With the advent of Target cameras and Electronic Targets I thought a topic on providing the expensive equipment a shield against bullets and bullet fragments might be interesting. Of course the discussion and suggestions used here could be equally valuable for other objects that need some form of protection.
Looking to the things that are currently in use for this purpose you see things like sandbags pros cheap cons easily degraded not very portable. Steel either mild or Bissaloy.
I have a few gongs that I hang from Trees using chain. Most of the time the chain doesnt get hit but there is always that one bloke that manages to hit the chain and one bullet can be the undoing. The link is easily replaced with a D shackle.
So for the protection shields I thought rather than go through a long process of testing all sorts of materials like the Mythbusters I would have a look at the effectiveness of materials already used for the function. Bullet proof vests seemed like a good start only to find a bit of a rabbit hole.With so many class’s and some of those left horrific pressure wounds if it was on a person. Interesting stuff over on the box of truth, https://www.theboxotruth.com/the-box-o-truth-57-the-box-o-truth-tests-infidel-body-armor-rifle-plates/
Anyway I attached a 75mm target to a piece of the tread of a tire I cut off as a hanger. it took a good deal of the nice tink away from the sound. However I found that the steel reinforced rubber was pretty hard in fact it is totally bullet proof at 70yrds I have yet to test other distances the steel is not needed the bullets just flatten on the surface of the rubber.
i tested it with a 223 and it punched nice round holes straight through the rubber and the steel mesh inside.
Anyway after looking at BP Vest and the different construction the ones made out of steel plate seamed sensible but they need an anti spall feature.
This made my start thinking that while the standard 10mm Bis 500 is plenty to stop all the centrefires I have tested shooting single rounds. I haven’t done an army test yet which is repeated fire at close distance to see how it stands up, yet to come.
So being a DIY Guy I thought I bet if I glue some of this tire tread to the steel it may work the steel providing the stopping power and the rubber tread stopping the fragmentation spraying all over the place.
This test is still to be carried out but I would like to hear any other ideas other have on the issue