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Steel Near Cardboard Targets


Graham Smith

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One of the problems with using steel is that, if you put cardboard targets too near steel, you can end up with the cardboard getting hit with splatter. While it's easy enough to distinguish that from an actual hit, it's still annoying. Without putting up some plywood to use as a splatter shield, what's a good rule of thumb for target placement?

IOW, put the targets forward or behind the steel? To the side? How far away? Etc...

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One of the problems with using steel is that, if you put cardboard targets too near steel, you can end up with the cardboard getting hit with splatter. While it's easy enough to distinguish that from an actual hit, it's still annoying. Without putting up some plywood to use as a splatter shield, what's a good rule of thumb for target placement?

IOW, put the targets forward or behind the steel? To the side? How far away? Etc...

My practice is to keep paper at least 1 yard behind or in front of steel or at least 4 yards to the side. I really don't like to have anything in the plane on the front of steel for this reason.

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depends how far behind to me, the steel we have makes a line in the ground about 6" back from the face of the steel, so anything 6"-12" forwards or in front of the steel should be fine but i would prob stick with a yard either way just to be safe

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If perfectly flat and smooth, anything behind the plane of the steel target shouldn't catch any spatter except for the rare edge hit. The further away the paper targets are on either side of the steel, the less spatter they will catch as the pattern of spatter thins out, but since that pattern moving sideways also spreads a bit forward with distance, the paper ought to be a bit more forward as well. How much really depends on the condition of the steel. If pitted or concave, it could be a lot. For most steel, our experience is that targets 5 degrees behind or 15 degrees in front or in the same plane as the steel but 15 yards away catch very little shrapnel provided the steel is in good condition.

clarity edit

Edited by kevin c
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+1 for the barrel, single or double stacked depending on paper height. I picked up some of these hard foam rubber squares at Academy. They are for covering the floor at gyms/workout areas. I'm going to try using them between the popper and paper to see if they can handle the splatter.

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