Need something to catch lead

The person who posted about his bullet trap design below said that it really worked, plus there wouldn't be any lead spatter. He used something like cardboard, peg board or old paneling for the front section that allowed the balls to pass through yet was easy to replace with a simple swap of precut panels.

arcticap said:

There was someone on the MLF that built a ball trap out of a wooden box that was filled with rubber mulch from the garden dept.. It was only 2-3 feet long, had 2 wheels and allowed the balls to pass in and then contained them by stopping them dead about 1/2 way in for easy recovery of the pure lead afterward....

http://www.thehighroad.org/showpost.php?p=5973551&postcount=15

Click to expand...

I suppose that a similar trap could be made that was filled with dirt or dense sand but that may create more of a mess when digging out the lead. Filling it with rubber mulch would be lighter weight and more portable.

Fill up a tub with water, and shoot into that.

Wish my range would allow something like this. One rifle shoots 1/4 lb slugs. Seems silly to throw all that lead away

yeah, but do you realize that it was designed to defeat Armor??
So, OK you want to stop it, HOW, I've seen 50's shoot through a 20" dirt berm at a FARP

An option might be a bounce plate (a HEAVY as in more than 1" steel like Hard-Ox) at about 45* to deflect rounds into sand or water, you still have a heavy back stop, I've heard of railroad ties backed by packed dirt filled tires. See, if you miss the plate, not much is going to stop that round for a LONG ways, so, you sure you wanna be blasting .50's

I took two 3/8" plates and slid them back to back into 45 degree slots in a wooded trap. It was fine with a 36 Navy and such, but when I was hitting it with the .45-70, it came apart like a cheap suit in a rain storm!! Never shot my .50 into it....I gave up until I could find thicker steel. The two plates were so dented and punched by BP level loads from the .45-70 that they look like saucers!

Now that idea of the rubber pellets in the big box might just slow down the big boy....maybe....Will have to try it. As is stands right now, my slugs are going into the small hill/ditch behind my target area. I'll mine that out someday....maybe....I'm old and the thought of being on my hands and damaged knees gives me the willies! But that box idea interests me......

Wade

Could always hire "Superman"

The box filled with rubber mulch was originally described as being able stop round balls but not center fire.
It was posted about in a traditional BP forum and stopping round balls was its primary purpose.
But it might be able to stop some center fire pistol rounds too.
The longer that the box is built then the better the odds that it would work for stopping some cartridge bullets.

You mentioned stopping .50s, but you mean .50 round balls out of a muzzle loader, not the M2 Browning .50 machine gun round, right?

What I've used is a steel oil drum with the top removed. Fill it with dirt and lay it down on its side with the open end propped up a bit. Some dirt falls out but drum is mostly still full. Strap target across the open end and shoot into the dirt. Empty now and then to recover lead. I've used it for 45-70s, 577-450s, 44 mag, 7mm Mauser, etc.

I'd shoot into Kevlar bought cheap.

Well, this IS the black powder forum so I'd like to think that you're shooting round or minie ball and not some wonky big .50BMG...

If you don't need to move the darn thing than welding up a good snail style trap would be ideal. No rubber or sand to clean out at all. And for any sort of non magnum or high velocity rifle a long enough taper to the mouth would allow the use of fairly cheap 1/4 to 5/16 thick steel and useing sections of similar thickness wall pipe for the snail. But it won't be light. Something with a 24x24 inch opening would likely weigh a few hundred pounds. So you won't be packing it off to the local range in your subcompact car all the time...


EDIT: Just had a silly thought as I submitted this post. .50bmg loaded with black powder... Think about it....

I, use three banker boxes filled with Ruger mulch, but it can be any type of box as long as it is two, or three feet deep. I, have only stopped .44 mags with it. I, don't know if the big fifths will need more depth. There is a long thread over on Cast Boollits, covering many different methods.

I only mentioned the .50 MG round cause it sounded like Shadow 7D thought that's what you meant.

I have never tried the ground rubber on bullets but I know it is marvelous on arrows. Before anyone get excited, an arrow will penetrate water much easier than a rifle bullet. It is difficult to stop without a compressed material and a lot of friction. The rubber works and is easily handled. I try a box full.

That bullet trap above may work for round ball but thats about it.

Get or make a box, steel or wood, and fill with real sand. Make an extended front to attach your targets. When you need more lead just tip over the sand onto tarp and pick it out. I've used sand for years, there is noting better save an extra large and super thing plate of steel, which would be costly and very hard to move and st up. I once had a chance to but a steel plate about 4'x4' and 2 inches thick. But even that would suffer from large center rifle bullets.

+1 on sand.

A 5 gal bucket of sand or two will stop all common calibers.
A 55 barrel of sand will stop just about anything.

Plastic buckets or barrels work well, and you can patch the holes with duck tape when they get to leaking.

rc

The NRA source book has a number of ideas you might be able to adapt.

If you do shoot into sand, don't stand a little step ladder and shoot down
into the sand. Unless you want to spend the rest of the day cleaning sand
out of your gun. And DON'T ask me how I know. And another thing, don't shoot
into a 55 gal. cardboard drum filled with water either, unless you want 55 gal.
of water to clean up in your basement. DON'T even ask how I know that either.

Dirt pile. It's easier to dig the lead out of dirt than to chop it out of an old log.

I think you'll find that bolts will rattle loose pretty quickly. But it'll work well enough to get a feel for how it works and how much lead it collects. Once you fine tune things then take it in and have a welder do their thing to it to make it solid.

If it were me I'd look at mounting a couple of wheels that sit on the rear side where they are protected. Then just go out to the bullet trap with one or two pipe handles which plug into sockets and tip the whole thing back and wheel it away like it was a two wheel cart.

Something else you can do to test to see how effective a small section pipe along the lower rear of the plate works out is to lay a big sheet of cardboard down and see how many small shard holes are in it at the end of a session. MOST of the lead from a spatter should slide along the face of the plate and end up in a collector tube. Some will escape to the side but if you look up slow motion bullet impacts on You Tube the bullets hitting at an angle tend to disintegrate and smear mostly towards along the angle leading away from the impact. So I suspect that a 5 to 6 inch round collector with about a 2 inch slot cut into it would gather up the lion's share of the lead.

Here's a sketch of an option which would present a 14 x 14 inch area which would result in lead capture in the collector tube. Using an online steel weight calculator I estimate that when all done and including the wood or steel forelegs you're looking at around 65 to 70 lbs worth of steel, wheels and handles.



Frankly I like the idea of the wheels and handles to avoid having to lift the darn thing or carry it around. At the car or truck it would be worth making up a set of ramps. Or renting a young and able back....

You could build this up in stages to allow testing. For example the main plate and lower tube could be set up by bolting together as you mentioned. Even temporary end caps could be held in place for testing with a hole in the center of each end plate and using a length of all thread rod with nuts to merely clamp the ends on for the test. Otherwise much of the lead would be thrown out the ends of the tube by the incoming lead.