Are those shallow craters in the plate or just lead deposits? I probably can get my hands on some of that plate from an equipment mechanic friend of mine.Originally Posted by Von Gruff
I made this one for my heavier rifles and it has taken full power 404 Jeffery shots with ease. Used wearalloy that is used for digger buckets - dozer blades repair.
Put the angle iron on after a couple of low hits.
Easy to set up and transport to the range.
Von Gruff.
It is the heat treated 370gn cast 404 Jeffery bullet at 2365fps at 55 yds that leaves the shallow craters. My practice 160gn lino cast bullets at 2415fps leave only lead smear. Jacketed 303 bullets left a barely discernable crater. Have been using it for nearly 10 years and dont expect to damage it beyond use in any future shooting.
Of course the angle iron is mild steel and will take a deep crater but is still the origonal. Accurate shooting keeps it from too much damage.
Von Gruff.
Last edited by Von Gruff; 05-02-2012 at 08:22 PM.
Thanks. I think the next time I'm in the area where my buddy's shop is I'll make time to dig through his scrap pile. I know he has a bunch of take-off cutter edges and wear plates. All the steel targets I've made to date have been out of mild steel but I get it free from work. I'm in commercial construction and we always have left over concrete embed plates. They don't last long when shooting them with high powered rifles but the price is good.
Here's one I made a while back. It was an extra baseplate for a pre-cast concrete column. I cut the gong from the base plate and used what was left for the stand.
Thumbs up for the base. Good use of the öff-cut". If you have easy access to the squares would it not be a simple exercise to hang them with one point up so no cutting would be involved. Weld on a hanger and you are good to go. Could use the points as a scope leveling guide as is done with the printed targets that feature the square diamond concept. Round looks good but for a rapid destruction of the mild steel I would be looking to minimise labour input.
Von Gruff.
Good idea. I've used similar methods but not that one exactly. Recently I've simply been welding rebar legs to them.
I'm fascinated to see the ideas that folks come up with for targets and methods of fabrication. Great thread.
I did that with an 8" square plate, drilled a hole in one corner and hung it up in my 50 yard target berm. It not only makes an excellent target, but is very useful for scope leveling (as suggested) and also bore sighting my rifles before confirming on paper at 50 and then 100 or 200 yards.
The two pepper poppers have a board keeping them up so as not to have to reset them. The falling plate rack is for rimfire only and I have 50 yards of parachute cord that stretches up to my driveway. Knock them down and yank them back up. The railroad tie backstop is only to protect my trees from taking a lot of lead. A buddy came out and back-filled a dirt mound/berm about 4 feet tall behind the ties.
The view of my yard just says "this guy's a shooter".
How does the wife feel about your "lawn ornaments"? Where are the gnomes?
No spousal unit to interfere with my addiction to guns and shooting and hunting. I've been a confirmed bachelor my entire life. I have a deer stand up in a large cottonwood tree just beyond that target berm.
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