged was one of the fiberglass arms.
This seems relavent,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ABGIJwiGBc
he was lucky
I've been shooting this 450 stuff I got for free for over 5 years. We have put literally 10s of thousands of rounds on this stuff from 50 yards out to 200 plus.
Iraqgunz has put thousand of rounds on these ugly things too.
Never a single speck of jacket or core has hit us. :eek:
http://i210.photobucket.com/albums/b...g?t=1300114613
JH's post nails it. Shooting steel safely requires attention to a variety of details, especially if it's something you're making or configuring yourself. Material composition, hardness, mounting, deflection angles, distance, projectile, etc.
This thread is some good info. Going to add some how to find it if you don't mind picking scrap/machinist type for reference.
If you go looking for it in a scrapyard: The teeth of excavator/backhoe buckets, the wear strip on the bottom of grater planes, some wear strips on snow plows, are almost always AR500. Quarries throw this stuff out (sell it for scrap) by the ton, they use it for bed liners in dump trucks.
You can forge weld it. I know it isn't popular as getting it from a rolling mill but way cheaper. Just keep in mind these type of steels have a much lower eutectic point than mild steel.
If you want or have to re-temper/heat treat it: Heat it to a uniform cherry red (1600F, 1 hour per inch of thickness) and quenching it in oil, if oil quench doesn't work you might have to try a larger dunk tank/circulating oil. Water quench will crack it. Hit it with a file, should skate across it like glass. Then you treat it at 400F (steel at 400F, not just the oven) for about an hour. Test it with file, should be able to cut into it but it wont be soft.
MIG and TIG will only do thin pieces of this stuff. If you HAVE to arc weld it stick works best.