Catching bullets

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

I find it useful to recover spent bullets and read the rifling marks and such, and digging them out of the snow works, but can be difficult to find them. Does anyone have any clever ways to catch bullets with minimal deformation on impact?

[elmacgyver0]

Perhaps rubber mulch?
Or hire Superman or the Flash to catch them.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!

[osage]

I used snow drifts or piles from clearing drive. I bought rubber mulch and loaded it into flat screen monitor boxes. I have not used them yet. Lack of snow it going to change that. As I recall I got the rubber landscape mulch idea from here. I figured that leaving gaps between boxes would tell me which one to dump.

[Winger Ed.]

Labs commonly use a tower full of water.
Ya shoot down into it, and there is a basket on the bottom you pull back up with a light duty chain.

You could make one out of a length of 4-6" PVC pipe.
Just be careful to aim straight down.

[Messy bear]

Metal detector in snow works well. Also if speed isn’t to high, ice stops them without much damage

[Bloodman14]

The rubber mulch may have been my idea; I got a 55 gallon plastic drum, cut a hole in the side, built a stand for it and dumped in several bags of rubber mulch. Depending on the caliber/load, I have recovered some nearly intact boolits. The rubber mulch slows them down REAL fast. Make sure to put a lot of mulch in there, and have a good backstop just in case! Use an old rug or something to cover the hole.

[BLAHUT]

Water

[WRideout]

A cotton box has been used by crime labs for bullet comparisons since time immemorial. It is essentially for pistol bullets, but I suppose it could be scaled up. When I worked in a sheriff's crime lab on the Left Coast, the firearms examiner used a wooden box 1'x1' and 18" long on a stand. It was filled with loose cotton fiber, and he put paper spacers at intervals so he had an idea where the bullet had stopped. He said it did actually work for 44 mag.

Wayne

[Black Jaque Janaviac]

Do the bullets mushroom or deform when they hit rubber mulch?

[Misery-Whip]

Paull Hurell on youtube uses fleece blankets wrapped with a belt.

I use a 5 gallon bucket with a 3/4" disc of plywood in the bottom, followed by a bag of rubber mulch, and a disc of old yoga mat or anti fatigue foam from harbor freight as a wipe. Snap the lid on and lay it on its side and fire thru the lid.

You will go thru 3 or 4 lids per bucket. But painters and bakers usually give buckets and lids away.

45acps and 38s come out in good shape unless they hit other bullets in the bucket. 357s will deform the noses some, but rifling is in tact.

[Txcowboy52]

Why not use a 55 gallon barrel filled with water , seems like a good way to catch bullets with minimal deformation.

[megasupermagnum]

Water is a decent way to catch bullets. It's a horrible way to catch them without deforming them. I really doubt rubber mulch is much better. I've shot into rubber mats, and that might even be worse than water. The reason snow works so good is that they slow down over 10 to 20 feet. The only way you can replicate that is to use something that will slow them down gently like that. T shirts or cloth wont do it. Sand and dirt don't do it.

I wish I had a better answer for you, but I haven't found anything either. Snow is the best there is. If I were to try anything, I would try something like pillow stuffing which is not overly expensive.

[ascast]

oil soaked sawdust, fine grain dust,not chipper grade or chainsaw stuff - from a cabinate shop or sawmill.

[uscra112]

Perhaps rubber mulch?
Or hire Superman or the Flash to catch them.
Sorry, I couldn't resist!

Yup, a barrel full of rubber mulch will catch almost anything. I haven't done it, but have read that a full-house .30-06 will only penetrate about 24". Only problem is finding the little buggers. I had to dump the entire contents onto a tarp and spread it out, and even then it was hard spotting .38 Special SWC. Once found, though, I could easily have loaded them up and fired them again. In future I will use a much smaller barrel.

[fall7rise8]

I save plastic gallon window washer fluid jugs after filling my cars reservoir. Fill with water and line six of them up in a row on a saw horse. Shoot at close range.


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[pworley1]

I use the rubber mulch. I took a plastic 55 gallon drum and cut it into half way down. I took six 2x2's and cut them so that they reached from the bottom to 2 inches short of the rim. I cut a circle from a simi mud flap to just fit inside drum. I packed the drum with the mulch up to the top of the 2x2's and screwed the circle to the 2x2's that were screwed inside the drum. I built a 2x2 frame for the front of the drum and screwed an old rubber mat to the frame to attach targets to. About twice a year I retrieve the lead and and replace the circle and mat. Unless the bullets hit other bullets that have already been stopped by the mulch they are almost undamaged.

[smokeeter]

I made a two sided wooded box that breaks down for transport I fill it with clear sand , you can easily get bullets by sifting thru the sand.

https://i.imgur.com/DVtLp6w.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/jL1XLTu.jpg

[farmerjim]

Swimming pool deep end.

[Bigslug]

A cotton box has been used by crime labs for bullet comparisons since time immemorial. It is essentially for pistol bullets, but I suppose it could be scaled up. When I worked in a sheriff's crime lab on the Left Coast, the firearms examiner used a wooden box 1'x1' and 18" long on a stand. It was filled with loose cotton fiber, and he put paper spacers at intervals so he had an idea where the bullet had stopped. He said it did actually work for 44 mag.

Wayne

A newer version of this is a five foot metal tube with an open end blocked with a cardboard disc. It's filled with shredded Kevlar fluff which balls up around a bullet and stops the common auto handgun rounds in about 18-24". The tube has a couple access ports along it's length. I used to insert cardboard spacers to get a better idea of where the bullets were stopping when we collected projectiles, but it stopped them so consistently it became a simple matter of feeling for lumps in the fluff in the right location.

Water is fine so long as your bullet alloy is non-deforming - but it can take nine milk jugs or more of it to halt heavy-for-caliber auto pistol rounds.

[charlie b]

Everything I have tried deforms the nose (never fired into snow and recovered bullets). When the bullet hits clean sand in the range backstops they mushroom nicely and the base area is relatively intact.

A lot of stuff works if all you need to look at is the rifling near the base. I'd try packed cotton or dacron. Cheap, light, easy to carry, and you can shoot several rounds without changing anything out.

[Texas by God]

Gallon milk jug(s) full of frozen water will work with normal handgun rounds.
I learned this from Allan Jones when he was writing for Shooting Times.
A half gallon jug will work for some cartridges and for rifles at 100 yards a 5 gallon bucket will catch a few cast bullets.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20230220/052e0ad7b382f62f6961c68d23a1269f.jpg


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[racepres]

If deformation is Not desired... Snow bank is the way... Gotta wait till spring to gather results tho!!!
Nothing works better... But, I have a snow plow, and can put a Bank where I want it..Do Not pack hard tho... just push it up and Shoot!!!
Otherwise... ??? I suppose I could lay a screen in the pond... pull em off the bottom??? Water deforms bullets tho...

[Sasquatch-1]

If you are looking for a way to find your bullets in a snowbank, get a cheap metal detector.

If you are looking for an alternative, I would consider a 10' section of 4" to 6" sewer pvc stuffed with Poly Fill. Poly Fill is pretty cheap and can be picked up at any fabric store. I just checked Amazon and the stuff fairly cheap there. But I got another idea. If you see any old beanbag chairs sitting out for the trash the filling might work.

[WRideout]

If you are looking for a way to find your bullets in a snowbank, get a cheap metal detector.

If you are looking for an alternative, I would consider a 10' section of 4" to 6" sewer pvc stuffed with Poly Fill. Poly Fill is pretty cheap and can be picked up at any fabric store. I just checked Amazon and the stuff fairly cheap there. But I got another idea. If you see any old beanbag chairs sitting out for the trash the filling might work.

Fibrous stuff works better because it wraps around the bullet. Poly fill might work, but if it melts onto the bullet, it might obscure the markings you are looking for.

Wayne

[Sasquatch-1]

Fibrous stuff works better because it wraps around the bullet. Poly fill might work, but if it melts onto the bullet, it might obscure the markings you are looking for.

Wayne

Should be easily removed with an acetone soak.

[Froogal]

My steel targets are close to the ground, and the ground rises gradually behind the targets, so when I miss the targets completely, the spent bullets just dig a furrow in the sod and bury themselves. Now all I have to do is dig the bullets out of the ground.

[BadgerShooter]

I was on stage with Penn and Teller when he caught a bullet in his teeth after shooting through a sheet of plexiglass. Bullet just had rifling marks so you may want to try that.

[lar45]

We shot some high velocity cast rifle, 30cal, 2800fps, into sawdust several years ago. We filled cardboard boxes and stacked them on a plank. You could see which box didn't have an exit hole and dig for the bullets. They usually ended up around 5-6ft in. There may have been some slight deformation of the noses, but the shanks were fine.

[farmbif]

back when I was a younger man a big water tank is what was used by the guys with the white lab coats in the j Edgar hoover building. actually it wasn't all that big. ive seen semi portable version made out of ab out a 6' long section of 6" well casing with 1/2" steel plate welded to the bottom and two legs near the top made of 1" steel pipe so it sat at about 45 degree angle and a top flap made out of couple layers of thick rubber with a hole in center to shoot through. bullets retrieved with a wood pole with gob of wax on the hollowed out end

[blackthorn]

I was on stage with Penn and Teller when he caught a bullet in his teeth after shooting through a sheet of plexiglass. Bullet just had rifling marks so you may want to try that.

Right after you turn to your buddy and say---"here, hold my beer and watch this!"

[Thumbcocker]

I read somewhere that when Elmer Keith wrote about hitting a wounded Mueller deer at 600 yards with a .44 magnum revolver another gun writer, Charles Askins iirc, said he would catch any .44 magnum bullet ever made at 600 yards with a catchers mitt. Would have been interesting if he had tried.

[Texas by God]

Long ago my brother and I wanted to test some of the new Winchester Black Talon pistol ammo.
We filled a five gallon bucket with water and I shot down into it from above. I was standing on the well house roof so about ten foot down to the bucket.
Good thing that I tested the 9mm first; because the .45 broke the bucket!
I still have those wicked looking mushrooms somewhere around here….


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[Dom]

If I wish to catch a cast bullet for slugging , to know barrel dia. I only load enough fast burring powder to get it out of the barrel. Maybe 1 gr of powder. Depends on the bullet weight & barrel length. Never tried it with jacketed bullets.I fill a cardboard box full of rags, & shoot into it. Bullet comes out in perfect shape for measurement. Has worked perfectly for me for years. If it doesn't make it out of the barrel, I insert a brass rod & tap it out. Never a problem. After you have done a couple you get a feel for it.

[metricmonkeywrench]

I read an older (way older) book where a couple gentleman did a significant amount of benchrest testing on a bullets flight from cartridge to target, If i can find the reference again ill post the title. One of their challenges was devising a way to collect the bullet without damage to evaluate the projectile (length, weight loss, rifling etc) It was a extremally thorough study. The ended up building a box of a specific size and somewhat packed it with oil soaked sawdust (from a mill i think) that seemed to be effective for their purposes.

found it: Bullet's Flight From Powder to Target: Ballistics of Small Arms F. W. Mann

[uscra112]

@ Dom:
I do that, too. With a little experience, I can even make it stop in the barrel wherever I want it to, then tap it back out. If I choose to make it exit, a bucket of water does fine.

@metricmonkey.....
You undoubtedly are remembering "The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target", by Doctor Mann. Harry Pope gave him a lot of help with special barrels and whatnot.

[Dom]

@ Dom:
I do that, too. With a little experience, I can even make it stop in the barrel wherever I want it to, then tap it back out. If I choose to make it exit, a bucket of water does fine.

@metricmonkey.....
You undoubtedly are remembering "The Bullet's Flight from Powder to Target", by Doctor Mann. Harry Pope gave him a lot of help with special barrels and whatnot.

Even though we are miles apart , we do have a bit common.310798 The turkeys, just for fun.

[uscra112]

My land slopes sharply uphill behind the house. It was pasture, and I keep it mowed. And yes, I've seen mobs of turkeys from the kitchen windows, in season. I can't hunt anymore but my neighbor does, so there's venison and turkey in the freezer.

[ABJ]

As another member suggested using "Paul Harrell" method, I agree. I use the fleece blankets folded into about a 1' square in a 3 sided box about 30 to 36 inches long. I used 1x12x36 shelving. When testing for terminal uses I use a single 16 oz water bottle with the blankets behind them. Behind each folded blanket I put a stiff piece of cardboard. Hollow points do not go the full 36". It doesn't appear that the blankets cause any more expansion than the water bottle caused. I have not fired any FMJ, so not sure how far they would go.
Tony