I've shot my plate with thousands of rounds of all makes and calibres. It's not damaged at all. It's the cheap 3/8" AR 500 Caldwell Magnum Gong from Cabellas.
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I've shot my plate with thousands of rounds of all makes and calibres. It's not damaged at all. It's the cheap 3/8" AR 500 Caldwell Magnum Gong from Cabellas.
My AR500 plates have seen 1000s of any kind of 223/556 at 100m, 308WIN, 7.62x51 surplus and barely any damage on it...except the occasionnal SKS nutz shooting at it.
Here is the thing about gongs/plates not showing that much wear - smaller pieces of AR500 steel such as gongs or plates are usually suspended and when hit they swing or move and this mitigates some of the damage that the zippy 223 round will do.
Now consider a big heavy piece of that same steel that is fixed solidly to a stand like that hostage target. When it gets hit with that same speedy little 223 round, none of the energy can be dissipated by the movement of the plate so you end up with those little craters.
Velocity is what really kills steel , big heavy and moderate speeds take paint . My 338 snipetac at 3350 with a 300 gr will take a 1/8" chunk out . My 408 cheytac at 2950 with a 400 gr just removed the paint .
Originally Posted by stevesummit
Yeah there was some videos of hot loaded 22-250 punching holes in steel that .223 wasn't even touching
At 100 yds my .243 left craters in a 6" dia x 1/2" ar500 gong. I haven't shot it with anything that close since. The 25/06 with a 75gr hp at 3600 fps mv is fine at 300 yds, kicks the snot out of the gong, but just takes paint. I'm not sure if I've tried it at 200 or not, but I only have craters from the .243 at 100 yds.
But it looked at me funny...
No blonde moment... The target is rated for rifle calibers <3000 fps @ 100 yards. I was actually shooting at 110 yards at one point and still getting craters. I'm guessing the reasoning is that the Norinco copper coating is twice as thick as mentioned. I'll have to try with some pmc I have on the opposite side and see what happens I guess. Kinda disappointed she's all dented up now though :/
do you believe every advertisement it is all about PHYSICS!!
Hi Richmyster,
We are sorry to hear that you’ve experienced some issue with your target. Like some others have mentioned, the .223 is probably the ‘’worst’’ caliber for steel targets because it is on the very edge of the limit of what AR500 at 100 meters can take, Stevesummit is right, high velocity is extremely hard to dissipate. We have tested our targets with a wide variety of ammunition (Win, Norinco, Hornady, Federal, etc.) and we also found that some bullets do have thicker coating and some even have variation in speed of up to 200FPS from one round to the other making them that much harder to stop and dissipate the energy, causing premature pitting at rated distances.
As you can see in the picture below, we shot this static 12inch target at 75 meters with both .223 and .308 and you can clearly see that some pitting occurred after a few dozen rounds. For these test, we were using North American .223 FMJ which goes to show you how .223 is at the limit of what AR500 can handle. Unfortunately, we can’t single out every single type of ammunition for any given targets because of the number of possibilities. What we advise is to start further when using a new type of ammunition and work your way closer to find the sweet spot for every ammunition type. The durability of a steel target will always be determined by the shooter and it is fairly easy to destroy a AR500 target (we do it quite often). Our ratings are based on the minimum safe distance to shoot our targets which is also a good distance for the vast majority of calibers and ammunitions but there are and always will be exceptions.
As for the type of AR500 steel, there are a few companies out there making this type of steel and when tested, you quickly understand that all steel is not created equal. Pretty much every serious company who is making steel targets use the same type of AR500 steel. It is the same AR500 steel used for making the frames of the Canadian Leopard 2 tanks and the American M1A1 Abraham Tanks.
Below is one of our torture test plate, it was shot to the extreme to show what should not do and what could happen to every AR500 steel plate.
It was shot with anything from 1500 rounds of Norinco FMJ .223 at 25 to 75 meters to 5.56 green tips, 7.62 x 39 Steel core, .308, 300 Win Mag and .338 Lapua from distances ranging from 75 to 200 meters for a total of 3140 rounds. The bullets that did the most damage were the 5.56 Green tips at 75 meters and .223 at 25 to 75 meters. These tests were made under special conditions and the shooters were highly protected. Please do not try to replicate!
We are happy to see that some of you are well informed on steel targets and we want to thank you for voicing concerns and ideas. We are in business for the shooters and we really appreciate to get your feedback on our products. Feel free to contact us at info@xmetaltargets.com if you have any suggestions, ideas or comments. We try to keep a look on CGN as often as possible but sometimes it is not possible.
Thanks
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