New to Long Range Shooting

[YHUNTER]

Hello

First i would like to say this is a great site with people sharing info and helping newbies with questions. I have learned a lot just from reading various replies to reloading and shooting ?'s. Thanks to all who share and want to help.

Starting to do some long range shooting out to 600 yards. Is it necessary to use ar500 steel for all distances. I will be shooting .223 and 308. Will 223 and 308 penetrate normal 1/2" plate steel at 100 yds ?. Need some help on a limited budget.

Thanks again for any info.

yhunter

 

[BallisticsGuy]

I'm going to start with an admonishment: Safety is not something you put on a limited budget. Do it safe or you will hurt yourself or someone else. Bullets cannot be called back. Once you launch it, the fallout is all on you but the damage can be inflicted to someone else. How would you deal with it if your actions injured someone? Just go to ebay and order some AR500 plates and call it a day. They're not very expensive even for us po'folk. If you're tight on $, save up the 100 bucks. You will gain NOTHING by half-assing safety.

To be technically correct, no, you don't "need" AR500 (or other armor steels) at all with a .308 or .223 to avoid a clean penetration even at 100yrds. In fact 1/2" mild steel is more than sufficient to prevent clean penetration even at contact distance with those chamberings. That's not to say it's safe in the least.

You should definitely use proper armor steel no matter what. Penetration of the target isn't the only worry. Hell that's not even really a problem considering what the problems are that are actual problems. At least with a clean penetration the bullet is on the far side of the target. Divots/craters on the other hand make for excellent places for BAD things to start to happen on the shooter's side of the target like the dreaded "return to sender" where a bullet or fragment comes back to the shooter. I've had it happen, to me. Pocked up steel also makes for other ricochet problems.

The last bit, AR500 will last you for years. I have IPSC silhouettes that have literally 10,000 hits on them with everything up to and including belted magnums that are 10 years old and only 3/8" thick with zero pock marks. The paint is rougher than the surface after that much time.

 

[jpd676]

Speed is what kills steel targets. 1/2" AR500 targets suggest anything at or above 3000fps is a problem and will mark up your targets. I was at the range a few weeks ago and a guy pulled out a new AR500 target to shoot at with .223/5.56. I told him about the speed being the issue. He shot some mild reloads under 3k and the target did fine. He then shot some hot loads with 55gr going around 3100 and it dinged the hell out of his target.

 

[YHUNTER]

Thanks for the info. I definitely want to keep safety first.

Hello

First i would like to say this is a great site with people sharing info and helping newbies with questions. I have learned a lot just from reading various replies to reloading and shooting ?'s. Thanks to all who share and want to help.

Starting to do some long range shooting out to 600 yards. Is it necessary to use ar500 steel for all distances. I will be shooting .223 and 308. Will 223 and 308 penetrate normal 1/2" plate steel at 100 yds ?. Need some help on a limited budget.

Thanks again for any info.

yhunter

QUOTE="BallisticsGuy, post: 1554998, member: 96226"]I'm going to start with an admonishment: Safety is not something you put on a limited budget. Do it safe or you will hurt yourself or someone else. Bullets cannot be called back. Once you launch it, the fallout is all on you but the damage can be inflicted to someone else. How would you deal with it if your actions injured someone? Just go to ebay and order some AR500 plates and call it a day. They're not very expensive even for us po'folk. If you're tight on $, save up the 100 bucks. You will gain NOTHING by half-assing safety.

To be technically correct, no, you don't "need" AR500 (or other armor steels) at all with a .308 or .223 to avoid a clean penetration even at 100yrds. In fact 1/2" mild steel is more than sufficient to prevent clean penetration even at contact distance with those chamberings. That's not to say it's safe in the least.

You should definitely use proper armor steel no matter what. Penetration of the target isn't the only worry. Hell that's not even really a problem considering what the problems are that are actual problems. At least with a clean penetration the bullet is on the far side of the target. Divots/craters on the other hand make for excellent places for BAD things to start to happen on the shooter's side of the target like the dreaded "return to sender" where a bullet or fragment comes back to the shooter. I've had it happen, to me. Pocked up steel also makes for other ricochet problems.

The last bit, AR500 will last you for years. I have IPSC silhouettes that have literally 10,000 hits on them with everything up to and including belted magnums that are 10 years old and only 3/8" thick with zero pock marks. The paint is rougher than the surface after that much time.[/QUOTE]

 

[YHUNTER]

Thanks for the info. 308 speed won't be an issue. But my 223 50gr handloads might be an issue being near 3100 FPS.

Speed is what kills steel targets. 1/2" AR500 targets suggest anything at or above 3000fps is a problem and will mark up your targets. I was at the range a few weeks ago and a guy pulled out a new AR500 target to shoot at with .223/5.56. I told him about the speed being the issue. He shot some mild reloads under 3k and the target did fine. He then shot some hot loads with 55gr going around 3100 and it dinged the hell out of his target.