Shooting steel targets safely

[Derek Zeanah]

Not sure if this is the right place, but here goes:

I'd like to put up some steel targets. I'd prefer not to have rounds bounce back at me, my car, or anything else, though. I'm looking for the best way to set this up.

I've seen some mounts that hang steel in such a way that ricochets are angled into the ground. Is mounting targets so that they are at an angle enough to protect against return fire, or is the use of frangible rounds required?

(At Gunsite we had no problems shooting steel, but we were always ~ 20m away from the targets, and I never looked at how they were mounted.)

 

[TexasRifleman]

For me personally, shooting steel with anything other than lead bullets makes me very nervous. If you do have to use jacketed bullets on steel then most folks do angle them down a bit for that reason. I also tend to want to wear long sleeves if I'm shooting a lot of steel up close. You're gonna get hit with something if you get close, it's almost a certainty. Pieces of the jacket are small but sharp.

 

[MtnCreek]

I set up and shot a little steel this weekend. I placed the target slightly off plumb (maybe 5 deg). 9mm FMJ and .40sw xtp's both fragmented, leaving a little disc about 3/4" dia and weighing less than 10 gns. The rest of the bullet fragmented into tiny pieces that splashed off the target. It even cut a little trench in the dirt that was visible for about 2ft in each direction from the target. I saw no evidence of anything larger than the <10gr disc coming off the steel.

 

[Howard Roark]

USPSA has mins set at:

Pistol: 23'
Rifle: 164'

 

[ColtPythonElite]

I shoot alot of steel. Some of it hangs on chains, some of it sits on the ground angeling backward a bit. With a handgun, the minimum I shoot is 15 yards. With a rifle 50 yards. In thousands of rounds, I might have been hit with a bit of splatter once or twice, but no big deal as long as you wear eye protection. FWIW, I shoot them with both lead and jacketed bullets.

 

[ny32182]

What you want to avoid is a solid piece with no "give", that is not angled to deflect the spray either up or down.

-A plate rack, or "knock down" plates sitting on top of a post will give and may also be angled.
-Steel challenge post mounts position the steel to be slightly angled toward the ground. As mentioned, look under one after a match and you will see the horizontal "trench" dug by the spray.
-Poppers are usually angled slightly upward.

Jacketed lead is no problem but if you happen to have anything you think is steel core I would avoid that. It will be a lot harder on the targets anyway.

If you shoot steel long enough, eventually you are going to catch a little flak (probably sooner rather than later); it is a fact that you have deal with. Decent eye pro is a must.

If possible I'd park where there is no direct line of sight between the targets and your car.

 

[MutinousDoug]

I used to shoot a lot of IHMSA and cowboy silhouette where the chickens were set at 50 yds. Got hit numerous times but only bled from a bullet jacket tag to my cheek once.
Smooth faced targets are much less likely to ricochet back at you than targets that have been cratered by impacts. The vast majority of fragments are directed 90 degrees from a smooth impact surface. Surface cratering tends to send more fragments back toward the shooter (and bystanders).

 

[Hangingrock]

http://www.policeone.com/police-pro.../67903-Steel-reactive-targets-Safety-and-use/

 

[MtnCreek]

Good info. Thanks!

 

[KodiakBeer]

I'm feeling too lazy to take a picture right now, but what I do is weld a couple of rings or hooks on the back of the plate near the top and then suspend them with bungee cords. The location of the hooks make the plate hang canted toward the ground, and the springiness of the bungee cords removes the rigidity of permanently mounted plates which (I reckon) reduces the power of any ricochets. Suspended like that, the plate "gives" instead of being rigid and creating ricochets.
Also, hanging them from a cord like that allows them to ring much louder which is half the point of shooting steel - to get that feedback.

Anyway, I can't imagine how many shots I've put on those plates over the last few years. If I include .22's, it must go well over 50k rounds, and I've never seen a ricochet come back at me.

 

[1SOW]

I'd like to put up some steel targets. I'd prefer not to have rounds bounce back at me, my car, or anything else, though. I'm looking for the best way to set this up.

I shoot Steel Challenge and steel targets in USPSA using service pistols.
1. Do Not use standard plate steel. It will form dents that CAN ricochet the bullet 180 degs directly back at you. You must use hardened steel that is resistant to bullet impacts. The steel must be flat and undented. You'll find hardened steel is very expensive compared to common plate steel.

2. With pistols, 9 yds is about the minimum safe distance with the steel targets angled forward to ricochet splatter into the ground.

All steel shooters will eventually be hit by bullet fragment ricochets as said above. Proper safety glasses will prevent serious injuries.

KodiakBeer's method should work. Another method is to mount a coil spring of the back of the plate. It also absorbs some of the impact and causes the plate to "ring" like a bell.

With pistol, I recommend using lighter Power Factor loads to prevent steel damage and minimize ricochet velocity.

 

[barnetmill]

Has anyone here had extensive experience steel jacketed pistol ammo and steel targets. I have used such a little bit, but not a lot. My concern was that the steel fragments might rebound with greater force. A big concern would be with the 7.62x25 round with lead core and steel jackets.. I have no idea what the steel core stuff would do, but it certainly could bounce back with a lot of force.

 

[12gaugeTim]

http://m.youtube.com/index?desktop_uri=/&gl=US#/watch?v=6dYX-h-5HDQ
Skip to 3:10 to see how NOT to shoot at steel targets.

 

[Geno]

My steel targets all hang on a slight angle downward. The directions state explicitly to not fire rifle rounds closer than 100 yards. Never fire: steel jacket, steel core, solids or hollow points. Fire only softpoint rounds. Never use rounds that retain more than 3,200 FPS at impact, to avoid deforming steel. I add never use ballistic tips. Trust me, even at 100+ yards, they can cause surface damage.

Regarding pistol ammo, the targets say to never fire closer then 25 feet. I extend that to 30ish feet. I have never had issues with being splashed by hot lead or jacket pieces so long as I adhere to those criteria.

Geno

 

[Jon_Snow]

Even at USPSA matches where the minimum distance rules are enforced, you'll still get hit by ricochets occasionally. Keep your eyes covered and your mouth closed and you'll be fine.

 

[27hand]

steel

I have made and shot at quite a bit of steel.

The stuff I fabricated was from mild steel which can be shot at safely unless it starts to crater from higher velocity rounds.
This swinger has 1/2" steel plates welded to rods and were designed to swing back causing the majority of the spatter to be directed downward. This target system has taken thousands of hits at quite a few group shoots we used to have.

I also made other targets on plates with springs to move a bit when struck. I angled the plates downward to do the same thing.


Mild steel can be used for most pistol rounds but the added velocity of pistol caliber carbines will crater the steel a bit more so I limited mine to handguns only.

The best steel to minimize wear or cratering is armor plate ( I forgot the designation # ) but it is sometimes difficult to find in small quantities. Next best is something like AR500 or 550. AR stands for abrasion resistant.
A guy on this site ( Matt Cosman) used to sell a variety of different AR500 targets and would cut them to suit your needs ( size, shape, thickness) and I was quite satisfied with his targets and delivery time.

I got these 8" rounds at 3/8" thick for $25 ea a few years ago.

MGM targets has a wide variety and has a write up similar to what was posted earlier on the hows and whys of what shooting steel involves.
I got a couple Colt speed plates which are self resetting from MGM and am very satisfied with them. There are two in this pic.These speed plates swing back and down so there could be an issue with spatter being deflected up and backward. I make sure what is behind any berm i shoot against

This is how a .357 mag dimpled mild steel. Target was not angled downward and later modified.

This is how rifle fire affects mild steel. Some AK, SKS, Ishapore 2A, Marlin 30-30, Rem pump .06, .223, FR8, 300 WM

Reactive targets are fun to shoot at. Always wear eye protection, a baseball cap with the bill forward over your eye protection to prevent splatter from coming down and behind your glasses. I shoot jacketed and lead pistol rounds. I get pieces back but not more than a few scratches. I shoot as close a seven yards. Read the previous posters steel target writeup. Good info.

 

[Serenity]

Our range has r-bar tripods with a hook and I bought 3 8" plates with holes and hang them directly on the tripods. We always keep them 30+ feet away (working on getting that distance longer!) and they "give".

 

[jman74]

Always wear long sleeves and pants. Anytime I've shot a steel match when it's warm out there's people shooting dressed like they are going to the beach. They are easy to spot by the little trickles of blood on their shins from the splatter. It can be sharp.

 

[waktasz]

Always wear long sleeves and pants. Anytime I've shot a steel match when it's warm out there's people shooting dressed like they are going to the beach. They are easy to spot by the little trickles of blood on their shins from the splatter. It can be sharp.

You have a better chance of being seriously injury by heat exhaustion by wearing long sleeves and pants in the summer heat than you do from a ricochet IMO.

 

[12gaugeTim]

Is there a possibility of getting heavy metal poisoning?

 

[MtnCreek]

Depending on clothing material, long sleeve shirts can keep you cooler than short sleeve. If you don't believe me, find an old farmer and ask him.

 

[coolluke01]

I shoot a lot of steel at our range. We shoot poppers and droppers and swingers and large torso sized fixed plates.
They require glasses on everyone, we shoot at about 30 feet, and use target plated rounds. Oh and no magnums or HP's. I got hit with a few pieces this last year. Just little flecks. No one has ever been hurt or even been hit with a large piece.
Out torso sized steel plates are hung at a very slight angle and the poppers are almost perfectly straight so they fall over easy. The swingers are straight and the droppers are angled a little bit.

Steel is fun to shoot! I would avoid FMJ and use the thinner plated rounds.

 

[jman74]

If the ricochet is going to seriously injury you, there's a definite design flaw in in what ever steel target you're shooting at. Tend to avoid setups like that myself.

 

[Strykervet]

We used steel targets in our SDM course in the army. We shot them with M855 and it didn't do anything to the steel, the bullets just fragment, explode. We also shot them at "dangerous" distances, sometimes just 15 or so feet away. We didn't wear armor in this school either, and safety glasses were optional.

I wore the glasses. Always. Gargoyles, they'll stop a .22 pellet at such and such specs. I always wear them when shooting no matter what.

One guy, he got a fragment in the eye. He was tough and soldiered on and got a second fragment in the eye. His ranger tab didn't protect his eyes he figured, so he opted for the glasses too. I caught at least one that I know of, but the glasses got it. Barely left a mark, but it would have been enough to put out an eye. Those jackets are razor sharp.

The fragments, they were always just pieces of ripped up jacket. I've seen high speed video of these bullets hitting steel and the lead turns into powder and it looks like the steel tip does too. The jacket shreds, and that is what usually comes back.

9mm was a different story. You can see them bounce back sometimes. Never with enough force to punch through you, but hard enough to hurt and it could easily put out an eye. .45, I've seen those hit the plate and then just fall like a brick. All FMJ mind you.

When we shot targets at close range, we always angled them down. This helped a lot with the pistol round returns, but the jacket fragments from rifle fire seemed to go everywhere and distance was most important to mimimize this.

I think at our range the closest you can put steel targets is either 25 or 40 yards, I forget which, and this was based on years of experience of folks complaining about returns when the targets were closer. They don't use them on the pistol range for regular target shooting.

When you angle the target to the ground, you don't want a whole lot either, too much and you'll get a real ricochet, which is a lot different than a return. A return lost most all of the energy, what you get back is a result of an elsastic impact. A ricochet is when some of the energy is lost and the bullet changes direction abruptly --they have plenty of energy to kill.

If you hit the target face on, you may get a return. By angling it gently, you can minimize the number of returns you get, but too much and you risk others. Always understand you not getting hit is just statistics --it will happen given enough time. So having them at an appropriate distance, wearing long clothes, and most importantly, keep your mouth shut and wear glasses.

Yeah, one guy caught a piece of jacket on the lip. I could just imagine it going down the back of my throat, hence keep your mouth shut.

I say this from experience of running a class of guys for couple of years, 40 or so per class, a few classes a year, and at least one full pallet of M855 per, plus all the MG stuff and pistol ammo we went through, all shot on steel save the KD range, which was mostly slow fire, so I feel I've got a decent amount of experience with this statistically.

Get the right steel too, not sure of what we used, but a guy around here is selling AR500. That picture of the shot up steel, that looks to be about the thickness of the steel we used, say .5-.75". But they took tens of thousands of M855 and 7.62 rifle fire from a few feet to 1000m+ and a coat of spray paint made them look new again.

The only round to ever punch through was a .50BMG Raufoss fired from an XM107 at a few hundred meters. Looked like a plasma torch hit it, and the funny thing is it'll go through two of 'em like that. Wicked, wicked load.

 

[Strykervet]

I shoot a lot of steel at our range. We shoot poppers and droppers and swingers and large torso sized fixed plates.
They require glasses on everyone, we shoot at about 30 feet, and use target plated rounds. Oh and no magnums or HP's. I got hit with a few pieces this last year. Just little flecks. No one has ever been hurt or even been hit with a large piece.
Out torso sized steel plates are hung at a very slight angle and the poppers are almost perfectly straight so they fall over easy. The swingers are straight and the droppers are angled a little bit.

Steel is fun to shoot! I would avoid FMJ and use the thinner plated rounds.

Yeah, glasses, that distance, and plated bullets would be ideal. Like I said, it was always the jackets that worried me, and the returns from pistols were minimal.