Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles How thick of a plate of steel to stop hunting rifle bullets?

The type of steel will really change how it gets penetrated by a bullet.

Any of the wearplates with a Brinnel hardness of 380 or greater are good bullet stoppers.

I can attest to the ability of a piece of 1/2", 425 wear plate to resist bullet strikes, from 257 WTBY, all the way up to 458's

As long as the plate is either fixed at a downward angle, or allowed to move such as a sillouhette, or a swinging gong, ricochets and bounce back outside of the effective 50 to 75 yd area is no hazard IMO.