Bullet Trap for Muzzleloaders

[Critter Getter]

Have any of you use or have ever built a bullet trap to use for your muzzleloaders as a way to capture the lead to reuse? If so, what size,style, and steel thickness does it take to be effective? Greg

 

[BrownBear]

Five gallon bucket of sand for me. Stick a hunk of innertube on the inside where bullets will impact, just to keep the sand from leaking. Tape your target to the same side. Nothing fancy, but it sure works. Tried firing a 30-06 ball round into it from 25 yards, and it didn't penetrate. Since we live on the ocean, sand is easy to get. Guys away from the beach report equal happiness filling a box with the gardener's mulch made from shredded tires. Here are some pics of my redneck setup. No reason to change a thing in the "design," and I've been doing it for close to 20 years.

 

[Melnic]

I'm curious, where does the sand go when you melt the lead? Does it rise to the top pretty easy?

 

[Carbon 6]

Yes!, I do all my target work into a trap. 3/8 mild plate steel will work fine for traditional muzzleloader projectiles of pure lead. Steel traps have a draw back, in that lead spatters when it hits it making lots of tiny pieces. At high velocity, some of those pieces don't stay in the trap.
I think my next trap build will be a rubber mulch trap.

 

[BrownBear]

I'm curious, where does the sand go when you melt the lead? Does it rise to the top pretty easy?

I screen the sand using 1/4" hardware cloth to get the lead. Miss a few small chunks by going so big, but not enough to sweat. Any remaining bits of sand embedded in the lead floats to the top of the pot and is easily skimmed. Not a whole lot of it.

 

[Le Loup]

Have any of you use or have ever built a bullet trap to use for your muzzleloaders as a way to capture the lead to reuse? If so, what size,style, and steel thickness does it take to be effective? Greg

The only bullet trap I have ever used is meat for the table.
Keith.

 

[Critter Getter]

Thanks for the pics B.B. That looks like a great inexpensive way of saving lead! Greg

 

[Oregononeshot]

Five gallon bucket of sand for me. Stick a hunk of innertube on the inside where bullets will impact, just to keep the sand from leaking. Tape your target to the same side. Nothing fancy, but it sure works. Tried firing a 30-06 ball round into it from 25 yards, and it didn't penetrate. Since we live on the ocean, sand is easy to get. Guys away from the beach report equal happiness filling a box with the gardener's mulch made from shredded tires. Here are some pics of my redneck setup. No reason to change a thing in the "design," and I've been doing it for close to 20 years.

That's a great idea Brownbear! So the piece of rubber goes on the inside of the bucket on the side where your target is taped on to? Do you think just plain dirt would work in place of sand or the shredded tires? I have a unlimited supply of round 5 gallon buckets, I need to figure out a way to use them for this method!

 

[BrownBear]

So the piece of rubber goes on the inside of the bucket on the side where your target is taped on to?

That's it. The holes in the tube mostly "self-heal" and limit the amount of sand dribbling out.

Dunno about dirt- Never tried it because we have miles of sand on the beach where we shoot. I haven't tried the shredded tires myself, rather I'm repeating the reports of others. As I recall they're all using cardboard boxes, so I don't even know if a 5 gallon bucket would be enough from front to back. I will say that they're recovering more lead than I do, just because the sand is always smearing or breaking off small chunks that fall through the screen.

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Get a large AR500 target plate. https://www.palletforks.com/ar500-silhouette-steel-plate-shooting-target-20-x12-3-8-thick.html Rig it so it sits on the ground, leaning forward at a 45 degree angle. Put a box under it made from 2"x 6" boards, that has sawdust inside it. Hang your target in front of this set-up using used wire supports from old political candidate signs, so that when you shoot at the target the bullet passes through the target, hits the armor, and deflects down into the sawdust (shred mulch works pretty well too).

In addition to being a bullet stop the AR500 target gives you a nice long range target for a woods walk or a match or plinking....and if you don't want it no more, well somebody will buy it offin' ya!

LD

 

[Carbon 6]

A trap needs steel sides to catch the splatter. Pure lead splatters unlike FMJs , ball ammo, pistol rounds etc.

 

[longcruise]

I've hear of people using large rings cut from large logs. Apparently it's easy to split them out when they are worn through. Kinda hard to throw in the car though.

geez Brown Bear, are you now so decrepit that you can't lean over and tape a target on straight?

 

[smo]

Ive got a couple old tractor rear tires that I plan
to stack on top of each other and fill with sand.

Right now I’m just shooting into a chert / dirt bank.

 

[45man]

Have any of you use or have ever built a bullet trap to use for your muzzleloaders as a way to capture the lead to reuse? If so, what size,style, and steel thickness does it take to be effective? Greg

I tried everything from angled steel on up and finally found the best to catch about anything. Get a 55 gal plastic drum and fill it with rubber mulch from Wall Mart. Lay on the side and shoot into the end.
If the end gets shot up too bad I screw a piece of rubber belting on the end. I dump the barrel on a big tarp, pick out all the lead and pour the mulch in a new barrel.
If you take a barrel and cut a hole through and fasten a screen in so you can fill around the screen with the mulch, it is a perfect sound reducer. Make a wood stand to hold it level with your bench. If I go down range behind a big tree off to the side when someone shoots, I do not hear the muzzle blast, just the bullet crack.
Someone here nicked the screen on the side so mice got in. Touch off a shot and deaf mice come out. Once a mama was carrying a baby out but another was there. I picked it up to put where mamma went.
Lead comes out clean so the barrel really works best. It will be heavy so you can't take it to the range.

 

[Critter Getter]

That sounds like a good trap as I have a couple extra barrels that I have left over from a boat dock build that I am finishing this Spring. Brown Bears use of a rubber inner tube inside the lid ought to help as well! Greg

 

[mlshooter]

I built a wood box from old plywood and stuffed it with newspapers so that the edges faced forward and then stapled targets to the open side. Bullets hitting the edges of the paper are stopped because the edges crumple and build up a paper 'shield' in front of the ball. I shot everything from .22s to .62 fowlers into it, and everything was caught for remelting.