bullet trap???

[CJ6]

My friends berm is made from railroad ties. 8ft square/high with a 3ft square front opening (with HVY belting) covering the opening. It's filled with sand and dirt. It gets used for everything from 22 rf to his BIG guns 460 Wea.- 577.
He built it back in the early mid 80s and it's still rock solid. If I remember he's only replaced the belting 3 times since building.

 

[farmerjohn]

Hey Fellers, I built 3 of these, I keep 1 at a hundred yds and one at 3. . the other I can move out to 1k . Every few yrs I replace the target board with a half sheet of what ever is on sale at the lumber yard. Easy to move with the UTV... John

 

[ebb]

My wife has laid down the law and says she is not interested in a 22 bullet trap and has instructed me to buy this so she can shoot her handguns. https://www.thebulletbunker.com/44-ls Sometimes I have to tell her NO but sometimes she makes so much sense I just have to do what she says. I like the idea of the trap so lead gets recycled. I think a "U" from phone poles that encircles the trap may be in the near future.

 

[dantiff2]

 

[DShortt]

It irritates me to no end that people move out of urban areas, then immediately set about trying to make the rural area like the urban area was.
They'd save everyone, including themselves, a lot of time, trouble and money if they'd simply stay put.

 

[Knotwild]

That particular day, I was about 75 yards away shooting a 300 blackout off a tripod and the projectile that came back was a 245 gn cast bullet. I will add though: that I found several 9mm cast bullets out in front of my ties also. These hit and bounced out about 10 feet or so. I was just shooting through carboard/ with targets and using the ties as a stop. That ended once I realized that method did not "capture" the bullets. The sand is a dead stop. All bullets are 6-10" in and go no farther.

I did find 2 38 special 158gr semi wad cutters on the ground. I am limited in space so I would probably have to build a wall to hold the sand. But, you got me thinking. Thanks.

 

[1911nut]

I’d look into increased insurance, liability?

 

[Tangent]

All the ranges I shoot at use sand at a steep angle which is riddled every year to recover the lead. The right kind of sand is important so it doesn't slip.

 

[dgeesaman]

Rubber backstops have been known to catch on fire. May not be a problem with .22 rimfire rounds.

Yes from tracer rounds

 

[dgeesaman]

There isn’t an easy answer to this.
Some horses will bolt at the sound of an unsuppressed bullet leaving the muzzle or the bullet hitting a hard surface. Bolting horses get hurt and that creates civil liability.
If it were me I’d stick to .22LR subs with suppressors. I’d use a rubber mulch trap. They are durable and very quiet with airgun and rimfire. The secondary berm makes sense and Id be absolutely sure the firing line is set up so a bullet or ricochet cannot end up on her property.

 

[effendude]

About 15 years ago, I hired an NRA certified range consultant/engineer to inspect the club I belong to here in MN. We have ~300 acres within the city limits of a growing suburb. The state of MN used the NRA guidelines on range construction and operation as it's standards. One of the standards was the earth berm/backstops had to be 20' higher than the center of the target frame. Another was anything downrange of the firing line had to be made of material that would absorb the impact of a projectile basically meaning no metal or concrete.

For your situation, I'd suggest building a treated wood box buried into a dirt berm. 3-4' of dirt behind the box will absorb any round fired into it. We tested 50BMG, 375 H&H and 300 Win Mags, none traveled more than 24" into packed sand.

 

[Steve Donlon]

It irritates me to no end that people move out of urban areas, then immediately set about trying to make the rural area like the urban area was.
They'd save everyone, including themselves, a lot of time, trouble and money if they'd simply stay put.

I feel the same way but have watched as more and more people move from urban areas to the country, get into politics and change the laws to suit them. Change zoning laws and urbanize where we live. I guess it depends on where you live how many freedoms we still have. It works both ways where it was once quiet and peaceful then people from the city move to the country and think they are in the wilderness and can go into the forest and start shooting anything they want, shooting birds, animals, just start blasting anywhere they are not thinking about where their bullets are going. It seems common sense gets lost in the process.

 

[BHP9]

At my club we used conveyor belt from a stone slinger. It lasted 5 years of continuous use, except for winter.

It's a bear to cut and handle but more than likely do the job you want and would last a lot more than 5 years.