Thread: Target Steel

Hi guys I know its been discussed here in then past. I am looking to fabricate 1 possibly 2 steel targets, hanging gong type to use for long range practice. What is the best grade of steel to use so its thinner and moves when hit but you don't blast holes through it.
Is there anyone in the Chch area that sells part sheets for this purpose.

Thanks
Jeremy

Originally Posted by Dermastor

Hi guys I know its been discussed here in then past. I am looking to fabricate 1 possibly 2 steel targets, hanging gong type to use for long range practice. What is the best grade of steel to use so its thinner and moves when hit but you don't blast holes through it.
Is there anyone in the Chch area that sells part sheets for this purpose.

Thanks
Jeremy

AR500 or Bis450... Try Dupont Engineering in Timaru.

Good prices and great targets made from that stuff...

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

AR500 or Bis450... Try Dupont Engineering in Timaru.

Good prices and great targets made from that stuff...

Or hardox 450.

You want to be around 400 or above nomatter the brand.

Mine are 12mm hardox 450. Work perfectly. Bullets don't even look like marking them.

And hard shit makes a nice audible ring, rather than a whack like soft shit does

Thanks guys so Ar500 or better I will ring the guys in Timaru and see what they have. For a target that we will use out to 1000-1200m what do you reckon 600mm size?

Any hard plate 400 series and up

@Dermastor if you find somewhere in AKL or are getting some shipped up would be interested in sharing freight. cheers.

@Ranal my brother lives down Banks Peninsular we will be shooting in the Tekapo area on a private sheep Station so he will organise things down there. I have no where to use them up here so shoot at Clevdon and Akarana City ranges. Its the purchasing of the smaller pieces of steel that's the challenge.

So how thin can you go in the sheet material 12mm seems quite thick. The thinner you go the more feedback you will get from the target.

10mm is perfect

10mm will be fine at those distances. AR500 or better is recommended although at those distances you would be fine with even a biz350 but if you use them close they might take a beating.

For target sizes my recommendation is as follows:

Originally Posted by Gillie

For hunting larger game we very rarely use targets bigger than 250mm squares as we think this reasonably represents the chest area on a red deer. We do occasionally use smaller targets at closer distances in our hunter's events. Once you start using target sizes bigger than a "kill area" on game at a hunters event it just becomes a target shoot.


For our longer range precision target shooting events we use some simple minimum target size recommendations (1MIL=3.6MOA):

Position	50m – 300m	300m – 650m	650m – 1000m+
Supported Prone	0.3MIL	0.4MIL	0.5MIL
Sitting	0.5MIL	1.0MIL	N/A
Kneeling	1.2MIL	N/A	N/A
Supported Sitting / Kneeling	0.5MIL	0.6MIL	0.8MIL
Standing	2.0MIL	N/A	N/A
Supported Standing	0.6MIL	1.0MIL	N/A

Keep in mind these are minimum target size guidelines only and the typical hit rate on targets sized to the minimums is well less than 50% based upon the results from our last 5 longer range events with first round hit percentages coming in about 20% for the shorter distances and down to 10% or less on the longer distances. These percentages don't look very good on their own but I am a big believer in that adversity makes people better and we have proven with several clubs that a bit of practice and using smaller targets than they are used to certainly improves peoples performance. We try to set our events to the ability level of the competitors we expect and with the aim that everyone gets something but no one gets everything.

Yes that's makes sense 10mm and 500-600mm for 1000m thanks for all the help, anyone know of a supplier in the Chch area?

Try vulcan plate, they should cut to order.

Originally Posted by Ranal

@Dermastor if you find somewhere in AKL or are getting some shipped up would be interested in sharing freight. cheers.

I use these guys in Auckland. Primero Profiles

They have 12mm Hardox 450 in stock, will cut to size and their prices are very reasonable.