Lead boolit trap

[relic]

I built a steel boolit trap as seen on some you tube videos. Angled side plates 3/8 thick and 5 inch pipe with 1/2 thick wall for the back with a 1 inch slit to guide boolits and fragments into catchment. Its set up at 50yds and all my loads chrono at 1000-1300 fps. My alloy according to my Cabin tree tester runs from 70-90 BHN. Some is pure #2 and lots is just a mix like all the rest of you use. If it casts good and and the BHN is close thats about all I can do,right? Well I rambled. My question is for you that have a boolit trap. All I get is thick fragmented lead dust. It all melts back to good casting lead but just curious why it turns to dust. Ah ****, I made a mistake in the BHN. The tester reads out on a dial indicater and then you , well you guys know what I mean. Geeze, just made a fool of myself again. I better just read and not post.

[RogerDat]

I don't think you get 70-90 BHN Lyman #2 or Hardball is around 15 or 16 BHN. Water dropped or heat treated I have heard numbers in the 20's or even maybe low 30's. Was that 70-90 a typo?

Hard lead shatters, soft lead goes splat. Thus hollow points one wants to mushroom are softer lead. Too hard a hunting bullet can break into fragments on a heavy bone. Small fragments don't carry momentum so there is a big loss of penetration in that situation of really hard hunting bullet.

[Conditor22]

Pictures, please

[475BH]

I have used an aircompresser tank w the end cut off, set at an angle. Filled half full of sand, board attached to top and bullets land in the sand and stay in one piece. Sand stays in the tank also.

[RED BEAR]

Must be typo 70/90 is harder than hardened steel.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

relic,

Do you have the Cabin Tree conversion chart that takes you from the dial gauge reading to the Brinell hardness?

As indicated in the posts above, the reading of 90 is not the Brinell hardness!

In fact, a reading of .084 - .090 on the dial gauge equals about a 22 Brinell

While a reading of .090 - .095 would be a Brinell hardness of 23 - 24

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot

[OS OK]

3' wide x 2' high 3/8'th steel...



ready for install...

installing with a come-along...a metal 5 gallon bucket catches the lead when it drops from the pipe...

I may have done the pipe part different than you...I spin the lead frags and they drop to the bucket when the energy is lost...

the lead spatters and frags when it hits any of the walls...

Looks like this in the pot...

looks like this when ready for the pour pot...

It's not for rifle & jacketed or solids type rounds, it's a pistol backstop and I shoot lead & electroplated rounds at <1,200fps...no damage.

I did a video to discover what the lead boolits would do when they struck steel plate at different angles before construction, that video,

https://thereloadersnetwork.com/2018...-hmmmm-part-1/

is linked at the top of this build article & video at TRN.

https://thereloadersnetwork.com/2018...-works-part-2/

[relic]

Yes. typo, tried to just know correct it. You do know some of us are old guys and we know what we want to say but sometimes it comes out wrong.

[relic]

Thanks ,gives me more ideas. Time for a little modification.

[relic]

Yeah, typo. I have found that just a slight turn past one full turn on the handle sure does change the read out.And yes I have a copy glued right on the stand my Cabin Tree tester is mounted on.

[gareth96]

Here's mine.. I made 2 of them. One has about 3000 rounds shot at it, and the horse mat covering started to get eaten through, so I put a tire inside. Only used for pistol. Has a 12" AR500 steel bolted inside. I put finishing nails around the perimeter that allow me to slap a piece of cardboard on the front.. and stick targets on that.

[NyFirefighter357]

OS OK: Hey, I've seen those vidoe's before!

Relic: I suspect your bullets are hitting dead on the rear of your pipe. If you look at OS OK's trap it directs the the bullets to spin in the pipe, decelerating the bullets.
This is another design.

[OS OK]

@NyFirefighter 357....If I had it to do again, I'd widen the gap in the rear to a full 1", maybe even 1 1/2"...I think you'll get less small fragments remaining within the trap front end. I'd just make sure they are fragged out before they hit the rear and spin. A grazing impact on the steel does nothing but straight into the pipe and it'll start bulging over some time, that's the reason for the extended side....to protect the rear pipe from direct impact. Might matter, might not but after spending what I did for a full sheet of steel, I'd like it to outlast me.

[RED BEAR]

Hey don't feel bad half the time i am not sure what i want to say the other half i have to say it quick or i forget it.

[RogerDat]

I thought that might have been a number pre-conversion but have only second hand knowledge of cabin tree tester. Myself my exercise program is going down the stairs into the basement and forgetting what I'm there for so I go back upstairs to figure it out, then back down and up to completed the mission. Interspersed with doing the same thing in the garage or shed for a more varied workout. I end up re-reading and editing my posts typically two or three times before it says what I think I was trying to say.

Best bullet trap I have seen had a top plate at around 45* angle with a big sandbox under it, with heavy wood front to the sandbox up to about knee high. Had plywood sheet in front for targets and to prevent the flatten bullets from doing "tiddlywink" out the front when struck by later flattened bullets. Sides and backstop where made from large wood ties such as OS OK used. Located in a walkout basement of a house built by remodeling a barn. The top angled plate was floor to ceiling, so a full sized wall was bullet trap. Owner was a weapons instructor and both he and wife were sheriff deputies. Wonder if he wrote it off as a business expense?

[klenke.ryan]

Here's mine.. I made 2 of them. One has about 3000 rounds shot at it, and the horse mat covering started to get eaten through, so I put a tire inside. Only used for pistol. Has a 12" AR500 steel bolted inside. I put finishing nails around the perimeter that allow me to slap a piece of cardboard on the front.. and stick targets on that.

Great idea for a free, super easy to put up, lead catcher. This is why I love this forum. I've got 2 of these made now, not a dime spent. Only about 50 shots into the pictured one, it catches pretty well.

Sent from my XT1650 using Tapatalk

[gareth96]

DANG IT! I thought that was my idea.. Was going to do that next, just haven't come by another tire big enough

[klenke.ryan]

That was your idea, maybe I didn't word it right. Seems to work pretty well. Hoping to save as much lead as possible. I picked up another large tire and now have two covered silhouettes.

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[Froogal]

My experience is that a BHN of 12 or less will flatten out and become a round, flat disc. Easy to retrieve and reuse. Lyman #2 on the other hand pretty much just grenades on impact and becomes tiny little fragments.

[Markopolo]

Really nice work there!!!!