I am trying to make some steel targets for our IDPA club. Does anyone have any plans for these and what kind of steel do we need. I was told cold rolled steel for them but cannot find any. I was wondering if QT100 would work?

Any suggestions.

The term 'cold rolled steel' doesn't mean much.Ordinary structural steel , A36, is not strong enough .I wish I could remember but it would be something like abrasion resistant or High strength low alloy etc .QT100 would probably work.Thickness is also important. I see there are licensed makers for the targets , have you contacted IDPA ?

Good big bore rifle silhouettes are mostly made from AR500. You certainly won't need this for pistols though. I'm not enough of a metalurgist to say how low you should go though.

There is a guy in Dallas who has a source for plasma cut targets that he has made from scrap AR500. They are excellent and are relatively cheap. Frankly, unless you're going to set up for production, I think you'd be better off buying them. If you want, I can probably provide his name after I dig for a while. Also, found this source WHICH I KNOW NOTHING ABOUTebay seller

all depends on what you're shooting and how much. if its just a plinking thing with average pistol loads mild steel 3/8" will work fine, if its just 22 then 3/16 or 1/4" will work. if its high intensity then try AR200. if its a league shoot then go for AR400. unless you have a plasma table however it's probably wise to go buy them. they're going to be fairly expensive.

Thanks guys. Most of the ones for sale on the net are made from AR500 even for pistol shooting which is what we are trying to set up for. IDPA style shooting. The problem with buying them from south of the border is going to be a price for shipping and getting them through customs will probably hell. This is why we want to make them.

find yourself some fabrication shop that has a plasma table. AR 4 or 500 isn't cheap it costs about 1.25/# in our shop so i'm guessing you're going to end up with a fabricated cost of about 2.50-300/# and 15#'s/sq.ft. if the fab shop has a cad program they can lay them out on the computer, otherwise if its a tracer all you'll need is a black line drawing on a piece of white paper

Butchloc,

I was going to go with the QT400 in 1/2". It is for shooting handguns only. AR material is extremely hard to get. I think the QT400 should work???

actually mild steel would probably work for you. the key thing is velocity. when we were testing steel for targets for shilouette shooting we found that things like a swift did lots more damage than did 06 ball. thus a 45 just sort of splashes where a 38 super may dig a crater in mild steel. depending on how much they're going to get shot it might must be cheaper to cut out of mild steel and replace them when it gets to bad

butch is giving you good info here. I had some made years ago. Any fabr. shop w/ a cutting table can make them. Many shops have a remnent stack. Look for T1 or sim. grade (boiler plate). Due to the cost of fabr. I would spend the extra money over mild steel.

Anyone have any designs they want to share. I am going to start with poppers.

Greg