I want a bullet trap to catch a ocashional bullet. Up to now I have used a large plastic soap jug full of sand to catch 22 rim fires. What do you think about a plastic 5 gal. Bucket of sand to catch a 222 50gr bullet? Also do you think it would catch a 200 gr.bullet from my largest 358 Win. I have seen this type of trap used for pistols.
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Home bullet trap?
- Thread starter Longshot4
- Start date
NavyVet1959
New member
I've used a 5g bucket of sand to stop a 10mm before. Some people use 5g buckets filled with rubber crumb mulch like you can buy at Home Depot and Lowes. There is a long thread over on castboolits.gunloads.com about various backstops. The biggest challenge with loose material is keeping it in the container when you rotate the opening of the container so that it is perpendicular to the floor so that you can shoot into it. Also, if you miss the container, you better have a good backstop to keep from putting holes in whatever is behind your bucket.
I have a 55g plastic drum that I have put a 1/2" steel plate at the bottom and have filled it about 3/4 full with wood chips. I put a plastic lawn bag over the top of the wood chips and tuck it around the inside of the barrel so that the wood chips will stay in place more or less when I rotate the barrel for shooting into it. I don't rotate it a full 90 degrees though. I is actually at a bit of an angle with respect to the ground and I'm shooting somewhat downward at it. That way, if I miss the barrel, it is headed towards the concrete slab or the inside brick wall of my garage. I don't shoot that much at it though. I just use it to check to see if a new load cycles the slide on any semi-auto that I'm loading for.
I have a 55g plastic drum that I have put a 1/2" steel plate at the bottom and have filled it about 3/4 full with wood chips. I put a plastic lawn bag over the top of the wood chips and tuck it around the inside of the barrel so that the wood chips will stay in place more or less when I rotate the barrel for shooting into it. I don't rotate it a full 90 degrees though. I is actually at a bit of an angle with respect to the ground and I'm shooting somewhat downward at it. That way, if I miss the barrel, it is headed towards the concrete slab or the inside brick wall of my garage. I don't shoot that much at it though. I just use it to check to see if a new load cycles the slide on any semi-auto that I'm loading for.
What do you think about a plastic 5 gal. Bucket of sand to catch a 222 50gr bullet? Also do you think it would catch a 200 gr.bullet from my largest 358 Win. I have seen this type of trap used for pistols.
That is what I use, since I get the buckets free from work.
As for calibers and stopping, well most things up to 45 Colt and moving less than 1100fps from the muzzle usually stop really well at 25yds.
Bump the velocity up into the 1200 - 1500fps range and you need to back up to 50yds to keep them from going out the bottom.
Rifle bullets need 100yds with the bucket of sand and even then after you hit within around an inch or two, repeatedly they will start to tunnel right on through one bucket. If shooting rifles I have used two buckets end to end, but that just waste my buckets.
I have a stack of hickory logs around 12-14" in diameter, and cut to 3-4' that works really well for stopping most rifle bullets. I use them at 100 and 200yds. Once they get to the point whee they start tunneling, I will rotate the stack, or replace the upper layer. When they get to a point I feel they have served their usefulness we load them up in the bucket of the tractor, and haul them to the house where we will split them with a maul, and pick out whatever we find, and then burn them in a barrel and recover the remaining metal.
Won't spot it first thing the very next time she comes back into the house? Good luck with that. Even if I glued dowels in and finished them to match the wood, plus patched the wallboard and painted it, my wife would walk through the front door and ask what happened and where the round spots in the wood that weren't there before had come from. And that's while she's still standing on the door mat getting her galoshes off and has yet to actually enter the kitchen. And she's got terrible eyesight, though I don't think that's a factor. It's more like some kind of second sight regarding anything I've done that she doesn't approve of.
If you want a bullet trap that won't wear out, but don't need to recover the bullets for examination, a 3/16" steel plate will stop a surprisingly potent round if it is 5 times longer than the target opening is tall, angling up off the ground toward the shooter with its long side. That is, a 1×5 foot plate with one of the narrow ends resting on the dirt and angling up to 1 foot higher at the target hanger end, presents a steep enough angle into the steel to deflect rather than stop a bullet directly. Then you just need clay or relatively rock-free earth or a sand pit beneath it, and not to miss either below or to the sides of the 1 foot square.
If you want a bullet trap that won't wear out, but don't need to recover the bullets for examination, a 3/16" steel plate will stop a surprisingly potent round if it is 5 times longer than the target opening is tall, angling up off the ground toward the shooter with its long side. That is, a 1×5 foot plate with one of the narrow ends resting on the dirt and angling up to 1 foot higher at the target hanger end, presents a steep enough angle into the steel to deflect rather than stop a bullet directly. Then you just need clay or relatively rock-free earth or a sand pit beneath it, and not to miss either below or to the sides of the 1 foot square.