not sure if anyone does this or not, but I'm building a few steel silhouettes from a steel plate they used for road work (not sure how hard the steel is, but its 5/8-3/4" thick). Also going to build a "swingset" or two with round or square steel targets

basically.....would there be any issue to sighting in on steel??? I was planning to paint the silhouette white and place  one black dot, normally used for covering holes on targets that have already been shot.

I wasn't planning on welding up any bases to build stands for paper targets YET....but its not out of the question.

This is the rifle I'm planning to sight in.......
DPMS lower...
Franken upper built by me with 24" stainless barrel and AAC 51 tooth muzzle brake.
ACE ARFX rifle lenght buttstock.
Timney 3# trigger
.....soon to have my AAC M4-2000 silencer (waiting on "EDM" right now before it ships to my dealer)....prolly be December if I get it THIS YEAR! (NFA waits are insane right now)

I cant afford to buy the SWFA Super Sniper scope and Badger Ordinance rings until the first or second week of September so I have some time to make sure I do this right.
My thought was that since the Super Sniper scopes are fixed power scopes I cant exactly zoom in to see tiny 5.56 holes in paper vs. the greyish marks left on steel.

My shooting is completely flat out to 120 yards, with a minor incline out to about 225 yards (5-10 degrees shooting downhill) , and a steeper incline (20-25 degree maybe) out to 400-425 yards.
I also have access to a completely flat area with maybe up to 800-1000 yards once the corn is harvested, but thats going to be awhile out.



Gimme some input here on whats best to do everything right......I want this to be sighted in where I can shoot out to 600 yards or so reliably when I'm finally done.

I have all different kinds of ammo stashed away to see whats the most accurate thru my build too btw, but figured I would sight in with 55 gr. FMJ builk ammo first, then test all the other types of ammo and fine tune my scope for that.


I'm not opposed to allowing KC, MO area people out to shoot now and then as long as they are respectful of the land.

Your zeroing needs to be done shooting groups, that has to be on paper.  It makes it a lot easier to have 1" or 2" grids on the paper, and you should zero at 50 yards, so no problem seeing the holes.

After that have fun with your steel.

paper...

A paper target is by far the best way to zero a weapon.  Can't imagine trying to do it on a steel plate.

Yep, paper is the way to go

this

You need to record groups for zeroing, as opposed to target feedback.

Listen to the paper people.

This again.
Once you sight in on paper where you can punch little holes to measure and adjust you can paint the steel white
and try pounding out a single hole by stacking each round on top of each other. Not only is it proper mind conditioning of not looking thru a target like paper but on it, it's one of the funner things you can do and still keep your cloths on.

You will also shoot off the white target on the steel, You will have little gray marks vs holes. Its a PITA-Ive tried when i forgot paper targets

This

What if you put the paper over the steel target?

You will fail.......

paper

Then you'll have a great look at patterns that bullet fragments make.

I but a box over one of my steel targets before after about 100 rounds of 22's the box was ready to split in two half’s... Was pretty cool looking.

sounds like paper might be my better option then.

I've got plenty of targets, but might print a few dozen of the one posted above...I like that one! Thanks for that.

I'm hoping to pick the steel plate up this week or saturday and get to pinging it from some distance as soon as I can get it cut!

I would want to be real sure.  If it isn't hardened, it will pit badly and the rebounding bullet jackets from the damaged surface could injure yourself or bystanders.

Unless it's pretty hard stuff, you're going to crater it pretty quickly.  I made some gongs out of 3/4" mild steel.  I abandoned them after about 3 shots because even M193 caused substantial cratering and I worried about stuff coming back at a me.  I just got a "thunk" when I shot it, not the nice "tink" of hard plate.

In the end, I found some cheap AR500 gongs that work great.  Here's a video my buddy did shooting one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jX1SF75gvzw

As you can see, if the paint is thick, it will peel right off.  

If you just "dust" it lightly with a couple of coats of white paint, the bullet marks are much smaller and it's a hell of a lot of fun.

this will be for rifle only and from a distance of 75 yards or more. I wont be shooting pistols at it unless its canted forward to drive bullets into the ground.

The steel, I would think, would be pretty hard for roadway use with semi's and shit driving over it. But I could be wrong.

Is there any way to check the hardness other than firing a few rounds into it?    <––––––not that I'm opposed to that!

sight in on steel targets or paper??? whats best?

This could make the top ten list of dumb questions asked here.

Maybe he just wants to be able to shoot MOM (minute of man) inside 100 yards.

Well don't laugh to much at me. I run iron sights in 3 gun and zero on paper but twek on steel.  The center of paper is hard to see at 100 or further. Yes, some will say zero closer but you have to verify what the gun will do at range. I zero at 50 yrds then start shooting my 100 yrd plate, then my 200yrd plate, and 300. If need be I adjust. It is easier for me with irons to get a consistant sight picture on a 8 or 10 inch plate. The reason for this is we shoot steel at long ranges w/the rifle. For an optic i'm sure paper is better, but for irons this has worked well for me.

thank you for wasting my time.....fuck you for your asshole comment, you are the reason people talk bad about this forum

as for everyone else...thanks for the quality input, I appreciate the help!

I dont "sight in" anything but .22 under 100 yards and broke my spotting scope a year or two ago. With .30-06 and the like its easy enough to see the holes, but 5.56 not so much. My thought was just like stated above, you can see the hit easier on steel. I'm going to sight in on paper the best I can at 100 yards with different ammo so I can confirm whats the most accurate thru my rifle by group size, fine tune for that ammo and shoot steel beyond 100 yards.