Managing Steel Target Edge Ricochets from steel

[CaptainH]

I have a friend who may have access to some land were we could set up steel targets out to 8-900 yards. There are cattle off to one side and a highway off the other side though some few hundred yards away. We can build an impact berm for missed shots. The concern that we have is what if the bullet just catches the side edge of the target. How do we build something that contains this possible ricochet? Your thoughts are welcome.

 

[diverdon]

Once they hit the steel mainly they splash. If on the edge of the target if it just touches the target then the bullet will likely scrape by without changing direction much. If there is enough contact with the AR500 to change direction it will break up the bullet so that if is mainly splash and won't get much more than a few yards. I put a eight inch carriage bolt near the top of my AR500 then use extra nuts and washers to strap it up from the free end of the bolt. This tilts the target forward a bit and mainly directs the splash down.

This is for ordinary lead and copper or copper solid bullets, if you feel the urge to shoot saboted tungsten carbide penetrators then you will need advice from someone else.

 

[Supersubes]

Can you construct an L shaped berm? I’ve never seen any of my edge hits go very far. Usually there is some sort of splash behind the target, within a yard or two of the edge.