Shooting Steel - The results are in

As you may recall, sometimes I wonder things and I have something I want to shoot.

Well, the 3/4" mild steel plate successfully stopped all rounds fired at it.
Both the .308 and 300wm penetrated about 1/2" to 5/8". But the 300wm made a considerably larger dent in the back side. I think that if the range was much less the 300wm would have made it all the way through.


The sides of the holes are very straight, like they were drilled.



I turned it around and shot it twice with the .308 at 200 yards. The divot it made was much smaller than when shot at 100 yards. It is only a little over 1/4" deep.



I also had a 3/4" thick piece of stainless steel courtesy of Tony and Brian. As expected it held up much better than the mild steel. Penetration was about 1/4". All shots were with the .308 win at 100 yards.



It barely dented the back.




One hole looks deeper than the rest because two shots hit in almost the same location.
To establish scale, the red dot is a little less than an inch in diameter (I traced the rim of a 12ga shell).So, I guess this answers the question that started me wondering about this...
I wanted to know how sturdy a steel plate target intended for a minimum range of 100 yards would have to be. It looks like at least 3/4" thick mild steel is required but the stainless is much more desirable.