How many water bottles to capture a bullet ??

[Chill Wills]

OS OK, it does not surprise me to see you have a very good reply to this question. I see quality in what you do and how you do it. I'll bet you were a darn fine electrician.

A very much younger me did a lot of bullet catching trying to learn about cast hunting bullets. ...Jacketed too, as a bases of comparison. My primary bullet catch setup was 4 one gallon water jugs lined up in front of a cardboard box of old clothing (rags). The setup would catch everything I shot at it including 375 H&H. The water is a much harder medium than game flesh like elk, and the rags act like a catchers mitt to put and end to the greatly reduced velocity. Old blue jeans really work well. Hint - if anyone tries this, put the box of rags in a large trash bag to keep the box from getting wet and soft -falling apart.

The rubber mulch idea is a good one!

OS OK - A side note: I was a professional firefighter but moonlighted as an electrician. Shortcuts and poor work I find in the houses I have owned and friends houses make me grumpy and shake my head. I like quality work.

[OS OK]

OS OK, it does not surprise me to see you have a very good reply to this question. I see quality in what you do and how you do it. I'll bet you were a darn fine electrician.

A very much younger me did a lot of bullet catching trying to learn about cast hunting bullets. ...Jacketed too, as a bases of comparison. My primary bullet catch setup was 4 one gallon water jugs lined up in front of a cardboard box of old clothing (rags). The setup would catch everything I shot at it including 375 H&H. The water is a much harder medium than game flesh like elk, and the rags act like a catchers mitt to put and end to the greatly reduced velocity. Old blue jeans really work well. Hint - if anyone tries this, put the box of rags in a large trash bag to keep the box from getting wet and soft -falling apart.

The rubber mulch idea is a good one!

OS OK - A side note: I was a professional firefighter but moonlighted as an electrician. Shortcuts and poor work I find in the houses I have owned and friends houses make me grumpy and shake my head. I like quality work.

I got into the trade right after graduation from HS in 68...I enjoyed it my entire career. At first, while I was an apprentice, I did homes, we call it 'roping a house' & I hated that work, hurry up was always the main thing & quality goes out the window. By the time I was 24 or so I got into Heavy Industrial Power Distribution & Motor control... that was my cuppa-tea & retired after contracting in that part of the trade for the next 25 years.

Thanks for your kind comment Chill.

[Dom]

WOW !! What a bunch of great ideas. which one do I try first.

[Bigslug]

Dom,

If your alloy is intended to expand, you can probably get by with 10 and successfully stop the slug. Police duty loads will commonly halt in 3-4, maybe 5-6 for something really aggressive like the 180 grain .357 Black Talon that they produced for a time - more as a hunting load.

20-1 at 1200-1400 fps in things like my 130 grain .32-20/Martini wildcat or .38-40 carbine in a WFN profile will mushroom nicely and be stopped by about 4.

Make that same bullet out of something hard or with a more streamlined profile, and you'd best bring a lot of jugs. I've had the following results:

.45 ACP, 230grain LFN, 830 fps - 9 jugs

9mm 147 grain jacketed TC at about 1000 fps - exited 9th and final jug in the stack

.455 Webley MKII 265 grain conical profile at under 700 fps - stopped in 7.

.455 Webley MKIV 240 (?) grain ogived wadcutter at under 700 fps - stopped in 4.

Hope that gives you a better feeling for what you're dealing with.

[poppy42]

I use surplus undelivered phone books gathered at our local recyclers (and occasionally post office). I bind the stack together and then allow rain to soak them in the yard on the target platform set out at 40 yards. That boolit from my 50 cal. muzzleloader using a sabot at an MV of 1550 gets about 20" of penetration. Yours in a similar test would likely get about 24". That is the reason I like that boolit for elk in ML season. Its effect on elk is impressive which is an understatement. That boolit in my 444 Marlin at an MV of 1200 is fun to shoot too.

Wow! I haven’t seen a phone book in about 10 years! That’s why I use wet news papers.

[Sasquatch-1]

As far as books go you may want to put up request at college campus and local grocery stores or on social media for outdate school books. I had a punch of these from when my wife was getting her degree and ended up having to take the to the recycler.

[MT Gianni]

Dom, if you have your own range Bob Hagel wrote about his bullet trap. 6' long box 12"x12" of pllywood or wafer board. Alternate 12 " of wet newspaper and 12" of wet sand with [2] 1/8" board as dividers. Put a piece of cardboard in between the two 1/8" pieces to see how they are traveling. He claimed most of his rifle bullets would be found 4' in.

[Goofy]

Back in days gone by the catcher’s mitt was a wooden box 8-10’ long 12-18” square, filled with damp sawdust. The sawdust does not deform the bullet much if any. Difference between sawdust filled box vs snowbank? You can find the bullet in sawdust.

[Dom]

Got a saw mill just down the road. I would bet they have saw dust. I wounder if plastic gal milk jugs filled with a slutty of water & saw dust would stop bullets any better than straight water ?

[waksupi]

I recall when BruceB was looking for a solution for this. One of his ideas was to make a trough, and fill it with cooked rice. I explained the physics of what he was trying to do and why it wouldn't work, but he wasn't understanding my explanation. After his first shot blew all the rice from the trough, he then understood the problem.

[Goofy]

Well, rice might work if the box had a roof and a solid end. If one has any talent it isn’t a tuff trick to make the top cover a slide in fixture.

Bottles of sawdust? The weakness is the container not the medium.

[dverna]

Dom, if you have your own range Bob Hagel wrote about his bullet trap. 6' long box 12"x12" of pllywood or wafer board. Alternate 12 " of wet newspaper and 12" of wet sand with [2] 1/8" board as dividers. Put a piece of cardboard in between the two 1/8" pieces to see how they are traveling. He claimed most of his rifle bullets would be found 4' in.

I am willing to bet he made the box four feet too long. Nothing will penetrate 12" of sand.

[reloader28]

I am willing to bet he made the box four feet too long. Nothing will penetrate 12" of sand.

I made mine 4 feet long and never found anything past 10" at 100 yards.
Sand had to be damp though. I never found anything if the sand was dry.

[ChristopherO]

Attachment 285953
Found on the backstop after penetrating 6 water jugs which were 75 yard distant with the FN 175 grain .358 caliber boolit traveling approximately 1,750 fps from barrel. My notes say the alloy was range scrap.
With a hard cast 158 grain SWC358 at lessor velocity (1,100 to 1,300 fps) it will zip through 6 jugs at 50 yards and keep on going with no spectacular splash effect. Found one of those on the backstop yesterday with hardly any sign of being fired.

The range scrap 405 grain WFN 45 caliber boolits mushroom impressively and are usually found in the 4th jug at 20 yards with a MV of 1,620 fps. It all depends on how fast, how close, how hard and how soft.

[waksupi]

[QUOTE=Goofy;5223697]Well, rice might work if the box had a roof and a solid end. If one has any talent it isn’t a tuff trick to make the top cover a slide in fixture.

/QUOTE]


Nope. Physics again. Cooked rice is a liquid in action, and liquid does not compress. Something's got to give.

[Idaho Mule]

I recall when BruceB was looking for a solution for this. One of his ideas was to make a trough, and fill it with cooked rice. I explained the physics of what he was trying to do and why it wouldn't work, but he wasn't understanding my explanation. After his first shot blew all the rice from the trough, he then understood the problem.

This sounds like a cool bird feeder. I bet it was impressive.

[para45lda]

I'll second or third rubber mulch. I used a wooden box on its side with horse stall mat as a face. Three feet stops all but the biggest rifle rounds. You could put a mild steel plate as the backer for a true stop.

Good luck!!

[too many things]

try the neighbors swimming pool

[Goofy]

[QUOTE=waksupi;5224049]

Well, rice might work if the box had a roof and a solid end. If one has any talent it isn’t a tuff trick to make the top cover a slide in fixture.

/QUOTE]


Nope. Physics again. Cooked rice is a liquid in action, and liquid does not compress. Something's got to give.

Is snow a liquid?

[Smoke4320]

I use a blue plastic 55 gallon barrel filled with rubber mulch. Whatever formulation the blue barrels do not Crack over Time. white one's will.. Mine is standing upright. Even a 308 or 270 will not make it all the way thru from 50 yds and out