Bullet trap for recycling lead – need help please

[JIMinPHX]

Sure wish I lived in the country...

I see that you are in Tampa. Where can you shoot around there? Are there any good ranges? Is there public land that is open to shooting? Can you just go out into the swamp & shoot there (watching for gators, of course)?

[ghh3rd]

I see that you are in Tampa. Where can you shoot around there? Are there any good ranges? Is there public land that is open to shooting? Can you just go out into the swamp & shoot there (watching for gators, of course)?

The only place that I can shoot around here is at a range, unless I owned some property "out in the coutry". We do have a some good ranges in the Tampa area, mostly indoors, but a some outdoors. The outdoor range that I've been frequenting is the Wyoming Antelope Club. http://www.antelopeclub.org/

I started hunting at the end of last year (actually was 27* in the tree stand one morning!), walking through much swamp land but didn't see any gators or snakes. Around here, there are gators in about every body of water, on golf courses, residential areas, everywhere. My snake boots are on their way for warm weather treks through the swamps.

Regarding hunting, from what I understand there is no public land in Florida. All of it is private or state owned. If you don't have private land to hunt on, you hunt on the state Wildlife Management areas.

[JIMinPHX]

So then, only a few ranges are open to the public down there. In that case, how much land do you you need to have in order to be able to shoot on your own private land? Is 1 acre enough? 10?

[JesseCJC]

been reading up on the mulch traps but I am concerned with ricochet coming back should something exceed 2 feet and strike some sort of steel plate backing. Could it be possible to have a hinge on the rear "just in case" plate and be ok or is ricochet not a concern to come back if your box is say 2 feet deep using small pisol(9/10/45acp) and the occasional .223

[JIMinPHX]

if something goes through 2 feet of crumb rubber & then hits a steel plate, it is NOT going to be able to come back through 2 feet of crumb rubber & get back out the front of the trap. I haven't seen any bounce backs go more than an inch forward.

[MGM]

I would absolutely concur with Jim's comment. No chance of any bullet coming back through 2' of rubber, and I have a tough time believing that your bullet would hit the steel plate if it went through that much rubber.

[GaryN]

I just filled a bucket full of sand with a slab of rubber under the lid. Works pretty good except in the winter. The plastic bucket gets real brittle in the cold and then it breaks instead of letting you punch holes in it.

[rongaudier]

This is not a bullet trap, but a form of back stop. I shoot at steel all the time at ranges as close as 7 yards. I do get hit by frags once in awhile, but most of the fragments seem to radiate perpendicular to the strike point of the bullet. My idea is to have 3/8 ar500 plate braced against a wall. most of the frags will fall on the floor and can be swept up. Seems like it would work.

[Littlewolf]

four sided cone with plates at 30deg the thickness is doubled. the point of he cone should have a 4" sched 40 pipe welded so the curve matches the right side plate. the angle of the plates will cause the bullet to slide to the pipe which will cause all the lead/alloy to roll into powder to ie 7.5 shot size, jackets will be in flake form. calibers such as 30-06 at 100yards should use 3/4" plate which can be mild steel.
this design is borrowed from the four boolit traps in the basement range of my local legion building which is rated for rimfire only due to noise through the floor of the legion's bar, these cones are only 1/8" plate and have been there at least 40yrs.