Plans for a home made bullet trap?

[Brett]

I'ld like to make a bullet trap for plinking with the .22 rifles and small caliber hand guns.   I have access to boiler plate and welding equipment but need a good set of plans for a trap.  I've searched high and low on the Internet but haven't really found what I'm looking for.   Any body out there ever build a trap or know of where I could get a good set of plans?   

[rex6666]

I do not know where to find plans. I have helped build 3-4 traps i did the welding.
The heaviest metal i remember using was 1/2" we cut the metal like a triangle, but left one point about 6" short, cut 4 pieces when we welded them together we had like a square funnel, with a 6" opening on the back, you can set the front to be any size you want.
we welded this in to the side of a pipe with 3/8" walls about 18" long, closed up both
ends with 3/8" flat with a small door at the bottom on one end. weld the opening on the funnel high or low on the side of the pipe so that when the bullet goes through the opening
the pipe makes it spin. REMEMBER SHOOT AT NO FLAT SURFACES you set every thing so you are hitting at an angle. Iknow one of these was shot with 357mag and 45lc and what else
for a 22 you   could lighten up remember all angles.

[Sourdough]

Have built a few that were designed to shoot into with a backing plate set at a 45 deg angle that deflects the bullet down into a collecting trough.  I also have looked at the design made by Savage arms    http://www.snailtraps.com/     You may be able to design something like it.  Rog

[Brett]

Thanks for the replies.  That snail trap of Savage's is pretty cool.   

[30-06man]

Why not get a Dozer or something to come out and push up a dirt hill that will stop a bullet? That's what I did unless you live somewhere you can't. I haven't had a bullet go through it.

[Brett]

Why not get a Dozer or something to come out and push up a dirt hill that will stop a bullet? That's what I did unless you live somewhere you can't. I haven't had a bullet go through it.

Well, a couple of reasons... 1) I can build a trap for next to nothing.  Getting a dozer out to my place to make a berm would cost $.
2) I would prefer to collect the lead rather than let it go into the ground since I am on well water.   

[Graybeard]

As a lawyer might say in a court room: this presupposes something not yet in evidence. That being that you can put 100% of the rounds into the trap every time all the time day in and day out. If you do not have a berm or backstop to catch that one round in a million that doesn't where will it go? Will it be a problem? Sooner or later one will fail to go into it. Make sure you have a plan when it does.

[30-06man]

Why not get a Dozer or something to come out and push up a dirt hill that will stop a bullet? That's what I did unless you live somewhere you can't. I haven't had a bullet go through it.

Well, a couple of reasons... 1) I can build a trap for next to nothing.  Getting a dozer out to my place to make a berm would cost $.
2) I would prefer to collect the lead rather than let it go into the ground since I am on well water.  

Heck I am on well water too but its a hill right next to the woods. I wouldn't worry about it getting into my water. Find a Heavy Equipment Operator that runs his on business and he should do it less than $100. That's what I used to do them for. You are going to need  a Backstop anyway for the reasons Graybeard said. Might as well have it made large enough for shooting into.

[Sourdough]

Have a friend who's son is on a rifle team and needed a place to shoot.  They live in a subdivision in the city.  He owns a large lot so what he did was set up a steel connex container in the back yard, and covered it with dirt.  Cut a hole in the end and installed a 24" culvert, 100 yards long.  He used a lazer level, and a lot of hand work,  to assure it was level.  Then he built a small shed onto the end of the culvert, then buried it.  He also installed a pulley system to send his targets down range.  At 25 and 50 yards he placed a box with lighting inside.  When you are cranking a target down range and it comes into light you know it is 25, 50, or 100 yards away.  The entire unit is covered with dirt, and all sound as well as any stray bullets are contained.

Grant built this for his son that shoots .22RF.  But on cold days when we got nothing better to do we go out and shoot a few with our 30-06s or .338 Win Mags.  Sure beats shooting outside when it's 30 below.  Just make sure you got good, I mean good hearing protection.  I wear ear plugs, with good ear muff type protection.  Noise levels inside that steel box is massive.  Someday we got to put in some sound absorbing material.  But the neighbors never know we are shooting there, no sound gets out.  I have looked at doing the same thing out where I live.  But 500 yards of six foot culvert is more than I can afford.   

[Brett]

Sourdough, Your friends underground range sounds awesome.  You didn't mention any ventilation system to extract lead dust from the bullets hitting the backstop and from the primer charge at the shooting line.  I assume that he has some means of keeping airborne lead to a safe level. 

The area where I shoot is backed up by a fallow field and a patch of woods,  Beyond that are turkey houses.  So the area behind my target is pretty safe. However I still plan to build a good sized backstop out of old railroad ties.  I would rather make absolutely sure that the bullets cannot go anywhere beyond where I intend for them to go.   I also just don't care to unnecessarily add any more lead to my own property than a have to.  It's better to ere on the side of caution.  I would sure hate for an errant shot or rickochette to hit someone who happens to be out in those woods or somebodies property or livestock.

I found one design that I thought looked promising.  The back consisted of a 3/8" steel plate set at 45* with a 3" steel pipe welded to the bottom of it.  The top of the 3" pipe has a 1" slot cut the length of it rite where it meets the bottom of the steel plate.   Bullets are deflected along the steel plate, enter the pipe at the slot and just spin around in the pipe until they come to rest.

[30-06man]

Why don't you take it and make a Triangle shape and at the end of it weld a pipe into into it and so that the bullet will go down into a steel box. Then at the bottom of the steel box cut a hole and make it covered with a piece of steel so that you can open it and take out the bullets.

[Sourdough]

Grant has a jet heater outside, that blows hot air into the connex.   And a vent in the target shed, to exhaust.  This way the heater puts positive pressure in the shooting area and blows out through the vents in the target shed.  All gases and lead dust are forced down range.  During the summer he has a box fan that we put in the hole where the heater duct goes during the winter.

[30-06man]

That is one nice sounding range. I am going to get a shelter built at 100yards one day.

[williamlayton]

I was totally off base in my thinking. I was envisioning Brett going to do some plinking in his basement.
There are a number of ways too build a backstop without dirt for small calibers, and, still use the catcher.
Blessings

[rex6666]

I too was of base, when i told him about the ones we built, they where used in the grage and woulg handle 45lc