Making a portable bullet trap

Namerifrats

Namerifrats

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Anybody have a homemade bullet trap for recovering lead? I was gonna have one built like Jerry Miculek's, on a small trailer. Would be fairly expensive and an extra hassle to deal with when going to and from the range. I can't shoot at my house since I live in town. Would like something portable I could take to the range in the back of my truck. I have sifted the berm before, but it's a nasty job. Sand and clay....so lots of clumps to deal with. Plus some people are casting zinc and putting that shit in the berms now. I shoot a wide variety, but want something to catch all handgun and 22LR bullets. I don't care about recovering jacketed rifle rounds. Not that much lead in those anyway. All my jacketed and cast handgun rounds, I'd like to recover those. I saw a post in a Facebook group where somebody mentioned a truck tire with a steel plate. I may try that. I have a couple steel AR500 plates. May try two truck tires together, with the plate sandwiched in the middle. Wouldn't be super heavy and could just throw it in the bed of my truck and go.
 
Others may feel different from me, but I've cast thousands and thousands of pounds of lead, and I wouldn't sift it out of a berm or attempt to haul a trap to a range. I might would catch mine if I had a home range set up like @Starkherz199 . I prefer to pay 15 bucks for a bucket full of wheel weights and just sort them out myself. I average about 60lbs of lead for a $15 dollar bucket, plus you can smelt and sell the zinc if you so choose. Just my .02
 
slow is slow said:
Others may feel different from me, but I've cast thousands and thousands of pounds of lead, and I wouldn't sift it out of a berm or attempt to haul a trap to a range. I might would catch mine if I had a home range set up like @Starkherz199 . I prefer to pay 15 bucks for a bucket full of wheel weights and just sort them out myself. I average about 60lbs of lead for a $15 dollar bucket, plus you can smelt and sell the zinc if you so choose. Just my .02
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I agree for the most part. I do have around 1400 lbs of lead on hand. Enough to last a very long time. However it's only gonna get harder to get as time goes on. I don't wait til there is a problem getting something before I stock up. I have never had a problem with the ammo/powder/primer shortage that start led a few years ago because I stocked up well in advance. Recovering my own lead, or most of it will created an infinite, self sustainable supply for me. Most of my stash is WW. Getting to where 60-70% of a bucket is all steel, zinc, and trash. Years ago a mucher higher percentage was lead when you could actually find a shop that would sell them. I'm just trying to plan ahead. To each their own.
 
JohnFreeman said:
What did you end up making...the truck tire assembly?

Here's the commercial unit in stock

Amazon product ASIN B07M5PWG7R
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I used 5 gallon buckets with 10" AR500 gongs in the bottom. I tried one with sand and one with a mix of rubber nugget mulch and shredded tire mulch. Both work great. Nothing made it to the steel in the sand. Only a few made it to the steel in the rubber but had slowed so much they were just partially flat against it....not splattered. Tried multiple calibers, in vast and FMJ. 22LR, 22 Mag, 38spl, 357 Mag, 10mm, and 45ACP. Going back next weekend to try 44 Mag and 30-30.
 
I was gonna say, what you’re looking for is often called a log.
 
Finally went through the other bucket I had filled with sand. It worked well. Nothing made it to the steel plate in that bucket. Most was found within 6-12". I use two peices of foam between the sand and the lid to prevent any sand from pouring out through the holes. Worked really well.

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Shot some more into the rubber filled trap today, including some 30-30. Thought I'd add a few more pictures showing this one. Both work very well, but the rubber trap leaves the bullets "cleaner" without sand all over there. Quicker to sort with sand though, using a sifter I made. The 30-30 and 357 Magnum are the only ones that made it to the steel. Again, with not enough force to splatter, just flatten against it.

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Thanks for the info. I’ve been thinking of building a bigger wood box and filling with play sand, good to have some idea on depth.
 
Mathieu18 said:
Thanks for the info. I’ve been thinking of building a bigger wood box and filling with play sand, good to have some idea on depth.
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With the sand, nothing I fired into the bucket got to the steel. Heaviest thing I used on it was 357 Magnum with 158gr FMJ. Stopped a few inches about the plate. In the rubber, 357 Mag will get within an inch or two of the plate. If it does hit it, it's stopped against it or slightly flattened. The 30-30 150gr RNSP from today was right against the plate and badly deformed. No splatter though. So it depends on what you plan to shoot into it. 22LR is found about 7-8" deep in sand and maybe 9-10" deep in the rubber. Other handgun rounds I've tried, usually 10-13", or occasionally sitting right against the plate with slight deformation.
 
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