.204 Ruger steel plate penetration, surprising result.

[Dan877]

I finally got my Howa 1500 in .204 Ruger out to the range to start working up loads last week. My start load was 25g of Benchmark behind 34g Midway Dogtown's.

In sighting in the first couple of shots were about 12 " high which went over the tractor-tires-filled-with-sand backstop and hit the 1/4" plate steel inclined at a 60 degree angle backstop behind them. Surprisingly, the little 34 grain hollow points blew about 1/2" holes right through the steel!

After getting it shooting reasonably well, I fired several shots at the 300 yard gong, which is made of 2 pieces of 3/16" steel welded together, and they almost went through it! They blew out 1/2" diameter bowl shaped holes that went through the first plate and deeply into the second one.

I suppose the .204's velocity makes them perform like miniature "Explosively Formed Penetrators" or EFP's that we hear about in Iraq.
Has anyone else seen that kind of result on steel from the little .204's?

[CV32]

Not terribly surprising. I've seen the same thing with 32 gr Vmax. Velocity rules when it comes to steel penetration.

[heikki02003]

You bet! Same story as you exactly. Trying to get factory Hornady 32's on paper and hit 3/16" flatbar and blew a hole just over 1/2" right through. Kinda surprised me. Now I know why they do such a good job on skippy! What an amazing varmint cartridge.

[Captqc]

These little buggers do even more damage to aluminum! The rancher at one of our sites even made a wind chime out of irrigation pipe that some of the shooters (not our group) had shot! Gary

[Bayou City Boy]

Try it with a 17 CF some day...

Little bullets punch holes in steel that bigger bullets merely splash on and leave a slight dent when they hit.

-BCB

[acloco]

Are these mild steel targets or ???

[cracker]

I am back, I fell off the earth for a while but now its time to join in this great site.
when we shoot we hang targets with cloths pins from a wire stretcthed between two posts. If its not windy we simply use the pins at the top of the target and let them hang from the top. now after shooting a bunch we tape coins to the paper and the little 204 zips right thru them with out tearing the paper or even making it move, we have never punched one through the paper.
Great to be back,
Cracker