Shooting steel targets

If you buy based on stickered price, they are meh...Talk to the guys for a few, and they will help you out, especially if it's been on the shelf for awhile. It also helps that i always let them know I traveled 3 hours to get there...even though I was possibly, but not always traveling through for work.

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Let's just say that was not my experience when I purchased a Glock 34 and Glock 17 (at the same time) a couple of years ago.
 
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I wish Frangible Ammo was more common so it would be cheaper than ball ammo.


I've shot my Amazon 3/8 steel(AR500 Target Solutions) at 50,100 and 200 with 5.56 and it only has very slight dimples. You really have to look. Mine are hanging targets .
 
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My first trip to FG&G was to meet a guy in the parking lot to buy a gun. I got there early and, by the time he showed up, Iā€™d already bought two other guns. Thatā€™s a dangerous place! :eek:
Almost identical to my first trip there too lol
 
I shoot AR550 3/8" steel i got from shootsteel.com, they dont always have it in stock...but it is slightly better rated than AR500. I shoot 9mm, 45acp, and other pistol rounds at 10yds all the time...i have even shot 357 magnum at that range a time or two. They sit on 2x4 posts using their spring hangers that angle slightly and absorb the force a bit as well. Ive dumped hundreds of 9mm at this distance and probably a little closer (7yds). I always wear eye pro and i can honestly say i have only been hit with splash back once...it was in the arm and was a piece of copper jacket...hit my arm hard enough i felt it but didn't hurt...felt like someone tossed it on me. No blood, nothing. Mine have zero dents. They say you can shoot 223 at about 30 yds with them...but im not quite ready to get that close just yet.
 
If you ever watch high speed video of bullets hitting steel plates you'll see the bullets flatten against the plates and splatter in all directions parallel to the surface they struck. That's why divots in your plates will throw lead back at you, because the surface of the dimple is not at 90 degrees to the shooter.
 
I recall reading somewhere that AR500 has a velocity rating of around 2800 fps. So, I check my ballistic app for velocities at a given distance to keep them under 2800 at impact. I shoot my 30-378 at 300 yards without any issues. I did take out a small chip one time when the bullet struck right on the edge of one of the holes in the plate. It was a perfectly formed dimple that cut out a piece on the edge of the hole.
 
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sometimes it just has to do with the diameter of the bullet, along with velocity. I can shoot cheap Ebay AR500 steel targets with the 7.62 AK all day long at 50yds. If I do that with a 5.56 AR, it will be time to replace that steel in 30 rounds.
it could be the 600fps difference but I can shoot the same distance with other .30 cals with more velocity and nary an issue. The pencil-like diameter and 2800fps velocity ruins steel. I have seen videos of M193 penetrating mild steel at 200yds easily.
 
sometimes it just has to do with the diameter of the bullet, along with velocity. I can shoot cheap Ebay AR500 steel targets with the 7.62 AK all day long at 50yds. If I do that with a 5.56 AR, it will be time to replace that steel in 30 rounds.
it could be the 600fps difference but I can shoot the same distance with other .30 cals with more velocity and nary an issue. The pencil-like diameter and 2800fps velocity ruins steel. I have seen videos of M193 penetrating mild steel at 200yds easily.
And the only thing that has damaged mine is a 7.62 AK at <50 yards...whereas the 5.56 didnā€™t do anything. Weird.
 
Talking to my shop teacher yesterday about shooting and steel targets and such when he drops a bomb on me:

Teach: You do know we have some armor scraps in one of the bins outside, don't you?
Me: Excuse me? What did you just say?

Turns out a local company had a military contract and the Community College managed to get some of the 3/8 armor scraps.
He let me have enough so I could torch cut four 4" and two 6". Forgive my crappy torch work lol, I gotta finish up the edge grind and shape em up, but not gonna be bad for free targets lol.
Tomorrow he's gonna teach me how to load images in the computer and use the automatic plasma cutter to cut a 10 1/2" x 18 1/2" silhoutte (AR500s dimensions for a 60% silhouette)
:D

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Talking to my shop teacher yesterday about shooting and steel targets and such when he drops a bomb on me:

Teach: You do know we have some armor scraps in one of the bins outside, don't you?
Me: Excuse me? What did you just say?

Turns out a local company had a military contract and the Community College managed to get some of the 3/8 armor scraps.
He let me have enough so I could torch cut four 4" and two 6". Forgive my crappy torch work lol, I gotta finish up the edge grind and shape em up, but not gonna be bad for free targets lol.
Tomorrow he's gonna teach me how to load images in the computer and use the automatic plasma cutter to cut a 10 1/2" x 18 1/2" silhoutte (AR500s dimensions for a 60% silhouette)
:D

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Nice.
 
And the only thing that has damaged mine is a 7.62 AK at <50 yards...whereas the 5.56 didnā€™t do anything. Weird.

If that was with steel jacketed or core ammo that would explain it. Check some of that ammo with a magnet. Almost all the steel cased stuff has steel jackets on the bullets (copper washed).


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If that was with steel jacketed or core ammo that would explain it. Check some of that ammo with a magnet. Almost all the steel cases stuff has steel jackets on the bullets (copper washed).
Very possibly. Wasnā€™t my rifle...not even sure who had it that day when a couple of us got together.
 
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