Bullet trap ideas for recycling lead

[grumman581]

I remember once as a kid shooting at a tire with a BB gun and it ricocheted and hit me. I have to wonder at what velocity a bullet would be more inclined to ricochet than to penetrate in such a bullet "stop"...


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=302&pictureid=3963

[maglvr]

I remember once as a kid shooting at a tire with a BB gun and it ricocheted and hit me. I have to wonder at what velocity a bullet would be more inclined to ricochet than to penetrate in such a bullet "stop"...


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=302&pictureid=3963
Any bullet not capable of penetrating a plastic lid could naturally ricochet.
Just not a concern for me, I wouldn't bother to own a gun or a load that couldn't penetrate a plastic lid.
Once inside, all energy is dumped into the soft rubber.
If I bothered with such light loads, i'd just shoot at a phone book, flip the pages to get my lead back and save myself a lot or rubber cutting. ;)
Likewise, I'm sure there are many rifle cartridges that would shoot straight on through, that too was not a concern, since handgun cartridges and the guns that shoot them, are all I ever hunt with, and why I tested the trap with only them.
I have a 30-30 that hasn't seen a mile of carry in years. Maybe today i'll give that a try and see what happens. If that doesn't go through, I'll have to try the Mosin Nagant carbine, I have some 203gr soft point for it, that should be interesting!
Hey, why not? it's not like i'm down to my last empty 5 gal. pail. :)

[maglvr]

Posted by grumman581
"I remember once as a kid shooting at a tire with a BB gun and it ricocheted and hit me."


That is the very reason my father always said a kid was safer with a .22 in his hands, than he was with a BB gun! My mother could never figure that out :)

[Cariboo]

Posted by grumman581
"I remember once as a kid shooting at a tire with a BB gun and it ricocheted and hit me."


That is the very reason my father always said a kid was safer with a .22 in his hands, than he was with a BB gun! My mother could never figure that out :)

My Dad said the same thing, owned a .22 long before a BB gun. Come to think of it I still don't owen a BB gun.

[maglvr]

Orig. post now updated with rifle test results.

[DAMN YANKEE]

I decided to build me a bullet trap. Doing a crumb rubber style , roughly 24x20x24. Trying to to do something modular style with 2ft long cubes, maybe 3 of those. Shoot a lot of 45-70, 475Linebaugh, 45 Colt Ruger loads blah blah blah. May get some pics Sunday ,can't promise. :cbpour:

[JIMinPHX]

I recently found out what happens when you exceed the capacity of a bucket trap. The picture below shows the results of hitting the trap with about a half dozen cast boolits @ around 2400fps & 3 jacketed bullets @ around 2600fps. the 1/4" steel plate that was on the bottom of the bucket got 3 dimples in it. The resulting spatter from all the boolits just about cut the bottom completely off the plastic bucket. I suspect that if a steel bucket had been used, then the spatter would have been contained, but the lead that was recoverable would have been in the form of dust. I found 1 gas check still in the bucket. It was completely flat. I only recovered a few fragments of lead & 1 jacket fragment. In all, I probably recovered about 5% of what was sent down range.

[markinalpine]

I recently found out what happens when you exceed the capacity of a bucket trap. The picture below shows the results of hitting the trap with about a half dozen cast boolits @ around 2400fps & 3 jacketed bullets @ around 2600fps. the 1/4" steel plate that was on the bottom of the bucket got 3 dimples in it. The resulting spatter from all the boolits just about cut the bottom completely off the plastic bucket. I suspect that if a steel bucket had been used, then the spatter would have been contained, but the lead that was recoverable would have been in the form of dust. I found 1 gas check still in the bucket. It was completely flat. I only recovered a few fragments of lead & 1 jacket fragment. In all, I probably recovered about 5% of what was sent down range.

What medium did you have this trap stuffed with?
Sand - Crumb Rubber - etc?
Mark :coffeecom

[maglvr]

Jim:
Judging from the dents in that steel plate, I would venture to guess a big part of the problem is the tearing force generated by the bullets slamming into the plate.
A few suggestions.........
1. I would try heavier chunks of rubber, packed VERY dense!!

2. If you are pretty sure spatter did the cutting, try lining the sides with some wraps of sheet metal or better yet, tire tread.

3. Lengthen the bucket by placing it inside another, and if need be add a third one.

The key is to stop the bullet before it bottoms out.
playing around with lead dust is a PITA, way easier to pick out whole boolits, to reclaim the lead.
Good Luck!

[JIMinPHX]

The bucket was stuffed with crumb rubber. I knew that I was overgunned for that trap before I started shooting. I just did it anyway to see what would actually happen.

What I should have done was to fill a second bucket with crumb rubber (& no steel plate) & place that bucket in front of this one. That way the boolit would have slowed down enough to stop before the plate, or at least hit the plate slow enough to stay in one piece.

I had thought about using the two bucket trick, but I didn't have any more crumb rubber laying around, so instead I opted for the destructive testing as an academic endeavor. I did learn something & if I want to beef up a bucket trap some day, I now know where to start.

[DukeInFlorida]

Crumb rubber in the first bucket, and coarse sand in the second.

[grumman581]

If you live in an area where they are doing new subdivision construction, you can likely find some PVC sewer pipe scraps left over and tossed in a junk pile. I took a 4 ft section of it and made a multi-day dog feeder out of it. You could use a similar sized piece for stopping rounds. It's slightly larger in diameter. The one that I have is 13.25" in diameter with a 0.75" wall thickness. The bottom is bell shaped for fitting around another length of the same type of pipe which made it convenient to seal up with 4" of concrete as a base for my dog feeder. A similar technique could be used for a bullet trap except with a couple of feet of sand before the concrete. I figure that 2 ft of sand would probably stop anything that 2 ft of crumb rubber doesn't stop for what most people shoot... Not sure what it would do for .50 BMG, but I figure if you are shooting one of those, you already have a berm for a backstop.


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/picture.php?albumid=302&pictureid=3963

[JIMinPHX]

Crumb rubber in the first bucket, and coarse sand in the second.

Any particular reason why you would want the rubber first & the sand second? Any reason why you want coarse sand, rather than fine?

I'm not knocking your choices. I'm just curious what your reasoning is.

[DukeInFlorida]

My experience with chopped rubber as a berm material is that it's wonderful for slowing down bullets, without completely destroying the bullet. I've recovered some jacketed bullets, for example, from rubber berms, and except for the rifling engraving, you'd hardly know it was fired. Given enough of it, in the first bucket, would slow the bullet enough so that the bullet could easily be recovered in the coarse sand (second bucket) virtually intact.

Coarse sand because sand will get pulverized as bullets shoot into it. So, if you start with coarse sand, it will remain useful for a longer period of time. If you start with fine sand, you'll have talcum powder sized sand in no time....

Dunno, just seems to be logical.

[Mal Paso]

I only use 100% Natural Recycled Cedar Stumps. :bigsmyl2:
Cut em open when you start shooting through the back. Rule of thumb a full house 44 mag round at 1500 fps can go through 14 inches of Cedar. This one has about 700 rounds in it and only 2 fragments of lead fell out with the sawdust. Must be a ball of lead inside, can't wait!

[sailor]

My Dad worked for Remington during the war (WWII) and he told me that they would save all their testing for the winter time. They found that the best media for stopping Boolits of any kind was lightly packed snow. So that winter I filled paper shopping bags with fairly dry snow, and lined them up. By counting the holes in the bottom of the bag, I knew which bag had stopped the boolit. It took 4 bags to stop a .38 spl. but they were perfect. No distortion at all. It took 9 bags to stop a jacketed .25-20. Also, the snow made them really easy to find.
Ever wonder how they measured velocity before the days of chronographs?

[PatMarlin]

I use 100% natural Doug Fir and Pine stumps myself. Cabelas.

Hey Mal... Carmel- such a awesome place. Did you happen to know Mark and Lisa Poe. Mark Poe Construction.

[mc_1_2_3]

Here are some pics of my bullet trap, just painted it the other day.

Here is a link to more and larger versions of pics, http://photobucket.com/BulletTrap

Questions? Ask away...

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e2937ab2c.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2005)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e293b73dd.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2006)

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e293f2ced.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2007)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e2c5a178e.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2009)

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e2dad0429.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2012)http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e2db19e20.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2013)

[mold maker]

Yer lube aint workin, I see lead streaks in ya barrel.
Seriously, nice job. How much does it weigh?

[mc_1_2_3]

Yer lube aint workin, I see lead streaks in ya barrel.
Seriously, nice job. How much does it weigh?


I calculated it to be right around 860 lbs. It is going to stay right where it is. I can move it with a tractor and put it on a trailer but probably never will.

On the streaks, I thought maybe I would see more of a spiral effect with the bullets going down the pipe. It looks like the go around a few times then drop into the bucket.

[grumman581]

On the streaks, I thought maybe I would see more of a spiral effect with the bullets going down the pipe. It looks like the go around a few times then drop into the bucket.

I suspect that they are still spiraling down to the bottom, but by the time they lose enough speed to overcome the friction between the bullet and the inside of the pipe and spiral down, they are slow enough that they are also not losing lead along the side of the pipe. If the pipe was at a slight angle vertically to your shooting, you might get more of a spiraling deposit of lead on the inside of the pipe.

[UtopiaTexasG19]

For a bullet trap/backstop I mount a thin piece of plywood on the side of a old freezer or refrigerator and hang my paper targets on the plywood. I first fill the freezer with scrap 4x4 and 2x4 boards placed flat and tight together where I literally end up with a 3' by 3' by 6' block of solid wood to shoot into. I've never had any round go all the way through the unit or even 1/3 of the way into the pieces of wood including a 30-06 at 50 yards to .44 magnum pistols at 30 feet. The interior scraps of wood are taken out and refreshed once a year and I collect all the lead inside for re-melting...

[Jim_Fleming]

What a good idea! Effective! Relatively cheap! Easy to collect the lead! And best of all easy to reclaim the lead!

Utopia, how, exactly please, do you actually separate the lead from the wood, sir?




For a bullet trap/backstop I mount a thin piece of plywood on the side of a old freezer or refrigerator and hang my paper targets on the plywood. I first fill the freezer with scrap 4x4 and 2x4 boards placed flat and tight together where I literally end up with a 3' by 3' by 6' block of solid wood to shoot into. I've never had any round go all the way through the unit or even 1/3 of the way into the pieces of wood including a 30-06 at 50 yards to .44 magnum pistols at 30 feet. The interior scraps of wood are taken out and refreshed once a year and I collect all the lead inside for re-melting...



Sent from my Droid

[UtopiaTexasG19]

If you place your targets in the same place and are a relatively good shot all the lead will hit the wood inside the freezer in a 6"- 8" area. The initial rounds appear to imbed themselves into the wood but once saturated in an area the following rounds hit and most drop in one form or another down to the bottom of the freezer. I assume how hard one packs the wood initially, whether you are using hard cast vs jacketed bullets and what type of wood is used will probably make a difference in how the actual slugs end up but I have never paid much attention. The wood near the target zone will be very splintered and some lead will have to be pried from the wood but the good news is that 100% will be inside the freezer and not contaminating the surrounding soil. If someone had more time to experiment I guess they could fill the freezer with all kinds of media including sand, rubber, soil etc. to see what could be used to reclaim the lead the best but this works for me and the splintered wood chips do not try to flow back out between the wall and plywood board. I fill the freezer and place the scrap lumber inside with it lying on it's back, close the door and lock, then stand upright. A heavier media inside might make it harder to tip upright when filled but the possibilities are endless. I've used the same freezer for 2 years now, using the same initial side, and considering one could mount targets on all four sides and have years and years more use from this one unit. Like I said before I just replace the plywood piece on the outside occassionally where I tack on the paper targets. A few weeks back I tried some one ounce TruBall slugs from my 12 gauge at 50 yards and am curious as to how the 1 ounce slugs will turn out when I recover them in a few months! :)

[rbertalotto]

I would think a 55 gal steel drum, with a piece of 1/2" HR500 steel in the bottom, laying on its side. Shooting into the open end with a piece of replaceable cardboard to hold the target. All the lead would splatter onto the walls of the steel drum and land on the bottom. No?

[161]

After 21 years of being a cop I had a couple old bullet proof vests sitting around. They get replaced every 7 to 10 years. I thought if I get a 30 gallon plastic tub put 4 layers of kevlar at one end and fill the rest with cedar chips it might work. My thought was the chips would slow the boolit down enough that the vest would just catch it without penetrating the vest. Ya right Marlin 357 with Lee 158-SWC-TL a PB gas check over 13 gr. of 2400 shredded the top layer of kevlar. Didn't pass into the second but it's a pain digging boolits out of the fibers. So I thought what the heck try the 45-70 GG 15 gr. Unique and a 405 Suter's cast boolit. Didn't penetrate the first layer of kevlar but it pushed all four layers out the back of the tub.

[slim1836]

I use a 12"- 90 degree cast iron bend I salvaged from a construction site as a boolit trap. It just sits on the ground atop a large rock. Mount a target (I cut a piece of masonite and use a stick-on target), shoot, tip over the bend, and salvage the lead. Primarilly shoot round ball at it, never jacketed as it is cast iron. Has held up with no problems yet. Just have to replace the masonite as needed.

Slim

[Sonnypie]

I only use 100% Natural Recycled Cedar Stumps. :bigsmyl2:
Cut em open when you start shooting through the back. Rule of thumb a full house 44 mag round at 1500 fps can go through 14 inches of Cedar. This one has about 700 rounds in it and only 2 fragments of lead fell out with the sawdust. Must be a ball of lead inside, can't wait!

Hey!
No fair fluxing the lead BEFORE it is in the pot! :lol:

[mc_1_2_3]

I guess I should explain that I don't make cast boolits as most of you do. I just happened on this thread through a google search for bullet traps. I will be shooting alot of FMJ 5.56 out of my AR15, so I needed something that could handle thousands of them. And alot of 30-06, 270, and 300 Win Mag. I should have very easy clean up, just get some of the target material that comes with the bullets. And of course an occasional coat of Rustoleum.

Here again is a pic of my trap:

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/thum_132044e60e2937ab2c.jpg (http://castboolits.gunloads.com/vbimghost.php?do=displayimg&imgid=2005)

[Boolseye]

I guess I should explain that I don't make cast boolits as most of you do.
Not yet, you don't-give it time.:kidding:

But seriously, that trap of yours is wicked cool! That thing must be a beast to tolerate those heavy-duty rifle rounds w/ j-words (jacketed bullets)

I took the bullet trap suggestion on M.D. Smith's reloading pages (reloadammo.com) which involved a piece of 3/8" steel 18" x 12" and a couple 2x4's. Very simple, then I screwed heavy horse barn type rubber matting, three widths of it, across the front to slow down the slugs. I tack my target on there. Last, it's mounted in a clay bank with another slab of steel flat beneath it to catch the slugs, which emerge more or less intact. If you don't slow 'em down somehow they just obliterate against the steel. My other catcher is a 5 gallon pail filled with clay, and with the top of a 20 gallon propane tank against the rear to catch the slugs that make it through (which they start to do fairly quickly!). It's the half of a propane tank that I don't smelt in. I shoot mainly target velocity .45, 9mm and .38, with some full house loads in each caliber, including .357 mag. Feels good to be reclaiming most of my lead. I'll get pics added when I get a chance
-jp

[R.M.]

I have a box that I built full of rubber chips. Works well, other than the front face is a pain to maintain. As you blow holes in it, the rubber leaks out. I've been thinking of getting some rubber matting, as has been mentioned. I have a bit of conveyor belting a friend gave me that came from a steel mill. This stuff is 7/16" thick, and corded. I put a small chunk on the front face and shot some .22s from a pistol into it from 25 yards. Well I never would have thought it, but only about half of them made it through the belting. That's some tough stuff. I'm thinking that should I look for some material to cover the front, it will need to be 3/8" at most. The majority of my shooting is .22 handgun. I'd sure be afraid to shoot some .38 full wadcutters at that 7/16" stuff. Probably bounce back at me.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
No, they will not bounce back at you. I have used 3/8" layers up to 3" thick on/in my steel trap , as I go up in cal./ power. 1,000's of rounds w/ no bounce back.:Fire::Fire:

[w5pv]

With the price of lead going through the roof & wheel weights becoming hard to find, I decided that it was time for me to build a little bullet trap so that I can reuse my lead.

I’m toying around with a couple of different design ideas, but coming out of the gate, I decided to stay with a tried & true design. I basically copied the .22 rimfire traps that can be had commercially for about $50 & just made one out of heavier material. I used a piece of 3/8” A-36 steel plate at a 45 degree angle for the backstop. I took a couple of shots at it with a pellet rifle & the pellets ended up in the decelerator chamber, so I think that I have good geometry.

The next big question is how hard can I hit this thing without damaging the backstop. I’m going to try it out tomorrow. I’ll hit it with some 38s first & if that goes well, then I’ll move up to a .45acp. I’m a little shy about pointing a magnum at it, even with just 13BNH lead. Does anyone out there have any experience with a 3/8” soft steel plate backstop? Does anyone know how big of a slug I can throw at this thing & how fast before I bend it? Any information would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Jim

I use a 1/4" 4'x4' back up steel plate and have shot everything from 32,380,9mm and 45 at it for a year or so and so far no damage to the plate.The ww boolits that I use just splatter from about 25 yards no recover for the lead though.What I am trying to say these calibres do not bounce back at these distances.If I shoot at closer distances I shoot at about 45 degree angle but most of the boolits still just splatter on impact.

[markshere2]

What a good idea! Effective! Relatively cheap! Easy to collect the lead! And best of all easy to reclaim the lead!

Utopia, how, exactly please, do you actually separate the lead from the wood, sir?


My wood separation methods are still under development....
So far there's a large plastic tarp, lawn rake, flat blade shovel, box fan, and a bunch of big plastic tubs.

I rake the big hunks off to the side for re-use
I put the fan on the tarp and slowly wiggle a shovel full of dust / splinters/ lead in front of it

Heavy stuff gets shoveled into tubs for water separation.

drop 2 double handsfull into a half full 5 gal pail o water.
submerge and push around so lead drops to bottom
skim off splinters into another big tub
repeat and repeat.
use a "gold panning" technique to swirl splinters water and lead around, hen pour off the light stuff into another bucket and then dump the heavy stuff into your catch bucket

Lotsa diddling around but I reclaimed about 125 lbs from the original backstop.

[Bob.]

3/4 steel sides and 1/2 inch top and bottom, the pipe is actually a large gas cylinder that was shortened. The bottom was left on the cylinder.
Works great as long as you don't want it moved :mrgreen:

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/BobMKIII/100_3470.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/BobMKIII/100_3466.jpg

http://i23.photobucket.com/albums/b376/BobMKIII/100_3468.jpg

[PatMarlin]

Run that out to 100 Bob ...:mrgreen:

[Bob.]

Run that out to 100 Bob ...:mrgreen:

[smilie=l:

[frankenfab]

Bob, that is a great looking trap. Did you have to weld a bunch of flat bar together for the bottom? At least you painted yours. Mine is still Rust-O-Coat-Leum!:drinks:

[Bob.]

Thanks

The bottom piece was like that, looks like cast iron but its not.
Had some green barn paint left over.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Bob, could you post some dimensions on that beauty! Just curious the opening dimension and how deep it is before it tapers down to the cylinder. Thanks!

[Wolfer]

I had the same trouble with the lead disintegrating when it hit the steel. Now I shoot into half of a plastic barrel filled with sand. A couple times a year I shovel the sand through a 1/4" screen ,sort out the lead, shovel the sand back in

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Yes I know about the lead disintegrating. I recently built a boolit trapbut it seems to contain all of the lead chunks and lead "powder". I figure it will all melt down to the same thing. I am just really careful to not breath the dust when pouring my lead into my temporary holding container until I melt it down ( a rubbermaid container with a lid).

I made mine similar to the above models with the wall and the pipe. I made it out of 1/4" steel and my opening is 3' 3" x 3' 3". What can I say, I am a bad shot! The sides go back 4' to a 1' diameter 1/4" steel pipe (which is 4' long.... about a foot sticks out the bottom and that is where I hang my collection bucket). Works great and feels good to know EXACTLY where your boolits are going.

[Loki610]

Has anyone ever tried using one of those compressed bales of peat moss for pistol bullets? I can get the cubic yard plastic bales for $2 and it seems it would be easy to slip into a box as is, and very easy to separate the peat and lead by tossing in a basket, or dumping in water.

[Loki610]

I gave the bale of peat moss a try with a plinking .38 load from the carbine. 158gr SWC and 2.7grains of clays. Peat was in a 3.8 Cubic foot bag thats been behind my garden for 2 years, the peat is a little damp and very compact and the boolit made it in just far enough I cant quite reach it with the blade on my leatherman (maybe 4") One of these days I'll have to build a plywood box with a safety steel plate on the back and pump a bunch of different loads through her!

[pastorcurtis]

A lot of pages here, so this may have been done before. . .

I read a lot about sand in 5 gallon buckets and a lot about the rubber mulch, so I combined those. I tossed in an old piece of scrap iron plate in the bottom just to make double sure. It works just fine. Easy to carry, just about the same as a 5 gallon bucket of water.

[grumman581]

A lot of pages here, so this may have been done before. . .

I read a lot about sand in 5 gallon buckets and a lot about the rubber mulch, so I combined those. I tossed in an old piece of scrap iron plate in the bottom just to make double sure. It works just fine. Easy to carry, just about the same as a 5 gallon bucket of water.

From all I've been able to read, 24" of sand will stop anything, even up to a .50BMG...

I've read some testing where gravel was used instead of sand and it seemed to work better in that after being shot, the gravel above it was more likely to fall into the hole to refill it. It's just not that great for the recovering of the lead though since the bullets are more likely to break apart...

[JIMinPHX]

From all I've been able to read, 24" of sand will stop anything, even up to a .50BMG...

Where did you read that? Where there any other details? Was it wet/dry? Was it compressed by weight from above?

[CollinLeon]

Where did you read that? Where there any other details? Was it wet/dry? Was it compressed by weight from above?

http://www.survivalmonkey.com/50bmg-penetration-table.html

[rbertalotto]

Interesting........I would have thought wet sand or soil would have been more difficult to penetrate.

Learn something new every day!

[Jim_Fleming]

Apparently the water must be acting a lubricant. I totally agree I had ***.u.me.d water on the individual sand granules would increase the weight etcetera, thereby slowing the projectile down.

Interesting indeed!

Sent from my Evil Black Droid that sneers at all iPhones!

[CollinLeon]

Apparently the water must be acting a lubricant. I totally agree I had ***.u.me.d water on the individual sand granules would increase the weight etcetera, thereby slowing the projectile down.

Interesting indeed!

Sent from my Evil Black Droid that sneers at all iPhones!

Also it is interesting that the net nanny filter on this forum censored "assumed" when you put punctuation marks in the middle of it...

Of course, you could have spelled it as "áss.u.me.d" instead... :)

I was actually surprised that clay provided less protection than dry sand...

[DrCaveman]

I didn't have the time to read this entire 28-page thread, but my bullet catcher is made of wood. I swap out the back plate each time I go shooting, and it is a tougher material. 1/4" acrylic has been my choice lately, until it too gets perforated beyond usefulness. I used a sheet of prob 20 gauge steel as a back plate until I got quite a few rounds through that, and could no longer tell what was new.

In a nutshell, I use a long speaker box with the top removed. I can swap out filler material between the face (replaced each session) and the super strong back plate. Typical filler material is osb sheathing, softwood shelving, and 3/4" particle board. After a few cylinders/clips of shooting, I go check out the integrity of the filler material and rotate or replace as needed.

While I manage to get all the way through the entire catcher, and even miss the box, occasionally, I am looking at about 90% lead recovery throughout my last dozen shooting sessions. Sure, it eats up scrap wood, but I have a pretty good stockpile and more at my disposal.

This also provides pretty good penetration testing and bullet/boolit deformation. It is how I discovered that I cannot make XTP's expand at all, and that plenty of commercial cast boolits will survive 5 layers of 3/4" wood without any deformation whatsoever...just rifling marks.

The best penetration for today was my cast 158 swc in front of 17.4 gr Lil Gun, shot in a gp100 6" 357 mag. That busted through a solid 7 layers of 3/4" pine-core particle board. It is hard to imagine an animal hide slowing that down very much. Of course most of my AK rounds flew tHrough that whole thing. But I did catch a few. Key is to change my point of aim throughout the day. Or just shoot real bad!

[.5mv^2]

We have been shooting into a berm made from business papers and old tires. Last year we collected 65 pounds of bullets. I like Bob's design a lot. Time to get some metal and turn up my Miller. Bob, does the material you use contain rifle bullets?

[Jim_Fleming]

I finally used my 5 gallon bucket filled with sand, trick... It works like a charm!

I ran about 150 full house loads of 40 S&W 175 cast tc boolits into it. Nary a penetration!!

A friend of mine refused to believe it'd work? He pumped about 30 rounds of 444 Marlin into his bucket of sand, with Keith SWC's. No penetrations. Obviously his loads went deeper than mine, but no penetrations!

Sent from my most excellent Droid Razr, laughing at all iPhones!

[.5mv^2]

I have thought of making this sort of trap.

One thing keeps coming back to me was one birthday my wife wanted to shoot a TV that had died that day. Set it out on her berm and she got out a 223 rifle. First shot. Nothing dramatic small hole in the picture tube. Shoot again. Ouch!!! I was digging a copper jacket from my side. The second bullet must have bounced off of the back of the tube twice and came straight back nearly so. A 223 bounces off of thick glass twice and embeds itself into my side. Not sure of the angle probably 45 degrees.

After I think about it enough I decided take it would take more engineering than I am 100% confident of.

Sand or business papers sound safer.

[frankenfab]

I finally took some pictures of my finished trap. I would like to get it sandblasted and painted this year............
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/128274ffa3bd0cee79.jpg
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/128274ffa3bd08b858.jpg
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/128274ffa3bd111339.jpg
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/128274ffa3bf7032c7.jpg
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/128274ffa3bf738260.jpg

[WilliamDahl]

I finally took some pictures of my finished trap. I would like to get it sandblasted and painted this year............

Considering the fact that I see a couple of splats near the outside edge of one of the photo that you posted, it's not unreasonable to assume that there might be some where you completely missed the trap. Have you managed to give yourself a flat on either of the tires yet? :)

[frankenfab]

:-PNooo, that was for testing to make sure all bullets, boolits would be caught. A .270 at 30yds. (5 shots) on the very outside edge was completely contained. Also, I am not the only one shooting a the trap. I will let just about anybody that is reasonably safe deposit their lead in my trap!

[hightime]

Just a steel plate with two angle iron legs that swivel around to the front and flold back to carry.

Owen

[jmorris]

This is one I just put together 8' tall and just over 16' wide. The last photo is complete except to the last brace on the bottom edge (the part thats up in the photo).


http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/IMAG0138.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/a1bullettrap-1.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/IMAG0892.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/IMAG0894.jpg

http://i664.photobucket.com/albums/vv5/qvideo/IMAG0904.jpg

[frankenfab]

:holysheep


:bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2::bigsmyl2:

[pmeisel]

That's good looking work.

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
MUCH THANKS TO LEFTEYE!
HE JUST FINISHED BUILDING ME 2 BULLET TRAPS.:bigsmyl2:

[maillemaker]

I shoot black powder weapons in North-South Skirmish Asociation (N-SSA) competition. We are talking .50-.69 caliber, around 800 fps. Big, slow lead. My .58 minie balls are 530 grains. That's $.15 in lead every time you go boom.

I live in a subdivision, so I don't have the luxury of building a permanent bullet stop/catcher. I go to the public range. So I wanted a bullet catcher that was first and foremost portable. Secondly, I want it to be cheap.

We typically shoot at 50 yards and 100 yards, and you will need to be able to consistently hit a 6" circle at 100 yards if you want to win any medals. Turns out the mouth of a 5-gallon bucket is just the right size for a target.

My first attempt was a Home Depot 5-gallon bucket full of sand. It worked great, except that the sand has a tendency to leak out of the bullet holes on the front of the bucket. I thought about wetting the sand down, but the bucket is very heavy even with dry sand. I used my kids Red Ryder wagon to roll the bucket down range and back again.

The sand was nice because I can pour the bucket into a case media strainer and the sand pours through and the bullets stay behind.

I did some Googling, and learned about the chipped rubber mulch.

I took my Home Depot 5-gallon bucket full of chipped rubber mulch to the range last weekend.

The good news is, it is much lighter than a 5-gallon bucket of sand! Instead of needing a wagon to roll it downrange, I could easily tote it.

The bad news is, it didn't stop bullets. Now I think it is close to stopping bullets. After I knocked the bottom out of the bucket, I found a bullet in the grass right behind it. So I think the bullets are nearly spent as they get through the bucket.

Here are some pictures of the failed bullet bucket:

http://i.imgur.com/Kmmkg.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/oG063.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WFmZV.jpg

You'll notice also that "near misses" will score and/or penetrate the sides of the bucket, with no great catastrophic failure. I'll just tape over the holes when that happens.

I wrapped the bucket with fiberglass strapping tape, but I don't know if that is necessary.

More good news: Shooting through the HDPE cover is very nice. I was worried about the lid cracking or shattering, but it is almost self-healing in nature. This is good because the chipped rubber won't leak out the holes from a normal shooting session. And the lids are only $1.69 at Home Depot, so you can just replace it every trip to the range.

Here is a picture of the lid after shooting about 40 rounds at the bucket. 20 of these rounds were from 100 yards, and I had never shot this carbine at 100 yards before so it took a while before I started hitting the bucket. I was shooting low (and thus my poor camp stool is now shot to pieces!)

http://i.imgur.com/exDAq.jpg

One thing I noticed is that in my first attempt I just poured the chipped rubber into the bucket. I did not compact it. I took a dowel rod and was able to push it pretty much to the floor of the bucket. Tonight, I filled the bucket up to the rim and then stood on the mulch to crush it into the bucket. This compressed the mulch a good 4-5 inches. I then filled it up again and stood on it again.

Here is what the mulch looks like:

http://i.imgur.com/vJttQ.jpg

To reinforce the bottom of the bucket, I first put a piece of 3/4" chip board in the bottom, followed by two sheets of .03" thick mild steel.

http://i.imgur.com/EytYV.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/Li59T.jpg
http://i.imgur.com/WDNpe.jpg

Lastly, I grabbed a piece of my wife's garden netting. This stuff is very "sticky" yet flimsy. My hope was that if the bullet holes in the front lid got too big, the netting would keep the chips from falling out. I believe it will do this, but I think the lid is going to hold up for at least one shooting session no problems anyway.

http://i.imgur.com/1SSoj.jpg

I used the netting on the last bullet bucket and it worked perfectly. Bullets go right through it but it stays grabby.

The use of the steel plates in the bottom of the bucket is against the rules at the public shooting range I am going to. I considered trying it with just the wood, but I have more confidence with the steel in the bottom of the bucket. After this next shooting session with the compressed mulch, I will see if there are dents in the plate. If not, I will omit the plates next time.

I'm not too worried about the steel. I'm sure the rule is to prevent ricochet, but I do not see that as possible in this arrangement as there is no way the bullet will come back out through the mulch or any way I can see it going through the side of the bucket to come back to the firing line.

I think this will make a simple, generally reusable, cheap bullet catcher. With lead at $2/pound from rotometals, and caps $.07 a piece from Back Woods, and powder about $.01 a shot from Back Woods, the lead is $.15 of the $.24 per shot. An afternoon of target practice that would normally cost $24 will be reduced to $9. That's a big deal.

And if you can't hit the mouth of a bucket at 100 yards? Well, that's a good incentive to shoot better!

Steve

[markinalpine]

Steve,
Why don't you try lining two buckets up?
I also found that the boolits will occasionally veer off to the side when using the rubber mulch, but I was just trying to recapture my lead. I was using a 24" long cardboard box that I packed with the rubber mulch and tamped down with my feet, and it would stop .45 Colt boolits at 50 feet, but some started to careen off to one side, and tore up the box. Luckily I had a small leaf rake in the back of my pickup, and was able to rake up the mess. I also used a garden cart to carry the prepared box down to the target berm, so I had something to rake the mulch into.
Welcome to the board,
Mark [smilie=s:

[Czech_too]

I believe that you will notice a big difference in the depth of penetration from tamping down the mulch. I've been using mine at 7 yards with 45ACP, 9x19, 9x18 and various 32's and have yet to have a round penetrate the bottom. Now watch, tomorrow I will!

Your last line says it all.
"And if you can't hit the mouth of a bucket at 100 yards? Well, that's a good incentive to shoot better! "

[35remington]

The problem with rubber mulch has been noted before, which is that if several rounds hit in nearly the same spot, a tunnel will be created that the mulch doesn't fill back in. Then a subsequent bullet will go down this tunnel nearly unhindered and punch a hole through the back.

So in other words, the smaller the groups the gun shoots, the less suitable rubber mulch is. .22's are one thing.....midrange loads of 1600 fps with, say, a 160 grain rifle bullet quite another. It doesn't take too many closely grouped shots before that type of loading punches through the bucket.

Found out the hard way. Buckets can be used, but their usefulness is quite limited.

[yondering]

I haven't found a good way to sort the lead fragments out of the rubber mulch? Whole bullets are easy enough, but if you're shootin' straight, one bullet is bound to hit another pretty soon, and that makes a bunch of lead fragments.

My low-tech bullet trap is just a large 2' round of firewood. That's enough to stop most bullets that I'll be shooting in the back yard, and when the wood gets too torn up, I split it open and pick out all the bullets I can. I burn the rest, and recover the melted lead from the ashes.

[maillemaker]

Why don't you try lining two buckets up?

I actually considered nesting two buckets together. I assumed the problem here was the force being transmitted by the mulch to the bottom of the bucket, which then cracked. (Now I suspect the problem is that I did not compress the mulch, so the bullets were hitting the back of the bucket).

I was going to nest two buckets together, with 3-4 inches of rubber mulch in the bottom bucket to support and cushion the floor of the top bucket, which would be completely full of mulch.

I'm hoping that will not be necessary.


The problem with rubber mulch has been noted before, which is that if several rounds hit in nearly the same spot, a tunnel will be created that the mulch doesn't fill back in. Then a subsequent bullet will go down this tunnel nearly unhindered and punch a hole through the back.

I'm hoping with the big, fat, slow, soft pure-lead .58 cal bullets I am throwing that the tunnel will fill up or collapse.

I've put some steel sheet metal and a 3/4" piece of chipboard in the bottom of the bucket for a final slow-down, if needed. If that's not enough I'll get a piece of 3/16" thick steel and that should do the trick for sure.


I haven't found a good way to sort the lead fragments out of the rubber mulch?

I'm hopeful with the minnie balls I'm shooting that most will be recovered intact. When I used sand they all came out intact.

Steve

[JIMinPHX]

I've used 2 buckets in a row before. If you connect them together good & snug, it works well. If you leave any space between them, then the bottom of the first bucket gets the snot kicked out of it pretty quickly. It doesn't seem to matter if the second bucket has a lid on it or not. The bottom of the first bucket just needs to be supported by something.

[Danderdude]

For you guys using sand, I feel obligated to warn you...

I tried making sand ingot molds. The little bit of sand that sticks to the ingots and won't come off with a wire brush likes to be held to the bottom and sides of the pot by the surface tension of the alloy. If you go tossing sand in a smelting or casting pot you are in for some headaches.

I'm seriously considering using rock salt as my medium with old hay baler belts for the front.

[.5mv^2]

Thanks for the link, Hope it never comes to that.

http://www.survivalmonkey.com/50bmg-penetration-table.html

[frankenfab]

Thanks for the link, Hope it never comes to that.

I can personally verify the 1.8" of mild steel, and the timber. I shot an 18" diameter log about 18" tall, and thought I missed, because the log didn't even twitch.:grin:

[maillemaker]

Well, my 5-gallon Bullet Bucket was a success! I made a little article about it here:

http://www.4thla.com/bullet_bucket/bullet_bucket.htm

Enjoy!

Steve

[Mal Paso]

I finally cut apart one of my lead recovery Cedar Stumps. There was a wad of lead centered and about 10 inches in. I was trying to figure how to separate the wood chips and lead when it dawned on me. This was very accurate lead from the center of the target. I'll leave the wood chips mixed in and use it for flux to produce a More Accurate Alloy. :Bright idea:

[Oreo]

About those wood chips...

I've found that too much wood, or other debris in the ore impeads heat flow, slows the melt-down process, and burns more fuel.

One way to separate the lead from the wood is to submerge it all in a bucket of water aand agitate. Most of the wood will float and can be skimmed, and most of whats left will flow out when the water is dumped.

[JIMinPHX]

A while back, I read that during colonial times, a common process for smelting Galina ore into lead was to put the ore in a hollowed out stump, burn the stump & then recover the blob of lead that was found in the ashes.

[azrednek]

A while back, during colonial times,

Gee Jim, I thought you only looked that old!!

Leg pulling aside. I read during the War of Northern Aggression. Confederate soldiers at times being so desperate for lead and out of mini-balls. Resorted to a similar tactic. If they couldn't dig the lead out with their knives. They'd chop down a tree and/or cut out a portion and burn it.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

A quick video of the one I built.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLyiA8Udq-k&feature=g-upl

[WilliamDahl]

A quick video of the one I built.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLyiA8Udq-k&feature=g-upl

What was the angle that you used between the two plates?

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

I dont remember. I can get the actual measurements for you. We just kinda mocked it up and then welded it.

[WilliamDahl]

I dont remember. I can get the actual measurements for you. We just kinda mocked it up and then welded it.

Yeah, I know how that works out... We have this size steel and we want this size opening, so whatever angle it works out to be is good enough... :)

Dimensions of the side pieces (height and length) and the opening width will do... I can figure out the angle with simple trig from there...

[Bardo]

You could put it all in water and skim the wood off the top. What ever wood was stuck in the lead then could work as the flux. I may have to try that cedar stump as a boolit trap.

Bardo


I finally cut apart one of my lead recovery Cedar Stumps. There was a wad of lead centered and about 10 inches in. I was trying to figure how to separate the wood chips and lead when it dawned on me. This was very accurate lead from the center of the target. I'll leave the wood chips mixed in and use it for flux to produce a More Accurate Alloy. :Bright idea:

[.5mv^2]

Yep the correct angle is the crux to making the thing work. If it 90 deg it probably will reflect the bullet straight back. It has kept me from building one.


What was the angle that you used between the two plates?

[RED333]

Well, my 5-gallon Bullet Bucket was a success! I made a little article about it here:

http://www.4thla.com/bullet_bucket/bullet_bucket.htm

Enjoy!

Steve
Man, thanks so much for sharing, got to make one of these!!!
I use a 3/4" griddle plate that is 2.5' x 4', ya aint moving it, so it stays in the back yard. The lead goes into the dirt, I have to dig it out.
I will take your bucket to the range.
Thanks Again

[kbstenberg]

This is my bullet trap
.47840

47841

[WilliamDahl]

Yep the correct angle is the crux to making the thing work. If it 90 deg it probably will reflect the bullet straight back. It has kept me from building one.

If the backstop and the bullet were completely elastic (http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/elastic-collision.html) objects, you would be in a lot more danger. Due to the softness of the lead, it deforms and loses energy, making each reflection from the angled surface of the backstop have less velocity. If you were shooting a steel ball at the angled steel surfaces, you would need to worry a bit more about ricochets coming back at you.

Let's use a simple example of each plate being at a 45 degree angle to you. You shoot slightly to the right of the apex of the angle of the plates, it hits the right plate, then ricochets horizontally to the left plate, then ricochets back towards you. Will two collisions with the steel plates be enough to slow a lead bullet so that it won't hurt you if it hits you? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to stand there and find out.

Some of the other angles for the plates might not result in the projectile coming directly back to you, but they could endanger people or objects well to the sides of you. For example, if the plates are angled 40 degrees from center (i.e. 80 degrees between the plates), you will have a 2 surface ricochet with the projectile coming back at an angle to you. If the plates are angled 30 degrees from center (i.e. 60 degrees between the plates), it will ricochet off the first surface and then hit the 2nd surface at a 90 degree angle to it. With a truly elastic collision, that means that it would come back exactly as it was fired, but with lead, it probably will mean a lot of splatter.

If you change it so that the angle between the plates is 45 degrees, the projectile will come directly back to you, but after 4 ricochets.

All of these examples are assuming that you are hitting the backstop surface parallel to the centerline of the angle.

The more I look at the mathematics of it, I have to think that the only reason people are not shooting themselves with these types of backstops is due to the deformation of the bullet on each surface collision.

For those of you who don't want to deal with the mathematics of it, a simple way of testing this would be to get two mirrors and a laser pointer. Set up the two mirrors at an angle like you would see with this type of bullet trap. Let the laser be the path the the projectile would be traveling given a purely elastic collision. You might need to put a piece of paper periodically in front of each mirror to see where the laser is striking. This isn't a perfect example due to the refraction of the light as it goes through the glass coating on the mirror, but it should be good enough to give you an idea of what is happening.

[.5mv^2]

Hi William
Theory aside the reason for my concern is that I was shot by a 223 that ricocheted off the back side a television screen. I am pretty sure it was a second order reflection. The back of the screen was angled pretty close to 45 degrees. More complex reflections become a concern and keeps me shooting into a paper and tire berm.



If the backstop and the bullet were completely elastic (http://www.real-world-physics-problems.com/elastic-collision.html) objects, you would be in a lot more danger. Due to the softness of the lead, it deforms and loses energy, making each reflection from the angled surface of the backstop have less velocity. If you were shooting a steel ball at the angled steel surfaces, you would need to worry a bit more about ricochets coming back at you.

Let's use a simple example of each plate being at a 45 degree angle to you. You shoot slightly to the right of the apex of the angle of the plates, it hits the right plate, then ricochets horizontally to the left plate, then ricochets back towards you. Will two collisions with the steel plates be enough to slow a lead bullet so that it won't hurt you if it hits you? Maybe, but I wouldn't want to stand there and find out.

Some of the other angles for the plates might not result in the projectile coming directly back to you, but they could endanger people are objects well to the sides of you. For example, if the plates are angled 40 degrees from center (i.e. 80 degrees between the plates), you will have a 2 surface ricochet with the projectile coming back at an angle to you. If the plates are angled 30 degrees from center (i.e. 60 degrees between the plates), it will ricochet off the first surface and then hit the 2nd surface at a 90 degree angle to it. With a truly elastic collision, that means that it would come back exactly as it was fired, but with lead, it probably will mean a lot of splatter.

If you change it so that the angle between the plates is 45 degrees, the projectile will come directly back to you, but after 4 ricochets.

All of these examples are assuming that you are hitting the backstop surface parallel to the centerline of the angle.

The more I look at the mathematics of it, I have to think that the only reason people are not shooting themselves with these types of backstops is due to the deformation of the bullet on each surface collision.

For those of you who don't want to deal with the mathematics of it, a simple way of testing this would be to get two mirrors and a laser pointer. Set up the two mirrors at an angle like you would see with this type of bullet trap. Let the laser be the path the the projectile would be traveling given a purely elastic collision. You might need to put a piece of paper periodically in front of each mirror to see where the laser is striking. This isn't a perfect example due to the refraction of the light as it goes through the glass coating on the mirror, but it should be good enough to give you an idea of what is happening.

[WilliamDahl]

Hi William
Theory aside the reason for my concern is that I was shot by a 223 that ricocheted off the back side a television screen. I am pretty sure it was a second order reflection. The back of the screen was angled pretty close to 45 degrees. More complex reflections become a concern and keeps me shooting into a paper and tire berm.

Thinking that maybe it might be different if I changed it so that the backstop was just an inclined plate towards the ground and then there was also a steel plate on the ground, I tried it with a very shallow angle (20 degrees) to see what it would work out as... I still ended up with a case of the projectile coming back at you if you assume true elastic collisions. but it is an 8th order reflection.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/244955058df63a349e.gif

Ricochets can happen with tires also if the projectile is moving slow enough that it does not penetrate the tire. I can remember being hit by a BB that bounced off a tire many decades ago. I wasn't the shooter, but I was fairly close to the shooter and it could have just as easily hit the shooter if he had hit the tire a few inches away from where he hit it. Luckily, the old Daisy Red Ryders only had a muzzle velocity of around 280 fps, but still enough "to put your eye out" as we were all warned way back then.

Personally, I have to think that the safest way to have a metal backstop would be to angle it towards the ground and then to have a 2 ft deep basin of sand underneath it. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for as easy of bullet recovery as a device that is completely made out of steel like IllinoisCoyoteHunter created.

[.5mv^2]

Ill yote hunter, or any one else who have these nice traps shoot anything but lead into your trap? Perhaps the deformity is what keeps the reflections from happening.

William, We did a safety course last spring where we shot pump action bb's at close range into cow eyes Some would pass through the eyes most would stop in the back wall. Be careful with your red rider :)

[WilliamDahl]

William, We did a safety course last spring where we shot pump action bb's at close range into cow eyes Some would pass through the eyes most would stop in the back wall. Be careful with your red rider :)

Modern air rifles are a lot more powerful than the old Red Ryders that we had as kids. I have a modern air rifle for pests that I do not want to shoot with a firearm (e.g. the stray cats that want to climb on vehicles and scratch up the paint). I saw a 'possum one night eating the food of my dog right by my back door many years ago and the air rifle was the closest thing that I had. It was just a shot from the hip since he started moving as soon as I opened the door. I figured I missed him, but I found him about 25 ft away the next day -- dead. A 1000 fps pellet rifle is not a toy.

[41mag]

This is my bullet trap
.47840

47841

I have one like that but haven't filled it up with dirt just yet. I found that some 6'ish gallon screw lid buckets they throw away at work do a great job for my revolver rounds. It will catch everything I shoot as close as 25yds except for the 454 and the Lee 300 RF. At 50yds it will stop them all, but there are times when the bottom will split, again shooting the 454.

[WilliamDahl]

Ill yote hunter, or any one else who have these nice traps shoot anything but lead into your trap? Perhaps the deformity is what keeps the reflections from happening.

I remember seeing an episode of Mythbusters awhile back where they were testing some sort of myth that required hitting an object after a couple of ricochets. Of course, they started out the test with everything setup perfect for elastic collisions, but they weren't getting the angle on the ricochet that they were expecting. I don't remember them actually understanding why they were getting a different angle, just that they compensated for it and changed the angle of the surfaces so that they could eventually get the 2nd ricochet to hit where they wanted it to. I've noticed quite a few episodes over the years where their knowledge of firearms is rather lacking. One of them that was fairly blatant had them claiming that the KE from a M1911 .45ACP was significantly more than a .44mag. I believe that was the episode where they were trying to get a merry-go-round spinning by shooting it with various calibers. From that episode, I came to the determination that they did not know the difference between kinetic energy and momentum.

One thing that might also be a concern with respect to ricocheting objects is what spin the objects had on them when they hit the reflecting surface. That might alter the reflection just enough to just miss you with a bullet that was going to hit you or just hit you in one that was going to just miss you. :)

What the Mythbuster experiments showed me though is that when a bullet hits an angled surface, it deforms and comes off the surface at a lesser angle than it hit the surface. This is probably why the backstops that are made of two angled pieces of steel that direct the bullet into a catch / deceleration chamber actually work. I suspect that the bullet hits the angled surface and the part of the bullet touching the surface starts to slows up whereas the rear of the bullet is still traveling the same speed, thus it starts to deform until all of the deformed bullet is traveling the same speed. This newly deformed mass slides a bit along the surface before reflecting off where it does the same thing to the other angled surface... The shallower the angle between the original bullet's path and the angled backstops, the less deformation of the bullet should be expected. It would be interesting to see some high speed photography of the lead being deformed as it hit the various surfaces during a multi-surface ricochet.

[beerbeer95648]

I built a bucket and crumb rubber trap last weekend. I put 3-4 inches of coarse sand in a bucket followed by two circles of cardboard. I then placed another bucket inside it and filled with compressed crumb rubber. I fired 80 rounds of 230gr 45acp into it from 7 to 12 yards. I recovered all bullets in the first bucket. My question for those that are shooting into rubber is how close do you feel safe shooting into the trap? I mostly practice defensive shooting so prefer to shoot at those distances. Any concerns?

[DCM]

Thinking that maybe it might be different if I changed it so that the backstop was just an inclined plate towards the ground and then there was also a steel plate on the ground, I tried it with a very shallow angle (20 degrees) to see what it would work out as... I still ended up with a case of the projectile coming back at you if you assume true elastic collisions. but it is an 8th order reflection.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/244955058df63a349e.gif

Ricochets can happen with tires also if the projectile is moving slow enough that it does not penetrate the tire. I can remember being hit by a BB that bounced off a tire many decades ago. I wasn't the shooter, but I was fairly close to the shooter and it could have just as easily hit the shooter if he had hit the tire a few inches away from where he hit it. Luckily, the old Daisy Red Ryders only had a muzzle velocity of around 280 fps, but still enough "to put your eye out" as we were all warned way back then.

Personally, I have to think that the safest way to have a metal backstop would be to angle it towards the ground and then to have a 2 ft deep basin of sand underneath it. Unfortunately, it doesn't make for as easy of bullet recovery as a device that is completely made out of steel like IllinoisCoyoteHunter created.

Mythbusters for bullet trap builders http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfDoQwIAaXg&list=PL049F895A290E6100&index=1&feature=plpp_video
YMMV

[45-70.gov]

has anyone tried just rolled up old carpet??

i tried a roll about 6 or 8 layers thick.....not enough for 357s and 44s

i did recover a few slugs that bounced off the tree i leaned it against

next attempt will be.......4 ft strips...rolled tight for about 3 to 4 feet

will un roll to recover slugs when i need lead

[Dumasron]

For a material to buffer the shot energy, how about
placing the traps twice as far away? The target is just
as big as it ever was, it just looks smaller.

[WilliamDahl]

For a material to buffer the shot energy, how about
placing the traps twice as far away? The target is just
as big as it ever was, it just looks smaller.

Well, it's how it *looks* that determines how hard it is to hit it.

Besides, putting the target twice the distance is not going to affect the velocity of the projectile that much for the distances we are talking about here.

[Gliden07]

Check this thing out!! It aint cheap but I'm sure it would work to recycle the bullets!!

http://thebulletbunker.com/Products.html

[JIMinPHX]

Thinking that maybe it might be different if I changed it so that the backstop was just an inclined plate towards the ground and then there was also a steel plate on the ground, I tried it with a very shallow angle (20 degrees) to see what it would work out as... I still ended up with a case of the projectile coming back at you if you assume true elastic collisions. but it is an 8th order reflection.
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/imagehosting/244955058df63a349e.gif


...

Ricochets can happen with tires also if the projectile is moving slow enough that it does not penetrate the tire. I can remember being hit by a BB that bounced off a tire many decades ago.

If you look back at some of the first pages on this thread, you can see marks where the lead actually hit the wood frame around the steel plate on my first jr. size trap. The impact is far from elastic. The shrapnel ended up mostly following along the plane of the back plate & hitting the sides within an inch of it.

Boolits that do not penetrate tires, most certainly do bounce back. Boston PD found this out the hard way when someone stole a bus from South Station & they opened fire on the tires with their 9mm sidearms.

[jmorris]

Check this thing out!! It aint cheap but I'm sure it would work to recycle the bullets!!


Not cheap is an understatement the model that is not even 3'x3' costs more than I have in my 8'x16' trap.

[Gliden07]

Not cheap is an understatement the model that is not even 3'x3' costs more than I have in my 8'x16' trap.

I said it was'nt cheap!! LOL!!!

[Mal Paso]

I finally split up one of the Cedar Stump Boolit Traps from Posts 516 and 576 and recovered the lead. Most was in a large wad in the center mixed with wood chips. It worked pretty well considering the cost and work involved. Next time I'll pick a log free of knots to make splitting easier. I cut the stump free of the roots, put it on a tarp, split off shingles with an ax to get to the lead. Figure I got 99% of the lead mixed with a couple gallons of wood chips. I put the mixture in a 5 gal bucket and floated the wood away with water like Oreo suggested. I recovered 15 lbs of lead. Eventually I'll build a Steel Trap but it's hard to beat the cost of the Cedar Trap.

[WilliamDahl]

I finally split up one of the Cedar Stump Boolit Traps from Posts 516 and 576 and recovered the lead. Most was in a large wad in the center mixed with wood chips. It worked pretty well considering the cost and work involved. Next time I'll pick a log free of knots to make splitting easier. I cut the stump free of the roots, put it on a tarp, split off shingles with an ax to get to the lead. Figure I got 99% of the lead mixed with a couple gallons of wood chips. I put the mixture in a 5 gal bucket and floated the wood away with water like Oreo suggested. I recovered 15 lbs of lead. Eventually I'll build a Steel Trap but it's hard to beat the cost of the Cedar Trap.

So, the question is whether the amount of work that it took you to recover the lead is worth the $15 that you saved from having to buy lead off of someone on eBay or wherever (assuming $1 per pound).

[Catsmith]

So, the question is whether the amount of work that it took you to recover the lead is worth the $15 that you saved from having to buy lead off of someone on eBay or wherever (assuming $1 per pound).

I know for me the challange is to see how inexpensive I can shoot. Yes it may only be $15 but on the other hand it is $15 I don't have to spend. More primers!:bigsmyl2:

[Oreo]

The sickness demands that even if you just went and bought replacement lead, there's still that lead left in the stump and it must be reclaimed. It simply must.

[Mal Paso]

This time it took about 2 hours, mostly because I was developing a technique and knots slowed the process. I'll use a Clear Cedar Log next time as it's very easy to split thin shingles off with a hatchet and hammer. I set the stump on a canvas tarp and recovered even the fine chips of lead. I'm guessing less than an hour next time.

The real bonus is even when it gets fairly full, between the sawdust and lead all the shots are contained (44 Mag 260g ~1265 fps). This one wasn't completely full. The first one, Boolits started hitting the back of the target and falling on the ground under the target. I found none more than a foot away.

The other thing to consider is the time it takes to order and pick up the lead. Last time I bought 400 pounds. If you don't count ordering which I could have done by phone it took 4 hours to pick it up and get it in storage. I don't do more than one 75# box by mail at a time so as not to ruin Mail Service. That's still 40 minutes.

I just think it would be cool to shoot the same lead over and over. No having to sweeten the Alloy just melt and pour. I will build a Steel Trap with a Bucket under. 1 foot square but it needs to handle a 260g Boolit @ 1500 fps. I was thinking to sharpen the leading edge and see if the local range master would pass it. The next thing would be a Music Roll type Target stretched across the opening with Radio Control to change targets. No waiting for cease fire. Up on my property, even when I'm more decrepit then I already am I'll be able to shoot the 44 from my Rocking Chair. Anybody have a 44 Load worked up for their Rocker?

[WilliamDahl]

The next thing would be a Music Roll type Target stretched across the opening with Radio Control to change targets. No waiting for cease fire.

That might be an interesting concept... 1200'x30" newsprint rolls go for $24...

http://www.pospaper.com/30newsprintpaperroll.html

If you figure on a 30" wide by 36" tall target, it would end up costing you $0.06 per target. A 30"x30" target would cost you $0.05 each. Pretty economical targets... I have to think that the take up spool is not going to wrap the paper that neatly though since the paper is going to be shot up and distorted a bit. Still, it would probably be workable...

[Mal Paso]

I processed the pile of sawdust from the front the first stump and came up with another 8 pounds of Alloy. I'll cut the first stump shortly and replace it with clear cedar. Lots of butt cuts around here. Guess the mill rejected anything with too much taper.

[ronbo40s&w]

Here's what i am working on:

http://i1023.photobucket.com/albums/af360/ronbos12/backstop.jpg

My .22 backstop of cinder blocks with 4x4 plywood target face. Behind what you see is a cinder block wall that positively stops .22 lr rounds and allows easy recovery of the lead. Now I am adding the rubber sandbags you see centered between the cinder blocks. They are tractor inner tube sections filled with wet compacted sand. They are 16 inches front to back and stacked to overlap in the front...the top one isn't filled in this pic. This setup easily stops everything I shoot. .308, .223, .22 and .40 s&w. won't go more than half way in. When I run out of lead (next year) I will sift the sand and refill. The jury is still out on durability, but preliminary tests show self-healing except for the .40 which leaves a tiny hole that sand isn't leaking out of. Even two bullets in holes next to each other just stretched the first hole and it sealed back to single hole size. Hopefully this will do the trick, since it's dirt cheap (free so far) and uses stuff i have lying around. If I only shot .22 it would probably last a very long time. I'm sure the .40 will tear it up faster, but we'll see. There are two 4X4 target face units there...I will bring one to the front of this once the sandbags are done, so I can staple targets on again. The cinder block wall is behind them still and behind that is a pil of cut willow from a tree struck by lightning..the willow contains a bunch of lead already...eventually i will chop it open too.

God Bless!

Ron

[ronbo40s&w]

Update:

The .40 cal bullet holes from the first test shrank to tiny pinholes. Excellent. No sand leakage. I will still move the targets around. Today i used stick-on orange 1 and 2 inch targets. Worked great until they fell off from being perforated. This gives me lots of good training moving back and forth between them until i get some sand-filled containers to place in other spots. Just stick them a few inches apart and switch back and forth until they all fall off. Looks like i will be able to catch my lead with the setup.

God Bless!

Ron

[WilliamDahl]

I was reading an article the other day about bullet penetration and it seems that you only need a few inches of gravel to stop even rifle rounds... I think it was 6" of gravel to stop common rifle rounds... I would probably double that just to be safe...

[WilliamDahl]

I was up at Home Depot this evening looking for the rubber crumb landscaping mulch to use in a 30g plastic barrel for a bullet stop. I started thinking how much it would cost to fill that up and the fact that it would be a one use item (i.e. it would be wasted if I did not like it), so I looked around the store for other alternatives. Eventually, I stumbled across the compacted bales of cellulose insulation that you have blown into your attic. The plastic wrapped "bales" seemed to be pretty stiff, so I thought that they might be worth a try and if they didn't work, I could just use them to add a bit more insulation to the attic. They were a bit less than $10 per package and each package was supposed to be able to insulate 40 sq-ft of attic space. I figured that it would take two of them to fill the 30g barrel if I was able to keep them as compacted as they were in the original packaging.

Once back home, I used an electric saw to remove the top of the barrel by cutting on the inside of the rim. The part that I cut off, I allowed to drop into the bottom of the barrel to give it a bit more protection from rounds, just in case.

As it turned out, by the time you remove the insulation from the packaging, you have filled up a 30g container and if you compact it down, it is about 12" from the top. Instead of opening the second package, I just put it on the ground so that it could catch any ricochet of a bullet that goes through the bottom of the barrel and bounces off the concrete. I took two shots with a 3" .45 M1911 using hardcast and neither bullet went through the barrel. The only thing is that it kicks up a bit of dust when you shoot it, so I suspect that putting a piece of plastic wrap or some scrap boards over the face of the insulation in the barrel would help. I suspect that the dust was picked up due to the muzzle blast since I was shooting it from about 2-3 ft away from the surface of the insulation.

[WilliamDahl]

Subsequent tests of the cellulose insulation in a 30g plastic barrel showed that a .40SW round would dimple the bottom of the barrel, so I compacted it a bit more and put another half bag of cellulose insulation in it. That seems to have made a difference -- no more dimples in the bottom from .40SW or 10mm. The muzzle blast from the 10mm does tend to kick up the dust though...

[millsa2]

Some Great Ideas Here. Thanks

[452460]

did a quick sketch of a propane tank trap idea that popped into my head with pistols in mind..

62674

maybe pool some media at the bottom

[jonp]

I got several plastic barrels from work thay had def fluid for diesel trks in them. they are really thick plastic. I found that empty a medium load 357 with 158gr swc bullet will end in #3 or on the ground next to it. No load fr a 45acp went into #3 as did no 9mm. 125gr jhp 357 penetrated into the 5th barrel and a few went through hitting the ground 20 -30 feet behind. I am shooting towars a bean field.about 400 yrds across to a tree line then another bean field with trees behind that so no problem but saving the boolits for melting dwn is great. Im going to try your idea.

[Springfield0612]

Not sure if this was posted before. But I use a 5 gallon bucket, filled with recycled rubber mulch, and I add a couple layers of basic rubber backed matting to add to the resistance. Next time I'm gonna put in some rounds of anti-fatigue matting from harbor freight because they are super cheap and I want to see if they will "self-heal" better than the matting. Sorting was very fast, 5 minuets per bucket, lead did not explode or combine with the rubber, shot 9mm factory FMJ and reload LRN, and also .45 ACP FMJ and reload LNFP. Stopped every bullet with no issues!! 62714

627116271262713

[w0fms]

I've been kicking around a bucket trap like the post above to put in front of my new chronograph. Anyone use something like that to keep the inevitable from happening? I'm thinking of experimenting with it just for that purpose.

[JIMinPHX]

If you go back to post 378 on page 19, you will find a bucket trap that I used.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?26627-Bullet-trap-ideas-for-recycling-lead/page19

I put a 10" diameter piece of steel plate in the bottom of a regular 5-gallon plastic bucket & piled crumb rubber on top of the plate to fill the bucket. I found that for common non-magnum pistol rounds, everything was just fine & 11ga. plate was plenty.

After I tried hitting it with shotgun slugs & rifle rounds, I moved up to a 1/4" plate because the 11ga. didn't handle it very well. The problem that I then ran into was that when a hot round hit the 1/4" plate, the shrapnel from the shattered boolit then moved laterally & cut the bottom of the bucket just in front of the steel plate. After just a few rounds, the bottom of the bucket was completely off.

I got around that by using two buckets in a row, duct taped together. The first bucket had no steel plate, just crumb rubber, so the boolit would keep on going through to the second bucket & keep decelerating. The second bucket got the steel plate. I used the 2 bucket trap with rounds up to 150-grain @ 2,300fps. Results were acceptable.

I used rubber mulch from Home Depot as the deceleration media in all cases. I just stapled or thumb tacked the targets to the plastic bucket tops.

[jonp]

Subsequent tests of the cellulose insulation in a 30g plastic barrel showed that a .40SW round would dimple the bottom of the barrel, so I compacted it a bit more and put another half bag of cellulose insulation in it. That seems to have made a difference -- no more dimples in the bottom from .40SW or 10mm. The muzzle blast from the 10mm does tend to kick up the dust though...
I tried a bag of cellulose insulation packed down and all of the rounds save a 380 penetrated the bottom but not by much as they were on the ground in front of a barrel I had stood up to catch the lead. I tried another barrel using the top I had cut off with several layers of tin in front of it then the insulation and the 9mm rounds went right through it so I'm abandoning the idea. I think I will try some of the rubber mulch and see how that works. I hope my wife dosn't go out back in the next few days and look at the tree edgings before I get to the Lowes this weekend.

[jonp]

Those corrugated plastic campaign signs work pretty good. Just be careful you don't get accused of committing a hate crime, maybe by painting over the candidates name or logo or whatever. Also, I wouldn't recommend taking any signs during an active campaign. Wait for the campaign to end.
Mark :coffeecom

Right after campaign season is over I collect every one of those signs I can find. They stick into the ground easily and you can staple targets right onto them. They need to be removed anyways so I figure I'm helping out although I admit to collecting a few Obama/Biden signs a little early :mrgreen:

[mold maker]

I doubt the O bama signs even need a target.
I've got a pretty good stack of those sign also.
The white portions of the sign work as sky screens, for your crono.

[dverna]

So, the question is whether the amount of work that it took you to recover the lead is worth the $15 that you saved from having to buy lead off of someone on eBay or wherever (assuming $1 per pound).

It sure seems like a waste of time to me too. That is about 700 150 gr bullets. Doing that every two or three weeks would get really old. I suppose if one did not shoot much it would be OK - but if you don't shoot much why even bother???

[WilliamDahl]

Were you also using a 30g plastic barrel? I compacted the cellulose insulation some more and I now have nearly 2 full bags of the cellulose insulation in the 30g barrel. It is packed down really tight. I had a circular piece of 1/2" steel that was just the right size, so I added it to the bottom of the barrel so that I can try a few other rounds. I'm hoping that I will get a definite steel ringing sound if the bullet makes it through the cellulose insulation and hits the steel.

Even with the piece of 1/2" steel in the bottom, it's still possible to move the barrel around fairly easily. I know that sand would work, but I also know that the barrel would not be easy to move around if it was filled with sand. As it is, it's still light enough that I can put it in the back of my pickup and take to the range with me. Of course, that might change as it starts accumulating lead... :)

[DCM]

It sure seems like a waste of time to me too. That is about 700 150 gr bullets. Doing that every two or three weeks would get really old. I suppose if one did not shoot much it would be OK - but if you don't shoot much why even bother???

With things getting harder to get, folks trying to ban lead that comes from the earth being re-deposited in the earth and the fact that you get your known alloy back it seems to make sense to me.
There are many other factors like being able to set up a safe backstop too.

If it isn't worth the effort why waste time on this thread??

[WilliamDahl]

With things getting harder to get, folks trying to ban lead that comes from the earth being re-deposited in the earth and the fact that you get your known alloy back it seems to make sense to me.
There are many other factors like being able to set up a safe backstop too.


I'm not so sure that getting your known alloy back is all that accurate. More like you get an average of the alloys that you shoot. Unless you only have ONE alloy that you shoot, what you get out of your bullet stop is just going to be a mix.

[DCM]

I can't speak for others but the only 2 alloys I use are WW and almost pure lead.
The big 50 cal ML Pb bullets are almost as easy to see as the jaxted stuff vs everything else.

[Whizzer]

I am wondering if....for heavier loads, random cuts of bailer belting would do nicely if stacked in the 5 gallon buckets. For non-rural folks, big round bales of alfalfa, prairie hay and the like, are made with bailers that run long "continuous" belts of fabric impregnated with rubber. Like a tire tread, except no steel belting. I have access to HUGE amounts of the stuff. The fabric might make "self healing" harder, but the pieces would be re-arranged at each lead reclaiming session.

I read EVERY post in this BEHEMOTH thread, and a few pages back saw this very idea, only with tire sidewalls... Post 499.

Stan




http://i528.photobucket.com/albums/dd325/maglvr/tiretrap1.jpg

Oh, and JIMinPHX, I sent you a PM or an email, I'm not sure which.

[Oreo]

Just guessing here but I'd figure that to be a lot more time consuming to get the lead from then rubber mulch.

[Jim_Fleming]

But the good thing is, Oreo, the lead is going to be a lot cleaner than from a sand filled trap like the one I built. In fact I'd say separating the bullets from the rubber would be less time consuming, than sifting sand would be.

I've built two, both sand filled. The rubber belting has got to be a lot lighter than than my sand filled ones. Less weight equals more portability, as you know.

Good point, sir. :)



Just guessing here but I'd figure that to be a lot more time consuming to get the lead from then rubber mulch.

[Oreo]

I like the idea of rubber mulch, just not the big slabs of rubber. Rubber mulch seems much easier to deal with all the way around.

I'd worry about the accumulation of lead dust in sand. Rubber seems safer.

[WilliamDahl]

I figured that with the 30g barrel of cellulose insulation, all I would need to do is modify a 55g barrel to be a really large shop vac (like what you used to see with the 5g bucket based shop vacs). I was thinking that the cellulose insulation would be easier to vacuum out than rubber mulch. The main problem that I've seen so far with the cellulose insulation is that you get a bit of a dust cloud in the garage after you've shot it a few times. Not a major issue for me since I'm only shooting it a few times to test the functionality of new loads, but it might be a concern for some people who actually shoot a lot in their garage.

[dverna]

With things getting harder to get, folks trying to ban lead that comes from the earth being re-deposited in the earth and the fact that you get your known alloy back it seems to make sense to me.
There are many other factors like being able to set up a safe backstop too.

If it isn't worth the effort why waste time on this thread??

My objective is to set up a trap that is easy to get fired bullets from. In my case, I have less need for portability as I have 20 acres in the boonies so a permanent set up will work. Some ideas have merit but some do not. Shooting into a stump and reclaiming 15 lbs of lead does not fit my needs at all but if it makes you squirt go for it. It seems like a poor option (to at least two of us) - but then our needs/expectations are different than yours.

So far, sand seems the best option if portability is not a requirement. Sifting through a few hundred pounds of sand will be a PITA but that is the only downside. I have never reclaimed lead from a berm so I am not sure how much a problem sand trapped/attached to the bullet/fragments will cause. Sand may also be a safer back stop than a stump.

BTW, how do you separate the WW from pure lead using your method????

I can get bullet alloy mixed to my specs for $1.83 per pound delivered if I buy 2000 lbs. That will produce over 80,000 bullets (4-8 year supply for my needs) for under $4000. With a yearly consumption of 300-500 lbs. ($500-$1000) (20-35 tree stumps) reclaiming seems to have merit. Processing 20-35 tree stumps a year is not a good option for me.

I guess if you don't mind I will continue to "waste time" on this thread as I have already read every post.

[wyattjames]

just thought i would chime in I use a trap made out of A36 plate the backstop is on a 45 deg angle and the bottom portion holds some water to catch the lead and spatter I use this in my shop for test firing projects it will handle full house 44 loads i have tried 454 on it and they dent the plate .this unit weights about 80 lbs , not real portable .

[HDS]

I'm thinking of a sort of bullet trap, what it is is really just my rifle plate that I would put into a wooden jig that supports it at around 45 degrees. Underneath I would have a box filled with sand, it would probably extend a foot around the stand itself. I think the stand could be rigged so the plate could move a bit rather than be static, like the lower portion could lift when hit, to minimize wear on it. Material is Armox 500.


The idea is: I shoot at plate, bullet ricochets/splatters into the sand of the box. Allows me to recycle it sometime in the future. You could also hang a paper target infront if you wished.

This guy had a sort of similar solution to what I am thinking, mine would be for outdoors use:
http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af179/mad_gorilla/Bullet_Trap_001.jpg

[.5mv^2]

I have a number of old motorcycle tires in my pallet trap. The rest of it is old business papers that I would have to shred. Once a year we dig out the berm.

The tires have been there at least 5 years. They have some bullets embedded in them but do an excellet job on the hand gun and rifle loads.

[Garythegunnut]

+1 on JIMinPHX bucket bullet trap. I built one and carry it in the van with me all the time, so if I get a few minutes going in to work or on the way home to stop at the range I can shoot and recover 100% of my lead. Mine is a single bucket design and has stopped all 9mm, .40 and .45 thrown at it, the bullets come out intact and get melted right back down. A Big Thanks to JIMinPHX for prototyping this for us.

[Case Stuffer]

I have not read the whole thread but I did place 12" of Home Depot playgroud rubber mulck in a 5 gal plastic bucket and fired 3 135gr. hard cast SWCs loaded over 5.7 gr. of HS-6 point blank down ito it and non reached the bottom and as others have posted the boolits were not badly deformed at all.

I then took a 55 gallon plastic drum and put 11 bags of this mulch in it. I have now fired 100 9mm rounds 125 gr. LRN,L TC and 135 gr. SWC into it. I also fastened a 18" carpet square with rubber backing to the front of the drum. This covers the main area of my old IPSC targets from back in the eighties.


I plan on dumping the drum's contents,raking thru it and retrieving boolits someday but am in no great hurry. I really need to make up a few 5 gallon bucket ones to use for target type shooting as they would be so much easier to empty.

[sparkz]

wE uSE Firewood to help heat our home in the winter,,
so Got an Idea about our sawing a few big cookies of 24-30 inches or so and stack about 3 of them in a peramid fasion and set our targets with a hammer tacker (Staple gun) and blast away,, next fall or sooner we will use the trusty boolit recycler (AKA; Log Spliter) and keep track on "that stack of firewood, Are ya still with me? and just collect the clean Lead from the ash bin, remelt and flux, mold and shoot, repete again and again...

Ours is a forced air furnace type heater so no worrys of lead in the air
and so far I think this is gona work real well
only bad part for us is we need nuff lead to last till heat seasion hahaha
(But then Christmas times brings good things, to all those who shot well and hit the log mounted targets:kidding:)
but layed on the side and shoot into the anual rings of the logs working well so far,,


Hope I "Sparked" an Idea or two

Patrick & Sean Campbell
Hardshell, kentucky

[JIMinPHX]

Sparkz,
About 15 years ago, I tried stacking up some railroad ties & using them for a backstop. Everything was find until a shot hit right at the seam where 2 of the ties met. A lowly .22lr went right out the back.

If you shoot at stacked wood, you need to have something behind the seams. If you cut thick cookies out of a big log & shoot into the flat end, you are probably safer. I think that if you look back about a hundred pages or so, you will find pictures that were posted by people who shot into stumps & then burned them to recover the lead. As I recall, it worked out well. I suspect that the act of burning the log acts to flux the lead as a bonus.

[JIMinPHX]

did a quick sketch of a propane tank trap idea that popped into my head with pistols in mind..


http://castboolits.gunloads.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=62674


maybe pool some media at the bottom

I really like this one. It could be a trap in the morning & a smelting pot in the afternoon.

[sparkz]

Jim Thats what we are doing we shoot the cut end and have a mountian behind it so we will mine that too if we shoot poorly haha
but so far its working out,, also have an Idea about Convayer belts cut to fit a large Flat rate box ( LFRB) full to top with squares of this stuff and open or replace box as needed so I am tryin to see if "weeser" can ship me a box or two of that material so we can try that one to

Il let you all know what and how its working


Patrick


Sparkz,
About 15 years ago, I tried stacking up some railroad ties & using them for a backstop. Everything was find until a shot hit right at the seam where 2 of the ties met. A lowly .22lr went right out the back.

If you shoot at stacked wood, you need to have something behind the seams. If you cut thick cookies out of a big log & shoot into the flat end, you are probably safer. I think that if you look back about a hundred pages or so, you will find pictures that were posted by people who shot into stumps & then burned them to recover the lead. As I recall, it worked out well. I suspect that the act of burning the log acts to flux the lead as a bonus.

[Whizzer]

Sparkz, the biggest share of OEM belting for the balers that make big round bales is made in my home town. The errors, drops, and overruns go into a big trailer which they pay somebody to haul off. I have permission to go get some, but it's heavy. (PM sent with my phone number)

Since my post a page or two back, which refers to this belting idea that I borrowed from someone else, I've built several traps of Crumb Rubber. I use 5 gallon plastic buckets and lids from Home Depot, and their RED Rubber Mulch. I like 'em.

In the bottom, I cut a round disk of treated 2 by 12 (with no knots) and under the lid, a round disk of foam floor matting from Harbor Freight to aid in holding in the crumb rubber when the lid gets too shot up. I costs me about 13 bucks per trap, and easily stops my cast boolit handgun rounds. 9mm, 357 mag, 38 spec, 380 ACP, and 22 rimfire. Even mousephart rifle rounds are too much for one bucket, but JIMinPHX suggests two buckets, which I have not tried. I can stop a 150 grain Lee round flat nose over 9.6 grains of Unique that lodges in the wooden disk from a 30-30 Winchester levergun, but any heavier loading than that is out the back.

I'm my opinion, doubling the buckets is going to stop a LOT of pretty hott lead. And you can always add a steel disk, but I've not tried that yet either. The rubber mulch pours out easily into a larger container, to sort for lead, and it's a light weight, portable solution.

But like I said in my PM, call me and we'll get you some baler belting on a UPS truck. I'm anxious to get a review.

And what is that avatar of yours? If it is for real, that guy had a really bad day!

[sparkz]

""what is that avatar of yours? If it is for real, that guy had a really bad day! ""Not me BUT
He was an Electrician like me working in CO, and was useing a Greenlee Naileater bit (like a ship auger but for power drill)
he fell off a 5 foot ladder and went thu his EYESocket and loged as you see the real X-Ray!! after Hours of surgery it dawned on Dr to Just Unscrew the bit! but he had to Unchuck the Naileater on the job him self!! (What a guy huh) brother in law drove him from job to hosp, wher it "Cught the eye of surgen, and work started"
guy walked out of hosp like 3 days later with a GOOD Eye!!
and ya know electricans are crazy to do what they do so noone can tell if any brain damage haha

But yes true story and real X-Ray, Electrician having a Bad day...

Il see if we have that material but still may hit ya up for a FRB
for R&D,,

Patrick

[Whizzer]

Amazing story, and I believe it! Seems like his "number just wasn't up".

Speaking of numbers, you've got mine in a PM so call it anytime about the rubber belting.

Stan

[freebullet]

I blame you guys...

67729

[freebullet]

It needed to be light small cheap and easy. I figr it should stop handgun rnds short of 357. It has 1" coarse sand sheetmetal plate 3" of sand 2 layers of carpet rubber mulch carpet layer more rubber mulch 2 more carpet layers packed in tight. Carpet on lid outside also. Won't have time to test till the weekend.

[shooterg]

So how hard is the steel in a backhoe/excavator bucket ? I can get a fair sized one for hauling it, about 3' x 3' inside The angle of the inside as it sits on the ground would deflect boolits down, maybe dig a pit and line with sand/rubber mulch ? Just use my "political" sign collection stuck in front to staple targets to. Should be OK for lead. Maybe not so alright for jackets ?

[grumman581]

So how hard is the steel in a backhoe/excavator bucket ? I can get a fair sized one for hauling it, about 3' x 3' inside The angle of the inside as it sits on the ground would deflect boolits down, maybe dig a pit and line with sand/rubber mulch ? Just use my "political" sign collection stuck in front to staple targets to. Should be OK for lead. Maybe not so alright for jackets ?

If I remember correctly, power equipment like that has a hardened replaceable wear edge on the digging side and the rest of it is a more normal steel. Considering the fact that the buckets are usually curved, you might want to work out all the angles on paper to ensure that you don't have a first or second order reflection (ricochet) that might have it coming right back to you.

[BIGRED]

i made one then after seeing how effective it was i built another "smaller one".
1st one was a 2' square box made from 2X10 pine. the 2X10 is the frame (sides) of the box. I screwed on a 2 foot square piece of 1/2" plywood on the back. Inside the box i placed a piece of 3/16 steel and drilled 2 holes and bolted it to the back plywood so it would not shift. i then layed it down and filled it with rubber mulch from Home depot ($5 per bag) took 2-1/2 bags to fill. then i placed a 18" square recycled rubber tile in the front where bullets would come in from. this was in the garden section also $6, it was for a outdoor patio DIY walkway. then i placed a 2' squared thin 1/16" piece of rubber floor mat across front screwed on a piece of 1/2" plywood 2' sq on the front and put on 2 handles on the top to carry it. i have shot it with everything from .22 up to 45 acp, jacket and cast bullets. most bullets are 100% intact and reusable (if you dare) (tried it and got inconsistent ejects). when i get home from shooting i lay it flat unscrew the wood face and all of the wood splinters / chips are right on top because the thin rubber floor mat kept it out of the mulch. after i dump the wood off, i remove the 18" tile and start digging for lead. my kids fight over the digging, not kidding... they love it. as you dig transfer the mulch to bucket. the steel plate in the back keeps everything inside in case you shoot in the same place alot it will create a slight channel and the bullets will stack up in one spot by the plate. Sense most people never reuse the bullet, it doesn't much matter what condition they are in. just so you get 100% of them back for melting. i now have 2 and have to say the big 2' square one is a 2 person lift, the smaller 15" square with 2X6 is much more manageable. my friends shot at it as well so i get to keep 100% of the lead shot at it. i would assume if you wanted one for rifle loads you could beef up the rear steel plate to 3/8" and put it at an angle to deflect bullets inside the box. i have about $30 in the big box and maybe $15 in the smaller box. it really works well.

Sorry but i have not taken pictures of it yet.

[Springfield0612]

Update on bullet buckets: I've been using the bullet buckets now for a couple months. Initially they were working well when I was using rubber backed carpet in layers with with rubber mulch. Once the carpets wear out then I was getting pass throughs out the back of the buckets with .45 acp and 9mm cast reloads. They seemed to handle 50 rounds or so before they started punching through the back. Anything more then 100 rounds I completely destroyed some buckets. A fellow shooter (that will remain nameless to prevent any unwanted couch sleeping) that uses my other bucket is still working on her accuracy and has a tendency to hit the edges of the buckets and has blown out the sides. [smilie=l:
So my next venture is to take the propane tank/bucket idea a couple pages before and use the rubber mulch instead of sand. Hoping that the tank will keep the bullets from passing through the sides and blowing out the mulch every where! Buckets are cheap, and lids are cheap, but I can buy used propane tanks for $10/ea. That's 3 buckets with lids brand new cost wise. I've all ready used twice that!
Thanks for all the great ideas on this thread!

[freebullet]

Well i tested it out.
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[freebullet]

No bullets made it to the sand. The girls did shoot the stand right out from under it. We fired 200 rnds at it.
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[freebullet]

We shot 38-45-9 at it. Next time we will see if 357 makes it to the metal.
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[freebullet]

It's been kinda of a neat little project. Have to thank yall for the ideas.
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[Springfield0612]

Here's the propane tank bullet catchers.


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[JIMinPHX]

I'm thinking of a sort of bullet trap, what it is is really just my rifle plate that I would put into a wooden jig that supports it at around 45 degrees. Underneath I would have a box filled with sand, it would probably extend a foot around the stand itself. I think the stand could be rigged so the plate could move a bit rather than be static, like the lower portion could lift when hit, to minimize wear on it. Material is Armox 500.


The idea is: I shoot at plate, bullet ricochets/splatters into the sand of the box. Allows me to recycle it sometime in the future. You could also hang a paper target infront if you wished.

This guy had a sort of similar solution to what I am thinking, mine would be for outdoors use:
http://i1005.photobucket.com/albums/af179/mad_gorilla/Bullet_Trap_001.jpg


Conceptually, that is pretty close to my "boolit trap Jr." that I posted in the first few pages of this thread. That one had issues with boolit spatter eating up the wood in a few small areas. I suspect that you will have the same issues. You might want to look back to see the wear on my wood so that you can add a little sheet metal to improve durability.

[58 Siesta]

I really like the simplicity of the JIMinPHXs design. Has anyone tried that style (angle deflect) with a water-filled catch bin? Seems to me a person could get near 100% recovery of material that way. Just a lurker finally stepping out of the shadows here...

[moptop]

Here's the boolet trap that my brother built. The bottom is just filled with sand. It's very easy to clean. I just pull a rake with some hardware cloth (square hole chicken wire) stretched across it thru the sand.

[MacFan]

Has anyone tested both the rubber mulch nuggets and shreds to see which one works best in a trap? Lowes seems to have a decent supply of both forms.

[etcher1]

Here's a drawing of what I may try. To make it portable I may make some sort of trailer.
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Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks for lookin'

[grumman581]

Here's a drawing of what I may try. To make it portable I may make some sort of trailer.
Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks for lookin'

You'll probably end up wearing out a hole in the carpet and not much more than lead dust since you have the steel plate at 90 degrees to the path of the bullet. You might want to consider using AR500 plate if you are determined to leave it at 90 degrees. I would also suggest some 60 (or maybe even 45) degree supports fore and aft so that it is a bit more sturdy, especially if you are going to transport it on a trailer.

Oh, and don't shoot out your tires... :)

[Mongo Safari]

I'm glad I found this thread and joined the forum. I wanted to start shooting my replica 1853 Enfield 58 caliber. A few years back I had the front sight dovetailed to correct a minor windage problem. So, I was planning on a 5 gallon bucket and rubber mulch to collect my minie ball to recycle, EXCEPT one modification: Kevlar.

I've shot lots of old vests (soft body armor) with all kinds of firearms: patched ball and minie are stopped on the surface.

My plan is about 8" of mulch in the bottom, then the old front and back kevlar panels, more rubber mulch to the lid semi compressed, a 3/4" heavy rubber sheet to seal up the bullet holes placed under the lid. At the range probably strap it on top of a sawhorse. Pics to follow next week, I have all the components but no time...

We issue Type IIIA which offers some slash protection and defence from handgun projectiles: 22LR to 44 Mag. The soft lead will deform and stop right there. The mulch behind the armor will cushion the impact and help deplete the energy.

I have the Maine Moose Season and a cow permit to deal with first.

[markinalpine]

I've shot lots of old vests (soft body armor) with all kinds of firearms: patched ball and minie are stopped on the surface.
...
We issue Type IIIA which offers some slash protection and defence from handgun projectiles: 22LR to 44 Mag. The soft lead will deform and stop right there. The mulch behind the armor will cushion the impact and help deplete the energy.

Here are a couple of articles from the Box O' Truth regarding Level II and Level III vests:

The Box O' Truth #15 - Fragmentation Armor
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot15.htm

The Box O' Truth #16 - Level IIIA Armor
http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot16.htm

Mark [smilie=s:

[luvtn]

I am going to try the 5 gallon/rubber mulch. At present I am using tree stumps, but will be running out eventually. Trying to get set up to cast. I have a Lee 10 lb, moulds for .358, and .430, plus approx 30 lbs of lead-range scrap. I wish to be able to perpetuate my fun!
luvtn

[ncbearman]

I am going to try the 5 gallon/rubber mulch. At present I am using tree stumps, but will be running out eventually. Trying to get set up to cast. I have a Lee 10 lb, moulds for .358, and .430, plus approx 30 lbs of lead-range scrap. I wish to be able to perpetuate my fun!
luvtn

Don't remember where in this post it was, but someone already did that at posted the results here if you want to look for it.

[MUSTANG]

Here's a drawing of what I may try. To make it portable I may make some sort of trailer.
78271
Any suggestions welcome.
Thanks for lookin'


This Looks like the Target Boards we built and placed in the "Live Fire Shoot Houses" on some of the Projects I managed. In those, both the pistol and AR-15/M16 Rifle bullets used were all frangible. The back AR500 type steel plate was tilted slightly back in the frame (2-3 inches depth difference between top and bottom). This will not give the benefit that a 30* to 45* angle gives, but it can't hurt, and drains the metal splatter to a single line. The fronts of the target boxes were covered with a 3/4" rubberized membrane, similar to what reinforced Horse Stall Mats are made of. This made it somewhat self healing, and entrained most of the metal splatter. Standard paper Silhouette targets were adhered to the face. The Targets could be moved in rooms to simulate different entrance engagement scenario's.

Mustang

[JWFilips]

I found this thread and finally made it through reading all of the posts....fascinating reading.
Has anyone tried wet compressed sawdust in a 5 gal bucket for light to med .38 special loads? I would think it maybe like wet newsprint but easier to move around

[trapper9260]

I have made a stop that is 2x6 for sides and 4x4 sheet of chip board.in layers and 2x10 for the back.I know you need to change the chip board after so many uses and I fill it with sand.I has work for me i was thinking of the ground up rubber like some has stated but have not got around on that yet.just to give someone different ideas also .

[JWFilips]

My criteria is some thing small and very portable that I can stick in the back of my pick that isn't too heavy ( my back can't handle that anymore) and it wouldn't be for a lot of shooting.... Maybe to test some loads in my pistols so it need not be big or last a long time. That is why I'm thinking 5 gal bucket style I can't use anything like these on the range I shoot on but I was thinking I may be able to take one of the various old mining roads around me and find a safe place to do some testing. & yes of course I want to recover some of my alloy.

[markinalpine]

Here's one article where the author used damp sawdust and sand packed into Folger's plastic containers:
Folgers... And You Thought It was Just Coffee
Building a $2 Bullet Impact Analyzer
http://www.realguns.com/Commentary/comar153.htm

Mark [smilie=s:

[giericd]

mine isnt a fancy as most of the above, but i filled a recycle trash can (heavy duty plastic, a little bigger than a large trash can on wheels) with sand. staple targets on it, the holes almost reclose when the bullet passes through the side. I've shot thousands of rounds through the side of this thing with my .22lr, .223 AR, .40s&w, and .308. never had a round pass through the entire can. infact most of the recovered rounds are stopped with in the first foot of sand anything found past that was just a few of the .308 jackets. we just sift them out with a frame with 1/4" wire mesh. i read some where that you cant melt down .22lr bullet heads for reloading, have any of you heard of this? it melts just fine-made fishing jigs and 1/4 oz weights out of it with no problems...

[ncbearman]

mine isnt a fancy as most of the above, but i filled a recycle trash can (heavy duty plastic, a little bigger than a large trash can on wheels) with sand. staple targets on it, the holes almost reclose when the bullet passes through the side. I've shot thousands of rounds through the side of this thing with my .22lr, .223 AR, .40s&w, and .308. never had a round pass through the entire can. infact most of the recovered rounds are stopped with in the first foot of sand anything found past that was just a few of the .308 jackets. we just sift them out with a frame with 1/4" wire mesh. i read some where that you cant melt down .22lr bullet heads for reloading, have any of you heard of this? it melts just fine-made fishing jigs and 1/4 oz weights out of it with no problems...

I knew I was keeping that old can for something. This is an awesome idea. Goin to Lowe's to buy some sand. SWEET!

[Oreo]

22lr boolits turned into 190gr 10mm boolits just fine for me.

[LBIGuy]

mine isnt a fancy as most of the above, but i filled a recycle trash can (heavy duty plastic, a little bigger than a large trash can on wheels) with sand. staple targets on it, the holes almost reclose when the bullet passes through the side. I've shot thousands of rounds through the side of this thing with my .22lr, .223 AR, .40s&w, and .308. never had a round pass through the entire can. infact most of the recovered rounds are stopped with in the first foot of sand anything found past that was just a few of the .308 jackets. we just sift them out with a frame with 1/4" wire mesh. i read some where that you cant melt down .22lr bullet heads for reloading, have any of you heard of this? it melts just fine-made fishing jigs and 1/4 oz weights out of it with no problems...

Any chance you have some pics....helps visually. Thx

[blackhawk4545]

I have been watching this thread for a long time now. Saw and tried the rubber-crumb-in-the-5-gal-bucket idea. Works great with 38 Spl., but my 45 Colt hunting loads pass clear through when shot at 25 yards! Glad I set it in front of a big dirt berm. Oh, I was using a "Ruger Only" recipe.

[lukeyduke]

Alot of good info on here.

[Mal Paso]

With sand, dry is better for stopping power.

Type of sand wasn't reported but 2 feet was enough to stop a 50 bmg. Wet sand wasn't nearly as effective.

[Jeff R]

After seeing some great trap ideas on in this thread, I though I would give it a go. For my purposes, I figured that the "steel plate in the back of a box-o-rubber mulch" design would be a good one day project. There is a steel supplier near me that had pre-sheared 24 X 24 plates of 3/16th steel. I picked up 5 X .8 cu.ft. bags of rubber mulch, and a couple 2X12's on the way home, along with three rubber door mats.

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I made one door mat into a upper pocket, that would help maintain the mulch density near the top, to counteract the affects of gravity.

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When the top was filled, I laid it down and filled the main chamber, and then stapled two door mats over the box. Where they overlapped, I glued them together with some 3M 777 spray adhesive.

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The dang thing must weigh close to a hundred pounds. I need to put it on skis, or wheels next spring.

93413

I was able to try it out before it got dark. I shot some .30 cal Lee soup cans, and some NOE 311.202's into it. Nothing came out the back side.

93414

The holes in the door mats didn't self seal like I was expecting. The boolits punched a hole instead of making a self-closing slit. They were only a couple bucks apiece though. I'll try to find a better material when they get shot up. I didn't take it apart to see what happened to the boolits yet. When I do I will post the results.
Jeff

[LBIGuy]

Very nice work Jeff. Thank you for the pics. Amazing how heavy they get.

JG

[Rickshaw]

What about using layers of fabric? Old T-shirts, Flannel, Denim......layer upon layer, sort of like layers of fiberglass. You could compress the fabric between two sheets of plywood or your choice. My thinking is in Defensive ammo fabric always seems to be the determining factor for penetration.
This is my first post here........Please be gentle........HAHAHAHA

[ncbearman]

What about using layers of fabric? Old T-shirts, Flannel, Denim......layer upon layer, sort of like layers of fiberglass. You could compress the fabric between two sheets of plywood or your choice. My thinking is in Defensive ammo fabric always seems to be the determining factor for penetration.
This is my first post here........Please be gentle........HAHAHAHA

Welcome Rickshaw.
Good thoughts. I like that idea. Keep em coming! Maybe a combination of fabrics in the front and something like the rubber mulch behind it. May be easier to "Get the Led Out" at the end. The fabric may act as a "self healing" agent.
Russ

[chill45100]

I used a portable trap once that used a front of Masonite backed by several layers of trash bag like plastic. All in front of a dry sand filled chamber. When there were too many bullet holes in the front board the trap was laid on it's back the front target board slid out and a fresh one installed. The multiple layers of plastic tended to be self healing and kept leakage down. Should work well with ground rubber too. Just another spin.

[Duckdog]

What you need for the front and the back is rubber paving. It self heals itself for a looooong time and also really slow the bullets down. My rubber mulch trap is maybe 24" deep and it will stop everything I shoot at it from 30 06 @ 2150 FPS to 45/70 @ 1500 FPS. This is really a nice thread on ways to keep up a persons lead supply.

[ncbearman]

What you need for the front and the back is rubber paving. It self heals itself for a looooong time and also really slow the bullets down. My rubber mulch trap is maybe 24" deep and it will stop everything I shoot at it from 30 06 @ 2150 FPS to 45/70 @ 1500 FPS. This is really a nice thread on ways to keep up a persons lead supply.

^duckdog, what is "rubber paving" and where can you get it?

[.5mv^2]

Welcome,

That seems to be an excellent idea. My wife uses old clothes in dog food bags to stop the bolts from her crossbow. We have a few stuck in front of our berm but i have not checked to see if they stop bullets.

I know one of our members here is an excellent archer and is wanting to build a trap. Maybe he will respond.


What about using layers of fabric? Old T-shirts, Flannel, Denim......layer upon layer, sort of like layers of fiberglass. You could compress the fabric between two sheets of plywood or your choice. My thinking is in Defensive ammo fabric always seems to be the determining factor for penetration.
This is my first post here........Please be gentle........HAHAHAHA

[tazman]

Broadheads cut their way through flesh and targets. Field tips and target tips punch their way similar to a round nose boolit.
Usually fabric wraps around arrow shafts tight enough to make it difficult to get arrows out. Would not be an issue for boolits. Wonder how many layers it would take to stop a .357?
Would be significantly lighter than rubber. If needed you could wet them down to give more strength. I certainly have enough old clothes laying around.

Shot a an indoor archery range that used old phone books for a backstop. Shot into them edgeways. All they did was move them around a little when they became soft in spots. Lasted for about 5 years or so.

[Gibbs44]

^duckdog, what is "rubber paving" and where can you get it?

I second ncbearman here. A brand or link would be nice.

[tazman]

rubber paver link
http://www.lowes.com/pd_381009-25888-LPVRD_4294612589__?productId=3715058&Ntt=pavers&pl=1&currentURL=%3FNtt%3Dpavers&facetInfo=

[ncbearman]

ahhh gotcha thanks. I am going to build one. Hopefully this week.

[Gibbs44]

Thanks.

[VinceG]

In my experience, a 5 gallon bucket of sand will stop several hundred pistol rounds before it is beyond repair. Takes about 15 minutes to empty and shift. All rounds come out intact and easy to melt down. Have turned several hundred hard cast store-bought pistol bullets into several hundred rifle bullets. So basically, the rifle bullets (which I also plan to trap) cost me nothing. Sand in a bucket is great!

[birdadly]

I finally tried your fellas' 5 gallon bucket trick and had to make a little diagram. Overall I shot 175 cast lead and 50 22LR's (all pistol). The diagram shows how far they all went in, where I found the first of each, and the last of each.

From the bottom, there was a rubber paver, 4" sand, rubber paver, 10" rubber mulch, rubber paver and the lid. Nothing made it to the sand! One 40cal penetrated the paver going into the sand, but that was it.

The sand weighed 18lbs and the mulch 22lbs (sorta heavy). I figure since nothing made it to the sand, I will try replacing the sand with more mulch, hopefully lighten it a bit.

Pretty cool though, as long as I keep shooting w/in the 12" opening. Kinda crazy (to me) how little they penetrate. I suppose the lid must have a lot to do with that.

The pavers are the pricy part, so I'm also going to try only using the one in front. -Brad

[Apocalypse]

How far from the barrel were you and what barrel lengths of the guns used?

[ncbearman]

Nice job bird.......I too am interested in in your distance from target.

[birdadly]

Ah, more info on its way! I was 15 yards away. 40 cal was shot from a rest as I was testing 3 different loads (75 shots). The others I was standing.

22 a 6"(?) mark3
9 a 4" xd
40 a 4" m&p
45 a 3" 1911

All semi-autos. -Brad

[kayak1]

Ah, more info on its way! I was 15 yards away. 40 cal was shot from a rest as I was testing 3 different loads (75 shots). The others I was standing.

22 a 6"(?) mark3
9 a 4" xd
40 a 4" m&p
45 a 3" 1911

All semi-autos. -Brad

Great job and nice pictures.
From what I have read you might want to keep the sand. Over time once you have hundreds of bullets into the mulch it is supposed to build pockets of where it's displaced and you will penetrate deeper into it. The sand looks like a good safety net. I would think that it would be easier to get the lead out of the sand too.

[ncbearman]

^^^ That was actually my train of thought also. It is much easier to get lead out of sand than it is the rubber mulch. I was wondering if you couldn't reverse the ratio's. In other words swap out the sand for the mulch. I know it would be much heavier, but again, much easier to sift than it is to separate from rubber. In looking at birds data you possibly could double the amount of sand and decrease the amount of mulch. Allowing the projectiles to be slowed down by the lid, paver and mulch before ending up in the sand. Just my 2 cents.

[rpludwig]

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.


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[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.


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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.

103512103513103514

[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? [smilie=s:

[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? [smilie=s:
yep guess you right but I recast them by remelting and adding to a different alloy then cast new ones:-o

[ncbearman]

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

.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.
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af103/nwalker73/Mobile%20Uploads/61DB75FA-7122-457D-8733-F6AC4EC14BB2_zpsdwotdg1a.jpg (http://s998.photobucket.com/user/nwalker73/media/Mobile%20Uploads/61DB75FA-7122-457D-8733-F6AC4EC14BB2_zpsdwotdg1a.jpg.html)
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af103/nwalker73/Mobile%20Uploads/4D78FACA-1223-401B-BE07-45589B860631_zps0t1iebcz.jpg (http://s998.photobucket.com/user/nwalker73/media/Mobile%20Uploads/4D78FACA-1223-401B-BE07-45589B860631_zps0t1iebcz.jpg.html)
http://i998.photobucket.com/albums/af103/nwalker73/Mobile%20Uploads/505699BF-2E9B-4B7D-92BF-6E5DDAD018FE_zpswoqef3lh.jpg (http://s998.photobucket.com/user/nwalker73/media/Mobile%20Uploads/505699BF-2E9B-4B7D-92BF-6E5DDAD018FE_zpswoqef3lh.jpg.html)

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=PLyiA8Udq-k&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.

[stephen m weiss]

I just tried out using a wet 13" dia x 4 ft long pine log shot into the end this last weekend. It took hundreds of rounds without letting any out from subsonic 223 to full power fmj 308's. It is the best of the designs I have tried. No lead oxide or dust to poison me, no maintenance requirements for hundreds and hundreds of rounds. The bullets pretty much knock out the center 3" dia so it will split up easy whenever I decide to harvest. As noted, the majority will just fall out and can be picked up. I do wonder how much lead dust will be created. I will put down a plastic tarp to spit it up on so all that can go into the fire and get reduced. I am satisfied.

[cephas53]

Last spring made a box and filled with wood. This was out the back of the garage for load workup and casual plinking. Cleaned it out and smelted down today. Got a tad over 83 lbs. Thanks for all the ides.

[snowshooze]

Good idea on the log, maybe just burn them out.

[snowshooze]

My buddy showed me a design where the collector funnel fed into a chunk of 6" pipe, off-center and angled...whereupon the bullits would be directed, spin down the inside of the pipe decelerating as the went... and would eventually make it to the sand pit tray which would finish them off and allow for easy removal.

[stephen m weiss]

My buddy showed me a design where the collector funnel fed into a chunk of 6" pipe, off-center and angled...whereupon the bullits would be directed, spin down the inside of the pipe decelerating as the went... and would eventually make it to the sand pit tray which would finish them off and allow for easy removal.

That design is on here somewhere. The pros to that are being able to accept a huge amount of bullets in a short time and rapid collection. The cons are much of the lead is turned into lead dust, about 50%. That coats the area and blows away in the wind. Much is instantly oxidized, so smelting is a beast. Those are used in indoor shooting ranges. Of course steel core ammo will tear them up, even if no penetration occurs. Another con is high cost. welded fabbed steel is $20/lb and those run several hundred pounds.

[clytle374]

Here is what I came up with. It's 1/2" AR400 plate, bolted to a 4' pump housing. Currently setting on a 1/2" steel welding table. Not sure what the housing is made out of other than it is well over 1" thick, 700lbs, hard, easly to weld on type of stainless. Shows no damage from 9mm or 45 hits.

[pretzelxx]

They used big drums like that to make an indoor range at the house of ordinance in fort Lee. Sort of. They're probably 5x larger or more since you can shoot a 50bmg into it. Its a wonderful design! It will probably last you two life times of shooting

[Don Fischer]

WOW, long thread! I've never had a bullet trap. Always used a dirt back stop and dug out the dirt when done and sifted it thru a screen. Haven't had a good back stop like that in year's but do have a gravel pit near by. Nowhere near as good, tears up the bullet's to much and get a lot of stuff not usable and loose a lot of bullet's. On those steel traps they are talking about, how do you move them around? Or do you set them in one spot and leave them?

[clytle374]

I have to borrow a friend's skidsteer to move mine.

[Czech_too]

The club which I belong to does not presently have any means of trapping bullets/boolits. Berm mining isn't allowed so it's strictly picking whatever you can off of the ground. I've had an idea that I've been 'trying' to push to collect at least some of the lead. The club could make some $$ and those willing to do the smelting could get some work party credit. This would be used only for pistol cartidges. I'm not an architect or draftsmen by trade & I need a ruler to draw a straight line so be gentle in your critiques. What do you think, will it work or is it just another hair brained idea?

123643

[NavyVet1959]

What do you think, will it work or is it just another hair brained idea?

You need to work on your angles. The image you posted would result in the projectile exiting the container.

[Czech_too]

I'm just kinda kickin' this around right now, but what if it was recessed into the ground maybe 6" or so, then the front plate angle could be changed or continue the curve on the front arc some so that it directs the bullet back into the curve or have the front plate overhang the curve on the front so as to stop anything from exiting as it goes around?

[NavyVet1959]

I'm just kinda kickin' this around right now, but what if it was recessed into the ground maybe 6" or so, then the front plate angle could be changed or continue the curve on the front arc some so that it directs the bullet back into the curve or have the front plate overhang the curve on the front so as to stop anything from exiting as it goes around?

In the above drawing, the curve needs to be continued since as it is currently drawn, a bullet following the curve is going to hit the upper angled piece of steel that leads into the curve, only to ricochet back outside to probably hit the lower angle piece, to then ricochet back towards the shooter. Now, with that many ricochets, the bullet is going to lose quite a bit of energy and will probably not be too dangerous to the shooter if he is not too close, but do you really want to figure out from trial and error what is the definition of "probably" and "too"? :)

It's easy to draw up a trap like this and plot possible bullet paths, but the collisions are not perfectly elastic, so whereas a bullet might hit an angled piece of metal at a certain angle, it will ricochet at somewhat of less of an angle. The bullet composition and shape affects the reflected angle, so it's going to be difficult to predict with absolute accuracy. Plus, after the first ricochet, the bullet is going to be deformed in a relatively unpredictable manner, so subsequent ricochets could be even more problematic to predict.

[Bentracin]

Has anyone tried making a trap out of hardplate such as AR400 or AR 500 ? Where I work we use it for fabricating wear plates on anything from heavy equipment buckets to steel mill parts. The stuff is plenty hard, resists abrasion and does not like to deform either. I made some cutting edges and teeth for a bucket on my small backhoe last year and they look like they day I made them after going through rocks and sand. I imagine it would stand up to the most punishing of loads.

Next time I do some shooting I will give a scrap piece a torture test and post the result.

[NavyVet1959]

Has anyone tried making a trap out of hardplate such as AR400 or AR 500 ?

Both steel targets and personal armor are made with AR500 plates. There's plenty of YouTube videos of people shooting at AR500 plates.

[NavyVet1959]

There was a discussion on reflection angles / ricochets back in September.

http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?26627-Bullet-trap-ideas-for-recycling-lead&p=1850706&viewfull=1#post1850706

i remember MythBusters doing an episode at one time where they were dealing with ricochet angles. I think they started out with mirrors and a laser, but when they fired the round, it was not conforming the the theoretical reflection angles. The reflected angle was always less than the original angle in their tests and they had to compensate for it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ujDksc1ZOc

That video does not show all of their tests though.

[markinalpine]

Why doesn't this thread appear in the Forums-General-Classics & Stickies Forum?
http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?26627-Bullet-trap-ideas-for-recycling-lead
Mark :veryconfu

[jacksonsmith]

I wonder how deep a box filled with crumb rubber would have to be to stop a 9mm at 7yards. For that matter any other typical defensive round .357 magnum out of a 3 inch or less barrel etc.

[NavyVet1959]

I wonder how deep a box filled with crumb rubber would have to be to stop a 9mm at 7yards. For that matter any other typical defensive round .357 magnum out of a 3 inch or less barrel etc.

The problem with any of the bullet deceleration media types is that if you shoot the same place enough, a void can develop which could eventually lead to you shooting through your bullet trap. Each of the types of media act differently with respect to how they fill in voids. Some have got around this by periodically rotating the bullet trap so that the media falls and is more evenly distributed. Some have put a heavy steel plate at the back of the media container just in case it makes it that far.

Have you read through the entire thread? There's a lot of posts from different designs and people using other media types. Crumb rubber is a good compromise of weight vs effectiveness. Sand is very effective, but is a bit heavy, especially if your bullet trap is more than just a 5g bucket.

[DeadWoodDan]

After following and thinking about this thread some, thought it would be a good idea to attempt it. The thoughts of being able to reclaim my lead was very interesting to say the least. I had an old trailer with not top and access to purchase "scrap" steel at scrap price so when the material presented itself I started collecting.

Last month I finally finished and couldn't wait to try it out. First was some mild 38spl loads using unique and commercial cast 158gr boolits. Used both Rossi .357 Lever action and S&W M15. Picture of the reclaimed lead in the bucket was what we got back shooting from 20-50yds. I knew I wasn't getting 90% but was more concerned with function.

Next I used my Mauser 30-06 and "the load" of 13Gr Red dot at 50yds using Lee C309-200Gr. Shot ten rounds and checked the bucket to my disappointment; mostly dust and not much of it. Troubleshooting began, first thought that my alloy was too hard (knew I mixed Linotype by accident) so went back and made some more boolits with WW alloy. Second attempt resulted in same, a lot of dust and no fragments.

I have found a supply of rubber mats 3/16"-1/4" thick. I am going to mount them on my removable plywood and see how many it takes to slow projectiles down enough and get some of my alloy back.

My main goal was to use this for everything from 22lr up to my 50cal inlines / 20-200yds shooting and recycle as much lead as possible. Good thing I have a nice open space to shot from.

135571135572135573

[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.
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/52/img26311260810243.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/o9tacoma) at 2010-07-07
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/963/img26281260810211.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/o9tacoma) at 2010-07-07
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/5770/img26331260810320.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/o9tacoma) at 2010-07-07
http://img810.imageshack.us/img810/816/img26361260810293.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/o9tacoma) at 2010-07-07
http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/4558/img26381260810368.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/o9tacoma) at 2010-07-07
http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/4500/img26391260810345.jpg
By o9tacoma (http://profile.imageshack.us/user/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. :D

[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: [/URL]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. :D

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:

[url]https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/516406-just-finished-tested-my-prototype-indoor-bullet-trap.html (https://forums.pelicanparts.com/off-topic-discussions/516406-just-finished-tested-my-prototype-indoor-bullet-trap.html)

[Ford SD]

How Jerry did it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCRL0qMYz2o

Prob made in the 60 or the 70

[TXTad]

How Jerry did it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCRL0qMYz2o

Prob made in the 60 or the 70

That's fantastic!