Need home range backstop ideas

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TedH
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Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TedH »

Withdrawals are setting in, and I need to get some sort of range set up at our new place. I'd like to have something to positively catch and trap my bullets, not only for safety, but to recycle as well. It's over a half mile to the nearest house in one direction, and much more than that through the woods in the other direction I'd like to set up to shoot. Problem is it's all pretty flat, and I don't have much of a hillside or berm to shoot into. I'd like to build a large bullet trap to make recovery of lead easy, without mining and sifting dirt, but that's the expensive way, and I could get a tractor over and build a dirt berm without too much trouble. I also thought about stacking used tires and filling them with chat, sand or just dirt, but again bullet recovery becomes an issue.
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jnyork
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by jnyork »

the cost of building a big trap that would catch all your bullets would be pretty exorbitant, you would be able to just BUY quite a stash of lead with that money. The nice berm made of tires would be a good choice but ugly unless you cover the whole thing with soft earth. On my range I have a large stack of culled logs, maybe 15 feet wide, 8 feet high and 20 feet deep, stops everthing.
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TomF »

I have a steel plate I will set in an angled frame with a catch box below. I plan to surround the plate with dirt, cedar logs etc. The goal is to shoot, reclaim the boolits and stàrt all over. My place is very remote.

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TedH
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TedH »

TomF wrote:I have a steel plate I will set in an angled frame with a catch box below. I plan to surround the plate with dirt, cedar logs etc. The goal is to shoot, reclaim the boolits and stàrt all over. My place is very remote.

TomF
That's along the lines of what I was thinking. I've read where people are having good luck using contained rubber mulch in bullet traps too. Something could be made to sift bullets from the rubber mulch without too much trouble I would think. I would like it to be large enough to accomodate a couple shooters at once too.
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elmo123
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by elmo123 »

I made a trap that I use in my garage for testing loads. It consists of a wooden box 14"x14" in the front and 2' long. It has an old bullets proof vest in the back and an old mud flap in the front. I filled it with sand. It has stopped everything from my 5mm pellet rifle to the 30-06. If you are shooting outside you can make something like this on a larger scale. About once a year I replace the sand and recover the lead. The only bullets that even come close to the vest are the 45 ACP and 45 Colt 250 swc moving at 750-800 fps.
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TomF »

I like the mudflap idea. 5mm? Sheridan? Not too many of them still around.

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AJMD429
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by AJMD429 »

jnyork wrote:the cost of building a big trap that would catch all your bullets would be pretty exorbitant, you would be able to just BUY quite a stash of lead with that money.
Good point. I always forget to think of that kind of thing...
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by AJMD429 »

TedH wrote:I've read where people are having good luck using contained rubber mulch in bullet traps too. Something could be made to sift bullets from the rubber mulch without too much trouble I would think.
Just be careful of FIRE - a local indoor range burned down after their rubber-mulch backstop caught fire, presumably from a tracer round.
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markinalpine
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by markinalpine »

Try this sticky at Cast Boolits Net: http://castboolits.gunloads.com/showthr ... cling-lead
It's up to 19 pages and 745 posts, and being an open thread, it sometimes wanders around, and is subject to a lot of "opionitis."
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by walks with gun »

I've been using my firewood pile for the last 20 years. I cut and stack my firewood, I don't burn wood anymore but I always have trees that need to be take down. Anyway I use stacked firewood 5.5 feet high and 12 feet wide 3 rows deep with a forth row of logs laid horizontally behind it held up by steel fence posts. The first row I try to use large pines that are perfect for pinning paper plates to. Try to use pine or a soft wood for your first row to keep bullets from bouncing back at you. I had a 45acp bounce back about 20 yards and hit me in the leg when I shot a frozen oak one winter, it left a bruise. Every once in awhile we restack them at split up the bad or worn out logs and throw the lead in a 5 gallon bucket, we have about 80 pounds of reclaimed bullets and roundball picked up so far. Cheap and fairly easy to build, you can always buy a load from a dealer.
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crs
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by crs »

Lots of country folk just use a front end loader to make a pile of dirt and that becomes their backstop.
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EdinCT
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by EdinCT »

I do what Walks with Gun does. It works well and after a few years the middle forms a peat moss type matl. that fills in the cracks, bullets seem to fall out the front has the wood is shot up. I put a 1 foot thick section of a log 18" in dia out in front to tack targets to.
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ollogger
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by ollogger »

I use saw dust to catch my bullets & its a lot easier to dig thru & get the lead


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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by M. M. Wright »

I have a huge brushpile that I've never burned, just added to it over the years. It's full of old tractor and truck tires plus a lot dirt that got included while stacking it with my backhoe/loader. I have enough lead for the rest of my life so don't worry about it. Then my 13 year old likes to dig out bullets which we throw back into the lead pot. Maybe he'll need them some day.
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vancelw
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by vancelw »

M. M. Wright wrote:I have a huge brushpile that I've never burned, just added to it over the years. It's full of old tractor and truck tires plus a lot dirt that got included while stacking it with my backhoe/loader. I have enough lead for the rest of my life so don't worry about it. Then my 13 year old likes to dig out bullets which we throw back into the lead pot. Maybe he'll need them some day.
Ted's yard Nazi is not going to let him do that. :lol: Nope, nosirree! His noggin can't take another attempt!

I'm about to build a backstop of some sort myself. My dilemma at the time is whether to build it at 100, 200 or both. I hate adding things to mow around, but it beats going to the gun range.

I have about 40 crossties. I think I will use dirt and use the ties to build a [ shape so I can get by with less dirt of put a wall on each end with a short berm in the middle. The idea of using steel at an angle to deflect the round down into the ground or a trap is a good one. It would be easy to put one behind the targets.

It sure is nice to shoot off the back porch rather than loading up a bunch of stuff to go to the range, only to find some nincompoops there that I'd just as soon not be around.
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crs
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by crs »

" I think I will use dirt and use the ties to build a [ shape so I can get by with less dirt of put a wall on each end with a short berm in the middle. "

Vance,
That is what I planned until my daughter told me the shooting would put her Welsh ponies off their feed. :x
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walks with gun
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by walks with gun »

Heck, it's a good thing to get ponies and horses used to a little gunfire, start with a loud cap gun then a 22 rifle, etc.. Heck the next gunfire them ponies might hear is a Texas lawman getting rid of a few more terrorists.
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vancelw
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by vancelw »

crs wrote:" I think I will use dirt and use the ties to build a [ shape so I can get by with less dirt of put a wall on each end with a short berm in the middle. "

Vance,
That is what I planned until my daughter told me the shooting would put her Welsh ponies off their feed. :x
I heard Welsh ponies taste like chicken :D
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by Rusty »

I read not long ago that Google is the world's largest search engine. Second is Youtube. I did a youtube search not long ago myself and found this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdPSAoPx3R0
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TedH
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TedH »

Rusty wrote:I read not long ago that Google is the world's largest search engine. Second is Youtube. I did a youtube search not long ago myself and found this one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gdPSAoPx3R0
After reading through the thread over on cast boolits, I had about decided to use a 55 gal. plastic drum I have and build a stand for it, fill it with the rubber mulch and make a replaceable end cap to shoot, but I really like the design of that one in your link Rusty. I think I'd make it a bit larger and put some angled plates on the top and bottom too. Thanks for the link.
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bdhold

Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by bdhold »

isn't this what burms are for? pile up a few yards of dirt and sod it
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TedH
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by TedH »

bulldog1935 wrote:isn't this what burms are for? pile up a few yards of dirt and sod it
If you read the original post, I stated that I wanted something to make lead recovery easier than a mining operation.
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Re: Need home range backstop ideas

Post by 3leggedturtle »

I did 8 pallets with plywood on each end and 2x4"s nailed along sides to hold together, filled it up with dirt. Lasted from 92 until '06 when they finally decayed enough to fall apart.
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