Building a bullet trap

[shamgar]

Building a bullet trap to reclaim lead. Using a 20"X20"X.5" piece of steel at a 45 degree angle sitting over a can filled with shredded rubber mulch. Bullets are hitting the steel and deflecting 10 or so degrees causing the bullets to make a hole in my can and impacting in the dirt behind it. Does anyone have experience with this idea and know a solution?

[SSGOldfart]

I use a 30gallon barrel,cut the top out fill with rubber mulch pack it in,then tape the top back in place with duck tape ( 100mph tape) then I just lay it on its side and hang a target on it mine has stopped a full load 44mag at point blank and 30-06 @20 feet. I just had to try shooting through it,I've got one made out of a 5 gallon bucket in the shop for shooting 38 target loads,but I did crack the bucket with a 44mag at 34 feet my shop is 12x34 I like the barrel better at least there is some medal the stop a round if it ever makes it thru the mulch.there is a long thread on here somewhere about this

[SSGOldfart]

Btw I've recovered some target rounds that didn't need to be recast,just lube again and load

[lancem]

made one like that a long time ago for a friend, found that instead of bouncing off like you would think (45 off the plate straight down) they tended to hit the plate and then just follow it down at pretty much the same angle as the plate, some would leave skid marks going down. I welded a piece of angle iron near the bottom, then they would follow down the plate, hit the angle and drop straight down. This was with pistol shooting cast.

[country gent]

The angle iron on the bottom really takes a beating on these backstops. But it does direct the bullet to where it needs to go. On the indoor ranges I have seen the angled plates were diamond plate and sliding down them the "Diamonds" also tended to break up the bullets taking away mass and energy before getting to the angle iron kicker. My indoor trap is 3/8" steel plates with a 12" steel pipe the plates form a Finnel into the pipe 3/4" slot cut in the pipe length wise. side plates are 1/4" plate. Bullet follows the funnel into the pipe and spins around till energy is expended then it rolls back out the front. Opening for target is 12" X 12".

[jmorris]

I welded a 4" ledge on both ends of the flat plate for reenforcement and prevent splatter from eroding the dirt or comming back out.

[MattOrgan]

I've experimented with making a bullet trap with an angled plate like the Outers .22 RF/ airgun bullet trap and have had less than perfect success. Even the Outers spits fragments back at you occasionally. The single angled plate does not reduce velocity quickly enough to prevent penetration of thin materials. I'm guessing a bottom plate/box of 1/4 inch steel with your rubber mulch will stop the bullet and prevent splatter I've gone to the snail type as shown and after several thousand rounds of mostly cast and some high velocity jacketed rifle bullets and never had anything come back at me. The principle of the snail is to use the angled plates on both sides to direct the bullet into the cylinder. The bullet then travels around the cylinder until it looses momentum and falls at the speed of gravity into your catch bucket. A bullet glancing or ricocheting comes off of the surface it strikes a certain height and then travels parallel to that surface. The height depends on the hardness of the surface struck and the hardness of the bullet. The harder the surface the less height the bullet travels from it. My snail trap is made from half of an oxygen cylinder, the wings are 1/2 inch thick (two pieces of 1/4 inch plate laminated together) the bottom and top are pieces of 1/4 inch plate. My test trap had a piece of 6 " schedule 80 pipe for the snail, 3/16" plate for the wings, and 10 guage sheet for the top and bottom. It worked perfectly for cast and jacketed .38 Special, 9mm, and .45 ACP.

[shamgar]

SSGOldfart How thick is the angle iron?

[markinalpine]

There is a LOOOOONG thread in the Forum-General-Classics & Stickies forum, http://castboolits.gunloads.com/show...recycling-lead, that you should read, but for some reason when I went to the Classics & Stickies forum, this thread didn't appear. I found it by doing a search for "Bullet Trap Ideas for Recycling lead.
Mark

[DeadWoodDan]

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