Well.........I'll admit I have long thought shooting steel was super silly, and fairly childish. Especially off a shooting bench with deluxe sandbags. I have five shooting ranges here on my homestead, and I have slowly become bored with three of them, I know that is true, because I need to fire-up one of the dozers and plow the new growth of brush and young trees, or just be honest with myself and abandon them. The range that I use the most is......"The Outhouse Range". I call it the outhouse range because it is the one I walk (or sometime hurry) past on the way to, yep' the outhouse. Now my neighbors think it is funny, and seem to derive great pleasure in scaring the crap out of me, before I reach the old doorless one hole butt freezer. I do appreciate that most of them hibernate about five months a year. It is because of this occasional problem that I find it prudent to always invite a "problem solver" for this short adventure walk. And so over the years, it has become a habit to clean the bore with a few "Snap" Point n'Shoot shots at the permanent targets on that "Outhouse Range". It being my nature to be lazy, and this laziness seems to becoming a 24 hour lifestyle as I drift through my mid seventies phase of physical deterioration and accelerating dementia. Now, I have noticed that someone is neglecting to maintain the permanent wood targets. So I have just invested in several 1/2" thick Gongs. Now......here is how I am rationalizing this. (To be continued, if I can maybe concoct a plausible rationalization). Till then, I just figure it will be fun. At least I am not "Shooting Steel"..........I am shooting "Gongs". There is a difference, and besides you never know when you might be attacked by hordes of angry "Gang'gaGongs".
We will put them in the same category as R. Lee Ermey's dreaded mortal enemy, THE WATERMELON. If you are still shooting, and still hitting the target that is all that matters. Who cares what the target is.
IBME Damn fun making a steel plate gong at range, but one tip is to angle the gong down ie top angled towards shooter! then any return fire from an angry gong will go quickly to ground and not buzz close to said shooter
I am of the crew who freeze 2 liter bottles for shooting fun. Everybody likes to make those puppies explode. One gallon milk jugs are great containers for freezing water. With the "lowly" 20 gauge I've slammed these with slugs. When those 1gal jugs go off, they'll just about hit you with spray 25 yrds back. The pressure is so great that the bottom of the jug becomes a mold of the asphalt strip on which it was seated. I put the 2 liter bottles at 50 yards for centerfire handguns. Rapid-fire 9mm put the bottle at 25 yards. I put at 100 and 200 yrds for rifle. For bench rest, use your own judgement for the weapons you are firing. Great plinking. I use 16 oz frozen bottles of water for the .22 lr and .22 mag. A .22 mag rifle will blow a fist-sized section out of a 2 liter bottle; it will annihilate a 16 oz bottle. For the .22 mag scoped rifle, I put the bottles out at 100yrds. The .22mag is a short range varmint rifle. Up in the mountains, fields are not particularly large. Groundhogs put holes in the ground up in high pasture, up 4,000 ft altitudes. The cows accidentally get a leg down in one of those holes and the cow's leg snaps. Can't have groundhog infestation; gotta shoot them. Using poison can be dangerous -- long story. Note that keeping frozen water bottles in your freezer will add thermal capacitance to the freezer. Power goes out, takes more time for everything to melt. Two liter bottles added to your ice chest keeps things cold for hours and hours. It took two days for 2 jugs to melt in my picnic ice chest when the chest was left out in 70 degree-F weather. This wasn't a super-expensive chest at all.
I always liked a 12" to 18" gong plate out at 300 yards. You shoot and then wait for the sound of the hit. With an unscoped handgun, it takes a little practice to find the right aim out there at first.
