Steel targets stopped ringing. Why?

[greg vess]

Wait a minute, if you say the legs are moving and the targets aren't then the targets are being muffled because they are connected to something else and not free hanging. It's just like hanging the fork from a piece of fishing line. If you hit the fork you're going to hear a ting. If you hold the fork with your fingers and hit it you're not going to hear that ting sound. So it's quite possible that there's some build up between where the target is hanging it's not allowing it to have enough area to allow that sound vibration. Saying that bar down real good to bare metal and put a white coat of primer on it and then try it and see what that works. If that's not the problem then you just need new metal. I know this one is kind of a stretch it's best to rule out everything before chucking out for more target

Same principle with the tuning fork if you hold the horseshoe part with your fingers it's not going to resonate and give you that sound frequency you're looking for. But if you hold the end where you're supposed to you get those frequencies. The same thing can happen to steal if there's something not allowing it to vibrate like it should. That could be dust, dirt, debris or anything like that that would cause it not to resonate.

 

[Justin87]

Seeing as how both targets are having the same problem, I'm leaning more toward the paint theory. I'm going to suggest a good sand blasting. Hopefully that's all it needs. We'll see.

Thank y'all for all the ideas.

 

[greg vess]

Seeing as how both targets are having the same problem, I'm leaning more toward the paint theory. I'm going to suggest a good sand blasting. Hopefully that's all it needs. We'll see.

Thank y'all for all the ideas.

Also make sure to blast down inside the pivot point and bar it swings on. The less that plate can move the less it will ring. I don't know how you are going to do it but make sure to sand blast the bar they pivot on. You want a good loose tolerance there. It can and will muffle sound. Just hit as much as you can. Clean it up real good the best and most comprehensive as possible.

 

[Jambo]

Make sure you use respiratory protection should you decide on the poor man's bead blast and wire brush them. There could be a lot of copper and lead you'll put in the air.

Adding in make sure there's no cracks, and hanging them from chains will let them ring free. If using the twisted link shown earlier, DON'T tighten the mounting bolts, just let them rattle. You want more freedoms of movement, not less.