Ring a ding ding.....

[Supaduke]

Going to the range this weekend. Got my mate who goes shooting with me to whip these up.

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12mm, fairly hard steel. Going to spray paint them bright yellow or orange. Got 8 of them. Bit of an experiment with the carabiner clips, had a few floatin around.
150mm X 150mm
Ding ding ding

[Gamerancher]

They look sweet! Depends on the colour of the backstop but you'll find if you buy a can or two of white primer it will stick to the metal well and dry quick. It's also flat so you won't get a shiny target. Black cross-hair on white target. After years of experience shooting and painting steel targets, that's my recommendation. You get a good, dark dot on impact too which is easy to spot. Pic shows what black-powder / lead projectiles leave @ 500m.
High velocity, jacketed ammo leaves a much more distinctive mark.

[Supaduke]

Thanks Gamerancher, your reasoning sounds sensible to me. White primer it is then.

[Noisydad]

Yep black or white are the only colours you'll need wether your using a scope or iront sights.

[rsj223]

If your going to Little River I think you have to check with the RO to see if they approve it or not and something about only being out past 200 meters could be wrong.

[Supaduke]

So I went to Little River range on Sunday. Weather was crisp and cool with very little wind, perfect day for shooting. Painted the gongs with white primer as suggested and they worked well. Set them up at 200m, 250m and 300m. They took a beating but held up well.

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.223 at 250m

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.223 at 250m , 55gr OSA blitzking

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.308 at 250m 168gr Sierra MK's

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.308 168gr SMK's

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.308 left, .223 right

We continued to pummel them all day. Put over 50 rounds into each with zero penetration, I think I could safely get two or three sessions from each plate. More with the .223.

And tapping gongs with a .22 at 200m is great fun. Gongs in general are great fun at the range and highly recommended.
I didn't even have to be looking down range to tell if my mate had got a hit, very satisfying .

[on_one_wheel]

Keep your eyes open for a can of this stuff.
It dries almost instantly and is heavy white with one coat. It's cheaper than cans of good paint to.
Just make sure it gets a extra good shake, it's so thick and chunky it blocks the nozzle easily otherwise. I find that if it lives in the ute, it stays good to go because it's constantly shaken.
$6 per can at bunnings.

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[Gamerancher]

Yeah, meant to tell you that mild steel will get hammered with high velocity jacketed ammo. You'll find that your .223 will do just as much , sometimes more damage.
Proper Silhouette targets are made from BISALLOY, can't remember what grade, ( you there Strikey? ) it can stand up to repeated use no matter what you throw at it. Although I reckon Brett1868 would have something that would destroy even that stuff. It's horribly expensive compared to mild steel.
The DY-MARK paint is what we usually use for competition for the reasons given, I do still reckon white primer, especially on bare steel has the edge on it.

If you love the sound of smacking bullets into steel, have a go at Metallic Silhouette. Not only do you get the sound, but you also get the visual of your target taking a tumble. Nailing rams at 500m and watching them fall is very satisfying. Sending a 200m chicken cartwheeling through the air can be very entertaining.
We shoot 11 different classes from air rifle through to big bore black-powder cartridge. There are four targets, chicken, pig, turkey and ram. A match is 40 shots, 10 of each animal. They are all free-standing on stands and to score you have to knock them off. They are scaled for the various classes and distances.
Targets for Air-rifle are at 20,30,36 & 45 yards. Rimfire ( .22L.R only) are at 40, 60, 77 & 100m. Centrefire( minimum 6mm/.243 ) are at 200,300, 385 and 500m. All are shot off-hand unsupported ( no slings) using scoped rifles. There are 2 classes in rimfire and centrefire, open and hunter. Open is where you'll get fancy custom rifles up to 4.6 kg and hunter must be a standard, out of the box rifle not exceeding 4.2kg for c/fire and 3.86 for r/fire with minimum 2lb trigger. You can use your hunter rifle in open class, many people do. It 'aint easy, but it can be a very rewarding challenge.
Then there is Lever-action Rifle in small-bore, pistol calibre and rifle class. You shoot half-sized targets at 40,50 75 & 100m in small-bore ( .22 rimfire ) and pistol caliber and full-size targets at 50,100,150 & 200m in rifle class. Again shot off-hand but using open sights only, barrel, receiver or tang mounted. These matches are a lot cheaper to get into and very popular as you tend to hit a lot more targets as they are a lot bigger than the scoped rifle ones.. A $400 30/30 gives you as much chance as the next man/woman.
We also shoot BPCR, fullbore and .22 and Service Rifle matches although these are less regular.
Always looking for new shooters, so look up the nearest SSAA club that shoots it and have a go.

[Supaduke]

TBH they lasted better than I expected, mate has access to free steel so I'm happy if we can get 2-3 sessions out of them. I have a small STS target and it works well but they ain't cheap.
The carabiner clips lasted ok, certainly didn't take a direct hit too well though. Need to look at more durable mounting options.

The can of primer I got promised x2 coverage, it worked very well with one quick coat. As suggested the white was very easy to see and get on target.

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I have the rifles to cover a few of the metallic silhouette events so I will definitely give that a go one day. Really taken an interest in various competitions lately, will add it to the list of things to try.

[Gamerancher]

Be careful, I started out just having a "look", now nearly 20 years and many rifles and $$$$ later I just can't quit.
It's all been good, lots of great friends and travel to many places.
The reason I recommend the primer is that if you have a look , the Dy-mark is water based = rust.

[MalleeFarmer]

I use a bisalloy 500 plate the .308 hardly marks it even with 165 and 168gr projectiles. Everything else is fine. I'm a bit dubious about shooting steel with a .22LR as CF rifles have enough velocity to smash the projectile up and deflect the remainder into the ground. A .22 may just squash and ricochet back towards you. They may not but I avoid it anyway.

[Strikey]

Yeah, meant to tell you that mild steel will get hammered with high velocity jacketed ammo. You'll find that your .223 will do just as much , sometimes more damage.
Proper Silhouette targets are made from BISALLOY, can't remember what grade, ( you there Strikey? ) it can stand up to repeated use no matter what you throw at it. Although I reckon Brett1868 would have something that would destroy even that stuff. It's horribly expensive compared to mild steel.
The DY-MARK paint is what we usually use for competition for the reasons given, I do still reckon white primer, especially on bare steel has the edge on it.

If you love the sound of smacking bullets into steel, have a go at Metallic Silhouette. Not only do you get the sound, but you also get the visual of your target taking a tumble. Nailing rams at 500m and watching them fall is very satisfying. Sending a 200m chicken cartwheeling through the air can be very entertaining.
We shoot 11 different classes from air rifle through to big bore black-powder cartridge. There are four targets, chicken, pig, turkey and ram. A match is 40 shots, 10 of each animal. They are all free-standing on stands and to score you have to knock them off. They are scaled for the various classes and distances.
Targets for Air-rifle are at 20,30,36 & 45 yards. Rimfire ( .22L.R only) are at 40, 60, 77 & 100m. Centrefire( minimum 6mm/.243 ) are at 200,300, 385 and 500m. All are shot off-hand unsupported ( no slings) using scoped rifles. There are 2 classes in rimfire and centrefire, open and hunter. Open is where you'll get fancy custom rifles up to 4.6 kg and hunter must be a standard, out of the box rifle not exceeding 4.2kg for c/fire and 3.86 for r/fire with minimum 2lb trigger. You can use your hunter rifle in open class, many people do. It 'aint easy, but it can be a very rewarding challenge.
Then there is Lever-action Rifle in small-bore, pistol calibre and rifle class. You shoot half-sized targets at 40,50 75 & 100m in small-bore ( .22 rimfire ) and pistol caliber and full-size targets at 50,100,150 & 200m in rifle class. Again shot off-hand but using open sights only, barrel, receiver or tang mounted. These matches are a lot cheaper to get into and very popular as you tend to hit a lot more targets as they are a lot bigger than the scoped rifle ones.. A $400 30/30 gives you as much chance as the next man/woman.
We also shoot BPCR, fullbore and .22 and Service Rifle matches although these are less regular.
Always looking for new shooters, so look up the nearest SSAA club that shoots it and have a go.

I think in the early days silhouettes were cut from Bis 180 but eventually the chickens and pigs were sustaining a bit too much damage, also in the rules why magnum calibres are generally not permitted, most clubs that shoot silhouette regularly have probably changed them to Bis 400, turkeys and rams may still be Bis 180,
Personally I would be a bit worried shooting mild steel with high velocity ammo, I reckon there might be a good chance of something coming back at you if the projectile hit the edge of a pock mark from a previous shot, hardened steel will guarantee the projectile breaks up and disperses its energy.

I use a bisalloy 500 plate the .308 hardly marks it even with 165 and 168gr projectiles. Everything else is fine. I'm a bit dubious about shooting steel with a .22LR as CF rifles have enough velocity to smash the projectile up and deflect the remainder into the ground. A .22 may just squash and ricochet back towards you. They may not but I avoid it anyway.

A .22 rimfire projectile is fairly close to being pure lead, if you shoot steel square on they just flatten out and drop to the ground. In all the years I have shot rimfire silhouette there has never been anything come back towards the firing line, admittedly the closest targets are 40m but for safety I wouldn't recommend shooting steel any closer with a rimfire just in case of that one off shot that decides to come back

[ebr love]

Be careful, I started out just having a "look", now nearly 20 years and many rifles and $$$$ later I just can't quit.

Yeah but think of all the petrol you're saving when you can look at them at home instead of driving to your LGS all the time.

You're a true environmentalist