Bullet trap/backstop

[user 30283]

I'm shooting .54 round balls and I'd like to build a trap so I can recover my lead. I'm thinking sand. Have any of you ever built a "lead recoverable" backstop and would you be willing to share your ideas or plans ? I have 10 acres here, so I have room for about any size. Thanks for any ideas you can share.

 

[fourbore]

How safety minded and fool proof may determine your options. 10 acres is nothing if you got houses all around. Under my conditions I believe a R500 steel swing torse size plate would be able to direct most bullets into a sand box below. But what if I miss or a bullet skims the top of the frame?

 

[eggwelder]

2 x6 lumber- faced with 1/2 inch to 3/4 ply, OSB, whatever. I line the target side with a couple players of cardboard. My theory is that it helps keep the sand from running out the bullet holes.
make a box with the 2 x 6, use screws. ( mine is 2 foot x 2 foot) leave the top 2x6 unscrewed. Place target box where you want it. Fill with dry sand and put the lid on. Leave a small gap so the sand has somewhere to go when a bullet hits. If it does not have a tiny bit of room to move, it could blow out a side or the top. Fasten target and shoot away. When you need to make more projectiles, sift the sand outside and remelt the lead.
I have shot the same couple of pounds of lead for about 4 years, maybe more. The only projectile to go thru and thru was an 7.62 FMJ from an unmentionable, but it did stop 4 of the 5.
Replace the target sides before they lose structural integrity

use with a proper backstop- banked rock free sand, earth what have you

 

[fourbore]

egg, I like that. The net result is easy on the wallet and the environment. Not that I am "one of those", but; it is a win-win if ever there was.

 

[user 30283]

How safety minded and fool proof may determine your options. 10 acres is nothing if you got houses all around. Under my conditions I believe a R500 steel swing torse size plate would be able to direct most bullets into a sand box below. But what if I miss or a bullet skims the top of the frame?

 

[user 30283]

Nearest house= 1/2 mile

 

[smo]

I’ve got a couple old tractor tires stacked on top of each other that I plan to fill with sand ASAP.

Car tires would be easier to handle, but with kids shooting too... I chose to go with the tractor tires.

I inherited them when I bought my homestead anyway..

Right now I’m just shooting into a hill behind my shop.

 

[dave951]

Just make a backstop from sand.

We made a portable one that was filled with sand and could be moved on a hand truck. It would stop a 45/70 hot loaded. The problem we ran into was a medium of some type that would self heal enough to make using it often practical.

 

[Alby]

4or 5 plastic empty water softener bags stacked between the target face and the sand or other filler in a 2x2 ft. Box makes a good self healing barrier and prevents leaking for me for a year or more of weekly shooting in my experience.

 

[hawkeye2]

I’ve got a couple old tractor tires stacked on top of each other that I plan to fill with sand ASAP.

Car tires would be easier to handle, but with kids shooting too... I chose to go with the tractor tires.

I inherited them when I bought my homestead anyway..

Right now I’m just shooting into a hill behind my shop.

You might want to rethink shooting at tires. A round ball won't penetrate a tire but will bounce off. Round nose bullets with mild to weak loads are dangerous even with car tires. If the projectile won't penetrate the tire you could be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

I'm thinking sand. Have any of you ever built a "lead recoverable" backstop and would you be willing to share your ideas or plans

Yeah the problem with the sand is that it gets embedded in the soft lead at impact. You might as well just lay out some tires and cover them with dirt. Then mine the lead.

For a little more elaborate, and a lot easier to recover the lead, You dig a small, square trough about 6" deep, and fill it with hardwood mulch. You then suspend using chains, a square of AR-500 target steel with the bottom edge at the back end of the mulch-trough, and the upper edge suspended by two posts, so that the AR-500 steel angles backwards at the bottom, away from you the shooter. Suspend targets between the posts, or put target holders in front of this. After going through the target, the ball kits the steel, and deflects downwards at a much reduced speed, stopping in the mulch. When ready, you remove the spent ball pieces from the mulch (or sawdust), and recast them.



LD

 

[hawkeye2]

A neat and simple solution. Recycled rubber mulch works too but if needed you can always burn the wood mulch to recover the lead.

The only issue with any backstop is that you must be capable of shooting a group smaller than the backstop at the distance you place it.

As for dirt embedded in the lead I mine from backstops, I always melt the lead, flux and clean then cast ingots for use later. No reclaimed lead goes into the pot without having first been cleaned.

 

[eggwelder]

A 2 foot by 2 foot by six inch box holds just under 2 x 5 gal buckets of sand. A 100 oz can fits in the box to scoop it out for sifting or moving it. I keep the sand in 2 pickle buckets, the locking lids keep the sand under control when they roll around in the back of the truck.
in the winter i set up the box on a cheap kids snowboard, especially if i can`t drive to the backstop because of snow.

 

[Frontier's]

I use a double layer of stacked tires. I use both 4ply and 10 ply. No they don't bounce back The second layer of tires usually catches the round balls and conicals. They either sit inside the tires or drop down in the middle, in the dirt where i can easily pick them up.

And while you are at it, make a nice shooting bench.




Not pictured, but we later added a roof and the right hand side was enclosed to keep the side breeze out.

 

[longcruise]

I was told that shooting into the ends of lengths of large diameter logs works and burning the logs is supposed to allow the melted lead to puddle in the bottom of the fire pit.

 

[AJFedak]

I made a rectangular wooden box with the short side big enough for securing a semi-truck mud flap over the opening. The inside of the box is filled with shredded rubber mulch.

 

[Pmac]

Pieces of a rough wood log cut into lengths you can handle stacked upon each other but to but as the backstop, with a light frame of 1X2's in front of them to hold your target the bullets will pocket out (crater) the log and soon be tumbling out of this pocket in front of the log onto the ground, bruised but clean (no dirt or sand). I've used this method for years. Use tough hardwood with gnarly knots, which lasts longer, regardless they last surprisingly long for me and when the bullets are near penetrating I turn the log a quarter turn and get a lot more use from the stopper log. Then finally heave up another cut log and start over. Bullets stuck in the remaining log are usually not hard to split out or you can burn the leftovers and collect the lead puddles. This log system does well for pistol/handgun loads and target rifle BP loads but jacketed rifle loads will eat through quickly so I have a separate set of log pieces in two stacks one in front of the other for them. ALSO I have a pile of dirt behind these bullet stops just in case. I don't let those that are inexperienced or poor shooters use my backyard range even though I don't have anyone close behind the range. Behind my backstop is farm ground and I make certain there is no one in that area before I use my range and no one uses the range when I'm not present. Be safe!

 

[user 43911]

I'm shooting .54 round balls and I'd like to build a trap so I can recover my lead. I'm thinking sand. Have any of you ever built a "lead recoverable" backstop and would you be willing to share your ideas or plans ? I have 10 acres here, so I have room for about any size. Thanks for any ideas you can share.

Push up a berm in a safe spot, if you are the only one shooting the size can be what you are comfortable with, have a load (dump truck) of sand delivered and face the berm with it (dump it in front of berm), done.

I don't have this problem lucky for me, to recover lead I use an old bullet proof vest on the berm behind the target.

 

[john_lukach]

I'm shooting .54 round balls and I'd like to build a trap so I can recover my lead. I'm thinking sand. Have any of you ever built a "lead recoverable" backstop and would you be willing to share your ideas or plans ? I have 10 acres here, so I have room for about any size. Thanks for any ideas you can share.

 

[john_lukach]

Found this on utube yrs. ago. Stand a truck or tractor tire on end, wrap two chains around top to hold your steel target inside of tire (would be great if you could drill holes to hang chain through). When lead hits target it will collect inside the tire. Works pretty good.