Buying guide
Best Rimfire Targets: Steel, Spinners & Reactive Setups
Rimfire is the one discipline where steel targets are genuinely affordable to buy and almost impossible to wear out — provided you understand the two things that actually destroy them, neither of which is the bullet.
The short version
- The bullet is not what kills rimfire steel — the mount is. A plate hung rigidly takes the full impact through its hangers and its face. A plate free to swing sheds that energy and lasts for years.
- Hardness matters less than geometry for .22. A soft or mild-steel plate will crater under rimfire far sooner than a hardened one, and a cratered face throws fragments back rather than down. Buy hardened steel rated for rimfire and hang it with a forward tilt.
- Respect the manufacturer's minimum distance. Rimfire bullets are unjacketed lead and do not always fragment cleanly. Every reputable target maker publishes a minimum, and it exists for a reason.
- For structured practice, match the plate sizes to the game. RCSA Rimfire Challenge specifies steel no smaller than eight inches, and Steel Challenge stages are built from five plates with a designated stop plate. Setting up to those dimensions makes backyard practice actually transfer.
What actually destroys a rimfire target
A .22 LR bullet carries a small fraction of the energy of a centerfire rifle round, which is why rimfire steel can be thinner, cheaper and closer than centerfire steel. What that budget buys, though, is frequently spent in the wrong place.
Three things end a rimfire target's life, in order of how often they actually happen:
- Rigid mounting. A plate bolted hard to a frame has nowhere to put the impact energy, so the hangers, the bolts and the bolt holes take it. Elongated mounting holes and sheared bolts kill far more targets than face wear does.
- Soft steel. Mild steel and construction plate crater under sustained rimfire. Once the face has dimples and edges, the plate stops deflecting fragments predictably and starts throwing them in directions you did not choose.
- Edge and hardware strikes. Hitting a bolt head, a chain link or the very edge of a plate is what produces the unpredictable ricochet. Good target design keeps every piece of hardware behind the face or out of the strike zone entirely.
Notice that face wear from the bullets themselves is not on that list. Properly hardened steel shot at rimfire velocities with a correct hang will outlast the shooter's interest in it.
Distance, angle and the ricochet question
Centerfire jacketed bullets striking hardened steel at high velocity tend to disintegrate into fine fragments. A .22 LR bullet is unjacketed lead travelling considerably slower, and it does not always break up the same way — which means intact or near-intact pieces can come back. Every reputable steel target manufacturer publishes a minimum engagement distance for rimfire, and it is commonly stated at around 25 yards. Follow the published minimum for the specific target you own rather than any general rule of thumb, treat any cratered or pitted plate as retired, and require eye protection for everyone on the line and everyone watching. This is not the place to improvise.
Beyond distance, three habits do most of the work:
- Tilt the face forward and down, typically by around fifteen to twenty degrees, so the splatter cone is directed into the ground in front of the target rather than back along the line of fire.
- Let it move. Chain, strap or a pivoting mount. Movement is both a safety feature and the reason the target survives.
- Control the backstop and what is behind it. A rimfire round retains enough energy to travel a very long way. A berm, a hillside or a properly constructed backstop is not optional just because the caliber is small.
Steel: gongs, silhouettes and plate racks
Hardened steel gongs, 4 to 8 inch
- ShapeRound plate
- MountingChain, strap or bolt-through
- Best distancePer manufacturer minimum
- Typical usePlinking, zero confirmation, group practice
The most useful single target you can own. A round plate gives you an unambiguous audible hit, no scoring to argue about, and nothing to reset. Buy hardened steel explicitly rated for rimfire rather than a plate cut from unspecified stock, and buy it with the hanging hardware included so the geometry is the manufacturer's problem rather than yours.
Sizing is the interesting part. An eight-inch gong at fifty yards is close to impossible to miss and therefore teaches nothing; a four-inch plate at the same distance is a real test of position and trigger control. Own both.
Bottom lineIf you buy one rimfire target, buy a hardened plate on chain and size it so you can actually miss it.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Plate racks and multi-plate arrays
- PlatesCommonly five or six
- ResetLever, string or manual
- Best forTransition drills and speed games
- FootprintWide; needs a dedicated bay
A plate rack turns shooting into a game with a clock, which is a far better teacher than a single target. It trains transitions, recoil management and stage planning simultaneously, and it is the closest thing to Steel Challenge practice you can build at home.
The cost is space and setup. A rack is heavy, wide, and not something you carry to a public range casually. This is a club or private-land purchase.
Bottom lineThe best training value in rimfire targets, if you have somewhere to leave it standing.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Animal silhouette sets
- ShapesChicken, pig, turkey, ram silhouette tradition
- MountingFree-standing on rails or pegs
- Best forSmallbore silhouette and hunting practice
- SkillStanding, unsupported
Metallic silhouette is one of the oldest smallbore disciplines and the target sets are still the best available practice for offhand field shooting. Targets are knocked down rather than merely struck, which removes any argument about whether a hit counted, and the sizes are set to reward genuine precision at distance.
For small game hunters this is the most transferable practice available: standing, unsupported, on a shape roughly the size of the thing you will actually be aiming at.
Bottom lineBuy this if you hunt. Bench groups do not prepare you for a standing shot and silhouettes do.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Reactive targets: spinners, knockdowns and dueling trees
Reactive targets exist because instant, unambiguous feedback is what makes practice stick — and because they are far more fun, which means you shoot more.
| Type | What it does | Best for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Spinner / flipper | Plate spins on a horizontal axle when struck | Solo plinking, immediate feedback, no reset | Axle and bearing wear; keep hardware out of the strike zone |
| Dueling tree | Plates swing from one side of a central post to the other | Two shooters head to head, transition speed | Needs a wide safe backstop; plates swing through an arc |
| Knockdown / popper | Target falls when hit, reset by hand or by string | Silhouette practice, stage drills, matches | Resetting means walking downrange — line discipline matters |
| Auto-reset | Gravity or a spring returns the plate after each hit | Long solo sessions without walking downrange | Mechanisms are the wear point; look for replaceable parts |
For a backyard or private-range rimfire setup, an auto-reset spinner is the highest-value first purchase after a plain gong. It never needs resetting, it gives feedback you can see at distance without optics, and there is no scoring to keep. For a club with two shooters and a competitive streak, a dueling tree is the one that gets used every single session.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Paper, splatter and self-healing polymer
Steel tells you that you hit. Paper tells you where, and for load development, rim sorting, zeroing and any kind of group measurement, that is the only thing that matters.
- Splatter or reactive paper reveals a bright ring of contrasting color around each hole. On a rimfire that is genuinely useful rather than a gimmick: a .22 hole in plain paper at fifty or a hundred yards is close to invisible through anything short of a spotting scope, which means either walking downrange constantly or guessing.
- Official discipline targets — the standard smallbore and international competition faces — are worth using if you shoot any structured game, because the scoring rings and the aiming black are dimensioned for the distance. Practising on the actual target face is free skill transfer.
- Plain grid and diagnostic targets with one-inch squares are the right choice for zeroing and box tests, because you can count squares instead of measuring.
- Self-healing polymer targets close up around a .22 hole and take a large number of impacts before failing. They are quiet, safe at closer distances than steel, and they suit rimfire particularly well because the small bullet does little damage per hit.
One practical note on splatter paper: it is priced per sheet and a busy rimfire session eats sheets. Buying it in a hundred-count pack rather than a twenty-five changes the cost per range trip substantially.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Stands, hangers and hardware
The stand is where most home-built rimfire setups fail, usually within a month.
- Two-by-four stands with steel foot brackets are cheap, replaceable and the standard answer. The uprights are consumable — you will shoot them — which is the point, because a wooden upright is a two-dollar replacement and a steel one is a ricochet source.
- Chain and strap hangers should place all hardware behind the plate face. Any bolt head, shackle or link exposed on the strike side will eventually be hit and will throw fragments unpredictably.
- Rubber or conveyor-belt strap hangers are quieter than chain, last well under rimfire, and self-centre the plate after each hit.
- Carry weight matters more than you expect. If the setup is awkward to move, it will live in the garage. A rimfire target array that packs into one trip from the car is one you will actually use.
Building a setup that matches a discipline
If your practice is aimed at a specific game, build to that game's dimensions rather than to whatever is on sale.
- Steel Challenge: stages are built from five plates each, one of which is designated the stop plate, and matches are scored purely on time across five strings with the worst dropped. Practising transitions between five plates with a defined last target is the whole skill. Budget a floor of roughly twenty-five rounds per stage.
- RCSA Rimfire Challenge: the format specifies five to seven steel targets with no plate smaller than eight inches, shot with rifle and handgun. Eight inches is therefore the minimum practical plate size if you want your practice to match the match.
- NRL22: stages are positional and built around barricades and props rather than around plate arrays, so the target purchase matters less than the props. A small gong plus something to shoot over, under and around covers most of it.
- Small game hunting: silhouettes and small plates shot standing and unsupported. Resist the temptation to do all your practice from the bench.
Whatever you build, it consumes ammunition faster than you expect — reactive targets are the reason a five-hundred-round brick disappears in an afternoon.
We may earn a commission on qualifying purchases made through these links, at no extra cost to you.
Ammunition shipping is restricted or banned outright in several states and many municipalities, and some jurisdictions require a licensed FFL or a permit as the delivery point. Rules change often and retailers enforce them at checkout, not before. Confirm your own state and city requirements with the retailer and your state attorney general's office before you place an order.
Maintenance and lifespan
Rimfire steel is close to a lifetime purchase if you look after the two things that wear.
- Inspect the face before each session. Run a hand over it. Smooth is fine, however ugly the paint looks. Any crater, dimple, raised edge or pit means the plate is now deflecting fragments unpredictably and should be retired.
- Check the hangers and holes. Elongating bolt holes and stretched chain links are the first sign that the plate is not moving as freely as it should.
- Repaint rather than replace. A quick coat of cheap spray paint between strings makes hits visible at distance and costs almost nothing. Plate condition, not appearance, decides retirement.
- Rinse the lead off. Rimfire deposits substantial quantities of lead on and around a target. Hose the plate and pick up what accumulates at the base, and wash your hands before eating — lead exposure at a range is a genuine hazard and target areas are where it concentrates.
- Store the polymer out of the sun. Self-healing targets degrade with prolonged ultraviolet exposure far faster than they degrade from being shot.
Frequently asked questions
What is the minimum safe distance for shooting steel with a .22?
Follow the published minimum for the specific target you own — reputable manufacturers state one, and around 25 yards is a common figure for rimfire. The reason it exists is that unjacketed lead bullets do not always fragment as cleanly as jacketed centerfire rounds, so intact pieces can return. Distance, a forward-tilted plate free to swing, and eye protection for everyone present are the three controls that matter.
Can I use mild steel or scrap plate for rimfire targets?
It will work briefly and then become a hazard. Mild steel craters under repeated rimfire impacts, and a cratered face no longer deflects fragments predictably — it starts throwing them back at angles nobody chose. Buy hardened plate explicitly rated for rimfire. It is inexpensive at .22 thicknesses and it is the part of the setup least worth improvising.
Why do steel targets need to swing?
Two reasons. A swinging plate absorbs impact by moving, which keeps energy out of the mounting hardware — elongated bolt holes and sheared hangers end more targets than face wear does. And a plate that moves with the hit changes the angle at which fragments leave, breaking up the consistent rearward path a rigidly mounted plate can create.
Are self-healing polymer targets any good for .22?
They suit rimfire better than almost any other caliber, because a small unjacketed bullet does relatively little damage per impact and the material closes back around the hole. They are quieter than steel, safe at shorter distances, and good for confined ranges. Their main enemy is sunlight rather than bullets — store them out of prolonged ultraviolet exposure and they last a long time.
What size steel plate should I buy?
Size it so you can miss it. An eight-inch plate at fifty yards teaches almost nothing because it is nearly unmissable from a rest. A four-inch plate at the same distance is a genuine test. If you are practising for RCSA Rimfire Challenge specifically, that format specifies steel no smaller than eight inches, so match the match. Owning two sizes covers both jobs.
Do I need splatter targets or is plain paper fine?
Plain paper is fine at 25 yards and becomes a nuisance beyond that, because a .22 hole is close to invisible at fifty or a hundred yards without a spotting scope. Reactive splatter paper puts a bright ring around each hit so you can see the group forming from the bench. For zeroing, load testing and rim sorting sessions where you are firing many small groups, it saves a great deal of walking.
How do I stop lead building up around my targets?
You cannot stop it, only manage it. Rimfire deposits substantial lead at the base of any target that gets shot regularly. Rinse plates periodically, collect the accumulation rather than letting it work into soil, keep food and drink away from the target area, and wash hands thoroughly before eating. Lead exposure is the most under-discussed hazard in high-volume rimfire shooting.