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All Springer/NP/PCP Air Gun Discussion General => PCP/CO2/HPA Air Gun Gates "The Darkside" => Big Bore AirGun Gate => Topic started by: tworr on February 23, 2011, 05:24:52 PM
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This has been talked about before, but here is what I am doing to recollect .458 caliber bullets.
I was using a cardboard box with the rubber landscape mulch until I had to replace the box one too many times from it being left outside and getting wet. This weekend I decided to make it out of a 18 gallon plastic storage container that I had on hand.
The first thing I do is to make sure that the bottom(this will be the back of the target) is covered by two pieces of tire treads I picked up off the side of the road. I also have the inside top and bottom of the target covered with a tread as well.
For the sides I put enough rubber mulch in to hold two tire treads in a "V" and fill the area between them with rubber mulch.
This forces the bullet into the center.
I do not fill the container but just covering the tire treads which is about 5" from the top on my box. I then cut two pieces of cardboard and placed it over the mulch and taped in the box and place a target in the center. I can replace the center target as needed to keep the mulch from falling out.
I like that the box has built in handles and it makes it easier to carry.
The mulch itself is more than enough to stop and .458 bullet at 30 yards, but I like the added security of the tire treads.
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Hey thats a good simple way to have a mobile backstop, and with these guns using up so much lead with each shot it only makes sense to try to reclaim it. Thanks for the tip, J
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yeah how well does that catch lead? or does it more "bounce" off?
maybe slapping in a brick or two of duct puddy can help catching the lead so you can fish it out and melt it down
just a thought, great idea though
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Heheh ;) I'll bet that whatever Todd's gun is throwing doesn't bounce off ;D
He would have to answer this but i'm going to guess his .458 bullets are generating 400-500 ft lbs of energy, what i was surprised to hear is that he wasn't knocing them over. I don't know how many layers they would punch through but at least through the 1st or 2nd with no trouble. J
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yeah thats true. if he shoots close enough he could possibly be covered with the remains of a brick of duct puddy heh
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lol ;D
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I should take a picture of my setup, but there is no bouncing of bullets. The rubber mulch does an effective job at containing and slowing down the bullet. The treads are just extra protection to slow down any stray bullet that might wonder to the sides. I'm using the side treads to force the bullets to the center and contain the bullet.
Even when I was using a cardboard box with no treads inside, it would catch 500 foot pounds from 10 yards as well as everything I have in .22 caliber. I shoot it from 6 feet in the house with my .22caliber QB that is making 60 foot pounds.
All .22 calibers pellets are within the first few inches and the .458 are in the middle to bottom. I decided to try the treads on one cardboard box because when I was shooting the .458 from 10 yards away, the rubber mulch was moving as a whole as it absorbed the energy from the bullet. It knocked it off the stand it was sitting on and the tape was stretched on the back seam of the box. No pass through bullets.
The reason I ended up with this design and taping two layers cardboard directly on top of the mulch was to both contain the mulch and to prevent any air space inside the box. I was thinking that if there was any space that allowed the mulch to move and create an angle(ramp) inside, the bullet could ride the mulch up and be redirected upwards out of the box top or side of the box.
Keep in mind also that this is packed tight with rubber mulch and there are no open air pockets behind the cardboard.
In the house I use a plywood backstop. When shooting outside I have a hill behind that target that would catch the bullet. I also live outside of city limits in the country.
18 gal plastic storage box. 24 L x 18.38 W x 15.75 H"
(Side, long side up)
. = plastic storage box
T = tire treads
c = layer of cardboard
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.T T T T T T T T T T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T cc
.T T T T T T T T T T cc
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(Top, looking down)
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.T T cc
.T T cc
.T T cc
.T T cc
.T T cc
.T T cc
.T T cc
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Sweet post Todd, j
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Thank you! I keep having to correct mistakes that I find. I'm a little under the weather this morning as well as being distracted by my four year old. I brought her to work with me today since she wasn't feeling well either.
I try to be as safe as possible with the target. Obviously if your gun is off and not sighted in you could miss the target or hit the edge where there is less protection.
I will add that you need to be careful when using steel belted tires. The steel is not very friendly on the ends where it was cut.
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I was reading posts on the airgun gate about home made shooting bag rests and thinking about what a darn inventive bunch of folks we have around here.
Let me throw my two cents in on the bullet catchers. I like to use plastic grocery bags. You know how you can stretch them but they won't rip? Stuff a sturdy cardboard box or, my favorite is a plastic milk crate, full of plastic grocery bags and all the other stretchy plastic wrappers you have laying around. If you use a milk crate, you can close it up by forcing in a square of cardboard to compress all the bags, and then sticking a couple of sticks thru holes across the front to keep it all contained. It won't take too many .458s, but it loves the smaller calibers. Every so often you have to repack the the plastic bags, but it's pretty much a free deal. I even stuff my big steel trap with plastic bags to kill the ring.
Lloyd
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That's exactly what I use to make my archery target.
I fill a grocery plastic bag with as many plastic bags as I can get in it and while pressing all of the air out of it, I tie it up creating a round "wafer" of plastic bags. I stack several of these "wafers" together to make my target. I found that the Harbor Freight 70 gallon lawn bag to work pretty good. Water proof and can be bought for less than $2.
http://www.harborfreight.com/70-gallon-yard-and-garden-bag-66331.html (http://www.harborfreight.com/70-gallon-yard-and-garden-bag-66331.html)
(http://www.harborfreight.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/i/m/image_6307.jpg)
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I'll definitely be putting together some variation of this to catch lead for casting, thanks for the tips, J
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That's exactly what I use to make my archery target.
OK tworr, very cool. This is either a case of "great minds think alike," or, we both have to make the same embarrassing phone call at the same time, LOL. I'll go with the first one!
Lloyd
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I love problem solving and sometimes it's just as much fun putting something like this together than going out and buying it. Ingenuity is becoming a lost art.
My wife just doesn't get it. Although I did get a high five when my latest "brass tumbler project" was finished and she found out that I spent $20 instead of the comparable $100 vibratory tumbler.
http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f35/diy-tumbler-38878/ (http://www.firearmstalk.com/forums/f35/diy-tumbler-38878/)
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I love problem solving and sometimes it's just as much fun putting something like this together than going out and buying it. Ingenuity is becoming a lost art.
My wife just doesn't get it. Although I did get a high five when my latest "brass tumbler project" was finished and she found out that I spent $20 instead of the comparable $100 vibratory tumbler.
Tworr,
I am with you 100%. Making is so much more satisfying than buying. In my case, my wife wife totally gets it, and says I am an engineer by nature and that the process is often more important than the end result. Sure, you could have bought a decent one for darn near the same price, but so could anyone else. You made yours and part of you is in it. Darn near nothing I buy escapes my well intentioned, but often unnecessary, "improvements."
That tumbler is slick, even if it craps out in a month, LOL.
Lloyd
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Darn near nothing I buy escapes my well intentioned, but often unnecessary, "improvements."
That tumbler is slick, even if it craps out in a month, LOL.
Lloyd
So true, So true!! ;D
Thank you for the positive comments!
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I had some free time this afternoon and decided to take some pictures of my target and the rubber mulch's stopping power. These were 255 grain BHD WFN bullets making probably around 450fpe or more. It was too cloudy get a reading on the crony.
I had shot away most of the middle so I just cut it out. I'll fill it in and tape a new target over it.
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2465.jpg)
Top level under the cardboard.
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2466.jpg)
Around 10 bullets were recovered in this area. You can see a couple were stopped by the tire treads.
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2467.jpg)
20 or so were recovered on this level.
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2468.jpg)
an another 20 or so on this level.
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2469.jpg)
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2470.jpg)
Recoverd lead....
(http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r212/tworr/Misc/Air%20Power/IMG_2471.jpg)
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Great pictures of the set-up.
Looks like the bigbore gets shot more than the smallbore going by that last picture lol!
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I had a nice shooting session last week . I wanted to see how many shots I could get out of my 45min tank and it was around 35 before it was down to 3200psi.
I get to shoot a lot more now that I picked up a couple of CF tanks and no longer have to rely just on the hill pump for my air. It's still nice for backup and is great on my 22 caliber guns.
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tworr,
Nice deal, and it certainly seems effective. I guess you have it braced against something pretty solid? Seems like it would want to walk away from hits from the .458 at full power.
Lloyd
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The cool thing about rubber mulch is that it seems to strips the energy away as it passes through instead of absorbing it in a full blow.
Build a long enough box and you can shoot powder burners in to it.
My .458 only goes about halfway through this box.
(http://i256.photobucket.com/albums/hh178/waywood1/IMG_1866.jpg)