Time for a home for the 22 bench rest bullet trap

[Harry Tobin]

The trap is all mounted up now, This is my view from the 50 Yd bench
https://i.imgur.com/pV1wjBZ.jpg

Started out with cardboard template
https://i.imgur.com/OaB5Q2A.jpg

Then fabricating the steel
https://i.imgur.com/AS1aw3J.jpg

To finish paint
https://i.imgur.com/7xu89aW.jpg

If you want to see the build of the trap here is the link
https://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?453939-22lr-bench-rest-bullet-trap

[BLAHUT]

Nice - what do the neighbors think ? You didn't say how far you are shooting 50' to 100 yds ???? You need to try every flavor of target ammo and also plain ammo and see what your gun likes ?????
Then you can look into a barrel tuner ?? Let the fun begin ?

[Harry Tobin]

Nice - what do the neighbors think ?

Everyone shoots around here, plus the sub sonic is pretty low on noise

[Harry Tobin]

Nice - what do the neighbors think ? You didn't say how far you are shooting 50' to 100 yds ???? You need to try every flavor of target ammo and also plain ammo and see what your gun likes ?????
Then you can look into a barrel tuner ?? Let the fun begin ?

I can go out to 70 yards, that's all the room I had, and I do have a tuner on. That was the Savage MKII build I did last year

[Mk42gunner]

The only thing that makes me nervous about you setup is the house, barn, and other outbuildings visible in the background.

Robert

[Harry Tobin]

The only thing that makes me nervous about you setup is the house, barn, and other outbuildings visible in the background.

Robert

I know the camera is angle deceiving, everything is line to the middle of the farm field. I know when people look they don’t think it’s a safe direction from the angle. When seated at the bench you’re looking at farm field and nowhere near buildings.

[dverna]

I did not understand the magnitude of issues you are addressing in the build until now. My little pea brain saying...."I can buy Champion trap that lasts a few years and can easily move it anywhere I need to".

But where you live and shoot is much different.

Again, very nice job!!

[Harry Tobin]

I did not understand the magnitude of issues you are addressing in the build until now. My little pea brain saying...."I can buy Champion trap that lasts a few years and can easily move it anywhere I need to".

But where you live and shoot is much different.

Again, very nice job!!

Hi Don, I realized after I put the pictures in that you could see the farm house behind. And guys are focused on that, and when I stand in line from the bench to the backstop I’m looking into the field and safe distance from everything. So I hope this doesn’t turn into something I regret.

[Scrounge]

Hi Don, I realized after I put the pictures in that you could see the farm house behind. And guys are focused on that, and when I stand in line from the bench to the backstop I’m looking into the field and safe distance from everything. So I hope this doesn’t turn into something I regret.

I'd still want a berm behind it, and for a ways past each side, but I've been known to be just a tad paranoid, too. Looks good! Oh, I'd like thicker metal as a backing for the boards, too. :) It's that paranoia I mentioned. 1/4" minimum.

[alamogunr]

Thread looks like it might be interesting but I can't see any pictures. Do I have to be part of a group to access pictures or has the OP put some kind of link that I can't access?

[JimB..]

I like the design. If I was going to do anything different It’d be to lift the structure off the ground with some angle iron. We have moisture and termite problems that the OP may not.

[alamogunr]

AGAIN! What are you guys talking about. I see nothing in the OP's post except 3 dots.

[JimB..]

AGAIN! What are you guys talking about. I see nothing in the OP's post except 3 dots.

OP took it down, presumably because folks were hyper-focused on the appearance of a structure in the photo even after he explained that the structure only appears that way in the photo and not from the shooting position. The cost of nit picking is that folks stop sharing, but I’m sure that lives were saved.

[OS OK]

That's too bad Harry...I was looking forward to the thread. A great idea...simple to build & now nobody will benefit from Harry's expertise because of a few who soured the thread!

https://i.imgur.com/66d41U0h.jpg

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

[JimB..]

@os ok, glad you got a couple pics.

Do you know if the trap is mounted with the tube vertical or horizontal? I’d point it down into a bucket, but it looks like it’s mounted horizontal and I don’t know why.

[OS OK]

@os ok, glad you got a couple pics.

Do you know if the trap is mounted with the tube vertical or horizontal? I’d point it down into a bucket, but it looks like it’s mounted horizontal and I don’t know why.

Harry and I collaborated off my design for a 'tube down' collection of the lead...

https://i.imgur.com/kNx8J5z.jpg?1

it drops in a metal 5 gallon bucket. That's all well & fine until you process the first bucket into ingots and discover that all the very thin fragmented lead oxidizes. My irrigation system aggravates that too, gets into the bucket. That's no good, it seems like 90% of the heavily oxidized lead will not stir back into the melt, so it's dross.

Considering that, Harry opted for a sealed up lead collection tube, he made removable end caps and a scraper to recover the lead...he has lots of rain over in Pa. so he went sideways with it...

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

[JimB..]

Hadn’t thought about it, but I can imagine that the very high surface area of the slivers would be a problem. Still a great trap even if you don’t recover much.

I think there were drawings in an earlier thread, but is anyone making them for sale to your knowledge?

[OS OK]

Hadn’t thought about it, but I can imagine that the very high surface area of the slivers would be a problem. Still a great trap even if you don’t recover much.

I think there were drawings in an earlier thread, but is anyone making them for sale to your knowledge?

Only large commercial traps for sale for indoor ranges...haven't seen any smaller ones like these. They are a DIY type deal.
It seems 90% of the small thin smear/frags that are heavily oxidized and are ultra thin along with the dust won't melt back in but the majority of the lead that goes into the trap is recovered. It's well worth the effort.

[Harry Tobin]

To tell you the truth I wasn’t sure I’d get involved again because of others without the facts and chimed in with negativity. So with that aside, I did do some test rounds into the trap before mounting it up. Never building one of these before I wasn't sure of a few things, I added a deflector in the tube. The results with the original deflector was giving way to much powder. Then I did a mod on the deflector and cut it down, now the results are much better with a lot less powder and more sizable pieces of lead.

https://i.imgur.com/rYYOvvu.jpg
In the picture below you can see the bullet path in the tube

https://i.imgur.com/2BErPeR.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/ijoL6Nj.jpg


And here's what I got from my test shots

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

[Harry Tobin]

@os ok, glad you got a couple pics.

Do you know if the trap is mounted with the tube vertical or horizontal? I’d point it down into a bucket, but it looks like it’s mounted horizontal and I don’t know why.

Jim these traps can be both vertical and horizontal. I went horizontal to keep the elements and contamination out.
Now Jerry Miculek runs a horizontal trap, here's a video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ifknjDTGl2k&t=4s&ab_channel=JerryMiculek-ProShooter

[OS OK]

A huge difference in frag-size of the little pill Harry, more recoverable lead. (some of you Yankies got pretty good brains!)

I didn't think of that when I built mine, all I was concerned about was blocking the frags from bouncing back out of the tube.

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

[SSGOldfart]

That's too bad Harry...I was looking forward to the thread. A great idea...simple to build & now nobody will benefit from Harry's expertise because of a few who soured the thread!

https://i.imgur.com/66d41U0h.jpg

https://i.imgur.com/Subqdqx.jpg
thanks for reposting the pic,looks great to me :coffee:

[Harry Tobin]

Charlie one of the members sent this design back in my build thread. This is a really good design, wished we both saw this before we built ours. This is one of those things you just look at what others have done and maybe put your own twist on it seeing as there are no plans on this. This would have been so easy to at the start!!

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

[OS OK]

HARRY, it looks like that design would generate the least amount of tiny slivers & dust.

Not much chance of me pulling mine and remodeling it, I have a little over a ton of various leads and if I loose a small percentage each recycle, it'll outlast me.

[gunther]

The indoor range I shoot on has angled plates that do what these funnels-into a tube do. Same results; lots of powder. The other indoor range I've used has very large pieces of conveyor belting (6'x8') enclosing crumb rubber. The range officer told us that the lead gathers in chunks of considerable size, with not much dust.

[OS OK]

The indoor range I shoot on has angled plates that do what these funnels-into a tube do. Same results; lots of powder. The other indoor range I've used has very large pieces of conveyor belting (6'x8') enclosing crumb rubber. The range officer told us that the lead gathers in chunks of considerable size, with not much dust.

Before I built the steel trap I used a 55 gallon barrel, it'll catch rifle or pistol...I used the crumb type (recycled) rubber in it, it's 2/3's full of that stuff...

https://i.imgur.com/7KQEVZo.jpg?1

The only problem is the clean-out is a lot of work, my brother Manny comes over and helps and it takes a little over an hour or so...

https://i.imgur.com/pXGGZi2.jpg

The benefit to the rubber mulch is that there is no powdered lead or small thin fragments, here's a clean-up after about 2 months...

https://i.imgur.com/OMCtK0i.jpg?1

Glad you mentioned this...I may cut a piece of 'stall mat' and see about fitting it to my steel catcher?
A mat would knock off a lot of speed & energy before it hits the steel.

https://i.imgur.com/52UmFN7.jpg

[JimB..]

Small deflector makes a lot of sense. I’m going to have a local welder make one, metalworking is not in my wheelhouse!

[farmbif]

excellent design and build quality. I know it would be impossible to ever to recover bullets from the mountain behind my house unless I had something like that or a big sand pile but it would be impossible to get a dump truck to where my mountain backstop is.

[uscra112]

I put together a drum full of rubber mulch, but I wish I'd had the foresight to put it on wheels!

[OS OK]

I put together a drum full of rubber mulch, but I wish I'd had the foresight to put it on wheels!

"Hindsight - Foresight, if you ain't got wheels you probably got or gonna get...a hernia!" :bigsmyl2:

https://i.imgur.com/7KQEVZol.jpg?1