cast bullet trap!

Hey guys im wanting to build a bullet trap to shot my cast bullets and 22s into so i cant recycle my lead. i seen on ebay they where selling range lead from indoor shooting ranges so i thought heck i could do that!! it would be the ultimate in recycling lol i know its a little extreme but every dollar saved is another dollar i can spend on something else lol! iv got some ideas but i want yours post your design ideas it needs to be heavy enough to stand up to a 40 and maybe a 45 soon! thanks hope i put this in the right spot!!

One design I seen, a person had made a big pyramid type trap. The big end facing you and the smaller end away. Then the small end had a pipe welded to it. At the bottom of the pipe was a cut away to the side of it with a ramp. When he shot into the trap, the lead would fall down the shoot and out the side into the bucket... I will try to find that post and link it...

Ok could not find the one I was describing. This one is very close. I kinda like this one better to be honest...

http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=28276&page=2

There are also the ones built like this.



It is enclosed of course with a angled back, two sides, a bottom and a front deflector.

Here's mine. It's basically just like the diagram that Hawcer posted.
I made mine out of 3/8" plate for the back stop and 1/8" plate everywhere else. Don't worry, 45's turn to dust when they hit.......you won't shoot through it. Also, don't expect to find a scrap of bullet any bigger than your little fingernail.

Watch the videos on Youtube about Slo Mo bullets hitting stuff like steel plate and you will understand why.

I thought that you had built one Mo!! Just wasn't sure...

nice .... I bet that sure beats digging them out of the dirt....

thats nice thats kinda what i had in mind !! i wondered if you put a piece of wood in front of it like a sheet of plywood if it would slow the bullet down enough to not turn them to dust?? casue iv got a wood target stand and iv found several bullets layin behind it not in really bad shape!

Some guys use old rubber tires cut into strips and bolt them to the face of the bullet trap to slow them down, and I also heard a great idea over on cast boolits website where a guy used one of those rubber mats like they use in horse trailers. He said you could get a 4x8 sheet of it at a farm supply store for about $30 bucks. I had thought about trying that, but never got around to it.

I've probably got about 10 lbs. of lead that I pumped into my 3x3 ft. box that I use for my 50 yard range. It's a wooden box full of sand and I've been shooting into it for several years now. I'd like to recover all the scrap that's inside it, but I don't want to lose all my sand and have to start over, that's one reason why I built the bullet trap and I shoot all my pistol rounds into it. You can see one side of it next to the steel bullet trap in the first pic that I posted.

I have been chewing on making myself one of those especially since i kinda have my own range. I always knew that a 22lr and pistols wont shoot through them. but what do you think about a center fire rifle? do you think that it would contain it or would it punch all the way through. I know that rifle ranges that shoot silhouettes wont let you shoot their silhouettes with an o6 because it will punch through. Mind you i'm not talking about using military surplus armor piercing but normal hunting rounds.

As long as the back stop is at a 45 deg. angle it won't punch through. It's nearly impossible for it to.

Here watch this and it will explain a lot more than I can.........seeing is believing.
Right around 1:20 min. into the video you will see what a bullet does when hitting the steel plate at an angle. This is exactly what I recover inside my bullet trap........lead flakes and lead particles. I never understood why I was getting that until I watched this slo mo video.

Feel free to turn up the volume and do a little jig there in your computer chair if you want to.......it's fun!Enjoy!

thats awsome thanks for that video thats cool my little boy liked it to!! i may try the tire thing have a bunch of old tires laying around

I think if you cut them in half and then bolt strips of them to the front of a bullet trap you may catch some bigger chunks or maybe even whole bullets? There was an entire thread on this over on cast boolits at one time and I read the whole thing from beginning to end when I built my trap.

The trap will catch all the lead just fine without any rubber, but I was concerned about some of the dust splattering out of my trap and disappearing into the dirt.......so that's why I was considering the rubber there for awhile. I still might do it at some point, just haven't got around to it yet.

well that convinces me to build one. with lead the price it is.

haha, I tried using the pellet trap for 177 pellets and bbs to catch 22rimfire ammo, i was smart enough to know to only try it at 150+yrds but even then the 22s buggared it up, gained new respect for the 22lr after that...

I'm looking to build myself a bullet trap.

Here is an idea I am working with....the picture is crude, but I hope it helps visualize the Idea.

I am thinking it will be a 24"x24" size face opening...that should be big enough for most targets. I will use at least 1/4" steel for the angled side plates and the angle iron. I would like to be able to make the plates removable for replacement if they get too beat up. The areas on the outside of the angled plates will be open on the bottom so the bullets can fall into some sort of tray or drawer in a false bottom that can be accessed from the rear. This bugger will be heavy, so heavy duty wheels might be mounted so it could be tilted back and moved around like a self contained hand truck.

it would be really nice if it was built with some type of frame that would allow easy assembly and disassembly by sliding the plates and walls in and out of the frame.

Just an idea....

You think you could hinge the plates that way when you was done, you could like unlock them and have some kind of puzzle to where you could just swing the plates up, back or what have ya till they lay flat. Then mabye it if is mounted on a pedistal, add an axle with wheels so that you could swing the plates closed flat, locked to the pedistal, lean it back and roll it away??

Yeah....something like that would be the ticket.

Mohunter wrote:Some guys use old rubber tires cut into strips and bolt them to the face of the bullet trap to slow them down, and I also heard a great idea over on cast boolits website where a guy used one of those rubber mats like they use in horse trailers. He said you could get a 4x8 sheet of it at a farm supply store for about $30 bucks. I had thought about trying that, but never got around to it.

think it was me that give you that idea mo. because thats what are trap is at the shop. and wee shoot rifles with no problem if you put 2in of the ruber floor mat down you will find bullets that look good enuff to reload