Safe distance for shooting at metal targets?

C

Cat_Doctor

New member
What is a safe distance to shoot at metal targets? Shooting mostly 9mm and .357. I like to hear the plink, but I don't want any accidents either. Any help would be appreciated.
 
There is no absolute dividing line. A 10 yard target is probably 1000 times as likely to cause injury as a 100 yard target.

Even a 200 yard target can cause a one in 1,000,000 injury. If you worry about one in a million things, you are either paranoid, or playing the lottery.

Jack
 
If you are using jacketed bullets, 25 yds is the closest and you may still get piece of jacket that can cut you. For lead bullets, 10 yds is as close as you need to be. Still a chance to get nicked but not as bad as the jacket ones. Also depends on if the targets are falling ones, swinging, or stationary! I shot these type of targets for years in the IPSC/USPSA matches around the country and can't remember ever getting hit by fragments.
 
I was shooting a 10/22 at 56 yds one day and they were coming back and landing on the tin roof of the shoot house. I heard it once and asked arround if anyone heard it.I kept plinking and sure enough,they were returning from the iron gong 56 yds and landing on the tin roof.Not every shot,maybe 1-50. It is sound advice to not shoot so close as to frag yourself or others.
I seen a couple cowboy shooters shooting a 45 L colt at an iron gong 10 yds away,now that kinda made me uneasy.Not only are you within 10 yds from a serious metal fragmentation.Not good!
It's a waste of ammo to shoot at a target so close as to feel the percussion in the air of the bullet impact.LOL

Far be it from me to try to boss anyone arround or try to tell someone how to style thier shooting,but I wonder sometimes if the guy next to me is stupid or just trigger happy.LOL Shooting serious rounds(or a .22 for that matter) that close is just kinda common sense really.Some people really lack it.
I shot a 762x39 at a cinder block 75 yds away and a piece of the jacket came back to a friend next to me and sliced the skin under his eye.Explain that one.Bad angle I guess.It felt real ****ty to help remove a piece of russian copper from my friends cheek!Not cool! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif I will never say never again. LOL jerryboy
 
I've had my share of 45ACP lead come back and thump me or another on the firing line at 50' more than a time or two. I don't know about other distances on steel targets.
 
Back in the late 70's we were just getting the Metallic silloute shooting going. We had some hopped up handguns but most were stock .357's up. At the Regional shoot, I kept hearing a buzzing sound overhead. a few minutes later an observer suddenly grabbed her face and doubled over with blood rushing between her fingers. The jacketed bullets were hitting the steel targets and making a crater and the jackets were turning inside out and reversing direction and coming back at the shooting line. We picked up several jackets about 30 yards behind the shooting line and they were complete and turned inside out. This was from targets at 50 and 100 meters. We decided to use only T-3 hardened steel from then on with targets
 


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