Steel Target

[weekend welder]

Im in the planning stages of building a steel target for .22 rimfire . it will be a plate rack with 6 to 10, 2 inch round targets. The 2inch round is 3/8 thick Ar500 steel and the pivot arm will be a mild steel 3/8 thick x 1inch wide. My question is, Is there anything special I should know about welding a hardend and tempered steel to a mild steel?

I have access to several mig and stick welders and in pretty good at both. Any suggestions on what electrode or wire and gas. I think my friends gas in his MM252 is 75/25.

Frank aka The Weekend Welder

[Jim-TX]

Shooting them with a .22 shouldn't be a problem. You didn't say how the arm meets the target, but I'd notch out the arm so that you have a little more surface to weld, then wire weld it since that's the easiest way. If you prefer, you could use 7018 stick. I think either would work fine for that.

[jamscal]

Watch this first



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mn0MFqP1js0

[weekend welder]

All of the steel target web sites iv looked at ALL say DO NOT SHOOT STEEL BULLETS OR STEEL SHOT AGAINST A STEEL TARGET. Id also like to know how close his target was. I am looking to shoot a lead bullet from a rimfire 22. I have shot many calibers 38 44 41 at steel targets at ranges of 25 to 500 yards and further and have never seen a ricochet like that.

Frank

[Jim-TX]

I've seen that video and it's a little scary, however, 50 BMG and .22 are a little different. I've shot plates with everything from .45 acp down to .22 and never had a problem with one coming back at me.

[Jim-TX]

I've got some trees to the side of my targets and those take a beating. It's evident that the spattered lead goes out to the sides when hitting the steel.

[Bodybagger]

I was shooting an aluminum pan with a .22 when I was kid. It was about 50 feet away and I was next to the tool shed. I was tearing through a magazine as fast as I could pull the trigger, like a punk kid would, and stopped about 1 shot after I heard the glass break. Out of 10 or so, 2 ended up in the shed. One hit the wall and the other took out the window... about 10 feet apart on the building.

They caught the edge of the pan just right and rode the curve.

I never shot at anything thicker than sheet metal after that.

[grits]

Mild steel should be fine with a 22". We were shooting center fire pistols at a swinger with a 1/2" thick ten inch round piece of plate. Everything was fine until I shot it with a 375 H&H.

See of you can get you hands on a NRA range manual. I have one somewhere and I will see if I can find it.

Also, check out the www.nra.org and you might be able to find something. I would also contact Brownells tech support. www. brownells.com.

You should get all the info you need at one of the places.

grits

[Marcel Bauer]

For the application you are suggesting, any method for welding steel will be sufficient.

If you angle the bottom of the discs slightly away from you the bullets will tend to deflect downwards and since the targets are swinging this will accentuate this deflection even more. Ricochet should not be a problem.

Just the same, avoid shooting them from too close a distance, and ALWAYS wear safety glasses! Avoid placing the targets over a hard irregular surface such as rocks. Loose dirt or sand would be best.

I am assuming the discs will hang under the swing frame.

May I also suggest having the 3/8" section of the pivot arm facing you to minimize hits on it?

[FATFAB]

Was in Sportsman *****house just before Laborday weekend, they had nice looking metal(steel presumably) 4 - 6 place swinging targets rack stand whole shebang for $40.00 made in chink land I'm sure.