Do any of you shooters use splatter guards around your steel targets? I've looked everywhere and cannot find what I'm looking for. I want to protect the birds and trees from splatter after hitting the steel. I've used plywood around the target when shooting .22 but obviously this won't work with other calibers. Any ideas? Sorry if this is the wrong place to ask. Thanks

We angle the target slightly so that ricochets and splatter go downwards.

Properly made and hung steel targets will splatter into the dirt at the base.

my steel targets are angled for the bullet fragments to go into the ground, but i still get some to the sides. i stacked old tires on each side of mine and it works very well.

I bend my steel ears to ensure they go down into the dirt.

I also try to shoot in box canyon type areas when shooting my bells. The splatter can do serious damage so you are right on target trying to be aware and control it.

and Yes, a ricochet can come straight back 100 yards in your face.

This is great fun shooting, but is higher risk than many will take.

Yes, At our range, where we held the Masters International Shooting Championship, the action event has all falling plate steel, and we have side shields on them. Basically a platform the falling plate sits on hinged at the bottom, with about 12" wide steel plates sitting on the platform to shield each side. All of the targets sit up on stands of various height, and are reset by compressed air from a control switch.

I don't happen to have a picture handy, but if you go to the club website you should be able to see at least one or more pictures. Home | PASA Park

__________________
H Richard
SWCA1967 SWHF244

Do Not Bend The Steel at the edges. You are only asking for ricochets. The steel should be as flat as possible. Even if you should put a divot in the steel your bullet will fly back at you.

Angling them to the ground is the best solution to your problem.

A little off topic in the interests of safety. A club that I used to shoot IPSC at used a 6" round steel stop plate for the timers in use at that time. The plates were left out and some A--Hole shot them presumeably with a rifle and cratered them.
Subsequently... a shooter fired a 45ACP at said target, the bullet turned inside out & returned, striking the shooter, requiring an ambulence & Police involvment.
Need I say more?

__________________
NRA LIFE
Reserve Officer 9yrs

It may not show up here but I tried to build my plate array so the minimum amount of metal (other than the AR500 of course) faces the shooter. There are 2 posts sunk in concrete and a post horizontally between them. All surfaces of those three posts are then covered with 1 by somethings, screwed on. When the shrapnel or stray hits have significantly damaged those fascists, they are easily and cheaply replaced, hopefully doing no damage to the three vital wooden members. By the way, I do get TONs of splatter on the vertical members.

Attached Images

IMG_20170602_165548.jpg (131.9 KB, 38 views)

Many years ago I built a falling plate machine with 6 round plates about 7" in diameter, I have a 4 foot by 10 foot 3/8 thick steel plate that hangs behind the machine I used it for a while like this but the splatter was pretty bad so to fix I welded a 2 inch by 1/4 inch frame around the back stop and now the lead just flies up and hits the protective edge and falls down I had to have this backstop as we have a heifer pen behind it. The animals dont seem to mind after a few shots. Jeff