Shooting Steel

[rvb]

Check this out. It's a GREAT read
https://www.indianagunowners.com/forums/bobcat_steel/249185-fragmentation_patterns_off_of_steel_targets_pic_heavy.html

That was pretty good. Confirms a lot of my beliefs/experience. See these frag patterns a lot in competition when the steel is near a wall or other prop.

That is secondary to the type of steel. Proper steel and it doesn't matter much.

Angling the steel so the top is towards you and hanging it loose so the steel can better absorbe the energy from the hit DOES direct the splatter more into the ground, so there is less off the sides and top (the 45-degree hits in your link show this). It also makes the steel safer if shooting slower/heavier rounds since they are less likely to fragment and more likely to bounce back mostly in-tact. Hung properly these rounds are more likely to end up in the dirt vs coming back at you if hung vertical and solidly.

I do agree that good steel (AR400 for pistol and AR500 for rifle) pays for itself in the long run since it can take a lot of abuse before pitting, and that helps make it safer.

-rvb

 

[rhino]

Another factor is muzzle velocity. If your bullets are going too slowly when they hit the steel, they're more likely to bounce back at you more or less intact than if they are going fast enough to either shatter, splatter, shed their jacket and splatter, etc.

You see this when someone shoots low velocity cowboy loads at bowling pins or sometimes steel.

Factory ammo shouldn't be a problem in this regard. Wimpy reloads can be a significant problem.

 

[N8RV]

... If you're concerned - frangible rounds won't 'bounce back'.

'Tain't necessarily so, Mike. I train at an indoor range where only frangible ammo is allowed. There are (actually, were - they're being removed) several reactive steel targets on that range that are about 10 feet in the background and ring out when the frangible rounds pass through the cardboard targets and hit them. More than once, I've been struck by chunks of frangible bullet, once in the face hard enough to draw blood. No big deal, but glasses are a MUST.