Best fired-bullet catching medium without deforming?

[John in PA]

If you want to catch fired cast bullets without any deformation to study obturation, bore ride, and other features of bullet performance in flight what is the best medium? Many years ago Dr. Franklin Mann, in his book "The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target" found large boxes of oiled sawdust to be the best at capturing undeformed bullets. I have also accidentally found bullets in the spring after a deep winter snow buildup that were captured and gradually decellerated and deposited unharmed on the grass to be found after snow melt.

What methods have been devised since Dr Mann's work that are repeatable and easily duplicated in the home ballistics laboratory?

Again, I DON'T want to test expansion. I can do that with well-soaked newspapers. I want to catch the bullet as it is after firing but unaffected by impact.

[BIGRED]

I have had really good luck with rubber mulch. That's what I build my targets with. Fmj bullets look like they can be reused.... (I tried.......but it didn't work)

[Finarfin]

Maybe a silk shirt stuffed in a box. Turn box to the side, top facing you. Attach pulleys or straws to the new top of box. Put on a clothesline. Just an idea. Never done it. If using straws monofilament line might give least resistance.

[rodok]

+1 on rubber mulch, it slows them down real quick, and does not deform the bullet at all.

[Jeff R]

A big pile of snow works great, if you can wait until spring to pick them up. I had a pile about 8 feet thick and it stopped all the .30 cal. boolits I shot into it. The 350 grain boolits shot from a 45.70 all went through though.

[John in PA]

Does the rubber mulch work on cast bullets as well as jacketed? Usually my stuff ranges from dead soft lead to 1:20. (Almost all blackpowder cartridge and muzzleloader) I need this stuff to positively BABY them boolits!!!

[Bigslug]

One of the options for forensic evidence techs is a steel tube full of shredded Kevlar fluff - basically the same stuff vests are made of cut into tiny bits. I've had the opportunity to recover slugs out of one of these a couple of times. Penetration of rounds in the duty ammo class is never more than about a foot, and the bullets encase themselves in little cocoon-like balls of the fibers. The consistency and density of the material packed into the tube is no different than Dacron filling in a firmly-stuffed teddy bear - you might try packing a large diamter PVC pipe or carpet tube with pillow stuffing and let fly. . .

[Ole]

20" of rubber mulch is more than enough to stop a 425 grain RD bullet @ 1600fps.

Ask me how I know. :mrgreen:

[Bullshop]

Snow pile.

[AlaskanGuy]

Snow is just the best... and its free.... A good case of "Turning Lemons into Lemonade" :Fire:

[MtGun44]

Snow.

Bill

[1bluehorse]

If you want to catch fired cast bullets without any deformation to study obturation, bore ride, and other features of bullet performance in flight what is the best medium? Many years ago Dr. Franklin Mann, in his book "The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target" found large boxes of oiled sawdust to be the best at capturing undeformed bullets. I have also accidentally found bullets in the spring after a deep winter snow buildup that were captured and gradually decellerated and deposited unharmed on the grass to be found after snow melt.

What methods have been devised since Dr Mann's work that are repeatable and easily duplicated in the home ballistics laboratory?

Again, I DON'T want to test expansion. I can do that with well-soaked newspapers. I want to catch the bullet as it is after firing but unaffected by impact.


Stacked straw bales.......might have to do a bit of "digging".....:Fire:

[runfiverun]

snow is definitely the best medium I have found too.

I'd try the oiled saw-dust if were to make something for year round use.
it needs to be fairly long though.

[zuke]

Snow, and when it start's to melt around here, I'm going boolit picking!

[user55645]

Ive never tried, but the rubber seems to be the best option.

Snow is only available during winter months. It also melts.

Hay is only available if you can get it. It doesnt last forever.

Im not big on the idea of oil soaked saw dust. Both are a fire waiting to happen.

The kevlar actually seems the best but where to get and how much cost. Also, I would start shooting in my basement knowing I had that for a backstop :grin:

Im not sure where to get the rubber (home store?) But it seems like it would be a "get once, have forever" type of thing.

Rubber gets my vote

[BIGRED]

It doesn't snow in South Florida. And even if it did it would be seasonal, which restricts when you can do your testing.

[Ironduke]

Back in my undergrad days I had occasion to build a bullet trap. It was a piece of 6 inch diameter steel pipe about 4 ft long. We cut a section out almost full length on one side and welded hinges on so the "window could be opened and closed. We welded some angle iron on one end for legs. Imagine a mortar set up to lob shells a few thousand yards down range. That's what it looked like except you could access the inner part of the tube lengthwise via the hinged window. Don't cap off the bottom. That way if your bullet completely penetrates it just goes into the ground.

We stuffed it with a bunch of bags of cotton balls to actually catch the bullets. Wetting the cotton balls helped.

If you kept the round basically in the center of the pipe when you shot down the tube, the bullet wouldn't touch the inside of the pipe, and would invariably be found inside a single cotton ball near the bottom of the tube. If it touched the inside of the tube, it would be scuffed on that side, but the angle is so oblique it didn't cause a safety issue.

The down side is you gotta pull the cotton balls out of the tube and sift through to find the one with your bullet imbedded. The good news is cotton is cheap, and you can re-use it over and over. Plus you only have to dig out toward the bottom for rifle rounds. Poly fill for pillows also works.

Don't stick the muzzle down into the tube. The blast is unpleasant coming back at you--ask me how I know. But the tube did stop bullets so they could be analyzed.

[rodok]

The rubber mulch can be found at walmart, or any place that sells mulch type stuff. It does last forever. I actually use Ups or Usps boxes about 5 of them (the ones that are about 3 inches thick), I use a milk crate type thing that they fit into for easy carrying, and tape the front box with shipping tape (so it doesn't get so tore up) then after shooting I just open all the boxes drop the rubber into a container start packing it back into new boxes and of course all the projectiles are in the bottom of the container. The tape helps from losing to much rubber.

[Digital Dan]

Oiled sawdust. Mann didn't invent that theory...still working after all these years.

[Garyb]

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.

[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.