GTA
All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => Air Gun Gate => Topic started by: NewShooter on May 11, 2011, 10:44:16 AM
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So I have seen lots of posts on quiet guns, but what about quiet backstops? If you have a quiet gun for example the fx independance, what would you make as the perfect quiet backstop? I recently got new neighbors, they don't mind the shooting at all but their dog does seem to have an issue with my jsb 18.1's hitting my cinderblock backstop lol. Dog goes nuts everytime something hits it. So I need some new ideas :)
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Duct seal from the electrical/wiring dept of your local hardware store, Lowes, Home Depot, etc.
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A couple layers of carpet, needs to be changed out periodically, but is cheap and easy. If you have a flooring place nearby, their scraps are usually free.
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Probably the number one recommendation will be the duct seal, as Wampus said. It's quiet and reusable but has an initial cost.
Other possibilities are carpet remnants, plastic shopping bags and even shipping peanuts as packing inside some kind of container. I'm sure there will be lots of different thoughts on the subject. Fortunately, all of my neighbors have been supportive so far. I use a triple backstop of plywood and chipboard. Usually lasts a couple of years, maybe less depending on how much shooting I am able to get in. I do have to move my targets around some!! hahaha
joe
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A quick search here for "silent pellet trap" will yield a lot of good info. Duct seal is the way to go, IMHO.
JMJ
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I haven,t try it yet but think it will work great. It,s rubber paving bricks 12x12 inchs about 3/4 thick cost on sale 99 cent reg price 1.89. build a box the size you want glue the paver to some plywood an hang a few old tee shirts or towel to stop bounce back. It will stop arrows with over 30# of energy. should work for pellets. And would be very quiet. lot cheaper then duct seal.
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easy. get electrical panel to the size you like and "duct seal" $1.95 per each per pound from the electrical department at Home Depot. get about 2" thickness for safety, then you'll have a very silent trap. depending on what size (mine is 14"x14" which requires about 28 duct seal). duct seal( won't dry out, very reusuable) is very sticky, so they will stick to panel and itself. remember everything is in the electrical department. some dumby will send you to other water, wood, furance, and ductworks department, but everything you need in those two isles of electrical department.
Edited for language.
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I use hay bails wrapped in burlap.I have 4 bails at 5 bucks a piece and 4 big burlap sacks at 2 bucks each.The burlap slows the pellets down enough so the pellets hardly ever even get to the second bail,even my marauder shooting baracuda's do not get through.I went this route so I could hang a lot of targets at one time.Th e only thing you hear is is the pellet hit the paper.
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I just put 3 lbs duct seal onto a crosman $20 pellet trap from walmart. Works great.
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Sounds like the neighbor's dog would make an excellent backstop! ;-]
Bobster, is that the trap that is slanted inside?
Charles
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Bobster, is that the trap that is slanted inside?
Yes it has 4 hanging sheets of nylon and the back is a slide out piece of galvanized metal. It will stop any pellet if one should somehow get through or around the duct seal. I've tested the metal backplate and it does stop .22 Beeman FTS (copper coated domed) pellets at around 750? fps with the 4 sheets and duct seal removed at 15 yards.
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I have been pondering the same thing.... but i need a large, 6' high by 10' wide back stop. I planned on using 2x8 board with a plywood sheet, with a second compressed wood sheet on top of that, then a layer of drywall, covered by a sheet of cheap insulation. I will then paint it to protect it overall, and change out the later of drywall and cheap insulation as needed. I plan on slanting the backstop at a less than a 45* angle, so that any ricocheting rounds will go down into a pad of sand I will put down. I will frame the very back with 2x4's and have a two 2x4's going straight downt o hold the angle, and a 2x4 going between those two at ground level for additional rigidity. I will paint the whole thing to protect is a bit, and should weigh in at around 80 lbs, light enough for two people to carry it in and out of the garage.
Behind my impromptu shooting range is a school, and I will be putting a 8' stockade fence for prying eyes.
In front, I will have some spinning targets, and a double T target hanger I hook Snapple caps + tin cans onto. Should be very quiet, last for years and be fairly cheap to maintain.
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Candle wax works pretty well for "quiet" from what I've seen, but I have not used it for that purpose. I would guess that getting a lot of cheap candles and melting them down would give you some wax to pour into a box or something of that nature.
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Quiet targets, too.
Paper towels and magic marker are a lot quieter than printer paper.
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I use phone books and catalogs. pretty quiet.
A friend of mine fills his steel 22 trap with old t-shirts.
Rick
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I have an ommo can with flak jacket inserts in it. All available at a surplus store or cheaper than dirt. I found some heavy foam fubber thats about 6 in thick and its very quiet. I have also hung one of the inserts on a heavy wire hanger. the pellets hit it and fall to the ground pretty quietly. The ammo can is easier to transport and you can stick all your target and ammo in it. I also drilled holes in it to set up golf tees for paint balls or other targets.
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Ok think I may have found my solution. Rubber stepping stones sold at local walmart for $5 for a 1' x 1' piece. They of course don't stop the pellets but it does dull the impact noise tremendously. So just picked up a few of those and set them in front of the cinder blocks!
On a side note... has anyone ever played around with Lexan. The clear hard plastic stuff that is "bullet proof" if you have enough layers? Seen a few you tube videos of people shooting the stuff with various fire arms, was wondering what a pellet would do. Stuff is sold at home depot and Lowe's in various sizes and thickness. My next test is to see if that holds up better than cinder blocks, yeah have been taking noticeable chunks out of the cinder blocks from hitting same spots repeatedly.
Thanks for all the suggestions you guys posted. Yes duct seal has worked the best. I do have an indoor trap filled with duct seal. Problem is in the Florida heat the stuff doesn't seem to hold up that well for more than a few hours. I have the crossman pellet trap filled with duct seal for inside. Was really looking for something permanent and larger to use outside.
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Hey Newshooter.
There are some guys on one of the other gates using Lexan to protect the faces of their chronographs, and it is working. Lexan is polycarbonate, same stuff as soda bottles. Be careful not to get acrylic (Plexiglass), which will break on the first hit.
I am a little concerned about ricochet's from the rubber stepping stones and bounces from the Lexan. I've experienced them from both of those materials and taught me a lesson. You want your backstop to absorb all of the energy from the pellet, and for the pellet to just fall harmlessly to the bottom of the trap. No bounce-back.
Some sort of eye protection, too.
Thanks,
Lloyd
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Hey Newshooter.
There are some guys on one of the other gates using Lexan to protect the faces of their chronographs, and it is working. Lexan is polycarbonate, same stuff as soda bottles. Be careful not to get acrylic (Plexiglass), which will break on the first hit.
FWIW - Soda bottles are PET/PETE, (Polyethylene terephthalate), recycling code 1. Plastic baby bottles are PC, recycling code 7 for "other".
Agree - stay away from Acrylic (or PMMA, polymethyl methacrylate) as it is more brittle than PC.
A polycarbonate shield for a chrony is a great idea - just angle it down 45° to handle ricochets.
JMJ
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For those of you that need a large back stop a rubber horse mat from the farm supply would work great. The mat is 4x6 feet a inch thick an very heavy cost is 35.00 on sale or 42.00 reg. would last a lifetime. I use them as archery back stops with hay bales in front. You can pin target to the hay bales with archery target pins would be very quiet.
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Hey Newshooter.
There are some guys on one of the other gates using Lexan to protect the faces of their chronographs, and it is working. Lexan is polycarbonate, same stuff as soda bottles. Be careful not to get acrylic (Plexiglass), which will break on the first hit.
FWIW - Soda bottles are PET/PETE, (Polyethylene terephthalate), recycling code 1. Plastic baby bottles are PC, recycling code 7 for "other".
Agree - stay away from Acrylic (or PMMA, polymethyl methacrylate) as it is more brittle than PC.
A polycarbonate shield for a chrony is a great idea - just angle it down 45° to handle ricochets.
JMJ
JMJ,
Thanks for correcting that information. You forced me to do some more research myself and the PET does have some characteristics different/inferior from Polycarbonate. In fact, the PET soda bottle material is listed some places with LOW impact strength (exactly the opposite of what we need here), whereas the Polycarbonate is always listed as High impact strength. McMaster even sells bullet "resistant" pieces [for lots of money].
Lloyd
PS- When I had to use Shooting Chrony's trade-in program for shot-up chronies, I ordered the one with the remote display. I put my new one in a little protective 2x4 box, which still doesn't have a mark on it. Because I do all my testing indoors, the remote display is very handy.
Lloyd
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hi,
i filled up an old PC with clothes, jeans, coats....
Every time the have some old; they ask me if i need some for the mechanical work (dirty hands) or for my backstop before thinking of throwing it away.
is that discipline....
When it gets ragged, i take the metal out and change the clothes....
regards
Woodland
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I went to one of my local carpet shops and ask if it would be ok to get some scraps out of their dumpester in back of the store which was fine with them, I got some with rubber backing and found a consistent size I could cut peices and built a wooden box and put about a dozen layers of carpet in the box and used long drywall screws to fasten the carpet inside the box and you can use push pins to attach targets to the carpet. I have shot thousands of rounds and have not yet shot thru one time. works great for me and its very cheap target backing.
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A box of kitty litter, then duct tape a few layers of cardboard( to keep litter in box ) in front and back. A liquor store are a great place to pick up perfect sized cardboard as well, many times they will have one box stuffed with other "broke down" boxes
I did this when I had a 1 bedroom apt. with 15 feet to shoot, it really did the trick
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Something I have been using for a few years now: balsa wood blocks. If you get one piece if 3x3x36 balsa, and cut it into 6 inch lengths, then make a 6x6x6 square from 4 of those pieces, glue with wood glue and wrap in duct tape, you get a pretty quiet 6 sided block. My 34 foot pound TF Jet didn't shoot through it, but it was the gun that cracked it in half.
If you tape it every few sessions, you'll keep all the balsa fragments in, and it'll last a good long time. Nothing will shoot through it, it'll absorb everything quietly, and if you keep putting sticky targets on the center of the sides, it'll hold shape pretty well, and it will hold and let you neatly dispose of your target lead. I used one screwed together for 2 years before if just fell apart and I realized duct tape was a better solution -- easier, quicker, and cheaper.
A 3x3x36 balsa block is about $15. Makes 1.5 6x6 blocks. Tape... get it from the dollar store.
Richard
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Lots of good ideas. I have a trap built from leftover 3/4" plywood for the sides and top. They are angled so that they get smaller towards the back of the trap. I use two sheets of this plywood at the back for a safe stop. I catch the pellets in a couple of boxes filled with junk mail! Best use I've ever found for that stuff. My trap has an opening that is about 3' x 3' so that I can shoot at spinners, paintballs, soda cans, etc...placed just inside the opening.
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This is what I use in the basement. It's fairly quiet. Box is lined with sheets of lead. 80% of the pellets just keep sticking to the lead, and keep building up. After about 7 to 10k shots I just melt the sheets down pellets and all. I use a large cookie sheet to pour some more. The excess lead from the pellets are made into sinkers.
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i like carpet. i use a cardboard box and cut pieces of carpet to fit in the bottom of the box. maby 6-8 layers. then i lay the box on its side and hang the target on the front and shoot away. works like a champ.
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easy. get electrical panel to the size you like and "duct seal" $1.95 per each per pound from the electrical department at Home Depot. get about 2" thickness for safety, then you'll have a very silent trap. depending on what size (mine is 14"x14" which requires about 28 duct seal). duct seal( won't dry out, very reusuable) is very sticky, so they will stick to panel and itself. remember everything is in the electrical department. some dumbass will send you to other water, wood, furance, and ductworks department, but everything you need in those two isles of electrical department.
I've done the electrical box traps with two layers (2 inch thickness) of duct seal and nothing's more quiet. I have two traps made like that and a third I made using a wooden box. No pellet I've fired has penetrated two layers of seal. I just completed my third trap a couple of weeks ago and I had to make several trips to Home Depot in order to get enough seal. They don't keep a lot on hand here 'cause there's not a huge demand for it. I bought their entire inventory each time. They've raised the price at my Home Depot store..it's $2.49 per brick, now.
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This is what I use in the basement. It's fairly quiet. Box is lined with sheets of lead. 80% of the pellets just keep sticking to the lead, and keep building up. After about 7 to 10k shots I just melt the sheets down pellets and all. I use a large cookie sheet to pour some more. The excess lead from the pellets are made into sinkers.
I like this idea for a pellet trap as well as the hay and horse mat.bales
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I should have spent some time researching traps! Along with rifles, scopes, and chronographs.
I took a old hot water tank I had replaced of my sisters and never took to the recycler. Left the top and bottom, cut out the side, in parallel with the water inlet and outlet pipes. Made a frame of 2x4's with a 10" sq. inside, put a 10" piece of 2x10 inside the frame. Then screwed a 10"x10" 1/4" steel plate over the 2x10. Covered it with duct seal. Dropped 2 lengths of light fixture chain down through the pipes and hung the trap on the chain inside the tank. Oh well at least it is rain tight. ;)
But, I did have one of those horse mats laying right next to bench where I did all this work. I had been using it in the back bed of a pick-up for an anti-skid. :-[.
Greg
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Nothing beats the cost, quietness and availability of a bag of dirt. Slip a couple pieces of card board in the target area before you fill it to keep the dirt from pouring out the holes.
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See this post for link to plans for a 3/4" plywood silent trap:
http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,27488.msg252111.html#msg252111 (http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,27488.msg252111.html#msg252111)
It takes some careful assembly to hold the dimensions tight, but it doesn't get much easier than being able to just drop an 8.5x11 printed target sheet into your trap and shoot. The larger trap will need about 12 one pound blocks of duct seal.