Above is a good read. Towards the end of the dissertation they describe the type of pellet trap I loosely copied. Their trap will even catch centerfire rounds as well as rimfire (theirs was larger than mine so exercise caution with a small'ish trap). Mine is mainly for pellets, and an occasional test fire of .22 rimfire.
What is needed?;
Bag of rubber mulch at Home Depot... Under $7
Ammo Can
Plastic cardboard (Coroplast) or similar membrane
Hole saw
Grinder with cut-off wheel
White Spray paint (optional)
Two magnets (optional)
Transparent laminating sheet (optional)
I'll let the pictures do the talkin;
Rubber mulch does not have to be packed down to tight.
Paint the side of the can towards shooter with white paint for better "open-sight" sight picture
I cut the can opening about 1/8" smaller than the targets shown (targets measure 14cm x 14cm) just to keep the sight picture from getting cluttered
Put a strip of transparent laminating sheet from the left and right edge of the opening all the way out to the edge of the can (after it is painted white) to protect the paint from the 2 magnets that are centered on the vertical sides of the targets. That way you can drag the magnets off the edge of the can each time you change-out targets. (better than using your finger nails to pry the magnets off)
*** Note the curved steel "contingency-plate" placed in the mulch filled can on the left. That's the one that may see use for an occasional rimfire test-fire.
There may be better traps out there, but this one was fun and quick to build, and is dead QUIET !! (bonus)
This trap flat out works. Lead dust inside is now a thing of the past, since the pellets don't smash against steel.
Next project will be to build a shaker to cull out the lead and re-use the mulch.
I would be concerned about how fast the coroplast would develop a BIG hole.
I use cardboard target backer on my target carrier, and have to replace it on a regular basis, or I don't get nice holes on the target.
Do you slide the new piece between the old coroplast and the box, then pull out the old one?
Nice design. I'm gonna be copying it real soon even tho I just built a duct seal one a few months ago.
Got an idea for your for the shaker to cull out the lead. Since you are not shooting right at the bottom, you can insert a wire mesh below the mulch to keep it half an inch from the bottom. Shake the can around and maybe the lead pellets will fall to the bottom. Remove the mulch and mesh, and empty the lead out. What do you think?
Great idea. I'm looking to try it out myself. What exactly is the purpose of cutting the holes? It looks to me like you just ended up cutting the entire area out anyway.
GaryN wrote:I would be concerned about how fast the coroplast would develop a BIG hole.
I use cardboard target backer on my target carrier, and have to replace it on a regular basis, or I don't get nice holes on the target.
Do you slide the new piece between the old coroplast and the box, then pull out the old one?
Great questions !
Great groups offer little room for big holes, in which case well... not sure how that works since great groups aren't abundant the way I plink.
Mediocre groups occasionally (rare occasions) let a kibble or two of mulch to fall out, and horrible grouping effectively lasts the longest.
Haven't developed a "technique" for replacing coroplast, since there are typically around 1K pellets to extract by the time it seems necessary, in which case it's ready to dump and cull.
I screwed some 1/4" galvanized hardware cloth to the bottom of a very small plastic trash can (bottom cut out), to use as a pellet sifter. When that is done the ensemble is put back together with new coroplast.
Last edited by Ziabeam on Sun Aug 28, 2016 7:28 am, edited 1 time in total.
Gru wrote:Great idea. I'm looking to try it out myself. What exactly is the purpose of cutting the holes? It looks to me like you just ended up cutting the entire area out anyway.
I'm OCD. Figured it would be easier to stop the slitting wheel at the edge of a round hole, than to cut a square.
Aside from that the main thing to remember is cut your opening slightly smaller than the smallest paper target you use, so the target can be held with magnets. If you plan to use only use tape I suppose all but 1/4" from each edge (and the closed lid) could be removed, assuming the coroplast would be stiff enough to cover an opening that large.
Misny wrote:Great looking trap. Let us know how it works for you down the road.
Liking it very much so far.
Dramatic difference where lead dust is concerned (none seen). The pellets never splatter, they just slow down and trickle towards the bottom.
Also as quiet as any trap I've ever used. Unlike the loud clang of a metal trap, this trap sounds like an apple hitting the floor when a pellet hits fresh coroplast, and makes NO detectable noise from 10 yds when the pellet hits neither paper or coroplast (only hitting rubber).
I went a little bigger for mine...
a 60mm ammo can is essentially 3 50 caliber cans high, but otherwise identical dimensions.
its large enough to accommodate a ten bull 10 meter target with sighters, the orion target, NRA 50ft smallbore target, or a single 50 meter / 50yd target.
Im going to try and drill each individual bull with a 2 inch hole saw to allow maximum support to the chloroplast backer.
I may cut a hole on the back side for 50 meter... essentially making it reversible.
Out of stock at midway... and most places... but some google foo with the numbers on the side of the can will turn up a few for sale. Then of course there's the taller 120mm cans...
Any lead bounce back from the rubber mulch or does the coroplast prevent it? Rubber is springy, so I thought you might get a mess in front of the trap. I like the idea of coroplast, might not get the cardboard mess from being shot out. I suppose you could always use plumbers putty instead of the rubber mulch. Nice alternative to noisy steel traps. I might have to make one of these for shooting inside the house.
Did I miss something? It looks like you have a steel plate perpendicular to the line of pellet flight. Now I know all you guys put each of your shots in the middle of the 10 ring, but sometimes things happen. Wouldn't an errant pellet come straight back at the shooter? I have seen this happen when a pellet hits a nail on a wooden frame.
If we were shooting BBs at a hard steel plate they might come straight back. With lead pellets they spend the great majority of their energy in deforming into flat little "splats". These tend to fall on the floor in the five or six feet in front of the trap. Occasionally, one will be round enough to roll part way back to the firing line.
gwsb wrote:Norm I have often seen pellets at 10 m come back to the firing line off target carriers or the nails my club used to put together its target frames.
Similar experience here. Our club which is 25 yards for bullseye, with our target carriers set to stop at 10M for AP, the pellets regularly bounce back to the port from the backstop. I'll take a shot and then hear the pellet hit the port. After the match we sweep up a big pile of pellets that all bounced back 25 yards.
Holmqer I'm glad to know I'm not the only one. I just think it's irresponsible to fire any projectile at a steel plate set at a 90 degree angle to the projectile's flight. There is a reason that backstops are at a 45 degree angle.
