Bullet Traps

[marlin35]

Have any of y’all ever made/bought/used a bullet trap? Being that I am able to shoot around my home, I’d like to be able to harvest my projectiles and recast them without having to dig through a berm and stuff like that. All I can find online that doesn’t cost as much as a family vehicle is for rimfire only. 

[gnappi]

A friend of mine had a Detroit bullet trap he used in his house (with a suppressor) to test ammo. He said it worked well but I didn't want to be there when he shot at it :-)

[bearskinner]

Water is cheap and easy to test in, from shooting in a swimming pool, trash bags full of water tied up in boxes lined up. I use milk jugs, oil jugs, coffee creamer etc. Plus I’ll fill thin boxes with magazines, add sheets of plywood or pieces of 2x6 etc. Various items to simulate bones, thick hide. My buddy’s daughter owns a drive thru coffee stand, so I have endless supplies of bottles.

[bearskinner]

I’ll shoot thru my chronograph, if I’m testing for speed, To show bullet performance at various speeds.
Just to test bullets with known charges, you can add pieces of wood or roofing to see how bullets handle tougher materials.

[axman]

A few 12" diameter logs.
Shoot them like crazy and then split out the lead.

[bula]

Gotta be a youtube video somewhere. It might work too ! We made traps as boys, to catch slingshot ammo, iron ore pellets. What kind of steel plating, at what angle and such to know for your use. For us, indoor/outdoor carpet scrap, a saw horse and a litter box worked for awhile. 

[bula]

Yup, LOTS on youtube. 

[magman]

Check out bullet bunker. The prices at one time wasn't crazy.

[northerngos]

I have an ongoing plan to buy rubber from Cumberland to put ion my hollow box backstop. It sounds like it should catch lead fairly gently. My thought was to periodically pull the media and run it through a screen to separate bullets, and I plan to use a different powder coat color for each alloy so I can avoid blending everything. I live on the edge of a wetland so I like the idea of keeping lead dust down also.

[Fowler]

I’ve known a guy or two who swore they used a big old tire and on the backside where the back side of the rim would be they hung a steel gong. When the bullet hits the stew plate the lead splatters out in all directions with the inside of the tire catching most of the splattered lead. Keep some sort of a scoop and bucket nearby to recoup your lead.

Now the lead will have a bunch of rubber in it and stink to melt down but shouldn’t be any the worse for west.

I have never tried it myself but I’ve been tempted to for sure.

[marlin35]

What started me on this was a video Jerry Mickuleck did on YouTube showing his ginormous bullet catcher. It must have been 6x6’ square. I’d just like something 18x18” to hang a target from and catch my bullets. With wheel weights harder to get and alloy prices going up, I’d like to recycle what I can. I would only be shooting my .45 colt and 1911’s into it. I’ve wondered if I was to glue a piece of horse stall mat on the front of a rimfire bullet catcher, and filled it with ground rubber, if it would let the bullets land soft enough to keep from beating up the box.

[ridenshoot]

You could consider angling your 18" x 18" plate at an approximate 45 degree angle (you might have to experiment to get the angle correct) and dig out an area below it, fill the area below with sand.  The bullets hit the plate and deflect downward into the sand, you can then sift the sand through a screen to recover your lead.  This is a setup that was used in the indoor range at a gun club that I was once a member of.  It worked quite well.

[marlin35]

Mar 1, 2024 17:02:20 GMT -5 ridenshoot said:

You could consider angling your 18" x 18" plate at an approximate 45 degree angle (you might have to experiment to get the angle correct) and dig out an area below it, fill the area below with sand.  The bullets hit the plate and deflect downward into the sand, you can then sift the sand through a screen to recover your lead.  This is a setup that was used in the indoor range at a gun club that I was once a member of.  It worked quite well.

I like that idea!

[cowpuncher]

You can use an old hot water heater core. Cut a slot in weld an outer funnel target holder one side longer at an angle, the bullets enter and spin to the bottom. Cut a hole in the back bottom to retrieve bullets.

[bula]

Creative !  ^^^^