What size metal gong ?

[Nessmuck]

When you Smoothy guys do a woods walk shoot....what size gong do you shoot at 50 & 100 yards ? And where is a good place to buy these Gongs ?

[smylee grouch]

I bought two 12 inch round gongs at a local sporting goods place for $30.00 each, hardend steel hung with a slight slope down. One at 119 yd. and the other at 146 yd. These yardages from shooting bench, walk up closer for smooth bore shots.

[D. Taylor Sapergia]

Most of the gongs we have on our trail are of mild steel, though a few are AR 500.  The Mild steel gongs are 3/8" - 1/2" thick, and hang from 30 yds, to 109 yds.  the further away, the thinner they can be.  They seem to stand up for many years of continuous use.  We shoot the same targets with ML rifles.

I forgot to include the sizes apart from thicknesses.  Our disc at 109 yards is about 14"or 15" n diameter.  We have a full sized goose target at 100 yards, and a 2 1/2" disc at about twenty.

I like your idea of the "S" hooks...clever.  We hang ours on chains.

[Greg Pennell]

Nessmuck, when you decide on the size you need, check eBay for gongs. There is a wide variety available in either mild steel or AR500, from several sellers at pretty good prices. Personally, I don’t see the need for the AR500 as long as we’re talking pure lead ball, but if you are setting up a club range it might be a good idea from a possible liability standpoint.

Greg

[Bob Roller]

The front plate from a steam locomotive would work and last for years.

Bob Roller

[EC121]

I have only shot my smoothbore at 50yds.  A 6-8 inch would be a pretty challenging size, but  8-10 inch would be a better over all size at 50.  You can see the size of the group on the 14" gong at 50yds.  3/8" mild steel is enough for any round ball at 50.  My .62cal. rifle doesn't hurt them.
 


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[Nessmuck]

What do you use to hang them ...cable or chain ...I would think. I have a shooting tree..paddles that swing left and right when you hit them...and that is angled ,so it deflects the bullet towards the ground....how do you set your gongs up ...for deflections Thanks

[EC121]

If they are hung from the back, they will tilt a little naturally.  Not having a decent welder I got lazy and drilled holes.  The farther down you drill the holes the more it tilts.  I use whatever I have, but chain will probably last longer in a club situation.  The one in the picture has a piece of light cable I picked up at work and two hooks that make it tilt.  My .62 rifle hit it so hard it made the hook jump off the cable, and the metal is 1/2" thick x 14" diam.  Must have hit it just right to make it jump up.

[Turtle]

One problem we have is that gongs that will stand up to big bores won't ring when hit by .32's ect. 
    Little balls matter!

[Daryl]

As for size, most of the long shots are fairly large, from a 'fox' silhouette, to a 'squatting bunny rabbit'.  While that can be a very difficult rifle target, we had a 5-person groups of guys at rendezvous, all with smoothbores, hit it, while we, following up next with rifles, had 2 out of 5 hit it.  Not all our targets are easy, just most of them.  "Acing" the trail is difficult with a rifle. We shoot the same targets with our smoothbores.