Bullet trap ideas for recycling lead

[JIMinPHX]

I wonder how it would fare with a 40 s&w.

How fast are those .40s moving & how heavy are they?

[thx997303]

Figure about 1000 fps and 180 grains.

[JIMinPHX]

I would expect 180 grains at about 1,000fps to go about 20" deep into crumb rubber before running out of steam.

[flagman1776]

My first bullet trap was a cardboard box a V8 marine engine came in. I had tested with paper shopping bags (about 6") & found that nothing I owned (9mm, 357M, 41M, 44M, 45AR) would penitrate beyond this. I ladoriously lugged buckets of beach sand until the box was full. When the end of the box got shot up, I just added another cardboard on the inside & swept & shoveled the sand back in. I was in a densely settled neighborhood... The neighbors must have thought I was nuts & left me alone.
I really only used this as a test range... It really sucked to load up a couple of boxes & THEN discover they didn't chamber/shoot/locked the cylinder/etc.

Later I used the manure pile at my ex's place... literally "Shooting the ****!"
Russ

[sheepdog]

My first bullet trap was a cardboard box a V8 marine engine came in. I had tested with paper shopping bags (about 6") & found that nothing I owned (9mm, 357M, 41M, 44M, 45AR) would penitrate beyond this. I ladoriously lugged buckets of beach sand until the box was full. When the end of the box got shot up, I just added another cardboard on the inside & swept & shoveled the sand back in. I was in a densely settled neighborhood... The neighbors must have thought I was nuts & left me alone.
I really only used this as a test range... It really sucked to load up a couple of boxes & THEN discover they didn't chamber/shoot/locked the cylinder/etc.

Later I used the manure pile at my ex's place... literally "Shooting the ****!"
Russ

Sand can work but you really really have to be careful because as it settles it loses its fluidity creating static surface tension. A bullet can hit it and ricochet as a man hitting still water will be crushed as if he hit concrete. Sand as a partial solution would be fine but not as is. Either separate into a phased target where it goes through one stage before hitting sand or mix sand with something that can keep it fluid and springy. I've thought about combining my rubber chunks with sand to add density to the barrier.

[desteve811]

stupid question

[Morrison Machine Shop]

You need to use AR500 steel for the impact plate,the rest can be whatever, keep the impact plate at an angle, also the impact plate needs to give or move when it gets hit, to soften the blow, if you know what I mean, so the lead doesn't disintegrate when it hits. I can't think of anything else.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

My Idea is to build one simular to JiminPhx's but about 15"-16"deep of rubber, than a sheet of thin steel (maybe 1/8" an old road sign!) then 1.5" of sand . . . the rubber will stop all my 38 spl, and will slow down my 357's before they hit the steel, which should have some "give" to it as the sand is behind it, if my 270 punches through the steel it still has 1.5 inches of sand +.5" of plywood . . .I'm trying to keep this small . . . if the 270 keeps on going . . . it won't hurt anything as I shoot in front of a gravel pit/bank . . . just trying to keep my lead!

I may also put a "flap" of the same steel, with a flange screwed to the bottom of the rubber area of the box, about 1" in front of the other plate, this will allow the plate to spring some, as long as it is not hit at the very bottom here it is hooked to the box.

[JIMinPHX]

I think that your 270 is going to tear that thing up. 150-grain slugs from my 30-30 @ about 2000fps went through a little more than 25" of crumb rubber. Your .38's should only go in maybe a foot or so, unless you shoot them into a small group, then you get tunnels in the rubber & they go deeper.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I ended up buying 3 - .8cuft bags @Home Depot of Red shredded rubber mulch @$6.72 per bag!

So . . . I'm gonna hopefully TODAY build a trap 14" X 14" X 20" this will give me 18.5" of rubber & 1.5" of sand . . . time will tell how well it will work . . .

It will be heavy though, each .8 cuft bag weighs 20 pound, and I'll need a tad more than 2.5 of them . . . plus the box & the sand & metal . . . probably be around 70 pounds . . . not too bad, If I end up shooting my 270 more, I may have to build another box to put in front like JiminPhx did.

Jim tell me more about using the cardboard for the target face . . . how long of staples do you need to secure it on so the weight of the rubber doesn't pull it out? Or did you use a strip of something, and the screw that?

[JIMinPHX]

I've used 3/8" staples with no problem. It really doesn't take that much to hold the cardboard on. You can mount the targets to the cardboard with thumb tacks or you can get fancy & mount spring clips to the frame. Either way works.

The one box in front of the other trick can be a bit messy. The cardboard on the back side of the first box gets torn up pretty good & leaks crumb rubber. If you do pull that trick, make sure that you secure the two boxes together pretty well. If there is a space between them, then the rear cardboard on the first one gets obliterated. I only use that trick occasionally for high power loads. In fact, I do it so rarely, that I turned my 1-foot cube extender into my pistol cube trap that I now use as a stand alone for things like .38's.

By the way, which town was the Home Depot in that had crumb rubber at that price? I've never seen it in the Home Depots in Phoenix.

[grumman581]

By the way, which town was the Home Depot in that had crumb rubber at that price? I've never seen it in the Home Depots in Phoenix.

Living in Phoenix, you should just use SAND... It's not like you don't have enough of it laying around everywhere, right?

[grumman581]

One design that I thought about was to basically have a box that fitted over a deep tray of sand. Instead of just having a fixed piece of metal at 45 degrees, I was thinking of maybe having the front edge of that piece of metal on a hinge and the rear / lower portion of the piece of metal able to move. That way, perhaps the bullet would not completely disintegrate upon impact. Part of the energy of the bullet would be used in causing the metal plate to tip upwards a bit. Another plate could be hung to the rear of this plate and it could also pivot at the top with the bottom able to swing freely. And then finally a fixed plate at the rear so that if something still managed to make it past those two plates, there would be a fixed plate to contain whatever was left. I would suspect that most bullets would just hit the first plate and then go into the sand. Some *might* ricochet off the sand and hit the 2nd plate and then hit the rear of the 1st plate. Some people might prefer to put the crumb rubber in the bottom tray. Probably 24" of crumb rubber in the bottom tray would be enough. Make the bottom metal thick enough that the bullet can't go through it and if it ricocheted off the bottom, it would end up having gone through the equivalent of 48" of crumb rubber before it could *attempt* to exist out of the top. Here's a drawing (not to scale):

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

By the way, which town was the Home Depot in that had crumb rubber at that price? I've never seen it in the Home Depots in Phoenix.

The one box in front of the other trick can be a bit messy. The cardboard on the back side of the first box gets torn up pretty good & leaks crumb rubber. If you do pull that trick, make sure that you secure the two boxes together pretty well. If there is a space between them, then the rear cardboard on the first one gets obliterated.

Thanks Jim!

I got them in Thatcher, right next to Safford . . .while out on this road trip yesterday . . .http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/...33#post2302333






If I do the two box thing, I'll probably make the back of the front one out of a rubber truck flap . . .

Grumman . . .If your gonna do that style I'd lift the bottom edge of the angled piece of steel, and make it longer . . . but why not just use rubber?

[grumman581]

Grumman . . .If your gonna do that style I'd lift the bottom edge of the angled piece of steel, and make it longer . . .

You're saying that basically change the 45 degree angle to something more shallow... Say 30 degrees in relation to horizontal?

QUOTE=123.DieselBenz;675357]but why not just use rubber?[/QUOTE]

Actually, I think the *best* media to use would be lead pellets about .38 caliber. As you add lead to the box via shooting, you periodically scoop out a bit for casting new bullets out of... That would be a really heavy box though...

I was just trying to think of a way that it could be done without the sand or rubber crumbs leaking out the front after you punch a bunch of holes in the target and cardboard behind the target.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

You're saying that basically change the 45 degree angle to something more shallow... Say 30 degrees in relation to horizontal?

Actually, I think the *best* media to use would be lead pellets about .38 caliber. As you add lead to the box via shooting, you periodically scoop out a bit for casting new bullets out of... That would be a really heavy box though...

I was just trying to think of a way that it could be done without the sand or rubber crumbs leaking out the front after you punch a bunch of holes in the target and cardboard behind the target.

Yes less of an angle, because as the bullet/boolit hits the metal you could end up with more pieces . . .or dust, harder to pick out of the stopping media . . . you want the boolit to be deflected/slowed down . . . if you used lead pellets, it is gonna be REAL heavy, like you said! Sand is also heavy, I used a 5 gal bucket full of sand, a pain to lift in & out of my trunk, and leaked sand . . .stopped my 270!

[JIMinPHX]

I tried using sand, but it just would not stay in place for me. 2 or 3 boolit holes was all it took for the sand to start draining out. After that, it was a matter of time until the whole thing was empty.

The plate on a hinge trick isn't likely to do much for you. The plate can't move fast enough to absorb the energy that way. I've hung a 4 x 4 piece of 1/4" plate on a string & shot at it with a .30 cal. @ about 2800fps. I punched a hole right through the plate. The angle of the plate makes a big difference though.

[grumman581]

I tried using sand, but it just would not stay in place for me. 2 or 3 boolit holes was all it took for the sand to start draining out. After that, it was a matter of time until the whole thing was empty.

The plate on a hinge trick isn't likely to do much for you. The plate can't move fast enough to absorb the energy that way. I've hung a 4 x 4 piece of 1/4" plate on a string & shot at it with a .30 cal. @ about 2800fps. I punched a hole right through the plate. The angle of the plate makes a big difference though.

Putting the sand between layers (walls) that you are punching hole in would not seem appropriate for me since it wouldn't take too many shots before you had a big mess from all the sand draining out. That's why I was thinking of having the sand in the 'pan' with a metal plate redirecting the bullet down. From various posts on here, it would seem that with a 45 degree angle on the metal, you are more likely to just get lead dust and small fragments out of the initial hit which would be a pain to reclaim. At 30 degrees, what is the condition of the bullet afterwards?

[JIMinPHX]

The condition of the boolit depends heavily on angle & speed. There are so many combination that it's hard to give a single comment that would cover all the possibilities. BNH also has a fair amount of influence. Dead soft stuff stays together better. If you end up with a pan full of mixed sand & lead dust, it may be a bit of a mess to smelt out.

[Three-Fifty-Seven]

I finely got my trap built . . . heavier than I wanted . . . I decide to make it a tad bigger than originally planned . . . outside is 15" X 15" X 21.5" built out of 1/2" plywood & 2X4 ripped in half . . . 101 pounds!

I made the sand compartment 1.5" thick, may not need it . . . but it is there . . . I should have had plenty of rubber mulch (3 bags X .8cuft each = 2.4 cuft) But it just barely filled it, and then with me moving it around it settled quite a bit . . . which if you don't count the space taken up by the 2 bys . . . it is only 14" X 14" X 19.5" = 3822 cu inches or 2.21 cuft! (I figured I would have a tad left over to top it off once I had been shooting into it for a while) I think I got ripped off! When I empty it I'll cut a few inches off the front . . .

I had some double thickness cardboard and I folded it under the bottom, stapled it and then screwed on the little "foot", folded over the top too!

Here are a few pictures:




Tomorrow after work, I'll take my wife and go shoot some into it . . .