Best fired-bullet catching medium without deforming?

[jakec]

Here in the south not enough snow to be had. I, like others have stated, use rubber mulch for my target box. Made out if plywood with mulch 24" deep, 1/4" steel backplate. Made mine to recycle lead. Bullets look like they could almost be reshot - cast and jacketed. The most damage probably comes from my plywood front - that is until it gets just about all shot up. With a heavier caliber, i.e. Rossi 92 in 454 Casual, you will experience tunneling with repeated accurately placed shots that share holes. Bullets will reach the back of the box, thus the steel plate. Hard cast bullets have the best success at tunneling and reaching the steel plate. Shot everything from 22 rim fire to 300 Win Mag. Was kind of expecting a hole in the back with the 300, but nope, didn't even reach the steel.

do you have a picture of this setup? it sounds kinda like the one im planning to build to recycle lead also. im wanting to be able to set it up at 100 yards for rifle shooting too. im tired of digging through the red clay.

[blackthorn]

How tight do you pack the mulch in??

[jonp]

How tight do you pack the mulch in??

That's my question. I got a couple of plastic barrels from work and made a pyramid out of them. I packed the top one with 1ft of sand then topped that with insulation to keep it in and some landscaping cloth to hold that in. I clip the target to the edges. I haven't had any penetration yet including 20gr 2400 under a 255gr lswc out of my 45Colt. I do not shoot rifle into it. The rubber mulch would be more expensive a setup as I got all of my stuff pretty much free but would work better I think

[Garyb]

My setup with the plywood box (actual OSB Board, cheap and easily replaced) is movable because it is on wheels. I have an axle welded to the steel plate with 2 wheel barrow wheels. I've attached wheel barrow handles on each side so I can roll the whole thing around and store it in a building and move it to different distances. So as far as how tight the mulch is packed, I don't pack it at all. Just by rolling it around it sort of naturally settles. Jakec wanted photos, I'll try to take some and post later. Not much to look at but it works.

One word of caution, if you make one, don't make it too big. Mine is too big and the mulch is expensive; however it should last forever though.

OK, before anybody ask, "just how big is it." Mine is 30x30 and 24 deep. I wanted to put up about 4 targets to shoot at without having to walk down to the target. Just so you know, about $150 worth of mulch from Lowes for a box this big. You can do the math to see how much you want to spend.

[BIGRED]

another way to reduce the amount of mulch is to use 2 steel plates 1/8" should be plenty. have the plate edge be flush with the front sides of target box then angle back to the middle. 2 of these create a "V" and all bullets will be directed inwards. saves the edges of your target from getting beat up as well. the void space behind these 2 "V" plates will save you alot of mulch depending on your target size. my smaller target is 18" square and 7" deep i have less than a 1/2 bag of mulch in it because i have 2 steel plates as described. works very well. also helps deform/split jacketed bullets enough to make smelting easier. IT WILL DEFORM SOME BULLETS..... but everything is remelted so what do i care..

[whelenshooter]

Richard Lee said in his reloading manual that he used a swimming pool.