Shooting Gongs

[Candle Snuffer]

Been thinking about ordering one of these gongs 10" x 3/8" or 1/2", just to fool around with at various yardages with my flintlock.  Anybody here ever use these?  They seem to get good reviews.

http://shootingtargets7.com/store/gongs/3-8/10-ar500-gong.html

[d-a]

I haven't used that specific one, but I regularly shoot gongs made out of the AR 500 material. I have 6 and 8 in diameter ones. The 8 in one is the one I use to determine my maximum hunting rage with. The farthest I can hit it 100 percent then that is my maximum hunting range.

d-a

[Candle Snuffer]

What thickness are you running d-a?

[smylee grouch]

I picked up a scrap piece at a junk yard that was 10" x 13" by 2 and 3/4" thick. It took a stout tree to hang it on.

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

I call em DINGERS,,,They are fun. With my old bbl I found most commercial gongs would be dented quite badly. 1/4" thick and all.
3/8" seem to hold up pretty good,, till my brother shot a hole in it with his 270.
I don't think any of em last forever, but they are fun.
Right now I got this heavy walled 8" pipe, it doesn't ring but puts off a nice "CLANK" any where from 50 to 100 yrd.
I used to shoot with these guys who also had snout loaders, and we would have these competitions. We'd set one of these up and then somebody would say, "Ready?,,,,,SHOOT" and the first to shoulder and hit the dinger won.

They are fun with Hog Leg too, 50,,54 and all, set em out 40 yrd or so.
Don't tell anybody, but I got me this Kentucky Peestola,,its a hoot.

[WKevinD]

I have an old compressed gas tank (Oxy) with the bottom cut off, and hung from a tree. Its about 3/8" thick and rings well when hit with all calibers.

[Candle Snuffer]

Well I order two AR500 targets from (shootingtargets7.com) this morning.  One 3/8" x 8" and one 3/8" x 10" round gongs.  We'll use these in our bimonthly muzzle loading shoots.  We use to use the 1/4" metal (it wasn't AR rated) as that was all we had, but now we have these, and two NRA Metal AR (3/8" thick) Chickens.  Our course will look something like this;

Round One
NRA Chicken - 50 yards
Poker Chips - 20 yards
AR500 8" Gong - 70 yards
Hanging Clays - 30 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 80 yards
Hanging Clays - 40 yards
NRA Chicken - 60 yards

Round Two
NRA Chicken - 50 yards
Poker Chips - 20 yards
AR500 8" Gong - 70 yards
Hanging Clays - 30 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 80 yards
Hanging Clays - 40 yards
NRA Chicken - 60 yards

Offhand - Load From Bag - Round ball only, (We may shoot a 3rd round, just depends?)  This will be laid out into a walking range since we don't have an area for a woods walk.

[d-a]

What thickness are you running d-a?

3/8 inch. I shoot modern guns at them too but tend to increase my distance to prevent them from denting. For a reference, A 338lapua with a 300g SMK at 2850fps will dent 1/2 AR 500 at anything closer than 450yards in my experience.

d-a

[EC121]

We used to shoot 6in.(The 8 ring black of a 50yd. big bull) 3/8" mild steel circles with a foot welded on at 100yds.  They were usually just pitted a bit by any muzzle loaded ball.  15 plus hits  for 30rds.  was usually needed to win.  An 8-10in. would be about right for 100yds. and casual shooting.  The 7 ring black of the 100yd. big bull target is 8in.  Not a bad price for good metal already cut out.

[Candle Snuffer]

I thought about getting a 6" gong, then backed off from it since the "meat" of the NRA chicken we'll be shooting at kind of covers that.  The lower chicken in the picture below has a 6" gong laying on it.



Like most small clubs in low population area's, our membership is mostly all in our late 50's, 60's, and 70's.  Naturally our eyesight isn't what it use to be so we opt for larger targets at shorter ranges. lol!!! We now call our shooting - feel good shooting.

I'll most likely buy one of their 12" AR500 3/8" gongs eventually.  Who knows, may even grab a 6" gong at the same time?

[EC121]

Here is a picture of my backyard range.  I can pick the distance depending on how I feel that day. ;-)



I was shooting the circle on the left with a 45-70.  It made the paint jump off the rust under it.  I should have wire brushed it before painting..

[Daryl]

On our trial, we shoot gongs of all different sizes, different shapes and at ranges from 20 yards to 110yards. Some 'gongs' are round, some square, some oblong, diamonds, weird shapes, squirrels, crows, buffalo and pigs as well as bunnies, duck, goose, fox, sheep and bear.  It's handy having a metal fabrication shop in town - Rod&Gun Club member of course - so everything is at steel cost.  When the club cut it's cowboy action targets from sheet steel, a plethora of scrap shapes resulted. We simply bored or cut holes for the clevises and chains for hanging them.  Drag chains which just lay on the ground, speed up their settling down, after any hit. This is quite important due to the number of larger calibre guns used on our course- a number of .54's, .58's, 28 bores and 20 bore smoothies (sometimes hit)- then there's the action created by the 14 bore rifle - which also sometimes hits. Oh yeah - make the hanging chains stout if anyone is shooting a 14 bore.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Most of the targets Daryl speaks of are of 1/2" mild steel, or whatever scrap we can procure.  The scrap left over from the cowboy targets are something special though...only 1/4" thick and cannot be dented by round ball of any calibre.  And those ring like a bell...tough stuff.  We've been shooting our trail since it was built in 1982, and many of the targets we hung then, are still good.  We replace them with new shapes, just to keep it interesting and challenging.  A person never tires of shooting reactive targets.  And the X ring is huge!  Every now and again, we'll have a paper shoot, just to humble us, and to show us where our rifles and guns are actually hitting.  Paper does not lie.

[Candle Snuffer]

Most of the targets Daryl speaks of are of 1/2" mild steel, or whatever scrap we can procure.  The scrap left over from the cowboy targets are something special though...only 1/4" thick and cannot be dented by round ball of any calibre.  And those ring like a bell...tough stuff.  We've been shooting our trail since it was built in 1982, and many of the targets we hung then, are still good.  We replace them with new shapes, just to keep it interesting and challenging.  A person never tires of shooting reactive targets.  And the X ring is huge!  Every now and again, we'll have a paper shoot, just to humble us, and to show us where our rifles and guns are actually hitting.  Paper does not lie.

I expect the 1/4" thick stuff that can't be dented and ring like a bell is AR500 armor plate.  The two targets I ordered are made from this and as posted above 3/8 thick.  I wanted lifetime plus targets, and these (like your 1/4" ones) fit the bill good.

[thecapgunkid]

Gongs are the main target in cowboy action shooting.  Check out sassnet.com for vendors.  The black powder guys ( referred to as the Dark Side) of our shooting community seems to have more fun than anybody else with their Navy 36's and Yellow Boy Rifles.  You start shooting gongs for that Bang-Ding sound and you may not shoot paper again

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid
The Capgun Kid
Still River Cordwainer

[thecapgunkid]

PS to my previous post...The Cowboy Action Guys shoot smokeless and thus have  higher velocity re-loads.  You buy from the cowboy vendors and your denting problems may be over.

Don't shoot yore eye out, kid
The Capgun Kid
The Still River Cordwainer

[sloe bear]

like Daryl says we also hang gongs at various distances but we use all the same shapes painted the same color , this get a bit confusing on a trail shoot , judging the distance can be difficult seems they all look alike except for the size. we used 1/2 mild steel they have held up for years ,we have lost more than we have destroyed.

[Candle Snuffer]

Well the two gongs I order (3/8 x 10" & 8" AR500) came yesterday, so the first thing I did this morning was to run out to the range with my .45 cap lock rifle and tested the 8" gong from 30, 40, 50, 60, and 70 yards, just to see how they performed. (65 grains 3fg, spit patch, .445 ball) was my load.

The gong makes a nice ping when hit, (not that I couldn't see the hits), but it's a nice feature of the natural AR500 product.  I like these, they will make a fine addition to our fun shoots, and of course they're solid - there is sign of a very very small dimple of ball impact to metal, but no bulging out in the back side, of course I wasn't expecting any.  Good gongs!

[David R. Pennington]

A friend of mine hung some gongs made from scraps from tubing used for commercial hydraulic cylinders. They ring like church bells when you hit them.

[Candle Snuffer]

A friend of mine hung some gongs made from scraps from tubing used for commercial hydraulic cylinders. They ring like church bells when you hit them.

I bet that did make a nice ring when hit.

I did order (and received) two more AR500 gongs (1/2" x 10" and  1/2 x 8") from (shootingtargets7.com).  For our small group and for what we shoot, the gongs I have now will work just fine when thrown in with the hanging clay pigeons, and poker chips.  Sometimes we even dangle some charcoal off a string.  We reworked our 5th Annual Fess Parker Shoot to the following, so that those wishing to enter both flintlock and cap lock can get out with 24 total shots.

Round One
Poker Chips - 20 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 90 yards
Hanging Clays - 30 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 80 yards
NRA Metal Chicken - 60 yards
AR500 8" Gong - 70 yards

Round Two
Poker Chips - 20 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 90 yards
Hanging Clays - 30 yards
AR500 10" Gong - 80 yards
NRA Metal Chicken - 60 yards
AR500 8" Gong - 70 yards

We're not so much about drillin' small bullseye groups as we are just having a good time and hitting some targets.  Kind of figure the poker chip is about the right size and distance for a squirrels head, 10" gongs at 90 & 80 yards (elk or buffalo), 30 yard clay pigeons ( rabbit / varmint), 60 yard metal chicken (just there to represent critters that size), and the 8" gong at 70 yards (deer size game).  As I said, we're about fun.  

[David R. Pennington]

I agree, this kind of shooting is much more fun than paper punching.

[Bible Totin Gun Slinger]

I agree, this kind of shooting is much more fun than paper punching.

AMEN!!!!!

[RonC]

In Vietnam in 1968, they told us we could shoot all the Gongs we wanted. But those Viet Gongs would shoot back!

(Sorry, couldn't resist ).

Ron (now hiding from the coming flak)

The only time I have shot gongs is while participating with a friend in IPSC while working last year in South Africa. I must admit, it was much more fun that poking holes in paper. My friend promised we would do it again when I go there this year.

[Osprey]

We have three woods walks a year at our club with gongs of all shapes, most fun shoots of the year.  I have a small course at my house, too, most of my gongs are railroad tie plates.   Almost any RR track will have lots of old plates cast aside the tracks in various stages of rust, roughly 6" x10" and 3/8" to 1/2" thick.  Picked up a few this winter that were almost 15" long, may get the grinder cutting wheel out and make some shapes of those.  When I cut the center out and leave what looks like a 1" wide picture frame the guys have negative comments that make me smile   

[Candle Snuffer]

Well we got our 5th Annual Fess Parker Remembrance Shoot done.  We ended up shooting "all" gongs from various ranges offhand.  We actually had 6 entries (down from last year) but only posted results for five entries since the sixth entry only took 5 shots and didn't hit any gongs.  He did hit 5 target stands and blew a support leg completely off one from 60 yards.  Oh well, things happen.  Anyway the grass was so tall on our range that we were only able to clear an area out to 60 yards, so the gongs really weren't that difficult to hit, IMHO.

Men's "Crockett" Cap Lock Offhand Aggregate

Snuffer ...................11 of 12
 H H H M H H / H H H H H H

Bosak............................ 7 of 12
M H H M H M / H H M M H H

Potter............................ 7 of 12
H H M H H H / M M H H M M

Trowbridge............ 3 of 12
H M M M M M / M H M H M M

Zeke...................... 3 of 12
H M M M M M / M M H M M H