Bullet trap ideas for recycling lead

[Sgt Petro]

Please keep us posted. I'm really curious as to the reason for not catching more lead. I'm wondering how much is being smeared onto the pipe wall.

[kenn]

I'm going to make up a couple of home depot buckets with lids and try them this weekend. Local wally world has crumb rubber for 5.78 per 0.8cu.ft. bag so it's CHEAP here. That said, there are some 7 gallon buckets out there. It seems some bakery supplies like flour come in them. I've read people get them from bakeries, pizzerias, etc. They seem to sell online for 8-10 bucks new online.... I know two homer buckets duct taped together is cheaper than that, but it's an idea if they can be found cheap. I'm going to try a couple of bakeries locally and see what I can come up with so I don't have to pay 10 bucks to experiment. That said, they are 20" or so tall and use the same lid as a 5 gallon bucket and would be super-handy for a little more stopping power without any cut and tape work.

I also like the idea of the propane tank with a bucket inside. Once the bucket is completely trashed, replace it. For those that have gone down the propane bucket, did you put a steel plate in the bottom to keep a bucket escapee from punching through the back side?

[kenn]

This thread seems to have lost momentum. I bought 2 homer buckets and filled them with "playground" from Lowes as Wally World was sold out. It was about $6.50 a bag and I got the red color as it was cheaper. I bought three bags to make 2 traps. I bought the soft, flexible $1.50 lid for the top. I put the entire 0.8cu foot bag in the bucket and forced it down into the bucket. I got about 1/3 more of the second 0.8cu ft bag on top of it until I couldn't compress it any more. I took it out to my property and unloaded 60 9MM winchester hollow points and 40 powder coated lead .45 SWC 200gr for a total of 100 rounds. My last shot was a single .308 and about 25 yards, tops. I fully expected that to blow a hole out the back... but it didn't... The lid could easily have taken another 50-70 rounds before any material fell out as it was very soft plastic and seemed to "self heal" to a pretty small hole once the round went through.

Fast forward to home where I dug out the slugs. I dug down carefully and slowly (transferring mulch to another homer bucket) and found my first 9MM HP at 5" deep. I found a few more including my first 200gr SWC at 7". From there down, I found a mixed handful of 9MM and .45. When I hit the 10-11" range, it was like they hit a wall. I found the bulk of both bullets at that depth. I found a few more that were deeper but the majority were all found with about 3" of mulch left. I found the .308 in the last two inches and obviously it struck another bullet squarely as it was blown apart. Very little of the lead was left. It was a winchester 150gr powerpoint. The copper jacket was torn open and the insides were pretty much gone. I suspect 1/2 of the material was turned to dust.

I also discovered a large amount of rubber "dust" that wasn't there before so obviously the rounds eat it up. My suggestion to anyone trying the homer bucket is to limit it to about 150 rounds and then do a cleanout. I have two made which means I can go about 300 before I am done which is usually enough shooting for me for the day. I have a steep hill on my property to shoot into so I'm not worried about fliers -- I just don't want lead all over my property and I would like to not waste all that lead... These will go back in the pot and I'll try again.

Last note - I'm trying to find some of the 7 gallon buckets cheap... They use the 5 gallon lid and I'm thinking maybe some wood "disks" or something at the bottom and try a bit of 45-70 and .308 and see what happens...

[pappy4]

Great job kenn. I Think I will try that with the addition of something I do for my grandsons hamster. I make bedding for it. You take shredded news paper get it wet and make a brick with it let it dry and break it up. The stuff gets hard as a rock but breaks up easy. So what I will try is make a form out of coil stock about 3 in thick and put that in on top before I put the lid on. It should be more dense than just the packed rubber , but will break up easy. Bad news is you will have to make a new one each time you clean it out but with the form you can make extra and have them on hand.I will have to cut a piece of plywood to compress it in the form and drill holes in it to let the water evaporate. It will prob. end up just being paper dust when your done but you can just mix it in, shouldn't hurt anything. Its the same process they use to make Eco friendly logs for a wood stove, they are very dense, but will break up. Not sure how many rounds you will be able to fire into it though before it turns into dust. Not sure if it will work but what the heck.

[TXTad]

My previous post (353) shows the one I built since I did not have a welder. This, although it'd probably be a bit heavier is what I'd eventually like to build. Hopefully Santa brings me a Lincoln Ranger this year. I seen this posted on another forum quite some time back.

He stated "I had some free 1/2" x 16" tall x 24" long steel plates available at work so after searching other available bullet trap designs I came up with this one. It works so nice, that I may look into building some to sell out of lighter material.
It consists of gradually sloping side plates that terminate with a 1/2" slot that is then attached to a 4 1/2" diameter slotted tube mounted at an offset. The bullets hit the side plates and are directed into a tangent entry into the round tube where they spin around losing energy then they simply fall into a coffee can at the bottom of the tube. If I start producing them, I will use a larger tube and reduce the angle even more to keep bullet fragmentation to an absolute minimum which will further reduce lead dust."
And these are the pics. posted.

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

By o9tacoma at 2010-07-07

I was going through old bookmarks and came across this one. It looks like all of these photos are gone and @O9Tacoma4x4 hasn't been seen around here in more than 12 years. There's so much knowledge on this and other forums that is in danger of being lost.

[elmacgyver0]

We tend to lose more knowledge than we gain.

[cpaspr]

The quote in post #745 is from post #364. Since 09Tacoma4x4 was quoting, I typed (well, actually, copied and pasted) "I had some free 1/2" x 16" tall x 24" long steel plates available at work so after searching other available bullet trap designs I came up with this one. It works so nice, that I may look into building some to sell out of lighter material." in to the search bar and hit "enter". It brought up the original location, with pictures. The original was here: https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/516406-just-finished-tested-my-prototype-indoor-bullet-trap.html (Hmm - that's odd. I added the actual URL, but the hyperlink isn't showing.)

Nothing on the Internet is ever really gone. It just gets harder to find.

[TXTad]

The quote in post #745 is from post #364. Since 09Tacoma4x4 was quoting, I typed (well, actually, copied and pasted) "I had some free 1/2" x 16" tall x 24" long steel plates available at work so after searching other available bullet trap designs I came up with this one. It works so nice, that I may look into building some to sell out of lighter material." in to the search bar and hit "enter". It brought up the original location, with pictures. The original was here: https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/516406-just-finished-tested-my-prototype-indoor-bullet-trap.html (Hmm - that's odd. I added the actual URL, but the hyperlink isn't showing.)

Nothing on the Internet is ever really gone. It just gets harder to find.

Oh! Good job! Normally I go through those gyrations, but I quit easily at the dead pictures and didn't realize he was quoting another site.

I think the BB Code just doesn't like URL and wants url:

https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-...llet-trap.html

[Ford SD]

How Jerry did it


Prob made in the 60 or the 70

[TXTad]

How Jerry did it


Prob made in the 60 or the 70

That's fantastic!