Inexpensive pellet trap ideas

[Fishbone]

 Redharris, I try to recover any 'lead' but only use them for line weights (fishing) or toss them into one of my recycle bins. (I collect scrap metal)

The material in pellets (exspecially cheap pellets) can be a mixture...lead, zinc etc.
Not good for re-melting, too many contaminates.

I mainly 'trap' them because I don't want all those 'contaminates' to get into the ground water table!

[Tarheel]

I have been thinking of using "Bullet Trap" technology in constructing backstops . . . Made from steel plate                ( lighter than shown, as it does not have to stop a rifle bullet )

Click to ENLARGE . . . ( Not my drawing - Ignore "wheels" )



Dave

[Gippeto]

Like that one.

Made this a few months back, call it the "paintball challenge". 2x4 rails are drilled 11/16 and paintballs slip in from the back. 1/4" steel kill zone plates cover the wood and paintballs...have cover plates with 1/4, 3/8 and 5/8" kill zones. Rails and cover plates can be removed quickly (held on with wing nuts now) and paper targets stapled to the 2x material in back. There's a piece of 1/4" steel that covers the entire back. Drilled some holes in the top to mount the spinner target for use at home. (acreage)

[Redharris]

Gippeto......^^^
Very Nice....Looks Heavy. I would need a Forklift to move it...Lol

[Tarheel]

Like that one.

Made this a few months back, call it the "paintball challenge". 2x4 rails are drilled 11/16 and paintballs slip in from the back. 1/4" steel kill zone plates cover the wood and paintballs...have cover plates with 1/4, 3/8 and 5/8" kill zones. Rails and cover plates can be removed quickly (held on with wing nuts now) and paper targets stapled to the 2x material in back. There's a piece of 1/4" steel that covers the entire back. Drilled some holes in the top to mount the spinner target for use at home. (acreage)

Hey, that is a very cool idea . . . !

Dave

[Fishbone]

Tyler, thanks for the log idea!

Gippeto, thanks for the 'paintball challenge' idea!

Dave, I have made traps with metal, pellets will bounce out, you need to fill them or use the duct seal, I work in textiles and have an endless supply of material to stuff the boxes.

For the 'big guns', I have to stake them to ground!

Wish I could find out how to post pictures!

[Tarheel]

Tyler, thanks for the log idea!

Gippeto, thanks for the 'paintball challenge' idea!

Dave, I have made traps with metal, pellets will bounce out, you need to fill them or use the duct seal, I work in textiles and have an endless supply of material to stuff the boxes.

For the 'big guns', I have to stake them to ground!

Wish I could find out how to post pictures!

To post pictures . . . Check this out !

http://www.gatewaytoairguns.org/GTA/index.php/topic,3523.0.html

Dave

[airnutz]

I'll bet mine is the cheapest, and ugliest.

An old thick-a** catalog with the pages taped shut.

The pellets remain stuck in the pages and no mess anywhere.

[pappa]

I use a 5" thick cardboard box the size of a once folded newspaper and stuff it completely full of old newspapers then tape it shut with packaging tape. Stand it on one end, tape a target to the front and shoot your heart out. I have one that has probably 500 holes in it and all I ever have to do is put a piece of packing tape on shredded cardboard as a patch now and then. If one side gets to looking too ragged, just turn the box around and start shooting into the other side. Have never had a pellet go all the way through and I have used it all the way down to 20 feet. As silent as a trap can get and costs absolutely nothing if you take the newspaper.

[ac12]

My old stand by for MANY year is an old beer box (when they used to ship them in 4x6pack boxes) or similar size box, filled with newspapers.
It is relatively quiet and my low power rifles can't get very deep.
As was mentioned, if you get the paper, the stuffing for the trap is free.

>> Caution, not all duct seal is the same. <<

I have burrowed thru a layer of duct seal and HIT the back of the trap, with only 5 shots.  And I did this with a LOW powered target pistol, not a medium or high powered rifle.

Here is the "problem."  There is no real standard for duct seal.  It is meant to plug a hole, not stop a pellet, so density of the material is not a primary concern when they make it.  I purchased the SAME brand (GB) of duct seal from 2 different stores in 2 different states (Home Depot in Calif, and Ace Hardware in Hawaii).  The duct seal that I got in Hawaii was SIGNIFICANTLY SOFTER than the duct seal I got in Calif.  You could push your finger easily into the duct seal.  I went back to the Ace Hardware store and checked all the duct seal they had, and they were ALL SOFT (inside the air conditioned store, not outside in the sun).  I was never able to get the Calif duct seal anywhere near as soft even in the warm summer.  I did not go to the other hardware stores to look for duct seal, but I think I will do that the next time I go.

Although, the next time I go back to Hawaii, I may take a few bricks of Calif duct seal, so I can replace the soft duct seal in the trap.  Although TSA will probably have a fit with that in my luggage.

[Scottycoyote67]

i built a super simple one, its not very big but if youre zero'd in its great and quiet.  Took 2 large phonebooks, duct taped them together, then built a contraption with a large clip that holds the target in front.  I sit it on a plastic trashcan turned upside down, and it all sits in front of a large oak i use as the safety backstop.  Took me about 2 minutes, its super quiet...shooting at 25 yards with a disco 22 the pellets dont penetrate the first phone book.

[ac12]

One caution about paper traps that I learned the hard way.
If you are shooting LOW powered guns and you use magazines in your paper trap.  You could have "bounce back," where the pellet comes bouncing back at you.
The problem is the magazine paper is SO DENSE that it compresses and does not cut/tear as newspaper does.  So a low powered gun will have the pellet bounced back at the shooter.

The method that I use to make the paper trap has 3 steps.
1 - put 1 to 2 inches of magazines in the back of the trap.
2 - put 3 to 4 inches of newspaper on top of the magazines.
3 - put 2 inches of wadded up newspaper or foam or similar on top of the news paper.  This layer is there to catch any bounce backs.