Ar 500

[litman252]

Do I need to do anything to weld to this in 3/8"???? Just welding some small brackets, 1/8" & 3/8"

Thanks, Tony

[TOMWELDS2]

ER70-6 on Mig....7018 on stick

[thingy]

Must be a picture or something I ain't seeing? thingy

[TOMWELDS2]

Do you mean A500 (mild steel) or AR400 (abrasion resistant)?

[litman252]

I'm using some AR500 for making targets.

My choices are the H187 or AC stick,
Thanks

Tony

[AnotherDano]

Tell us more about your targets, please.
I have a project in mind.

[Rocky D]

AR500 is special hardened steel that is taken through a unique process of Heat-treating and tempering. AR500 Steel is rated to withstand 50 Cal. ball rounds. On a single fire marksmanship basis it can even withstand 50 Cal. API rounds if plate is set on a deflectionary angle. Like Tom said 7018 stick or E70t-11 fluxcore or MIG E70s-6 wire will do.

[litman252]

AnotherDano,

I'm having some AR500 laser cut to make a plate rack, 6" & 10" targets. I'm trying to fill a full sheet of 4x8' if you would like some. One guy asked if I would weld a bracket on for him, hence the question that started this................

Tony

[usmcpop]

If you weld on it, you will affect the heat treating in the heat affected zone.

[Rocky D]

If you weld on it, you will affect the heat treating in the heat affected zone.

Pop... would this be a better way to say it?:
"If you weld on it, the heat affected zone will affect the heat treating. :D

Semper fi

[usmcpop]

Yep, that's better :)

I once saw some armor plate being rolled at a Lukens steel plant near Philadelphia. That was very interesting, seeing a yellow hot bloom larger than a king size mattress being run back and forth through a big roller.

[litman252]

Thanks guys, i realize it will change it in some ways but I don't want a bunch of bolt heads in face the either. Has the cost gone way up on AR500??? Had one quote of 3200 for 4x8 sheet, seems 3x more than it should be...................

Tony

[Aeroweld]

Thanks guys, i realize it will change it in some ways but I don't want a bunch of bolt heads in face the either. Has the cost gone way up on AR500??? Had one quote of 3200 for 4x8 sheet, seems 3x more than it should be...................

Tony

Tony, Instead of buying a whole sheet have you contacted any target makers to just buy the plates? We deal with Arntzen Corp. in Rockford,IL for our Pepper Popper targets.

http://www.arntzentargets.com/

He will also sell cut plates in the sizes you are looking for. We thought about buying the steel and cutting our own but when you look at the costs is it less expensive to buy pre-made.

[Some Creep]

I checked that Arntzen website and read about the steel properties of AR500. Wow, all this time I've been using A36 for lead-ball targets. Seems as if you need to bolt the AR500 plates on so it can be removed and reversed to warp in both directions from bullet impacts.

My brother made an A36 plate target and let a friend shoot it with his Enfield. The soft-nosed bullet (:eek:) had the lead core penetrate clean through but shed the copper jacket, turned it inside-out, and ricocheted it back into my brother's shoulder. They rode my brother's motorcycle to the emergency room with my brother driving and his friend on the back holding a towel over the wound in his arm.

[Rocky D]

Man!, that's scary, Creep!...is your bro OK now? I made some targets out of A36, for a guy who disintegrated them with a 357...I spent a lot of time getting them to his specs, too...I was bummed.:mad:

[Some Creep]

Yeah, he was fine. He spent the rest of the summer packing and unpacking 'wick' in the wound hole until it healed up. (gross)

I've always used only round lead when shooting steel targets. First, because I'm cheap, and second because I don't dig ricochets, regardless of where they're going (ground, sky, haybale). Using a jacketed rifle round, SOFTNOSED no less, made me want to bop him on the head with one of those "what were you thinking" comments.... I honestly thought he knew better. We had been around guns forever. We bought and sold guns for years, even as kids! The guy who fired it went on to graduate from Cal Tech as an engineer. Go figure!

The jacketing was pulled out of his shoulder in a tube shape. The rifling is on the INSIDE of it! Cool to look at, scary story behind it.

At the shop as a kid, we had tons of plate circles cut out of tanks for pipe passages, all in A36. We took alot of these home and made targets out of them. Over time we started making our own for the nifty shapes we wanted. I always made sure they had motion, either by hanging them or making them easily knocked-over when hit. I never made any rigid, which I think is what my bro did with this one.

[Aeroweld]

I've been a member of a gun club for about 10 years now. Being the welder for the club I've dealt with a lot of steel targets in that time.

The problem with using A36 is that the face of the plate will start to crater with just about anything more powerfull than a .22 rimfire with jacketed bullets When the face is cratered you have a real risk of spatter coming back at the shooter. No matter what the targets are made of EYE PROTECTION IS MANDATORY!

We have roughly 50 Pepper Popper style targets, 10 US Poppers and a few targets on our 100 yard range hereby refered to as our "Gong" targets, and a couple of plate racks.

The Popper targets are a 3/8" T1 steel. It is rated for a handgun up to .357 Magnum without cratering the face of the plate. These are a pivoting target that falls over when struck. With a lead bullet, the bullet will coin into a disk about the size of a dime or quarter and fall to the ground. Jacketed bullets will also coin with parts of the jacket spattering radially parrallel to the face of the plate. While some say you can shoot at steel at a distance of 7 yards, our Range S.O.P. recommends no closer than 10 yards.

On our 100 yd range the Gongs are made of either 1" thick A36 or (I am presuming) AR400 or 500.
When I go to my steel supplier I ususally scour around his line burner for discarded "doughnut" holes; The drops from cutting out a circle. I will use the 3/4" and 1" pieces of about 12" dia. for a couple of the gongs. We can get those for about scrap prices. They will hold up for about 6 months before they are totally shot up from rifle fire. We mount those on a stand with the face at about a 60 deg. angle to the ground and they are free to swing in a 15-20 deg arc. They crater quickly but at the 100 yd distance splashback has not been a problem..

Our other gongs are made from scrap mouldboard or cutting edges from bulldozers and scrapers. We have a member whose Dad owns a mining operation and he donates the used blade edges. I am presuming they are AR400-500 because of their original intent of usage. We cut them into sections 12-18" long. We weld a couple of brackets on the backside and hang them on a rack, also with the face at about a 60 deg angle. We can usually get a couple of years usage until they are shot to pieces.

[Portable Welder]

Very informational Jim, I didd' notice any one saying to preheat the AR 400, when welding it on equipment for wear bars Ive had the AR 400 crack on me if not preheated, where I dont have the same problem with AR 235 unless its cold outside.

Thanks for the couple of jobs that you sent my way, I've sent a couple your way I hope you got them, Dave.

[RonL]

The steel used for targets has got to be extremely hard and tough. Softer steels will deflect and "store" energy. In the above thread where a rifle round was fired through A36 steel, if you watched a slow motion replay you would see the plate "dimple" as the rifle round hit. The core would have passed through and you would have seen the plate trying to spring back to its original shape, thus throwing back the copper jacket. Soft A36 steel is the wrong steel to use for targets. I have used A36 angle iron for framework on targets, but only on the areas that were not supposed to be hit. The angle of the angle was pointed towards the shooter so that if it was accidently shot it would deflect towards the side berms.
There are frangible rounds that are used for close quarter drills. They are made of compressed zinc or copper powder. They simply return to powder state when they hit something solid. I don't believe they are available to the civilian market.

RonL