Bullet Traps

[awbrock]

Would any of you happen to have a picture of your bullet trap? Or some sort of sketch, I would like to build my own.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Mine is a simple cube made of wood and filled with rubber mulch. 30" cubed. Haven't had a chance to test it yet, but this is a pretty common design. If need be a steel plate (probably no thicker than 1/4") can be placed in the back for those higher velocity rounds that make it all the way thru the mulch. Like I said, I have not tested mine yet, but plan to when it warms up. I will be sure to give a full report after testing.

(I wanted to make mine portable and relatively easy to load and unload out of a truck. If you are looking for a trap that will be permanant, I would go with a more elaborate and durable design).

[zig mag roller]

Hey guys, I consider myself to be a thrifty shooter, awwww hell - let's face it - I'm CHEAP! My boolit trap is not nearly as crafty as some of yours, but it's cheap and easy (kinda like me in that respect). I have some 11" wide X 12" tall X 8" deep cardboard boxes and I slip about 2 weeks worth of the local newspaper into those, slap a paper target on the front of the box and....VOILA! Yes siree, 1 poor mans boolit catcher................ Now, keep in mind I'm shootin low velocity rounds and I only penetrate about 3" into the face @ 10-15 yards. I occasionally will shoot some medium power loads with my Ruger SHR .44 mag. and penetration goes to about 6"-7". I haven't tried it yet, but maybe a light steel plate slipped into the middle of the box would allow me to shoot up one face of the box, then after it can take no more, turn it around and shoot at the other "clean face". Newspaper is only one medium, we all have old phone books, old magazines (that we know we're never gunna read again, but keep 'em around anyways), etc. So, I guess you can get as high tech (or low in my case) as you want, as long as we can shoot all we want on the cheap, I'm happy Have fun yall!

[howlnmad]

Hunter, i never would have thought of the rubber mulch. I think I'm going to borrow your idea but put a sliding replaceable front piece. That way I'd just have to flip it on it's back and slide out the shot up piece and slide in a fresh piece of plywood. Hope you don't mind.

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

the "replaceable" front piece is exactly what i had in mind when i designed it! I haven't tested mine yet, but when I do I will post the results. I hope you will do the same!

[steve1147]

More info on this trap under the "Shooting metal plates with cast bullets" post on this forum.
Steve W.

[Unclenick]

Awbrock,

Specify a bit more. Indoors/outdoors? Will it need to stop just cast pistol rounds, or are you going to hit it with hardball or jacketed high power rifle rounds?

[awbrock]

Awbrock,

Specify a bit more. Indoors/outdoors? Will it need to stop just cast pistol rounds, or are you going to hit it with hardball or jacketed high power rifle rounds?

For now just cast pistol rounds outdoors maybe a jacketed pistol round, 22LR 45acp 38/357 that sort. I'd like to build something later for my AR maybe even 3006 but it will be several years for that, those two can sure eat a piece of 1/4" boiler plate at 100yrds.

[GP100man]

The 1 I saw was for rifles it was 24"x 8` long 1/4" plates alog the sides& top/bottom to assure the bullets didnt stray , the plates were in the last 1/2 of the "trap"

[Unclenick]

You can get away with lighter steel if you let the bullet strike it at a high deflecting angle. Figure out how tall you want the target opening to be? Get a piece of 1/8" steel plate the right width, but six times longer than the height you want. Put it on a frame to give it legs and let it tip up a foot at the target end. It will cause the bullet to ricochet down into the dirt.