A better rubber mulch pellet trap - pictures inside

[cdegrassi]

So what is the best front end surface?

Is there a true self-healing material available similar to those bouncing targets that are now on the market?
A sheet of that foam would probably be a sweet match for this trap design.

Any other material or experiments you guys can report about?

Cheers
Chris

[DOKF]

Large traffic cones also make useful containers.

I place a sheet of 1" packing foam (polyethylene or foam rubber; not styrofoam) at the front of my targets.  The foam is self healing, and prevents back ricochets.  Cheap, and readily available.  A piece of cardboard in front provides a flat surface for the target paper.

[TDK]

How much rubber mulch comes in a bag?  Do any of the pellets make it to be back of the box??  I'm thinking a Rubbermaid container filled with rubber mulch.  Put the lid on and you good to go.  Duck tape the lid has it gets shot up.

I'll summarize some of the ideas and feedback from this thread:

• A bag of rubber mulch contains enough to fill a 957 cu-in trap with just a little left over. (thats the volume of my trap shown in the first post).  One bag also weighs around 17-20lbs.
• Based on feedback in this thread, it sounds like 5" of mulch will stop up to 60fpe .25  (please verify for yourself, this is just a guideline).  Pellets from my 23fpe .22 Marauder stop within the first inch or two usually.  When I shot a couple CCI velocitor .22lr into my trap, I found the bullets at 5" and 7", but I only tried 3 shots.
• The best self-healing front panel materials discovered so far are vinyl floor runner mat and coroplast (the 'plastic cardboard' used for signs and such).  Basically, you want something that is a softer plastic as that will stretch without breaking as the pellet passes though.  Foam type products, although better than wood, do not perform as well and will start chunking off as the shots rack up.  That was my experience with the foam rubber mat I tried.
• Cheap used night stands make nice stealthy holders for indoor traps. 
• [from another thread] one of the best quick and easy traps if you don't want to construct a fancy one, is a square kitty litter bucket filled with mulch.  A shorter round bucket like 3 or 4 gallon should work as well if that's all you could find.  5 gallon is a little deep.

[Tater]

Coroplast is no longer used by the politico's in this area, they have gone to plastic sleeves over the wire frame.  You can, however' get it at Wally World pretty cheap.

Not sold at Walmart unfortunately. He's a search I ran: http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=coroplast

Anyone have another source for it?

[kaz]

I like the idea, and it is a pretty trap by all means. I currently am still sold on duct seal. It may be a few more $$$, but its lighter over all when you can slap 10lbs of it ina cardboard box that weighs next to nothing if you wanted, or even just on the wall by itself. I personally have put 3-4 inch block up against a wall with no backer and fired a round at point blank range (didnt want to hit the wall lol) just to make sure my gun would still fire after a partial tear down. I do like the self healing, but i also dont mind smoothing over the duct seal once in a while and actually enjoy examining the wound cavity's and seeing how the pellet has deformed and depth of penetration. But as ive stated, you definitely got the job done done (and presented it nicely) at a lower cost out of pocket and covered lots of desirable functions in your design. Very well done and thought out. Thanks for sharing. Its always nice to learn a new method of doing things as im a big dyi guy myself and you work with what you have so the more ways you can say, make fire, the less the odds of you freezing are.

[BigTinBoat]

Coroplast is no longer used by the politico's in this area, they have gone to plastic sleeves over the wire frame.  You can, however' get it at Wally World pretty cheap.

Not sold at Walmart unfortunately. He's a search I ran: http://www.walmart.com/search/search-ng.do?search_query=coroplast

Anyone have another source for it?

Just google it - lots of places sell it, but check your local regulations on signage on public property. Most likely, even though the politicians own the signs, they are illegal to be posted on public property a certain # of days past the election.
I have a neighbor who works for a billboard company and he "removes" illegally placed signs all the time, I asked him to drop off a few every now and then and I have what I need now

[countrydoc]

This does put my cardboard box rubber mulch trap to shame, but I'm lazy and it took me 5 minutes to make it. Still don't need to duct tape repair yet.
If I get the time I'd love to do it. It does make me think I could make a duct tape handle. You can make anything out of duct tape.

[Cgchad]

This does put my cardboard box rubber mulch trap to shame, but I'm lazy and it took me 5 minutes to make it. Still don't need to duct tape repair yet.
If I get the time I'd love to do it. It does make me think I could make a duct tape handle. You can make anything out of duct tape.

The cardboard box full of rubber mulch works fine, and that's what really matters.
In my case I just filled an empty 5 pound milk bone box with rubber mulch.
If the box wears out, well we've got 3 dogs ail over 100 pounds, so a new box is always available.

[William]

This does put my cardboard box rubber mulch trap to shame, but I'm lazy and it took me 5 minutes to make it. Still don't need to duct tape repair yet.
If I get the time I'd love to do it. It does make me think I could make a duct tape handle. You can make anything out of duct tape.

The cardboard box full of rubber mulch works fine, and that's what really matters.
In my case I just filled an empty 5 pound milk bone box with rubber mulch.
If the box wears out, well we've got 3 dogs ail over 100 pounds, so a new box is always available.

3 dogs over a 100 pounds....
LOL 5 pound wouldn't even be a snack...you should be able to build a rubber bunker fort in a week.... Sorry, laughing so hard I can't stand it, my one dog is around 70 pounds so I can just imagine how many boxes of milk bone treats you go through 

William

[Sfttailrdr46]

This does put my cardboard box rubber mulch trap to shame, but I'm lazy and it took me 5 minutes to make it. Still don't need to duct tape repair yet.
If I get the time I'd love to do it. It does make me think I could make a duct tape handle. You can make anything out of duct tape.

The cardboard box full of rubber mulch works fine, and that's what really matters.
In my case I just filled an empty 5 pound milk bone box with rubber mulch.
If the box wears out, well we've got 3 dogs ail over 100 pounds, so a new box is always available.

3 dogs over a 100 pounds....
LOL 5 pound wouldn't even be a snack...you should be able to build a rubber bunker fort in a week.... Sorry, laughing so hard I can't stand it, my one dog is around 70 pounds so I can just imagine how many boxes of milk bone treats you go through 

William

ROFL if I went that way me and my pup would both die of old age before the first box was empty a 15 lb bag of dog food lasts 3 to 4 months 

[k2man]

Great ideas, thanks for sharing.  I'll have to get some rubber mulch and the vinyl runner.  That sounds so much better than my splintered up plywood.  I've got plenty of .070" steel sheet metal - I'll make a back of that. 

[Cgchad]

We've cut down on the food bill.
Now it's about 135 pounds a month,  and 1 neighbor kid a week.

[Funhouse42]

Wonderful ideas. I have been looking for a cheap, easily portable, silent pellet trap for shooting around the house. And I think this is a great idea.

[TDK]

UPDATE:  I've switched over to coroplast.  Vinyl floor runner didn't stand up to the test of time.  All was well, then somewhere around 6 months of age the vinyl lost its resiliency and started cracking like crazy.  Even new sheets that I had stored out of sunlight inside would only be good for a few shots until it was all cracked and falling apart.  You would never know by handling them that anything had changed.

I found a stack of coroplast signs that were stored in a shed for about 7 years.  These have been holding up well and have strength even after being filled with holes.  The coroplast is also rigid and holds tightly packed rubber mulch in place much better.  Almost no gap at the top now when you stand it up.

Everything else about the trap design has been working great, I just remounted the front frame to accommodate coroplast instead of vinyl.  I also made a smaller trap out of 1x6 (5.5" deep).  That one is really light and nice.  I don't think you'd need anything thicker unless you are going bigger than .25 cal.  It may sound weird, but it's such a clean and convenient solution, I enjoy swapping targets and changing the front panel almost as much as cocking the HW30.

Interesting related observation:  Paper plates make the best windy day targets.  They don't move, even with just the one clip at top.

[Nick horse]

I've got a six pack cooler filled with rubber mulch and patch packing tape as necessary.  Might try a piece of the vinyl on the inside. I have to use cardboard box with mulch for lower power guns.

[Pellgunfun]

We've cut down on the food bill.
Now it's about 135 pounds a month,  and 1 neighbor kid a week.

Actually if you tie this in with the "idiot neighbor" thread, and just use those instead of the kids.  It's like "two birds, with one stone".  Hehehe

[jp_over]

UPDATE:  I've switched over to coroplast.  Vinyl floor runner didn't stand up to the test of time.  All was well, then somewhere around 6 months of age the vinyl lost its resiliency and started cracking like crazy.  Even new sheets that I had stored out of sunlight inside would only be good for a few shots until it was all cracked and falling apart.  You would never know by handling them that anything had changed.

I found a stack of coroplast signs that were stored in a shed for about 7 years.  These have been holding up well and have strength even after being filled with holes.  The coroplast is also rigid and holds tightly packed rubber mulch in place much better.  Almost no gap at the top now when you stand it up.

Everything else about the trap design has been working great, I just remounted the front frame to accommodate coroplast instead of vinyl.  I also made a smaller trap out of 1x6 (5.5" deep).  That one is really light and nice.  I don't think you'd need anything thicker unless you are going bigger than .25 cal.  It may sound weird, but it's such a clean and convenient solution, I enjoy swapping targets and changing the front panel almost as much as cocking the HW30.

Interesting related observation:  Paper plates make the best windy day targets.  They don't move, even with just the one clip at top.

Thanks for the update - I was looking for a good material to keep the media (rubber mulch) in place.

[tennx]

For me its Champion Trap, rubber mulch and all the yard signs I can gather...good luck

[jp_over]

For me its Champion Trap, rubber mulch and all the yard signs I can gather...good luck

TennX - I like that trap but am trying to figure out how to keep it quiet.  I saw this video but don't know how well the duct seal will hold up at that angle after being shot for a while (video is longer than necessary, but you can see how he applies the duct seal): 

For the Champion trap, I'm guessing you place rubber mulch in the bottom of the trap and then use coroplast, yard signs or similar to keep the media / rubber mulch in place?

I'm just getting back into airgunning and for the next few years until retirement, I'll need a quiet trap for basement and indoor range use.

Thanks!

[tennx]

I laid the champion on its back and stuffed it with mulch, top to bottom..then duct taped a piece of corrugated plastic sign  across the front...all u can hear is the pellet hitting....when its perforated enough I patch the front with duct tape or new piece of plastic....I had a stainless steel baking pan full of duct seal for over a year, but for me it was a Pita....good luck