Trap for reclaiming lead

[smokehouseman]

Does anyone out there have any ideas on making a portable trap to reclaim lead when shooting on the range. I'm trying to figure out a way to make a trap that I can take with me when I leave the range. With the price of lead going up............ well you know the rest.

 

[cheatherly]

I't will be expensive, and heavy, but not to difficult to make. Do a web search for bullet trap. It is basicallly a short box filled with sand, that has a large section of plate steel set at a 45 degree angle on top. Set it behind your target, and it deflects your bullets into the sand. Or you could use a shovel and siv, if your backstop is dirt. I have thought about it myself, but I'm not sure about the contaminents. A solid steel trap could be made(not using sand), but would require a lot of steel plates.

 

[Bubba45]

I have a pistol bullet trap I use at home .It is a four sided funnel shape with an 18" square opening tapering to about 2" at the back with a deflector shute angled back and down at around 45deg.Its made of 1/4" plate steel.

 

[Bountyhunter]

I have one similar to what you describe, other than where the pyramid narrows down to about 3", I welded an ell from a high pressure gas pipe on it, threaded it and put a cap on it. When you are done shooting, you just unscrew the cap and there's your balls.

 

[rebel727]

When you are done shooting, you just unscrew the cap and there's your balls.

Sounds kinda painful. :rotf: :rotf: :rotf:

 

[paulvallandigham]

The amount of steel you will need depends on what caliber round you are firing, and what the balls or conicals weigh. Heavy balls or conicals are going to need a substantial steel deflector plate to send them to a collection point. I don't know how portable most of these heavy gauge plates are going to be. I know it will take 4 men to move it around and put it in place in a frame you have to also build, and transport. If you are going to use sand to catch the bullets, and fragments, that also has to be transported, bagged, and shoveled back into bags for transporting back home for storage. You are probably talking of at least 200 lbs. of sand and a 4 x 8 foot sheet of steel at least 3/8 inch thick, set at a 45-60 degree angle in a frame, made of ?what? iron plumbing pipe, because it also has to be strong enough to take a hit from an errant round, and not collapse or break in half. You could make a tray at the botom with 3/4 plywood, and 2 x 4 sides to put the sand in, which would help in keeping the sand together( use a tarp on top of the wood before pouring the sand down on the tarp inside the " box ".leaving the edges of the tarp outside on the ground ot make it easier to pick the tarp up and force the sand and captured lead to the center, where you and your helps can then pour the cand into containers. Those 5 gal. buckets that everything seems to come in these days would be the ticket, but just don't fill them up more than half way, as the sand will weight too much. If you use iron plumbing pipe for the frame, you can use standard elbow joints, and t-joints to fit all the pipes together, and take them apart by simply unscrewing them. I would recommend just laying the steel plate against the frame and let it bounce to help it absorb the energy of the ball or conical when you shoot. Yes, it will be noisy, but if that bothers you, wrap some rags around the top of the frame to cushion the noise. Or buy some of the insulation that is available for pipes and use that to stop the noise. That material is fairly cheap at home stores, and can last out in the weather for several years.

 

[Bubba45]

The one I have is around 2' front to back.

I wouldnt want to carry it far!

 

[paulvallandigham]

Is that one of the old Detroit Bullet traps? My father had one for catching bullets so he could shoot in his basement. He sold it to someone, but it was very heavy and required two of us to take up and down the stairs.

 

[Bubba45]

It could be ,I havent noticed a name on it though.I've shot muzzleloaders at it and 44 mag with no ill affects :thumbsup:

 

[Don B]

Smokehouseman,

See Topic #204754 for more about ball traps.

Don

 

[paulvallandigham]

If you are going to shoot magnums and rifle bullets, you will need 1/2" armor plate, which is heavy, and expensive. Then use that 60 degree angle from vertical to deflect the bullets into the sand. That steep angle gives added " depth " to the plate, and deflects the bullets quickly, without allowing the bullets to damage the steel plate. This is a major problem, considering the high initial cost of such plates, when they are hit repeatedly with bullets. Even lead bullets can bow these plates, and weaken them over time. Its not uncommone to have to take a sledge hammer to the back side of the plate to flatten the plate at the end of a season of shooting.

I do not recommend shooting jacketed bullets at such plates. Its next to impossible to control the direction in which the pieces of copper jacket fly when they explode on steel plates. Only the expensive " snail " traps, such are available from Caswell can handle copper and steel jacketed bullets safely.

As a cheaper alternative, YOu can build a dirt mound as a back stop, with sides to catch any splatters, and then lay a membrane of porous ground cloth, available from arborists, and tree nursuries, on the mound, and then cover the fabric with a couple of feet of sand. The sand catches and stops the bullets. Once a year, you scoopaway the sand, an filter out any lead bullets( most will be in a cluster) and then simply lift the fabric up to collect the bits of lead and jackets that remain. You can replace the fabric with new fabric, or re-use the existing one, depending on its condition. Just put the sifted sand back on top of the fabric, and you are ready to shoot for another year. Sand stops lead bullets rather quickly. Its a good choice for backstop material.

Also, consider building some kind of shell over the backstop to catch any ricochettes that might want to go up in the air. The shell can keep rain off the mound and sand so the sand is not washed down the slope. This is a common technique used in building backstops for rifles. The other is to use baffles at the firing line to keep people from shooting over the backstop. The baffles are built like the roof of a chinese pagoda, so that plates and wooden backers deflect any ADs down into the ground in front of the firing line, rather than allowing them to go down range and over a backstop.

 

[Bubba45]

For a backstop I used old tires without rims.I placed the first row in an arc ,filled them with dirt ,put up another row on top of the first filled with dirt and continued until I'm now at four feet high and have dirt in front also.I'm going to continue till I have a 6' backstop.My arc is about 12' tip to[url] tip.In[/url] the normal bullet
impact area which is around 14" off the ground the dirt is approximately 3' thick front to back or better.I havent had any go through yet but I dont have a 50 BMG.

 

[paulvallandigham]

What you describe is an adequate permanent backstop, not the portable one he was asking about. He wanted to be able to recover his lead to keep it from Polluting the environment.

Here in the midwest, we have lots of calcium in our water, and in the ground, and where we are low on calcium, we have iron oxides. Lead is very quickly covered with a coat of either calcium carbonate, or iron oxide, both of which isolate the lead so it does not pollute anything. Of course, the EPA would not want the public to know that. They are interested in only controlling US, and our lives, and if they kind find a way to stop us shooting our guns, they are also all for that! The fact that the Military under President Clinton fell for that phony science from the EPA about ground water pollution, and has decided to spend Billions of dollars removing lead from the firing ranges, and replacing the lead cores in small arms ammo with something else( mostly zinc). Its simply outrageous, and once more junk science coming out of either the CDC or the EPA. I truly believe that the National Debt could have been retired long ago if it were not for the scare tactics used by the Liberals in Washington desparately trying to keep controll over us, by spending more and more money to " Help Us "! Phosphate detergents, Lake Erie, Love Canal and, The Ozone Layer and fleurocarbons,Global Warming, poisoning geese and ducks with lead being ingested, these are all some of the famous junk science cases that have come to us from the wonderful folks at the EPA and other federal agencies. All have cost Americans BILLIONS of dollars in additional taxes, and costs for common goods, and inflation that has devalued the dollar. And, NO ONE has to apologize when they discover that their " models" were wrong. No one has to pay for the damage they do.

 

[spud]

AMEN !! WELL SAID :thumbsup:

 

[Bubba45]

I just threw that out there for an alternate temporarily permenant set up :wink:

Right on with the beauraucratic assessment :hatsoff:

 

[Halftail]

My method for recovering lead is fairly simple.Just wait till after a Huge rainstorm and go collect the Balls that wash out of the Berm.Conical Bullets will wash out to.

 

[Slamfire]

Here's a good'un, not to tough to make yore own either.[url] http://www.snailtraps.com/popups/circularDeceleration.htm[/url]