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 :/
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
