Notice

Welcome to our beautiful and beloved club. Please help us keep it that way by picking up after yourself and taking your trash home with you.

You carried it in, so you carry it out.

The good folks who volunteer their time to mow should not have to stop and pick up debris that could damage the mower or otherwise be thrown by the mower.

AR500

EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.

12 inch hanging steel targets on pistol range 4, 25 yard range. Reminder, no cenerfire rifle on hanging steel in pistol ranges.

https://www.facebook.com/jeff.chimileski/videos/2077185822625111

As of 2022 rule 6 was revised to forbid leaving mild steel unattended on ranges. Lock up or take your mild steel targets back home with you. 

6. Shoot ONLY authorized targets. No glass! No exploding targets. No propane tanks. No objects that will shatter into fragments that may become difficult or dangerous to pick up. Shoot into backstops ONLY! PICK UP YOUR TRASH AND TAKE IT HOME WITH YOU. No paper or cardboard on 500 range to avoid mess. Only AR500 club steel is allowed on any rifle or pistol range. No mild steel targets allowed to be left unattended on any range. Lock up or take home mild steel.

Bullets vs Steel at 800,000 FPS – The Slow Mo Guys, November 2023

Click here–> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9To4vimvHYE

at 3 minute 27 second mark, see the starburst pattern of pistol bullet on half inch steel plate.

Mixup98 November 2017

Beginners Guide To Shooting Steel Plates – How To Build A Rack, Etc.

Click here –> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fo6gIV-z00Q

Before shooting steel targets with pistol at Greene Rod and Gun Club, please watch this and other educational videos below.

At 5 minute 57 second mark, listen to his words on safety. EVERYONE must wear eye protection, including spectators. You will get hit with some fragments coming back at you.

At the 7 minute 40 second mark, he explains the flat plate is less likely to get splash back. However, this welded-on base style is more likely to return fragments back at you. If I see welded base targets like this unattended at Greene Rod and Gun Club, I will remove from the range.  

Hickok45 2016 

 
Before shooting steel at Greene Rod and Gun Club, please watch this informative video by Hickok45.
Do not shoot centerfire rifle or heavy magnum pistol at steel on the 30, 25 and 20 yard pistol ranges.
At the beginning of the video he states, shoot steel at your own risk.
He says, look at all the shooting competitions that shoot at steel. USPSA, IDPA, Cowboy Action and Steel challenge. What’s wrong with everybody? Is everybody stupid? Everybody is willing to take the risk, like getting in a car.
 
EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.
 
At 2 minute 25 second mark, when the bullet hits, it is like a water balloon that star-bursts in all directions.
 
Be extra aware of welded base knock-down style target in this picture because deflected fragments get re-deflected off the welded metal base and back toward the shooter and spectators.
Steel must be flat, hard and at the right distance.
 
 
At 2:41 Hickok45 finger pointing to the welded angle base where fragments may redirect back toward the shooter. This is why steel should be flat with no welded base, no craters, no holes, no edges that would increase probability of fragments coming back at you. Even better if angled to direct fragments into the ground and made of armor plate hardened AR500 steel, not just any old steel you find lying around.

Jerry Miculek, 2020

Please watch this video by world champion shooter Jerry Miculek before shooting steel at Greene Rod and Gun Club.

Do not shoot centerfire rifle or heavy magnum pistol at steel on the 30, 25 and 20 yard pistol ranges. If you find someone has made holes or craters in the steel, then do not shoot with pistol because pistol bullet might hit the edge of a crater and send a fragment back at you.

EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.

Steel should be flat and designed to direct bullet fragments into the ground, not back at the shooter.

It is true that AR500 steel is far better than mild steel. However, both mild steel and AR500 steel can develop craters or holes that would require the target to be taken out of service.

Conversely, mild steel of sufficient thickness designed to direct bullet fragments down into the ground can remain flat without holes or craters for a long service life when properly used with non-magnum regular pistol ammo.

At the 7 minute 25 second mark, notice how the cardboard surrounding the steel target is cut from the fragments spraying off the face of the target in all directions.

Tim Harmsen, 2014

Click here –>  MAC Military Arms Channel, Everything about shooting steel targets
 
Tim Harmsen talks with Brad Brune from Challenge Targets about why mild steel is a bad idea. He experiments with shooting rile at mild steel so you don’t have to. Originally posted October 2014.
 
EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.
 
At the 2 minute 37 second mark, they show the holes and craters in mild steel from three different but common centerfire rifle calibers. This is a bad thing, so don’t do it.
Tim is knowingly violating the 100 yard rule by shooting centerfire rifle at 50 yards at both mild steel and AR500 steel for the purpose of showing the difference. He gets called out for it in the comments.
 
 
At the 5 minute 48 second mark, same three rifle calibers on AR500 steel only take the paint off, but do not leave holes or craters.
 
 
 

Tim Harmsen, 2017

Military arms channel video from June 2017. This is one of several videos on youtube that shows the behavior of bullet fragments in a starburst pattern in all directions off the surface of flat hard AR500 steel with minimal risk of coming back at the shooter when standing back 10 yards or more with pistol.

EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.

2009 1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit

Matt Rece, 1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit

Slow motion video using a high speed camera to show details of bullet impacts into various substrates.
The first few bullet impacts of this video are high power rifle rounds making craters and holes in mild steel. Please do not shoot high power rifle at mild steel at Greene Rod and Gun Club. Notice the cone shaped burst of fragments coming back toward the shooter.
Skip to the 1 minute 5 second mark to see a few high power rifle rounds on hardened steel. Notice the starburst of fragments in a shallow angle with respect to the steel surface to minimize the fragments coming back toward the shooter.

Starburst pattern of what appears to be a pistol round on hardened steel at 6 minute 20 second mark.

1 million fps Slow Motion video of bullet impacts made by Werner Mehl from Kurzzeit
1. Mild steel: Multiple examples, at the 5 second mark and 26 and 30 second marks. and more, in the video, notice the fragments coming back at the shooter in a cone shaped pattern as the fragments come back out of the newly created crater.
2. Hardened steel: At the 1 minute 5 second mark and 1 minute 13 second mark, notice the fragments fan out in a starburst and fragments less likely to come back at the shooter. Another good example at the 1 minute 46 second mark.
3. More good examples of bullet hitting flat hard AR500 steel at the 6 minute 18 second mark and 5 minute 26 second mark. Notice the flat starburst in all directions, less likely to send fragments back at the shooter.
 

2021 Novice, Amazon / Walmart Target Test

Before shooting steel at Greene Rod and Gun club, please watch this video from Youtube channel Novice.
 
This guy almost does the right thing and avoids shooting rifle at steel targets not advertized as rated for rifle. I say almost because he is clearly not shooting at 100 yard distance with rifle. My guess is he is shooting at 30 yard distance.
 
 
 
 
Please watch this informative video from youtube channel Guncraft101. He shoots at both mild steel and AR500 steel. Slow motion shows how a bullet fragments when it hits AR500 steel. Much like a water balloon hitting a hard flat surface. He makes holes and craters so you don’t have to. Do not make holes and craters in the steel targets at Greene Rod and Gun Club.
Conversely, a rifle hit on mild steel does not starburst in the same manner, but due to the fragments coming back out of the hole it just created, notice the tighter cone shaped debris comes back toward the shooter somewhat like a mortar shot angled upward. Would have been better if steel was angled downward to redirect the fragments into the ground.
 
 
 
 
 
Before shooting steel at Greene Rod and Gun club, please watch this informative video from Who-tee-who from July 2018.
Do not do this. He shows what NOT to do, so you don’t have to.
You will be banned from the Greene Rod and Gun club for shooting holes in the club steel. If you are thinking about destroying your own steel targets that you paid for with your own money, then he demonstrates shooting holes in steel with high power rifle so you don’t have to.
At 1 min 28 second mark, notice the rope that will not last long. Rope barely lasted through all the pistol calibers thru the 5 minute 47 second mark when he switched to wires.
At the 8 minute 20 second mark, 300 win mag shot a hole through this 1/4 inch thick AR500 steel target. Also shows 308 and 30-06 made craters and dents.
At 13 min 14 second mark “Great for pistols, but do not shoot with rifle unless really far away”. Unless I missed it, he does not say what distance he shot with rifle.
 
 
 
 
 
A follow-up vid from Who-tee-who posted Aug 2021 with Walmart 3/8″ AR500 steel. This time he includes 50 BMG.
 
 
 
 
Before shooting steel targets at Greene Rod and Gun club, please watch this informational video from youtube channel Iraqveteran8888.
Iraqveteran8888, FAQ: AR500 Steel Targets, Sept 2014
There are better slow motion vids out there than this. At the 2 min 1 second mark, see slow motion when pistol bullet hits flat hard steel.
Not the best back berms in this video. Hopefully there is plenty of empty wilderness behind his range.
 
 
 
He likes petting the big gong. First pet at 15:54. Second pet at 16:01, third pet at 16:23, 4th pet at 16:30, 5th pet at 17:05. Who’s a good boy!
 
No photo description available.
 
 

Saving this here for future consideration. AR500 targets from Superior Ideas have the beefiest ears I have found. 4 piece set for $155. 6″, 8″, 10″ and 12″ (If purchase separately $23+$35+$45+$66 = $169 total)

SItargets.com. Superior Ideas, Inc.

Many steel targets at Greene Rod and Gun Club have failed and have been removed from service due to mounting ear breaking off. Most likely multiple direct hits to the ear itself leads to a crack forming. Additional direct hits to the ear grows the crack until the ear falls off. The following “good” and “bad” examples demonstrate what to look for in a “beefy” mounting ear to buy and what to avoid for “wimpy” mounting ears. 

EVERYONE on the range must have eye and ear protection, including spectators.