New Gong

Gatehouse

Gatehouse

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Location
Pemberton BC
Finally got around to getting my buddy the welder to make me a gong. Goodbye to one shot water filed milk jugs, hello multi shot steel plate!!

At 420 yards, 2 shots from prone over my backpack, and 2 leaning across the hood of my truck, with the pack for a rest again:

n526315515_1462356_8911.jpg


I was pretty surprised that the prone and redneck style shooting ht to similar POI, but I did have the same POA.:)

Then I backed up to 500...

I felt a wee breeze on my legs as I settled in prone behind my pack, but it felt like it was a tailwind, and light, so I shot away. CLANG CLANG ..MISS!!!

As I walked up to the target, I felt a crosswind, that blew the bullets to the left. You can see the 2 hits on the left hand edge, sorry the pic is so blurry!:)


n526315515_1462376_3125.jpg



Anyway, for those of you that like reactive targets, especially where you don't want to go re set them because of distance, I'd highly reccomend gongs. They are always so much fun, and you dont' need to clean up, re set or anything!


:D
 
How deep did those splashes dig in to the plate?

Yer gonna have to have a talk to your welder about some hardfacing rod, if you start getting through holes on the plate, eh?

Nothing quite as frustrating as making a good shot, and getting no reaction!

Nice looking rig!

Cheers
Trev
 
Very cool Clarke!

Do you have any pictures of the stand? I see the top swivels on a pipe or something. Also, what are the approx. dimensions of the gong?

That is the ultimate way to practice - shooting in field conditions.

Good job.


James
 
Interesting craters. What caliber are you shooting with what grain bullet? What is the thickness of the plate? I'd look at 1/2" for some long term usage. I think its a safe bet if a bullet hits anywhere in or around the crater you might have it fly through or crack your plate.

I wish I had open fields to shoot in!
 
I've had a steel gong for yrs. I have it set out at 150 yds and it great for offhand and testing guns. Its 16" wide and 20" deep. I spray paint mine flat black once in a while to get rid of the bullet splats. I even shoot it with the 22.(with some elevation) If the lights different you can spray flat white and get a different pic------Cowboy
 
Great job on the gong, i love shooting them at the range as well. Got a question for you Gatehouse.... how faint are the hits on the gong? Are they hard to hear? I've only shot at gongs out to 200 yards, and the sound definitely drops off the further you go out... So is it fairly easy to hear hits out to 400 and 500 yards?
 
I htink I specified an 8-9" plate. I'll measure it at one point...:)

Plate is 3/4" thick, it will take a while to wear it out with expanding bullets. We've got a 1.25" thick gong at our range, and no bullet has come close to penetration in many years.:)

Rifle is a 300 WSM, shooting 125gr Ballistic Tip bullets at about 3500 FPS. It's my practice load for the 130gr TTSX bullets, which go about the same speed but interestingly shoot about 3 MOA higher than the BT's..So I just adjust the scope 3 MOA and it seems to work close enough for practice.

I've notices that whenever I've used hollow point bullets on a gong, - Whether they have a actual hollow point or there is a plastic tip, it makes a little raised "dimple" in the bullet hole in the gong- The black dots in the middle of each hit. Soft points just make a hole.:)

I shoudl have taken a pick of the whole rig, but the it's just some angle iron welded into an "A" with a sleeve welded to the top, for the cross support which holds the gong.:)
 
Gylar said:
Great job on the gong, i love shooting them at the range as well. Got a question for you Gatehouse.... how faint are the hits on the gong? Are they hard to hear? I've only shot at gongs out to 200 yards, and the sound definitely drops off the further you go out... So is it fairly easy to hear hits out to 400 and 500 yards?
Click to expand...

I hear a "whock" like when you hit a deer at 200+ yards, but also, I see the gong swing a bit through the scope.
 
We shot some 800 metre gongs a few months ago and all I know is it sure took a long time for the sound of the hit to get back to you. Gongs are a blast and as Gatehouse pointed out, far more practical than water-filled milk jugs and such. They can be fairly portable and offer some great long-range practice. That's some fine shooting there Gate!
 
We built one out of a cut off from one of our hydraulic cylinder rods. It is a 12" dia IIRC and almost two inches thick. It is a bit of a pig to haul around let along try to keep held up. She is too heavy to see wing at even 100yds hitting with 300gr from a 375 H&H but there is no mistake from the audible chawack you get to hear. Quite entertaining.
 
If you hang the gong with a 15 degree tilt to deflect down you will not have to worry about penetration as much. The thick steel is so heavy it doesn't move much when hanging "flat".... so you can get better results with lighter plate with a deflect angle...not so heavy to carry. An oblong cut on a down deflect will still give you a round target.
 
We would also take a spray bomb of your favorite color and just paint over the strikes for a new target.
Our first bullet trap used 1/2" mild plate on a 45 degree angle. It wasn't long and we chewed right through it. Time to bring out the AR500 plate.
 
nice gong, i think im going to borrow the design :D

this is a little one i havent got out to shoot yet:

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My friend made one using a cap plate for steam pipe, I think it was steam pipe 1" or so thick with four holes where they would have bolted together works great, FMJ 308 only make a small 'splash'

I had made one out of 3/4" plate 4: 4"x5" plates at the end of 18" arms on a center pole hit will spin the hole thing, but the fmj 308 gets half way through.

another was made with the scraper blade off a bulldozer the steal is so hard hits only knock the paint off!
 
Gatehouse said:
Anyway, for those of you that like reactive targets, especially where you don't want to go re set them because of distance, I'd highly reccomend gongs. They are always so much fun, and you dont' need to clean up, re set or anything!
:D
Click to expand...

X2!!

I pretty much only use the 200 meter steel ram gong at our range, and only use paper now to set a scope in.

I even have a resetting .22 target stand.

Way more fun IMHO then shooting paper all day.
 
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