Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Handguns Steel targets and ricochets.

I've been shooting steel targets lately with my handguns, mainly 9mm, but some .357, .38, and .22 as well.

I had a local steel outfit cut me some 12 x 12 x 3/8 plates that I drilled and hang on shepherd hooks for targets. I use wire to angle the targets on a slight downward angle. It works great and I enjoy shooting steel much more than paper.

I haven't had any ricochet issues as of yet, but I haven't been shooting steel that long either. I'm just curious if any of you steel shooters have had an issue with ricochets, and if so, what works best to avoid any problems.

BTW- I wear protective glasses, shoot frangible ammunition (most of the time...), and don't shoot closer than 10 yards.

I don't know any pistol shooter who has shot thousands of rounds on steel that hasn't picked some bounce back out of them. It happens.

That said, I can recommend wearing something like Carharrt pants instead of shorts. I have been zinged enough wearing shorts that I try to always wear long pants.

These days most target manufacturers angle their targets down, so the bounce back is minimized, but it still happens.

Just me I guess, but 25 yds is as close as I get with a handgun, with the flat of the target angled away slightly, either right or left. I really feel safer at fifty yds. I have seen scraps come close at 20 yds until I started shooting at an angle.

One problem is that soft mild steel such as you probably got from the local guy can crater, dimple, bend or otherwise deform after use, especially if the steel is thin or the rounds that are hitting it are higher velocity.

Once the steel is deformed, all bets are off regarding ricochets. I have an old 1/4" mild steel silhouette target that was advertised as safe for up to 9mm/.38/.45, but after quite a bit of use it has become bowed in the center and shooting at it became a painful experience. In reality, it never should have been rated for anything more than a .22 LR.

The worst safety hazard sets in if the steel becomes cratered. A bullet that makes a crater (or lands in one)may or may not fragment, but the remains will be squirted out of the crater and could become a threat to the shooter.

Armor grade hard steel of 500 BN or more has much more resistance to cratering or other deformation and is nowhere near as likely to produce a serious safety hazard.

this is not handgun related, but has to do with one of my learning experiences. Summer in arizona, about 110 in the shade, i am out in the desert with a garand and some black tip a.p. ammo. We set up a piece of train rail and boom the round shoots right through the side of it. So, we set the top of the rail facing us, the part the train rides on and i fired again. And i discoverd a law of physics. I was wearing shorts and i felt liquid running down my leg. It was red. The projectile had fragmented and came right back at me.
If i do it again i am going to be in a hole in the ground.

10 yards is fine, I go as close as 7 with a pistol and steel with a good angle.

Like others said once the steel is pitted all bets are off. Good steel helps avoid that.

I caught a piece of lead from a .22 at 50 yards that drew blood through denim...always wear safety glasses.

When I used to shoot steel matches, you could always count on someone not getting the setting of the targets right. They always seemed to hit my left shin, I have a ton of scars on my left leg from back-splash. I just shrugged it off and kept shooting.

Same here. I've caught a lot of shrapnel from pistol rounds and buckshot over the years, mostly from old steel targets that had become pitted.

AR-500, angled down, is your friend!

Ed

The plates I have are 3/8, but I don't know what type of steel it is. It seems to be holding up very well after 500 +/- hits, there isn't any pits or craters in them as of yet.

I won't shoot these particular plates with my 5.56, but what's your minimum distance you shoot steel with an AR?

I've caught a copper shard embedded into the white of my left eyeball that a good Samaritan had to pluck out with my SAK tweezers. My eyelids bled each time I blinked otherwise. I wasn't even the one shooting. I was 10y BEHIND the shooter who was pumping a previously perforated mild steel plate with an AR. Holes in the target are no bueno. Don't do it.

I've also managed to get a shard of lead embedded into the skin on my chest (went through my t-shirt) while quickly shooting my own cast 45 Colt loads at a good steel target. It must've caught the edge of the AR500 steel plate just so...

I always try to hang my steel plates on chains now. It does not promote rapid shooting because it swings but I have decided to do that on paper only. The longer the chain, the more swing of the plate and less likely the bounce back and the longer my plates will last SAFELY because it helps dissipate the energy and keep them smooth.

Along the same lines: Years ago, when I went to college (the first time, and coincidentally the same place my wife teaches now) a bunch of us would take our rifles (we kept them in our dorm rooms) and go down to the lake shore (Ontario) below the president's residence in the evening and skip bullets off he water, just for fun. I had an 03-A3 and the others had a motley assortment of surplus stuff. One afternoon a few guys out of the group went to a local industrial dump with their rifles and some AP ammo they'd gotten somewhere. One of them fired at a steel plate at point blank range. The core of the bullet shot right through but the jacket and lead came right straight back and smacked him in the forehead. Not fatal, but everybody got a kick out of it...lessons learned....

50ish yards, but I'll only shoot AR500 or better with a rifle.

We only shoot frangible ammunition at steel, because of these issues.

Any idea how deep that bullet penetrated?

Years ago, I Had some Korean War era black tip 30-06 that went thru 1 1/4 inches of steel, that was at much as we had with us that day.
The inner tip then stopped against soft DG granite rock and was laying on the ground still sharp, I use it for a punch occasionally still.

On the high end military/law enforcement steel, close quarter training around 15 yards with the carbine is routine, pistol inside 10 yards. But put this in context, the steel is high end, we are geared up, medics are on site, and it is common to have a helicopter on stand-by. Suitable ammo is used, shot by the ton, and regardless the precautions, it is combat training, and you will get cut at some point if you train long enough.

Recreationally, I would only recommend using quality commercial made steel, while following the maker's guidelines, which would never recommend civilian use at the close quarters I've described with a carbine. A 5.56 on bad steel, or even improper use on good steel, can be very bad for your health.

I use the JC Vibby AR500 steel plates for pistol shooting, either 6" or 8" rounds 3/8 thick and have shot them with 9mm HP as close as 7 yards on multiple occasions. The way they are mounted they naturally hang at a slight downward angle. After shooting there will be a linear beaten zone parallel to and just in front of the target from the shrapnel with multiple discs of jacket bases lying around. Never had one come back at me but that could have something to do with the "god protects fools and drunks" truism. I don't drink, btw.

i think it would go through that like a hot knife through butter.
It was a long time ago, but it put a pretty deep hole in the top of that rail before it turned around and came back at me. I did mention the incident to a now deceased brother in law who served in the pacific. He said they loved the stuff when japanese were holed up behind some barricade thinking they were safe, they weren't.

Back in the 60's I heard something along the same lines concerning A.P. ammo from a guy who had also served in the Pacific. He told us how dangerous that A.P. stuff could be and why it should only be used very carefully and preferably only against a dirt berm. Too bad I don't recall his exact warning but it was something along the lines of; "You wouldn't believe what that stuff will go through!".

For steel that isn't angled I won't shoot closer than 15yds with regular ammo.

With frangible I'll shoot right up to the plate.




Dave