Hot Lead Vs. Cold Steel
 

gotcoalman posted how he fired through an ~8mm steel H girder at the local quarry twice with his .44 Kentucky rifle and a patched round ball. He said that the only other gun there that could do it was a .30-30.
When he posted about it folks didn't want to believe his claim so he set out to take a video of his gun firing through an 8mm [.31 inch] steel plate. He loaded it with 100 grains of 777 and a patched .433 round ball and guess what?
Well, check out the video and see for yourself. BTW, he dislocated his shoulder in the process and his son took a piece of shrapnel in the leg to accomplish this video from 3 different angles.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Phjzjk0f7Y

I would have never believed it myself had I not seen the video. And you can see it wasn't edited because on the second angle you could see the smoke from the rifle.

To me it seems pretty stupid for that guy to be standing so close to the steel and also in front of the rifle. They need to go to a hunter safety course and learn. Also go to school and gets some brains. It is videos like these that get people hurt or killed.

My thoughts exactly!

While their idea of how to safely film such an event are questionable at best, the results did not surprise me at all. When a friend was helping me build my first bullet trap, I used the same kind of steel that was basically used here. My White Ultra Mag was the first rifle I used and you can imagine both his and my surprise when I blew right throw it. Since that failed back stop attempt I have moved to 3/4 inch steel. I have not gotten through it, but have dented it. Also there was a steel pipe used as a bracing and legs to hold the backstop.. muzzleloaders will go through steel pipe. Just for your information.

Also the ricochet effect off many surfaces, especially steel is a very real danger. I have a PVC target stand that stood ten feet in front of the steel trap, and you can again, imagine my surprise when that all of a sudden was broken. That's why one PVC target stand at the house is a little taller then the other one...