Saturdays practice went well. We didn’t start until mid-day due to the weather. After we got setup we had several people trickle in throughout the day and shot for several hours. We had several different stage setups.

For the shooting practice we used some new steel targets that we learned from. We had made some hanging steel targets made of a mild steel. We learned that the steel we used in the targets was not hard or tough enough. The standard full metal jacket .223 caliber ammo we were using was creating major impressions and mis-shaping the steel plates almost to the point of total penetration. We used the plates during warm-up until a ricochet tapped a shooter on the shoulder. We immediately called a cease-fire and analyzed the steel plates. We took down the steel plates and are now going back to the drawing board.

The next steel targets need to be made from a thicker and harder steel. Perhaps something as hard as military armor plating. Due to the heavy weight, high cost, and lack of portability steel plates maybe have to put on hold. The hanging steel plate design may need some type of light material to hang down to the steel plate. Perhaps something like rubber from an old conveyor belt may be a good solution. A design idea maybe something like the ones listed in this forum will be in our design plans.

We don’t have a practice scheduled before our next competition on May 31st at Steel City Shooting Sports Association in Hoover.