Best Steel plates for Targets?

[ViniVidivici]

I just got some Allen brand 3/8" plates, a 10" round and a 12x20" silhouette.

Been using the 10" for rifle and pistol, the bigger one for rifle farther out.

Happy with 'em so far. Farthest I've yet shot the silhouette is 300 yards, solidly audible hit w/ 62gr FMJ, a bit louder with 75gr OTMs. Should have a chance to get a big farther next month.

Have shot the 10" to 225 yards. The smaller one seems to make a slightly louder impact sound.

Got 'em at the LGS, loving them. Have made portable stands for them, one of 2x4, other of bamboo. Rockin' carriage bolts & chains I had laying around, got the chains spaced out on the bolt w/ extra nut for slight downward angle.

Life is good!

[vinconco]

Here is my plate system... very audible and very reactive

[ViniVidivici]

Has anyone ever used wheel studs instead of carriage or other bolts?

Friend of mine is going to use some he had on hand, rationale being that they must be pretty hard grade. Made sense to me, just wondered if that's common.

[vinconco]

Has anyone ever used wheel studs instead of carriage or other bolts?

Friend of mine is going to use some he had on hand, rationale being that they must be pretty hard grade. Made sense to me, just wondered if that's common.

The problem isn't being hard, it's TENSILE STRENGTH. When the bullet hits the plate it transfers a lot of energy to the bolt head and non grade (low tensile strength) bolts heads will pop off making it seem like they were shot off. I recovered this (non grade) bolt head after it appeared to have been shot off. I played the video back in slow motion to see the bullet impact well away from the bolt head and then found the bolt head sheared off laying on the ground.
GRADE 8 carriage bolts solve this problem. They can be damaged by high velocity bullet strikes but the likelihood of them allowing target failure is substantially less that non grade bolts. Grade 8 carriage bolts are difficult to source locally so Hang Fast Targets keeps a good selection of them in stock.

non grade bolt head top.JPG non grade bolt head bottom.JPG

[ViniVidivici]

Thank you, that is very valuable info!

Funny, your pic there looks exactly like one I had happen 2 days ago...doing pistol drills on the new 10" plate, at 10 yards, one of the shots did just that.

Thought I'd hit the bolt head. Not at all, just broke!

We did the needful and effected a field expedient repair quickly with 550 cord and kept shooting, of course.

Replaced both of them with thicker bolts I had on hand, I'll have to go look at the grade marks.

[vinconco]

Thank you, that is very valuable info!

Funny, your pic there looks exactly like one I had happen 2 days ago...doing pistol drills on the new 10" plate, at 10 yards, one of the shots did just that.

Thought I'd hit the bolt head. Not at all, just broke!

We did the needful and effected a field expedient repair quickly with 550 cord and kept shooting, of course.

Replaced both of them with thicker bolts I had on hand, I'll have to go look at the grade marks.

If you want a target system that will not fail visit us at Hang Fast Targets