Check out my gong!

4ked Horn · #1 03-09-2004, 10:29 PM

Here are the pictures of my ¾” thick T1 gong after a fun Sunday shooting with Gonehuntingagain in the Idaho desert. We shot the gong as a terminus target mostly. It was set at 400 yards behind paper targets at 100, 200, and 300. I fired a .308 Win (165 gr sgk) out of a stock Rem VLS under a leupold 4.5 x 14 tactical w/ mil dot reticle mounted up with a custom tapered one piece base with integral rings made by Daryll Holland in Oregon.

Gonehuntingagain shot a .308 and a .300 win mag. I’ll leave it to him to fill you in on the details.

My shooting wasn’t the best but we had fun. The wind was 0 to 12 mph at full to half value.

The first picture is just the whole gong with the different splashes visible.
1. Small impacts with small splash =. 308 @ 400 yds
2. Small impacts with larger star like splashes= .300 @ 400 yds
3. Large impact with almost no splash = .300 @ 100 yards.

Picture #2 is just an edge view of the plate.

Picture #3 is a close up of the 3 types of impacts. The small ones were un measureable but could be felt with a finger. The medium impacts were about .010” at the deepest point which was the area around the center dot. (see next picture) The largest impacts measured .110” at the deepest point. The paint did not splash due to the raised edge of the crater deflecting the sideways blast of lead and copper.

Picture #4 Is the best example of a .300 impact at 400 yards with a 200 gr accubond.

Picture #5 Close up of crater. Notice that the straight edge is resting on the lip of the dish and not the flat part of the plate.

Picture #6 This is the back of the plate. The circular areas on the left are from the 100 yrd .300 win hits. They can be felt when you run your hand over them. The jackets on the right are the best ones we found. All I can say is, they are flatter than flat.

We also knocked the stuffing out of a bowling ball. It was hanging out at 400 with the gong. Once we felt good on the gong we went bowling.

[ 03-09-2004: Message edited by: 4ked Horn ]

Dave King · #2 03-10-2004, 04:55 AM

Great and useful info thanks.

I'm still on a quest to get my 3/8th's inch AR500 but haven't ordered the stuff yet. Maybe I'll look into some 3/4 inch T1 too.

Good descriptive photos.

Thanks again.

baldeagle713 · #3 03-10-2004, 05:12 AM

Where can ya order the steel from?

Brent · #4 03-10-2004, 05:23 AM

Dave,
Go with AR400 over T1, it's much better. We just set up a stand and a piece of 1'x1'x3/4" T1 and the same with AR400 for the local range to do a comparison test before bying all the rest of the plates. I'm setting up another stand and 8 more plates of AR400 tomarrow. $1 per lb is what I paid, either type was the same, and that was cut out too. Everyone else in town wanted a $45 burn charge, plus $1 per lb.

1" thick 1'x1' weighs 40 lbs
3/4" = 30 lbs
1/2" = 20 lbs etc, so it's easy to figure the price. The burn charge is an hourly rate, and they can cut out what ever pattern you want for the same price.

The T1 had divots about .050" deep, cratered. The 6.5 WSM with 140 SMK's at 3150 was the worst, the 30-338 L with 200 Accubonds at 3140 was close to the same thing, still cratered. The 338 WSM with 300 SMK's at 2350 and the 300 WM with 180 BST's at 3150 were about the same, just a tad less than the 30-338 craters. All were shot at 300 yards.

The AR400 had scratches on it!, The 6.5 WSM with 140's at 3150 took maybe .010" of metal off, just enough to feel a concave in the steel, no crater or indication it was soft at 300 yards what so ever. I'm guessing 1/2" or even 3/8" AR400 may have reacted the same. The 3/4" may be over kill at 300 yards, even for the highest power rifles, save the 50 bmg.

1/2" T1 would be fine for 308 Win, even at 100 yards, been there on 3/8" and it worked fine but had a slight dimple on the back with one of the shots. The 300 WSM blew right through it, so I'd go 1/2" or just buy 3/8" AR400 and be done with it "for the 308".

AR500 would be sweet at 100 yards I'm guessing, but I don't shoot steel that close after the reports I've heard of flying jackets etc.

I've got some pix I'll post tomarrow too.

[ 03-10-2004: Message edited by: Brent ]

Brent · #5 03-10-2004, 05:43 AM

Jody,
A local steel yard will have T1 and AR400 in sheets, it's used all the time. AR500 is a little less common "up here", and special ordering a 4'x8' sheet to get some from Seattle was way too spendy! Nobody had it up here... I'm glad I experimented with AR400. I was going to just get 1" thick stuff to be safe, but decided to try a couple 3/4" and also to compare the T1 and AR400 at the same time, then buy the rest.

Funny, every steel yard I talked to said I wouldn't need anything harder than T1, they even thought it might be more than I needed... Wrong! I'm glad I tried it.

On the brinnel scale AR400 was BHN 365 I think, T1 was BHN 320. AR500 has a minimum brinnel hardness of 500...

The hardness is what you want.

You have to preheat the AR400 and 500 plate before you weld on it though, you can just burn on T1 without preheating. I was out of oqygen, and the propane torch heated it up just fine to weld the pipe on the top edge. 175 amps burns the 7018 into it good! [img]images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

jb1000br · #6 03-10-2004, 06:35 AM

Brent--338 wsm with a 300smk at 3350fpps??? [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img] [img]images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

JB

gonehuntingagain · #7 03-10-2004, 06:48 AM

4ked Horn - as soon as we finish welding up that shooting table I think we need to go out and shoot the gong some more. We need to find another bowling ball for me to cut in half with the 300 again!

One thing that I think is a little odd is the copper jackets in picture #6 all had 1 edge that was not completely flattened on all jackets we found - the 1 edge still was curved forward. Does anyone have any ideas why?