Bullet trap ideas for recycling lead

[SSGOldfart]

I've been following this thread from it's inception, looking to make a simple, safe and suitable trap for indoor or outdoor use, testing loads in the shop, handgun (380/9mm/45acp/38/357) and .22 pistol and rifle. I am not a high volume shooter, not a caster, but do reload, mostly 45acp and 38/357, typically cast boolits. Thought I'd share some results:

The design is a 5 gal plastic bucket, .8 cu ft (1 bag) of typical HD rubber garden mulch, backed up by 3 - 1" thick red oak disks in the bottom of the bucket (shop scrap). The bucket is 15" deep so the mulch depth is 12" compressed in front of 3" of oak.

My reasoning for the oak was it would handle the impact, reduce splatter and not richochet, nor ripping out the sides of the bucket as steel might. I would have/will back the 3" of oak up with a steel disk for further comfort level, but don't have it yet.

Threw it together in an hour, including a makeshift "cradle" to support the bucket. Tested it outdoors, setting it on top of a large inverted plastic trash can.

Fired about 100 rounds- 22's, standard and hi-vel, 380jrn, and 45acp white box jrn in that order. Nothing penetrated the back of the bucket and the only slight movement of the trap at impact was from the 45's. Distance was 25' and 50'. Zero mulch spillage out of the bucket lid.

Dumped the contents into a plastic storage container, sifted by hand (20 minutes) and recovered all bullets. There are some impact marks about 1/8" deep in the first piece of oak, but no penetration whatsoever. Going forward, I'll try sifting through some hardware screen, the boolits should pass thru, the mulch should sit on top.

Total investment about $15 for a bag of mulch, a couple buckets and some extra lids. Pleased with the outcome, and comfortable using it in the shop when the weather doesn't cooperate, with no risk IMO.

Many thanks to all the forum members for their ideas, designs and experimentation!!!


Disclaimer: Use of this design is at your own risk, your results, especially with larger caliber, higher velocity rounds will vary. Assure proper ventilation and safety protocol. YMMV.


Attachment 101675

Attachment 101676

Attachment 101677

Attachment 101678

Attachment 101679

Attachment 101680

Attachment 101681

Attachment 101682

Attachment 101683

well done and welcome to the site pull up a stump and stay awhile

[BT8850]

I've been following this thread from it's inception, looking to make a simple, safe and suitable trap for indoor or outdoor use, testing loads in the shop, handgun (380/9mm/45acp/38/357) and .22 pistol and rifle. I am not a high volume shooter, not a caster, but do reload, mostly 45acp and 38/357, typically cast boolits. Thought I'd share some results:

The design is a 5 gal plastic bucket, .8 cu ft (1 bag) of typical HD rubber garden mulch, backed up by 3 - 1" thick red oak disks in the bottom of the bucket (shop scrap). The bucket is 15" deep so the mulch depth is 12" compressed in front of 3" of oak.

My reasoning for the oak was it would handle the impact, reduce splatter and not richochet, nor ripping out the sides of the bucket as steel might. I would have/will back the 3" of oak up with a steel disk for further comfort level, but don't have it yet.

Threw it together in an hour, including a makeshift "cradle" to support the bucket. Tested it outdoors, setting it on top of a large inverted plastic trash can.

Fired about 100 rounds- 22's, standard and hi-vel, 380jrn, and 45acp white box jrn in that order. Nothing penetrated the back of the bucket and the only slight movement of the trap at impact was from the 45's. Distance was 25' and 50'. Zero mulch spillage out of the bucket lid.

Dumped the contents into a plastic storage container, sifted by hand (20 minutes) and recovered all bullets. There are some impact marks about 1/8" deep in the first piece of oak, but no penetration whatsoever. Going forward, I'll try sifting through some hardware screen, the boolits should pass thru, the mulch should sit on top.

Total investment about $15 for a bag of mulch, a couple buckets and some extra lids. Pleased with the outcome, and comfortable using it in the shop when the weather doesn't cooperate, with no risk IMO.

Many thanks to all the forum members for their ideas, designs and experimentation!!!


Disclaimer: Use of this design is at your own risk, your results, especially with larger caliber, higher velocity rounds will vary. Assure proper ventilation and safety protocol. YMMV.

Awesome design. Was any of the rubber melted or a sticky mess that you noticed when you sifted the bullets out? Looks like a fine unit, probably make it really nice for capturing and inspecting fired powdercoated boolits. Nice work!

[rpludwig]

no melted or sticky mess whatsoever...

additional observations...

I will pull the lid and "re-compact" the mulch (shake it up and stomp it down) after a 100 rounds or so, assuming I'm in the black consistantly you do get an expected "tunneling" of the mulch...interesting the recovered fmj boolits show zero impact marks other than on the sides of a few, likely got smacked by another incoming round. The 22's are mostly deformed, apparently from the mulch...

Some ducktape on the lid extends lid life and eliminates mulch spillage.

Used it in the shop to adjust sights on another .22 pistol this week, confident (or lazy) enough to leave it on my tablesaw (not recommended)! I did, however remove primers & powder from the cabinets behind (duh) and moved a kerosene salamander and propane tank out of harms way just in case. All good thus far...

[BT8850]

no melted or sticky mess whatsoever...

additional observations...

I will pull the lid and "re-compact" the mulch (shake it up and stomp it down) after a 100 rounds or so, assuming I'm in the black consistantly you do get an expected "tunneling" of the mulch...interesting the recovered fmj boolits show zero impact marks other than on the sides of a few, likely got smacked by another incoming round. The 22's are mostly deformed, apparently from the mulch...

Some ducktape on the lid extends lid life and eliminates mulch spillage.

Used it in the shop to adjust sights on another .22 pistol this week, confident (or lazy) enough to leave it on my tablesaw (not recommended)! I did, however remove primers & powder from the cabinets behind (duh) and moved a kerosene salamander and propane tank out of harms way just in case. All good thus far...

Awesome to know, thanks for the reply. You are right, it is definitely interesting that the FMJ's dont even have a flattened nose from hitting the wood, the mulch must reeeeally slow them down, just enough to leave marks on the wood. Do the 380 FMJs make it all the way to the wood or just the 45s? I'm highly considering making one to catch powdercoated boolits from 10mm, i'm wondering how they'll act. Have you shot .357 Magnum into this set up yet? Its great to hear it's working out so well for you. I like this design compared to some of the others on this thread, portability and cost are hard to beat.

[rpludwig]

BT...hard to tell if the 380's are making it to the wood, but the impact marks are large, so I suspect just the 45's did, and they were fired at the end of the session. I suspect it is more a function of the number of rounds tunneling thru the mulch opening up a path for subsequent rounds making it to the wood, regardless of caliber, thus the need to recompact the mulch periodically.

I shoot target load stuff, mainly reduced load .45 200gr lswc, 38/357 148gr hbwc and .22's so I can't speculate on high power loads such as hot .357 or your 10mm. I would expect the mulch, 3" of hardwood, backed by steel would be adequate though. I would experiment cautiously, perhaps with a second bucket as backup, outdoors with an adequate backstop...ymmv for sure...

[cr2]

As a kid I always enjoyed digging in the sand for lead, so I wanted to use sand instead of rubber mulch. Here's a quick and dirty bullet trap that works for my handguns. I picked up the free tire along the road and bolted it (4 bolts) to a piece of 1/8" plate steel. I used thin steel because I have a bad back and moving around 75-100 pounds is about all I can handle without messing myself up. I got to worrying that the 1/8" wouldn't hold up, so I placed an extra piece of 3/8" aluminum plate in the back of the center hole and that stops the boolit. It's filled with nice clean masonry sand. My local builders supply lets me have it for free if I shovel it myself, so I brought home a few 5 gallon buckets and that's all it takes. I packed 6-8" of damp sand into the tire and leaned it backwards a little so the sand stays in. I'll probably eventually use old carpet screwed to the tire, but my first test just used cardboard to keep the sand from flying out.

All of the recovered boolits from my first test were up against the aluminum, but the plate wasn't damaged at all. I plan to use this mainly for 380 and and 38 special, and probably some 357 mag. to see how the aluminum holds up to it. A small piece of steel plate would have been better but the aluminum was all I had.

[stephen m weiss]

My first pass at this was a cardboard moving box 18"wide by 14"deep by 14" high with wet sand in multiple layers of plastic bags, prolly 4 mill tough stuff. I shot hundreds and hundreds of up to 308 fmj full power rounds into that. Many fragged a lot. I had a think concrete wall behind it but nothing made it through. Eventually the cardboard gives out and i have to move the sand and give new bags to the job, then I collect the bullets. Most are heavily fragmented. Eventually, the sand dried out and things got a lot worse. Much worse stopping power, and serious lead dust while changing boxes and collecting lead. BAD

Then I took my lead oxide heavy dry sand and put it in a 4 ga home depot bucket and put in 5 qts of cheap motor oil. No more lead oxide. The lead gets oil coated as soon as it hits and stays in perfect non-oxidized condition. The problem is, the effective density is about 2x water, so lead really gets torn up. Also, I have to repack the sand because bullets tunnel holes and 3 full power 308 fmj's in teh same hole will tunnel out the back. The cost is $20. Full power 223's just turn into lead dust, no way to collect it really. The weight is 70lbs, light enough to carry with one hand. After about 5 days of shooting, we have blown up about 4 buckets, but kept most of the sand. My son is particularly good at blowing holes in the sides haha.

The problem is density, the more density the faster teh stopping of high power rounds, but the faster teh stopping, the more destruction of the lead and the lower collection efficiency.

I figure if I switch to saw dust (or rubber mulch) and oil fill I will need 30 " depth but most of the bullets will be fully intact and unoxidized, if I add the oil. Home depot sells 14" dia x 60 long galvanized pipe, $30, which I can cut in half. A standard ducting end cap will close it out, and I can collect teh lead that collects at teh bottom in between shooting sessions, and will act as a last ditch stopper. The low density of the oil-sawdust mix means that the lead sinks fairly fast when I tip the thing opening up between shooting sessions. So eventually, I open up the end cap, and scoop out the lead. The sawdust and oil both count as flux for smelting. Smelting is much easier since there is NO lead oxide.
Cost is about $35 if the sawdust is free from my sawmill.

For me, my driving considerations are:
* as little as possible lead on my land
* low cost since I only have ~$200 in lead
* light enough to put in my truck for alternate shooting sites. Sometimes my wife and kids are in camp and I gotta go elsewhere.
* as little lead destruction as possible, even on high power rifle rounds.
* robust construction unlike home depot buckets. At least the galvanized I can bang back together and tape seal.
* quick lead collection. It's really not worth 20 minutes of my time to collect a few lbs of lead.

When i get a round tuit I will test the stuff in a dixie cup vs pellet gun first. Then the full thingy and I will report back. I just posted the idea to stir some ideas.

I would love to use straight petroleum jelly, but cant figure out how to get 70 lbs of it for cheap. Straight oil would be about $100, and wax is reallty expensive. (50% oil and wax makes a petroleum jelly like stuff). Roofing tar is not too expensive, but is unholy smelly to work with.

[NavyVet1959]

I would love to use straight petroleum jelly, but cant figure out how to get 70 lbs of it for cheap. Straight oil would be about $100, and wax is reallty expensive. (50% oil and wax makes a petroleum jelly like stuff). Roofing tar is not too expensive, but is unholy smelly to work with.

You might want to look into just buying "slack wax". It is an unrefined wax with a high oil content. The melting point is low enough that a person could probably just warm their bullet stop container and all the lead would sink to the bottom.

[stephen m weiss]

Thx, I checked into slackwax. It exists, sells for less than buck a pound, a metric ton is the min order lol.

Somebody had mentioned shooting into a stump, and I got to thinking sideways into a firewood pile, then collect the lead off the bottom of the fireplace after burning. Anyone done anything like that? I have a wood burning stove in my cabin up there. I start the think with beer box cardboard and dont get smoked out even with that stinky stuff, so I would be largely immune to any toxic vapors. Optionally I could waste the wood and just burn it in a metal trashcan outside. Mebbie I could put a spigot drain on the bottom of my woodburning stove so the lead just poored into a pan to cool.. hah.

[abqcaster]

I don't care to have the lead in my house. It can get hot enough to vaporize it in the deeper parts of the fire. Alternatively I shoot into the ends of thick trunk cuts (18" X 10+"). I've learned that some woods will bounce a bullet back at you (chiefly locust). I get as much lead out of the wood as I can by chopping it up and the wood then goes into outdoor, decorative fires. Then, I collect any melted lead.

[NavyVet1959]

Thx, I checked into slackwax. It exists, sells for less than buck a pound, a metric ton is the min order lol.

Depending upon the area that you live in, you might be able to find it locally. Do you have a lot of refineries in your area? If so, there's a chance that you could find someone there that would sell you a 55g drum of it.

[stephen m weiss]

No refineries in NY.

Wiki says the vapor pressure of lead at 1000k is 1 pa, or 10ppm of an atmosphere. 99.9% or more of the smoke goes up the chimney. The lead pool would be quickly covered in reducing ash. Still kinda hairy. I wish I had lead metering. I drink lots of OJ when smelting or casting. Most lead breathed in will go to stomache and form insoluable precipitates with oj.

Say, how do you collect the lead from the stumps after your outdoor fire?

[abqcaster]

Say, how do you collect the lead from the stumps after your outdoor fire?

I just peel it off the bottom of the container, brick box or metal fire pit/bowl. I just do it for myself or small gathering where everybody is informed not at big shindigs, and off to the side for lighting, not the central camp fire or anything like that. (BTW it's not a whole lot...)

[SSGOldfart]

I just used 3 bags of rubber mulch and a 30gal drum yep taped the top back on after fulling it, it has stopped a point blank 44 rem mag and a number of full load 357's and so far two 30-06 rounds most rounds are almost undamaged I think I could re-use the 357's

[ncbearman]

"most rounds are almost undamaged I think I could re-use the 357's"

Alloy too hard? Don't we want those babies to expand?

[SSGOldfart]

"most rounds are almost undamaged I think I could re-use the 357's"

Alloy too hard? Don't we want those babies to expand?

yep guess you right but I recast them by remelting and adding to a different alloy then cast new ones

[ncbearman]

yep guess you right but I recast them by remelting and adding to a different alloy then cast new ones

.357 is my 2nd favorite round after .45 anything............. love the knock down power of those 2 rounds!

[skizzums]

I have one I use in my garage in small volume. very small volume( I don't ned lead poisoning class)

just a wooden box 24x24 with a 1/4 steel plate 24" at 45degrees, maybe a bit a more.




but for outdoor use and long range stuff, theres a guy on another forum that has a really cool design, i'll find a link to it in a minute.

[skizzums]

here it is, tell me this isn't an awesome set-up. you don't even have to hunt or lead, can just drop into a bowl
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLyi...&feature=g-upl

[FLHTC]

I had a 22 bullet trap when i was a kid and it worked like a charm. Four triangles of steel welded together to make a pyramid of sorts and at the peak, there was a piece of square tubing to catch the bullets and they fell into a pile. The tubing was the post from which it stood and a small square cut into the side of the tubing on the bottom, angled the bullets so they fell out into a bucket. It was a home made affair but it worked well. We even had clips to hold the targets.