Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shooting at a gong

I bought a gong to shoot at with my 300 win. I will be shooting at over 200 yards. How worried should I be about ricochet? No fmj, just soft points. Thanks in advance.

200 yards, I'd try 5-600 yards for starters. Your 300 will bang that with most ease.

Nevertheless, have fun.

Ricochet: It might blow holes in it at 200 yards. Only one way to find out.

Unless it's AR500 it ain't gonna last long!

If you hit it with the .300 WM, the bullet will just shatter, no worries on ricochets. That is, unless it just punches a hole right on through it, then, who knows? Hope you bought an AR500 target.

Paper targets are more telling, and a whole lot safer.

We covered this in a thread a little while ago and the consensus was that if you use soft steel that craters heavily then the craters might redirect the bullet or fragments of it back at you. Slim chance at best but possible. If you use AR500 that doesn’t crater then 200 yards should be far enough.

With either kind of steel, unless you use a good heavy piece to absorb the momentum, like at least 12x12x3/8”, you’re going to place a lot of stress on the mounting system.

Magnums are prohibited in NRA Rifle Silhouette, but rounds like the 308, 260 etc are shot at 200 meters without and issues.

you'll shoot your eye out kid

We've got gongs from 200 to 500 yards. Most are two to 3 inch thick. I've never had not have I heard of any one hit by ricochets. I've used 7.62x51, 30-06, 405 Winchester, 45-70, 243 Win and 25-05 over the years. Some of the yahoos hit the gongs with heavy duty rounds and crater the steel badly, still no ricochets.

Jim

I've got a 6"x6" AR 500 gong hanging from chains at 200 yards. My 300 short mag and 257 weatherby send it flying around but they don't put a dimple in it and the chains hold up fine unless I hit one of the screws or a link of chain

No worries.

When I shot NRA silhouette I found that bullet construction made a great difference in target damage.

Remington Core-Lokts barely knocked the paint off the chickens whereas Sierra SMKs cratered them badly.

Paper targets won't tell squat on an extremely hot day with heavy mirage whereas with a plate painted white the bullet strikes stand out like a five carat diamond in a Billygoat's arse all the way back to 1200 yards...or more!

Paper targets don't provide the instant gratification of the thunk of a hit on steel. AR500 on on a flexible mount is your friend. If your AO is blessed w/ Joshua trees on public land your opportunities are limited only by your imagination and you only have to retrieve/place them one time. Unless you shoot off the chain... someone told me that could happen


mike r

This is an image I will treasure. Thank you.



mike r

Uh, I've got an AR plate gong with a 7mm hole in it for same reason. 200 yards.

180 vld at 2950 fps.

55 Rc AR500? A hole in it?

If you are worried at all, set your gong at just a slight angle. 5 degrees degree cant over 200 yards puts the return trajectory 17 yards away from your position.

Very easily done by hanging from screws/bolt that stick out the back some, changing the balance point. Don't throw your paint can down in front of the target, for next time. Makes a mess. miles

We have an AR 500 plate at the 200 meter line.

It gets hit with everything.




Travis