I normally shoot into a dirt pile, but it's hard to recover the lead from a dirt pile. I'm thinking about putting a metal plate set at a 45⁰ angle so the bullets will turn down into dirt below steel plate. I plan to weld skirts on sides so bullets don't angle to side. 99% of my shooting is cast bullets with 30 cal being less than 2,000 fps, and 45 cal being less than 1500 fps, mostly around 1,000 fps.
How thick does this metal need to be? I'm thinking 1/2" for back plate, and perhaps 3/8" for sides. Do those thickness make sense? Less thickness required? More?
Would this hold up to an occasional factory load of 5.56?
Thanks for any guidance and suggestions on this project.
Ken H>