AR-500 Targets from MidwayUSA on sale

[AJMD429]

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The smaller (3/8" thick 8" circle and 9" IPSC) gongs are on sale there at pretty good prices, even including shipping.



https://www.midwayusa.com/product/1019516462?pid=739563

I got six circles and three IPSC torsos for $200 including shipping. I was having trouble connecting with the local supplier.

(I'll post pics of the cool more 'active' range I'm setting up when I get it done... )

[piller]

Seems as if you are recovering from your latest bout with the Wuhan Virus. Hope you have fun at your range.

[Sixgun]

While we are on the subject of steel targets........

Reactive Targets make mine from my dimensions then he will burn two holes for the hanger as your NOT drilling into this steel. You DONT want to use chain for hanging targets...use a heavy chain connector....otherwise the target will flop around like a fish out of water for 10 seconds.

A simple square is the best shape if your much older than 40.....makes it easier to get a distinctive sight picture so you will get a clearer image of you and your guns marksmanship......then again, I don't use them closer than 100 meters which is 7" sq. and 10" for 200 meters......these targets I use are for open sighted American made revolvers and lever guns. I use clay birds from 300-500 meters for the scoped rifles.


The idea of using a specific size is you don't want your target to be too easy or too difficult to hit. You want it so you still have to focus and use the proper trigger/breathing/steadiness control and by using the proper technique you can reasonably expect to hit what your shooting at......offhand mind you, anybody can hit these from the bench.

10"

[GunnyMack]

I got a peice of AR500 from a buddy of mine, 3/8 x 5 x 66"- its the cutting edge for the snow plow!

[piller]

That steel used for jackhammer bits can make good knives if treated right. I have a knife made of that. Even Armor Plate steel has to be heat treated right to make things work.

[AJMD429]

Amazing the differences in steels; when I first got the AR-500 gongs I have now, I just couldn’t believe FMJ 308 did zero detectable damage. Nor did 265 gr JSP from my 444 Marlin, which even using soft points, made cookie-cutter perfect holes in the ‘boiler plate’ scrap steel I had been using.

Then again, having gongs with holes shot through them all over gives me an excuse to say “...actually I think that was a ‘hit’ - it just went through one of the holes...”

[Sixgun]

Doc,
Speed and bullet construction is what makes holes in steel.......I've seen 220 Swifts cut right through angled 3/8 steel while a 375 H&H only dinged it.......

Your right on the high quality steels...the one I pictured has been hit thousands of times with .223. 308's, '06 AP and countless cast bullets....it still gives out a nice gooooonnnngggg....---006

[GunnyMack]

Back when I was in school the tool room manager built a 50 BMG single shot, he was out at the gun club one day with it shooting at a RR tie plate. Those big hunks of lead were just pushing the plate deeper into the backstop. He finally pushed an AP up the pipe but no hole. Sure it puckered it but no penetration. I said hey can I try it? Sure! Ok give me a minute, and went to my truck to grab my 17 Remington. That little 25 gr bullet at 4000fps burned a nice little hole through it. Mass is not always the ticket.
One time at Wittington a few of us were on the 1000yd range shooting for fun, got done there and went over to the rifle silhouette range, all of a sudden one of the employees came running and stopped us. Seems the targets weren't meant for belted magnum cartridges. Ok, maybe the chickens were hit a bit harder but the bullets were slower by the time they made it to the pigs, turkeys and rams.

Oh look, the first named storm of the year, Anna is headed for Bermuda.

[AJMD429]

Seems as if you are recovering from your latest bout with the Wuhan Virus. Hope you have fun at your range.

I'm probably only about at 33% of my normal 'functional level' whatever that is. But I couldn't pass up the price on the gongs; I've not shot at "1/3-scale IPSC" gongs before and they look to be about the size of a sheet of typing paper, but they will be rather close so we will see how it goes.

Sixgun is right about making sure the hardened steel ones are pre-drilled for sure; nothing I have would go through them. Sometimes I use a short carriage bolt in the holes and drill through it then slip a wire through the hole; it holds the bolt on and the wire is cheap to replace when eventually a bullet gets is. That also keeps bullet-splatter from just cutting the wire as it will if the wire goes through the hole, because some of the wire is then in front of the target and lots of jacket and lead hit it.

....plus, the round targets with two holes filled with carriage bolts are perfect to paint yellow, and put a smiley face on with black paint using the bolt-heads for eyes...

[AJMD429]

Drilled a bunch of bolts for ‘em today.

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I should have drilled the guide in a hardened bolt or tube/cup of some sort I suppose but the soft one I used lasted enough for 30 bolts.

I like to use bolts through the holes so I don’t have to mess with fastening chain there and so jacket splatter doesn’t just cut through like when I use wire through the hole. I run cheap hay twine or fence wire through the hole in the bolt.

Doing it this way also angles the gongs slightly top-forward, so if you are shooting close, bullets tend to deflect downward more than back at you (“...proper eye protection still required...”)

Plus, if I paint the bolt heads black and the targets yellow, the round targets just need a smile drawn on the front with a Sharpie to make nice smiley-face targets...

[Sixgun]

That makes sense Doc...especially with the plate being top forward.....

I don't know how much you shoot these plates but experience has taught me to reverse the plates from time to time.....these plates I use get hit with everything I use....thousands of hits with .223 and many with the mighty BAR, M1A, and 742 trillion rounds of cast bullets.

I use chain connectors......no wobble....the plate just goes back and forth.....you can hit the chain connector a LOT before they come apart....in 15-20 years I may have changed them 3 times....quick cut off with a hacksaw.....I use hose clamps or u bolts to keep the plate from working from side to side........

After a couple of thousand hits I will notice a slight curvature of the plate so the next thousand hits I just shoot the other side.

ALWAYS 3/4" rebar for the simple stand...a 6-7' feet piece long......heat the area where it needs to be bent red hot and smack it with a heavy hammer........I've seen guys use nice 1" pipe with plumbing connectors and after one range session their gongs stands look like Rossi's....j.u.n.k....

The only problem comes when other people at the club think it's their gong too even though the club has their own gongs...and they KNOW my gong is not the clubs.....but mine sound better when hit...and I have to walk over to them and nicely ask them if it's OK if I shoot their pick up truck...

[AJMD429]

I use T-posts for supports because we always have tons of old bent or broken ones I can salvage, then the knobby parts make it easy to use hay-twine (which we always have a roll of even though we don’t grow hay, cuz it’s cheap and useful) or electric-fence wire to hang targets at whatever position we want.

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If the posts are driven in to a normal depth and slightly angled apart (in pairs) they will tolerate a fence-wire connecting them across the top so I can hang cardboard backing and paper targets with clothespins or metal office-binder clamps.

Plus I let the weeds get high sometimes so I like ‘tall’ posts cuz I can see ‘em; not good to hit a short post with a bush-hog...

Painted me 33 eyeballs today but these gongs have protrusions where the bolts go so maybe I need to paint them green and have Kermit-targets since they’ll look more like frog eyeballs than smiley-faces.

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[piller]

Didn't Kermit sing something about a shooting connection? The rifle, the target, and me.

[AJMD429]

Now I gotta re-paint em all...

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The big hole towards the top of this one was from when I hit it at 100 yards with a 444 Marlin factory load (...which according to the Gun Magazine writers ‘uses a fragile handgun bullet that will blow up on the skin of a whitetail...’)

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Most of my gongs have been soft/scrap steel like the one above, but little by little I’m replacing them with AR-500 ones.

By the way these ‘pistol jacks’ are AR-500, and lots of fun. Even in rough grass they flip when hit and present a new target face to the shooter. The smaller one is intended for rimfire, although 9mm doesn’t seem to hurt it, and the larger one for magnum handguns. I like to put the larger one at 50 yards and shoot it with a 357 levergun.

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I got them from Bobcat Steel - https://www.bobcatarmament.com/targets/static/

[Sixgun]

Dang Doc,...from now on, you are going to known as "Steel Shootin' Doc"!

That's quite an assortment of steel you have there......that be high class shootin'.....that all ranks up there with Hickok 45.

Educational too.---006

[piller]

Those forceps under the Caltrops are the strongest looking pair of forceps I have ever seen.

[AJMD429]

We’ll post-CoVid fatigue is a bit of an issue but I gotz to do therapy, so I figured now was a good time to update and do the annual gong-repaint.

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This time I’m going to color-code them, so people hopefully will quit shooting the Rimfire ones with 9mm (left) and 223 (second from left)...

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The new rounds could also be cats; just Sharpie-on some whiskers...

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New Rules:
. Orange = Rifle
. Yellow = Handgun or ‘pistol caliber’ rifle Only
. Green = Rimfire Only

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This target a non-gun-owning friend made in exchange for a shooting lesson was obviously soft scrap steel he had; he was so embarrassed when the 9mm he and his wife brought to learn to shoot just mangled the target; I told him no problem; I needed more Rimfire ones...

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[AJMD429]

Well it was in the 80’s and humid so miserable, but I decided to hang all the gongs back up.

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Here is the ‘course of fire’ I want to try:

1. You hit the 4” gong at 100 yards from the bench with your choice of rifle; rifle stays on the bench after you hit gong. Timer starts when you hit.

It’s the upper left one.

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From the bench you’ll need a scoped rifle to see it most likely...

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2. Then you grab your carbine and already-holstered pistol and proceed to barricade one.

NOTE: Your buddy loaded your guns with 20 rounds total, plus a couple A-Zoom snap-caps; you have no idea which gun has how many rounds, nor if a ‘click’ means your gun is empty, or you just got a snap-cap. You do have a fully loaded spare pistol magazine though.

View from Barricade One:

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3. There you use your gun of choice to hit each 8” cat-face gong at the 50 yard line (about 25 yards from barricade) once then repeat secont hits on all of them.

However, during that time your spotter will be behind you and randomly shout “to the right...!” at which point you need to interrupt and find the bad-guy-in-the-weeds to hit.

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Then once you hit bad-guy #1, you finish the round targets, then move to Barricade Two...(careful not to trip over stumps)...

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4. There it is the same drill; shoot the three round ‘75 yard’ targets once each, then repeat, they are also around 25 yards away at this point. This time the interrupting bad-guy will be on your left...

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5. Then I may add shots at the 100 yard gong-set (now 50 yards from Barricade Two) one each starting at 16” and going down to 13” then 8” then.... 4” )

Reload or switch guns when needed; the last tiny gong may be incentive to leave a few rounds in the rifle if you can.

Score would be lowest time to complete and a tie decided by fewest shots fired. Perfect would as few as 18 shots but likely a shooter would have to dig into their pistol spare magazine. I might allow a rifle spare too.