Backstop ideas ??

[Uncle Levi]

Has anyone built a shooting backstop for your muzzleloader from which you can recover the lead ? I'm looking for some ideas. I have 10 acres and a tractor/loader to work with.

 

[BrownBear]

There have been a number of threads in the past about it, along with photos. You might do a search on "lead recovery." or some such.

No tractor here, so I've been using a 5 gallon bucket of sand. The better solution for most folks (and I'd use it too, if I could get it) is that rubber mulch intended for playgrounds and such. Whatever box you put it in, it or sand does a dandy job of stopping the lead and making it easy to recover.

 

[zimmerstutzen]

I got some sheets of reinforced rubber conveyor belting from a quarry. Tough stuff made to withstand the abrasion and banging of rock and stone. I hung it vertically behind the targets the stuff I have is 2 ft wide, so it can swing freely. As long as I keep the loads reasonable, the balls hit the rubber, push it back some and then fall down a foot or two in front of the belting. I do mostly pistol shooting and it works great for that. I once had an old metal tube backyard swing set frame to hang it on, the targets were just ahead on a separate frame. The metal tubes were rusted bad when I got it and the weight of the belts eventually collapsed the old swing set frame. But it was good while it lasted.

 

[jamesthomas]

I would make a 18 inch square box with the open end toward you, and would use a couple of particle board dividers to keep the mulch from running out. I would use these at 50 to 100 yards and use a 1 foot square box at 25 yards. JMHO.

 

[bpd303]

Here's just one of the threads... http://www.muzzleloadingforum.com/...287751/post/1383115/hl//fromsearch/1/#1383115

 

[BrownBear]

Atsa one I was recalling. Thanks!

 

[ohio ramrod]

Several methods available depending on materials available. 1. Angled steel plates to "catch the balls. 2 wooden crate filled with stacks of newspapers (rain won't hurt and will actually help)3, crates filled with wet sawdust 4. Containers filled with sand 5. large chunks of wood which can be burned to recover the wood.

 

[Auldgoat]

a stacked pile of yellow pine works fer me

 

[Brokennock]

I posted on another similar thread about our use of rubber mulch on a public indoor pistol range and a certain U.S. Service Academy's indoor range where it does a great job of stopping everything from 9mm and .40 cal. pistol rounds to 5.56 NATO and shotgun slugs.

 

[JeffG]

Yes, so did I. I work at an indoor range that uses rubber mulch backstop material. The more it is shot the finer it gets and the more effective it is. :hatsoff:

 

[MSW]

do I assume correctly that the ball can be screened out of the mulch and remelted?

 

[bpd303]

Yep...exactly.

 

[Bear Rider]

a stacked pile of yellow pine works fer me

Firewood?

 

[ohio ramrod]

Due to houses being built around me where there used to be empty fields I use a full woodshed as a "safety backstop" when ever setting sights. You can't always be sure of hitting your "regular backstop" :idunno: :idunno:

 

[kaintuck]

plastic 55gal drums with sand....you can shoot it ALOT before empting it, and replacing. and my 500gr 45-70 was stopped at the 100yd level with these.
and all the lead can be recovered.
marc

 

[Wes/Tex]

We don't go fancy down here in central Texas. Buy a few large, round hay bales, stack then as high as you need and cover them with dirt. Use what you got that's big! :wink: :haha:

 

[Brokennock]

We don't "screen" it as the rubber is too many different sizes, but I suppose you could. We float it in a huge tank. The rubber floats the lead sinks, skim the rubber off the top.

 

[FPDoc]

I hang some AR500 plates (I use for BP and for other non-BP), 12"x12" inside old tires (opened eye bolts through the plate corners and eye bolts through the tire to hang it from old swing set), it catches a large percentage of the lead, fine splatter and remains of the ball (not my idea, saw it somewhere). Otherwise I just intend to mine my berms if it gets that bad. Some good ideas above also.