TargetTalk

Fellow shooters: My Club is considering replacing sand filled bullet traps with Bullet Bunkers, filled with a rubber material, in our indoor range. The range is currently used for smallbore bullseye, 4P, and silhouette Leagues, as well as air rifle bench rest and field target.

I am interested in real world experience any of you might have -- good, bad, or indifferent -- prior to moving forward, as with 22 firing lanes and two target boxes per lane, the cost of purchasing (and shipping) 44 Bunkers is not inconsiderable.

In advance, thank you for your opinions!

topclass2017 at comcast dot net

Why do you want to substitute expensive "Bullet Bunkers" for easily screenable free sand?

sand makes a bloody mess and is a hazardous waste on disposal.

and the difference between lead-contaminated sand and lead-contaminated recycled rubber shreds is?

Been to a police range that uses small rubber balls, works very well. When they clean they just move the balls an heap vacuum. They can even shoot jacketed ammo. The bullet lead and jacketed basically stay intact so there is very little dust lead dust contamination. Range did cost a fortune to build.

the difference is lead bullets fragment in the sand and become part of the medium, making separation a recovery process. The sand with lead in it as a by-product of shooting is not a hazardous waste, but once removal efforts begin, it is, meaning a whole set of costly procedures need to be followed. As has been stated, the bullets stay relatively intact when shot into rubber (or so I am lead to believe), making it a more straightforward separation process.

Looks expensive to buy, and with ongoing costs to replace the front sheets.

We looked at various options and I came across this.
http://www.supertrap.com/ST_Products.htm

I would make my own traps and fill it with that stuff.

Our club stayed with angled steel plates and nothing else - Australia is pretty slack on that kind of thing.

We made our own "bunker" using 2x4's and plywood. The bed needs to be at about a 30 degree angle. We used metal free crumb rubber. We built a trough on top that contains spare crumb rubber. Six inches of crumb rubber will stop just about any shoulder fired gun, including .50 BMG. The crumb rubber prevents lead dust from forming. We've had our crumb rubber bank in place for several years. We have old rubber conveyor belts on top of the crumb rubber to keep it in place. We use it primarily for bullseye and international pistol shooting. With that kind of shooting taking place we get 8" holes develop at each shooting position. We patch those holes with more conveyor belt material, cut to 18"x18" patches that are kept in place by nails with blocks of wood. When the patches need replacing, we clean out the large balls of lead that accumulate in the concentrated spot. Crumb rubber has proven to be the best for our club's indoor range.

These work better than Crumb Rubber, and Steel is the worst offender of creating "dust".

Here are just a few ideas to stir the conversation...

Roy