Steel plate for gongs?

[rockrat]

Figured someone here will know what plate would be best for steel gongs for our range. We need to replace some and wondering what to use. They get shot with everything from 22's to 300 Weatherbys. Need a good, hard, but not brittle metal. Hopefully to last a couple of years. Make them 16" in dia.

[elk hunter]

Rockrat,

My two are made from 3/4" T-1, I believe that is what the local silhouette club uses for their targets, very tough but also very expensive, last year with the high price of steel it was $1200.00 per sheet in 3/4" for new, I found some that was being scrapped and was able to buy two 12" squares for $50.00.

[fourarmed]

Check the scrap yards. We have two gongs, one of which has been sneering at .300 Weatherbys for years. It was originally about 3" thick, and is now down to maybe 2" in some places. If you find something that thick, it doesn't much matter what it is. Steer clear of cast iron.

[jsizemore]

If you know anybody that repairs large heavy equipment, cutting edge for blades will stand up to alot of banging for pretty cheap if there is any scrap left over.

[xr650]

AR500 works well.

I have never shot gongs to the best of my knowledge. Do you dish the plate a certain amount to affect sound? All the steel I have shot is flat plate. It doesn't go gong.

[softpoint]

The "AR" series of plate, Abrasion Resistant works well. It is expensive also, but not as expensive as T1 alloy or Armor plate. I used it to reline hoppers at concrete plants, and for backboards for gravel and sand conveyors. bullets generally won't even pierce 1/4 inch although 1/4 will eventually crack. 1/2 or 3/4 inch would be ideal. If there is a concrete plant nearby you may be able to get some "drop" pieces from them without having to buy full sheets:Fire:

[1Shirt]

Not the size you are looking for, but------The plates that hold RR rails to ties stand up very well, have holes in them that you can put bolts in and hang with chain.
Can often be found discarded along old railroad tracks. They are about 8"x12" roughly. Spray them white or orange. They hold up well against all the cast loads we have tried, and full power jacketed loads up to and including 06. Price is right also. Good Luck.
1Shirt!:coffeecom

[FN in MT]

+1 on the AR500 plates. They are expensive NOW but unless your shooting .50 BMG at them they hold up very well. I bought several assorted round plates fifteen years ago; 10" 12" and 16". They have been getting hit with everything from .22 LR to the big Wby's with zero problems. Closest is at 100 yds, farthest at 350. The longer the range, the better they hold up. You can switch the 100's and the 200's several times , as well as reverse them to help them withstand the beating.

We did have an idiot who put holes in some of the T-1 1/4" pistol plates at 25 yds with a .30-378 Wby and light Barnes copper X bullets. Apparently he needed a benchrest and a 6.5-20X 30mm scope to hit a 10" plate at 75'.

FN in MT

[StarMetal]

Not the size you are looking for, but------The plates that hold RR rails to ties stand up very well, have holes in them that you can put bolts in and hang with chain.
Can often be found discarded along old railroad tracks. They are about 8"x12" roughly. Spray them white or orange. They hold up well against all the cast loads we have tried, and full power jacketed loads up to and including 06. Price is right also. Good Luck.
1Shirt!:coffeecom


This is just for information, not to doubt or other wise discredit your post. When I was in high school (back during the industrial revolution...no no just kidding, but long ago) a few of my friend were shooting along the railroad tracks. Back where I grew up they called those "fish plates" and they are mild iron, certainly not high grade tempered steel or nothing. We found one and set it up and shot at it from a ways off so as not to get hurt if anything happened like ricochets or piece of metal flying off. We had a 30-06, a 7x57 Mauser, a 222 Rem, and a 30-30. There all used soft point hunting ammunition. All but one went through the plate and that was the 30-30. The biggest hole in the plate was caused by the 222 Rem. Now I think cast wouldn't have done much to it, but I find it amazing your 30-06 didn't go through it. Maybe your plates were made of better material, but I don't see why as all they do is pattern the spikes and hold them in position, plus make a raised area for the rail.

Joe

[Sprue]

There should be a Machine Shop nearby, go check them out. Also as mentioned the local scrap yard is a good bet as well.

We have gongs located @ 225, 250 and 300 yrds. They're plain flat steel circles aprox 18/24" in dia and 2" thick. You can easily hear them report back while wearing headphones or earplugs, even with 22 rifle.

At 55 yrds we have a hanging steel plate (12" x 2.5 ") thats supported by a piece logging chain welded to it and the frame.

We have to make repairs about every year and a half or so due to mainly the welds breaking on the support system(s). As for the targets themselves they'll last many years.

Once they are shot / hammered over a short period of time, if you took and rubbed the palm of your hand on it, it would have the same effect as taking a block of cheese and rubbing it over a grater.

As for a 3/8" piece of general plate steel for a rifle target at 100 yrds, it will be penetrated easily w/.223 and up.

Check back in a few mins and I'll see if I have a pic or two.

[Slowpoke]

This is just for information, not to doubt or other wise discredit your post. When I was in high school (back during the industrial revolution...no no just kidding, but long ago) a few of my friend were shooting along the railroad tracks. Back where I grew up they called those "fish plates" and they are mild iron, certainly not high grade tempered steel or nothing. We found one and set it up and shot at it from a ways off so as not to get hurt if anything happened like ricochets or piece of metal flying off. We had a 30-06, a 7x57 Mauser, a 222 Rem, and a 30-30. There all used soft point hunting ammunition. All but one went through the plate and that was the 30-30. The biggest hole in the plate was caused by the 222 Rem. Now I think cast wouldn't have done much to it, but I find it amazing your 30-06 didn't go through it. Maybe your plates were made of better material, but I don't see why as all they do is pattern the spikes and hold them in position, plus make a raised area for the rail.

Joe

There are several different thickness's out there for the tie plates as well as L X W sizes.

good luck

[dale2242]

If you can find them, discarded dozer track pads make great gongs Tougher than heck.---dale

[Texasflyboy]

Steel targets can be easily made from any number of materials depending on the need and application.

I don't always use AR 500 steel, or other hardened specialty steels because over time I've discovered that there are viable alternatives. I don't need super hard steel for lead pistol loads that are traveling less than 1400 fps. So instead I use mild steel. For rifle targets, there are hard steels that can be had pretty cheap as scrap or surplus.

Here are a few examples. The next photo is a boxcar coil spring pad that a rail boxcar uses. Note the thickness of this block. It's at least 3" thick. You can find these used at rail yards as scrap:

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t3.jpg


The blocks are hardened and are capable of taking multiple hits from .50BMG AP without fracturing. But understand, as a standing rule, we don't shoot steel with .50 AP unless the range is greater than 500 yards due to the danger of ricochets bouncing back to the shooting line. I am just saying, the blocks are capable of taking those kinds of hits, but that isn't what we use them for. Our use is limited to 95% .30 caliber rifle fire at ranges from 150 to 300 yards.

Taking the same block and cutting it in half gives these nice "swingers" that we use at 150 yards:

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t1.jpg

As you can see, the surface of this block shows thousands upon thousands of 5.56 Ball and .30 Ball/AP rounds over a 10 year period. You can see a few 1/2 AP cores stuck in some of the holes. This particular block was put in use in 1997 and is still going strong. The most frequent repair is the weld joint that fractures where the block meets the long rod that suspends it.

For pistol targets, here is what I made out of scrap steel. It's a manual reset design for the upper plate rack, after shooting the upper plates, you pull on a rope that is tied to the long white bar on the left side of the rack to reset the upper row of plates. The lower row of plates just swing back and forth when hit. The materials used were a 1/2" thick steel plate that is commonly used by many public works departments to cover open pot holes or other construction on roadways. Also used was a copious amount of rebar. Rebar and that mild steel account fo 98% of the materials used. My total out of pocket cost for each one of these racks was right at $140.00.

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t6.jpg

The upper and lower plate rack design incorporates a quick change feature to swap out plates when damaged.

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t8.jpg


Here is another shot of a lower plate quick change:


http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t9.jpg

And here is a Quicktime movie showing the manual reset in action:

Movie of Manual Reset of Upper Plate rack (http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t6.mov)



Using the same boxcar coil spring pad, I made this rocker rifle target for use at 300 yards. When a .30 caliber projectile hits the target, the force of the bullet impact drives the block down and "flashes" the white plate behind it to indicate a hit on the block. The welding was easy on this build, what was hard was calibrating the balance point to get the white plate to rise briefly and then return to the at rest position behind the block. That took a lot of fiddling to get just right. When the target is face on to you, you only see the orange block, not the white flasher plate. Unresolved are those shots that just barely miss the target block and instead strike the white flasher plate behind it. My fix was to make 5 white flasher plates and just change them out as needed. They seem to last a year or more before becoming riddled with holes.

http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t2.jpg


And here is a Quicktime movie of the flasher target working (understand I am pulling on a string to make it work just for demonstration purposes):

Movie of Flasher Target (http://hgmould.gunloads.com/a/t7.mov)

[Cherokee]

Nice targets !! I like your ideas.

[WickedGoodOutdoors]

This is just for information, not to doubt or other wise discredit your post. When I was in high school (back during the industrial revolution...no no just kidding, but long ago)
Joe


Thats Cool! You have to be the oldest guy on this website, Did you know Andy?

President Andrew Jackson: “I understand you taught us how to spin, so as to rival Great Britain in her manufactures; you set all these thousands of spindles at work, which I have been delighted in viewing, and which have made so many happy, by a lucrative employment.”


Here is andea for your Own Gong Show. A lot of oil well drilling companies just throw out the wellhead pipe caps. Just ask they usually will give you their trash( I mean Valuable GONGS) PS: Drill a hole and hang with a cable or rope if you want to have a cut the cord shoot. Dont laugh, I have seen guys cut a string at 10 yrds with a bullett and do it more than once.

http://www.1adventure.com/archives/images/oil-drilling-pipe-caps-blue-lowres.jpg

[94Doug]

I got some free 12-15" circles a few years back, a local guy was getting out of the Truck Pullin' game, and had some steel plates 1.5" thick to get rid of. He had found them from a company that threw them out for scrap, they all had a (Plasma?) cut starting at the center out to the edge, but other than that, they work fine.

[Old Ironsights]

And if all of the above fails, you can order a dandy, waranteed, 10" 500 brinell armorplate swinger with base DELIVERED for around $125... and have it arrive in less than a week.

http://metaltargets.com/SpinningTargets.htm#Gong

Read the article below for more insights...
http://www.6mmbr.com/reactivetargets.html

[StarMetal]

There are several different thickness's out there for the tie plates as well as L X W sizes.

good luck

Yes you are correct and I realized that. The one we shot was pretty thick. In fact they aren't an even flat plate. They kind of taper up thicker where the rail sets on them. This plate we shot was very heavy because it was pretty thick at the thickest point. I believe (long ago) that the thickest point was near an inch thick. Not saying all those shots went through the thickest portion either.

Joe

[PatMarlin]

Nice work on the gongs,. Got to make up some of those.

[crabo]

I love shooting steel. I made some targets that will knock down flat and set up easily.

I made some T bar legs with a sleeve in the top. Then I used conduit and welded a pin on each end. I then cut out the targets, welded a down rod with a hook. The targets set up in a flash and store flat when you want to haul them.

[Slow Elk 45/70]

Lots of good ideas, shows that some of us can still think for ourselves with out Govt intervention.

I've been using the same rams, pigs, turkeys and chicken targets I cut out back in the early
80's . They are made of T-1 plate. They will withstand most normal caliber bullets, you can ruin anything if you try hard enough I guess. Hanging plates of T-1 @ 100-600 yds last a long time, as stated above, rotate the closer targets with the long range and keep on shootin!!