bullet proof target.

[brian]

with ammo being sorta hard to get and a bit expensive to buy, i like my targets to be a little more responsive. paper is quite boring to shoot, nothing happens, holes appear but that's it. steel is were it's at.
shoot steel and something happens, thin soft stuff ends up with holes blown through, thicker soft stuff ends up with craters.
most people would be surprised at how little steel it takes to stop most pistol rds.
rifle rounds prove a little more challenging to stop. 0.75" steel will stop most rifles but it's heavy to carry and craters badly.

and then i got my hands on some armour plate....the stuff they're up armouring hummers with.

this piece has several hundred rds on it now, mostly 762x39, but's there's also a few 3006 and quite a few 762x51 on it too.
it's 0.50" plate, welded to a base plate of regular old steel(a36)0.25". the armour is pot marked(edge hits not counted) with the single deepest one being not quite 0.125"(1/8th inch)seen in second pic. it fell over a few times and the base was whacked, the .25" plate was no match for .30 caliber rounds
third pic shows this. top hole came through from teh back side, bottom hole when though the side shown, teh large dent was probably from a .45auto.
0.50" regular steel plate would stop 762x39 and x51 but they dig into pretty far, not AP 3006 would be almost all teh way through , with large dents out the back side.
this plate is still as flat as it was when i cut it.

it dances around and rings like a bell when struck. steel jacketed rounds often throw a few "sparks", copper jacketed rounds give a gray "puff" as teh lead core splatters.

[jmiro]

A thought any one Know what thickness of aluminum you would need to make targets?

[brian]

depends what series you use and want you them to do.
they'res a reason why you don't see alum used as armour.

[Lazylaser]

Cool but I would like to see AP rounds used, if your taking orders.

[Ashesofthewake]

I usually shoot at the SGL ranges, which allow paper targets only. I do however sometimes bring an old text book, like one i have spilled coffee on since they are made of paper right?


I always hated western civ.

[Lazylaser]

Well there goes my plan of hiding behind a textbook, I guess history isn't bullet proof.

[Ashesofthewake]

Well there goes my plan of hiding behind a textbook, I guess history isn't bullet proof.

Haha, I'll try a phone book next time and I'll let you know how that goes.

[Tomcat088]

aluminum doesn't stop high powered pistol rounds all that great (depending on the bullet, caliber, etc). I'm not sure that it'll stop any high powered center fire rounds. I shoot a damn fast/heavy bullet out of a .300 winmag, and it takes alot of still or distance to stop it. AR500 steel is what most guys use for silhoutte targets, and most of the ones that I have seen still crater DAMN bad at 300 yards. If you want to shoot it closer than that with something like a .300 winmag, or smaller and really fast calibers, they tear stuff up. Something that helps some is for the target to be to swing and dissipate some of the kinetic energy or extense the impulse of the strike. Either way, steel is definitely fun.

[normanvin]

Where I used to work at we would make our own spinners. if the got beat up we would just rebuild them.

I would think that aluminum would not stand up as long as a steel set.

[pacomdiver]

the phone book doesnt stop them either, burn notice lied. i had a 2 1/2" thick phone book and shot it once at 7yds with my wifes walther pps 9mm and 115 fmj's and it went right thru the backside with a big puff of paper coming out . the same for my 45's but more dramatic a puff