Finished the basement boolit trap

[sniper7369]

I finally got to use my basement boolit trap a little. :mrgreen: I't just an OSB shipping crate that I filled with sand in the back half and cardboard and bubble wrap in the front half. As soon as I have the extra cash I'm going to fill it with the rubber mulch instead.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u121/rharnas/014.jpg

This was tonights haul out of the trap.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u121/rharnas/024-1.jpg

I also put this together to make it easier to keep all my brass.

http://i167.photobucket.com/albums/u121/rharnas/005-11.jpg

So I had a pretty good afternoon shooting the pistols without freezing my tail off in the 0 degree weather here AND I was able to recover ALL of my lead. :-D

[35remington]

Sniper, if it's an all rubber mulch trap, frequent resifting is necessary to avoid voids in the rubber and the problem of the bullet penetrating all the way through the trap.

Make sure you have a thick steel stop plate for those instances where voids form before you've resifted the mulch.

[sniper7369]

Sniper, if it's an all rubber mulch trap, frequent resifting is necessary to avoid voids in the rubber and the problem of the bullet penetrating all the way through the trap.

Make sure you have a thick steel stop plate for those instances where voids form before you've resifted the mulch.

I did not know that, thanks. How often do you need to resift the rubber mulch?

[35remington]

Pretty durn often. If you pack it tightly it's worse; if you leave it loose with an open top to the box you'll throw the rubber out the top of the box on bullet impact.

I know it's been bandied about here as a bullet trap material, but I've found it rather wanting, especially if the groups you're shooting are small. Then "tunneling" is a real problem and threatens to penetrate entirely through the trap.

Which means I wouldn't give up the idea of a hard backing material inside the box to catch shoot throughs.

[sniper7369]

Hmmm. Maybe I'll just stick with the sand. That rubber mulch stuff is pretty pricey around here and this trap doesn't have to be light and portable or anything.

[garandsrus]

Sniper,

What are you doing for ventilation? How loud is a shot when heard from outside the house?

John

[sniper7369]

Sniper,

What are you doing for ventilation? How loud is a shot when heard from outside the house?

John

Just a window fan and I leave the walk out door open a crack. Ventilation isn't great, but should be OK until I figure out something better.
My brother in law said it sounds like someone hammering nails upstairs inside the house. Said it sounded like someone running a nail gun or something from right outside.

[garandsrus]

Sniper,

Thanks... The noise level doesn't sound too bad!

You might consider some of the lead free primers for shooting indoors.

John

[jdowney]

I remember seeing a plan for a bullet trap, maybe 20 years ago, that involved a plate steel "funnel" going into a drum on a tangent. The idea was that the bullet would get into the drum and slide around the inside surface until it ran out of steam. Anyone ever build one like that?

[sniper7369]

Sniper,

Thanks... The noise level doesn't sound too bad!

You might consider some of the lead free primers for shooting indoors.

John

I had thought about the lead free primers, I just don't shoot down there so much that I'm worried about it right now. Maybe if I start shooting a lot more inside I'll start making separate loads for indoor and outdoor. Do the lead free primers have a limited shelf life?

[PatMarlin]

Lord don't miss. Makes me flash back to the guy who accidently discharged his 1911 in a cinder block basement like that. He was hurt real bad.

[JW6108]

I used one outdoors (to get the lead back) for several years. Sand by itself works great; some of this rubber matting you see here and there has good self-sealing qualities and can be used to keep the sand from dribbling out of the bullet holes. The steel backing plate is an excellent suggestion.

[leftiye]

jdowney, Check with boom boom, he's got one like that. He likes to fire hot loads (all lead) into it. Has to peel off the lead from the cylinder every so often, gets mostly powdered boolits at the collector. If you contemplate making one, consider hardened steel. If you're going to shoot jacketed or heavy rifle loads, you'll need at least 1/2" and hardened steel for both the cone and cylinder (heavy, Boom Boom's is on wheels). Angle the cylinder "leaned forward" toward the direction recieving the shot so that the boolits spiral down the cylinder, not up (make sure that this attitude is in place while shooting, position of the shooter matters).

[leftiye]

Box a dirt works real well (2' cubic), but is a pain to recover anything from.

[dhain]

How do you keep the sand from spilling out? Seems like that would become a problem pretty quick.

[sniper7369]

How do you keep the sand from spilling out? Seems like that would become a problem pretty quick.

That's what the cardboard is for. When it starts getting chewed up I just slide it out and replace it. I also keep the sand a little bit wet so it packs without spewing out.

[Boerrancher]

just a note of caution about wet sand. It does not have the stopping power of dry sand. If you happen to get it a bit too wet you may have a problem.

Best wishes form the Boer Ranch,

Joe

[missionary5155]

Good morning
An effective noise reducer is to make a rack to hold 10 small car tires standing upright and touching sidewalls.. Fire through the opening . It really muffles the sound. 2x4 rack high enoungh to sit in front of. Gives you a 13" hole to see and shoot through. Or get 14-15 " tires... but they weigh more.
God Bless you !