Best cheap way to capture bullets

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AJC1

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St Marys Georgia
I want to capture some of my new 45 cast loads to inspect. I would like to see the bases and see if I get any flame cutting. The water jug option seems good but so does the wet phonebook. With the bullet going at or around 800 fps I cant imagine a single phonebook would work. Any advice....
 
We have a super fine sand on our place in the country, almost like corn starch or baby powder. We found if we took a 5gal bucket filled to the top with sand, then half a bottle of water and let set would provide a great stopping medium. With the lid on we lay them on their side and shoot thru the tops.

It has proven to closely mimic what i have found with recovered bullets from feral hogs and deer. These are some soft cast HPs i was testing a couple years ago...
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Wet bundles of newspaper.

Take12" of newspaper and stack them in a bundle. Take them together and put them in a cooler. Make 2 or 3 bundles and fill the cooler with water and let it sit for a couple hours to over night. Take the cooler with the bundles in it to the range & take a bundle out and set it up and put a target on it. Put a couple slugs in it and them lay it down and start peeling layers off until you find the bullets. They say 1" or wetpack newspaper is equal to 1 1/2" of gel. I don't know about all that but it works for testing bullets/loads.
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Cheap, easy and flat out works. Recovered hp hb swc
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Takes a while to gather these days, but I got 7" to 8" of catalogs. I wrap them a bit with duct tape so they don't swell too much then soak them in a 5 gal bucket over night. Works fairly well.

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Dave
 
If you have source of water I like shooting 1 gallon milk jugs full of water. Lot easier to clean up at the end. I have don't the wet phone books before too and they work good but are more of a pain to clean up afterwards.

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Four 1 gallon milk jugs to catch this 300 BO sub-sonic.
 
5 gallon bucket filled with rubber crumbs. Also useful is the rubber mulch, which can be found at Lowe's (or the like) in the garden section.
3 sacks will easily fill the bucket, with some left over.

Pour about 4" in, tamp it down with a 2x4, continue until full.Lay it down and shoot through the lid into the length of the bucket. It will catch the bullets without distortion, unless one bullet hits another.

The single bucket will easily catch handgun, but not full house or heavy 44 Mag. I even shoot soft point 223 Rem into it from 75 yds with no problems.

If you are concerned about shooting through it, cut a 3/4" plywood disc and put it in the bottom prior to filling with rubber. Or, a metal disc.

I've been using this design for several years. Eventually the lid will need to be replaced, but that's$2. I screw the lid on with sheet metal screws right through the outer edge.

I've captured, and remelted, scores of pounds of lead in the past few years.
 
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5 gallon bucket filled with rubber crumbs. Also useful is the rubber mulch, which can be found at Lowe's (or the like) in the garden section.
3 sacks will easily fill the bucket, with some left over.

Pour about 4" in, tamp it down with a 2x4, continue until full.Lay it down and shoot through the lid into the length of the bucket. It will catch the bullets without distortion, unless one bullet hits another.

The single bucket will easily catch handgun, but not full house or heavy 44 Mag. I even shoot soft point 223 Rem into it from 75 yds with no problems.

If you are concerned about shooting through it, cut a 3/4" plywood disc and out it in the bottom prior to filling with rubber. Or, a metal disc.

I've been using this design for several years. Eventually the lid will need to be replaced, but that's$2. I screw the lid on with sheet metal screws right through the outer edge.

I've captured, and remelted, scores if pounds of lead in the past few years.
This seems like a good long-term solution for Bullet Stop to recapture all your cast bullets
 
Almost all of my "recovery" is done with along other testing and mostly in my shop. I loosely taped some magazines together (my wife's "People" type, never my Handloader). I set the magazines on the bench, place my chrony in from of it and shoot from about 10'. I guess it's more of a bullet stop rather than a trap. I can check the bases, and compare expansion from my jacketed rounds (I know magazines aren't comparable to flesh and bones) my testing tells me the speed, function in gun, and how the bullets react in magazines...
 
Almost all of my "recovery" is done with along other testing and mostly in my shop. I loosely taped some magazines together (my wife's "People" type, never my Handloader). I set the magazines on the bench, place my chrony in from of it and shoot from about 10'. I guess it's more of a bullet stop rather than a trap. I can check the bases, and compare expansion from my jacketed rounds (I know magazines aren't comparable to flesh and bones) my testing tells me the speed, function in gun, and how the bullets react in magazines...
I live in Memphis, if I shot a 45 in my garage I would be arrested faster than loosing and argument with a wife... ;) I wish I could test at home it would make things super fast and easy for load development.
 
I use a plastic bucket filled with rubber mulch. A plastic barrel would be even better. One with an easily removable top would be even better yet.
 
Lots of good ideas and some seem expensive or at least cost money . What ever happened to jugs of water , water stops bullets pretty fast and promotes expansion if you're looking for that while never deforming other parts .
? 5 or 6 milk jugs , cat litter jugs etc . Jugs you'll have anyways I'm sure there's something we all buy that will do the trick , then it's just the cost of the water to fill them .
 
I live in Memphis, if I shot a 45 in my garage I would be arrested faster than loosing and argument with a wife... ;) I wish I could test at home it would make things super fast and easy for load development.
While there are no "no gunfire" laws for my county, I do live in a Red Flag state so I'm very careful and only shoot one or two rounds at a time. I close the doors and windows on my shop, and I have a "soundproofer". I had an old 20 gal tub with lid that was split in a couple places, I cut a hole in each end and lined it with carpet. It does deaden the sound some, but I don't know how much the neighbors hear and I keep all my gun stuff quiet and secretive...
 
I use my swimming pool, easy enough on them, they could be reloaded and fired again.

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A 55 gallon drum full of water would likely do the trick.
 
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