Shooting poppers with slugs . . .

[Pro2AInPA]

When setting up a stage involving poppers being engaged with slugs, how far away do they need to be at a minimum?

I don't want to damage the steel. 50 yards?

[M ammo]

the distance will not help,,,Slugs will mess up something, sooner or later,,, they are slugs, after all,,

[RiggerJJ]

50 yards is fine, as long as the steel is AR500 hardened. If you use slugs on anything less it will get dented.

How do you tell if its hardened to AR500 specs?

If its a well used piece of steel and does not have any dishing or divits from pistol it may be AR500. Take it out and shoot it once with a slug at 50yds and look at the hit. If it shows NO divit or denting, its probably AR500.

jj

[wide45]

Hollow base slugs will turn inside out, and squirt back quite a ways. Definitely dangerous.

[M ammo]

At the Last LaRue match,,, they had a bunch of Slug Steal!! the AR500 holds up,, it was the bace stands,, and stuff that was breaking,,

Jim m ammo

[Steve J]

There is no safe distance to shoot shotgun slugs at steel. Just don't do it.

[D.Hayden]

Most big matches, you shoot slugs at Steel. The USPSA rule is

(in feet) Shotgun (slugs): (min) 131 (fault) 148

I've seen one popper with an (approx) slug size dent in it, no way to know that's how it got there. Maybe it was a slug, maybe not. Slug was blamed however)

I've seen people in matches get mixed up and shoot poppers at 10 yards with slugs.. and the only thing you can tell is the pattrern on the steel is different - never seen a dent. I'm sure it happens. Lots of types of slugs out there.

And I've heard of slugs richochetting into adjoing bays, never seen it tough)

If you have the space, a 60 yard slug shot at plate where the slug won't skip over to a close bay, youshould be fine. (like SMM3G or Ironman).

I asked this question before.. if anyone had seen it happen. Mostly I got "Don't do it".

[Steve J]

I asked this question before.. if anyone had seen it happen. Mostly I got "Don't do it".[/size][/font][/color][/font][/color][/font][/color][/font]

If you have unlimited funds for steel targets, liability lawyers, and an unpopulated fallout area down range, you might consider it at maximum distance plus +; otherwise "don't do it" applies to most all clubs and facilities.

[Bass Ackwardz]

Its just not a good idea to do it, but it does happen. People often forget count on reloads and such, and theres always a chance a slug will hit steel and a somewhat close distance. But is dangerous to be sure. Theres a reason you can use shot and slugs on a course of fire.

Bass

[M ammo]

I saw all kinds of Slug hits on,,, the shot targets at LaRue,, they were thin, small and light metal,, they spun off, making a cool wizzing sound,,,, and were damaged,,, no one got hurt. the other targets,, broke,, after they took hits from the 200+ shooters,,

At most 3 gun matches, and even at my home range, I have shot, slugs at steal at 40 yards or more,,,with no more danger than a pistol bullet, in fact I have been hit by more pistol bullet frag,,(times hit___more itmes than I can count) than shotgun slug,

Times hit (0)

I shot many years ago at clubs that had rules for steal targets, that you had to shoot Lead bullets at them,, the lead, breaks up,, more and has Less sharp,, frag,, jacketed,,

Bullets jacket cut,, much worst,, when they frag out,,

Is anyone shooting jacketed shotgun slugs,,, they do make them,,, big bucks$$

testing,, it is not hard,,,,

get a big card board box attach it to the target,

and shoot it,, this will tell you, in fact, what way the frag goes.

Edited July 2, 2010 by M ammo

[P.E. Kelley]

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22829788/Frangible-Shotgun-Ammo#fullscreen:on

Did some testing on Frangible's years ago.

If you read the entire article you will see that I tested Frangible

and standard lead slugs as close as 11 yards on high quality steel (MGM)

targets.

Patrick

[Religious Shooter]

I've shot my LV steel target as close as 30 yards with Remington Low Recoil when I was gathering DOPE. There is no slug-sized dent on my target.

But as already mentioned, there is a variety of slug loadings out there.

If you don't want the target to get pocked I'd say 100 yards.

It's almost guaranteed that once in awhile a newb will come to the match with his 1600+fps sabot rounds.

[D.Hayden]

I asked this question before.. if anyone had seen it happen. Mostly I got "Don't do it".[/size][/font][/color][/font][/color][/font][/color][/font]

If you have unlimited funds for steel targets, liability lawyers, and an unpopulated fallout area down range, you might consider it at maximum distance plus +; otherwise "don't do it" applies to most all clubs and facilities.

Steve.. what have you seen specifically? All I hear are "heard if form a friend of a friend" kind of thing.

I don't doubt steel damage can happen, or that a richochet can go xx yards, just never seen it.

There's ranges, like those I mentioned that routinely do it.. never heard of an issue.

Is it the steel damage, the richochet.. something else?

[Bill H]

If I remember correctly someone was injured seriously one year at the Masters shooting slugs at steel at a side match. I think they had arm or hand injuries. That is a big piece of lead coming back to you and probably very sharp.

[bigbrowndog]

and how many injuries have occured at the American Handgunner world shoot offs over the years???????????? and those are just pistol rounds, so maybe we should just ban shooting steel all together, its much safer that way.

sarcasm at its finest!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

trapr

[Dwight Stearns]

If I remember correctly someone was injured seriously one year at the Masters shooting slugs at steel at a side match. I think they had arm or hand injuries. That is a big piece of lead coming back to you and probably very sharp.

I didn't see it happen but was there and saw the video. (the injured person was videoing as his buddy shot the shotgun event)

You can see the slug as it came back.

It severed the tendons in his left wrist.

The target was at 50 yards.

[Alaskapopo]

There is no safe distance to shoot shotgun slugs at steel. Just don't do it.

I was at Larue and they used slugs on steel with no safety issues. I have done it myself at matches I have hosted. Not sure where you got the idea that slugs against steel is unsafe no matter what? I must be very lucky.

Pat

Edited July 3, 2010 by Alaskapopo

[FLG8R]

Shot slugs on steel, Larue I believe at Ft. Benning last year... did not hear of any problems... stage with the climbing tower prop if i recall...

[Charles Bond]

If the steel is set at an angle to deflect the spent slug in a safe direction, the safety issue should be settled. And it is a darn good practice to so this with pistol as well. Having the target set to deflect about 10 dgrees to the right or left can save your range officers a lot of splatter.

[CraigS.]

The poppers at Larue were leaned forward at about a 15 deg. angle which definitely helps

in keeping the splatter in a safe direction.

[mactiger]

We shot slugs at a 50 yard minimum for many years at many 3-gun and MG nationals. No damage, no bounce-back. We were using AR500 steel. If you set up carefully and safely, there's no reason not to.

Troy

[Jadeslade]

Shot slugs on steel, Larue I believe at Ft. Benning last year... did not hear of any problems... stage with the climbing tower prop if i recall...

Yup-3 Larues to start. Like 50-60yds.

[outerlimits]

We shot 4 larues at the start of that all shotgun stage at the MG nationals last year. Never heard of issues.

[ken hebert]

We shot my steel challenge 18"x24" plates at 55 to 75 yds last weekend (AR500) with no ill effects. everything from reduced recoil to some new guy with express loads.

[AlamoShooter]

We shot my steel challenge 18"x24" plates at 55 to 75 yds last weekend (AR500) with no ill effects. everything from reduced recoil to some new guy with express loads.

I made the mistake of shooting one of my Non 500 18x24 plates -once- it made a divit you lay a Nicle down in . I had to flip the target so that we could still use it.

Many of the steel challenge plates are not 500 , Most of my SC targets are just 200 =