Big Bang Pellet Trap

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Over my many years of shooting, I have made numerous traps, some really nice looking, but not long after putting my time and effort into the construction, it seems a few newbies akways shot up the nice looking trap !! I had worked with new shooters for many years helping to get folks started, typically shot with the new folks at club matches. Over a short time my " nice lookung traps" became not so nice looking from the errant flyers, especially from new shooters. Take lots of pictures or restrict the skill level of shooters at your nice looking traps, or just chalk it up to learning like I have. Nice traps....for now..lol
 
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AirShot said:
Over my many years of shooting, I have made numerous traps, some really nice looking, but not long after putting my time and effort into the construction, it seems a few newbies akways shot up the nice looking trap !! I had worked with new shooters for many years helping to get folks started, typically shot with the new folks at club matches. Over a short time my " nice lookung traps" became not so nice looking from the errant flyers, especially from new shooters. Take lots of pictures or restrict the skill level of shooters at your nice looking traps, or just chalk it up to learning like I have. Nice traps....for now..lol
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Hello @AirShot

If you read my first post I gave a shot limit 🤓.

Now to be truthful during a war steel tanks are damaged ☹️ heck even battleships are sunk...so what is your point? Wow!

ThomasT
 
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woogie_man said:
That isn't to bad!

Let me check with my "financial boss" and I will be in contact.
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Hello @woogie_man

OK, send me a PM if you want one and I will send to Pete.

I fabricated in aluminum for over 40 years ( I'm retired now ) and that is a heck of a good deal, there is a lot of material and fabrication time involved in that unit.

ThomasT
 
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ThomasT said:
Hello everyone,

I wanted a really good Pellet Trap that I could use both indoors and outdoors and one that would last for a long time. I could not find anything that I liked so I designed one from scratch, what I call the Big Bang Pellet Trap.

I designed it to be made out of aluminum ( except for the interior backing plate ) for two main reasons: 1) It would last forever in any weather conditions and, 2) It cuts the overall weight down for easy handling. The Target Face Opening is framed with aluminum angle for added reinforcement strength and a place to clamp on the cardboard backing material for your paper targets. An additional aluminum angel is added on the bottom at the back to act as a footing so that the Trap can be placed on a level surface. The front and rear angle can also have some holes drilled, for some screws to hold a “block” of wood to mount on a post or pipe.

The “back plate” of the Trap is set at an angle to reduce the impact of the pellet and deflect it downward and creating a “trap” for the spent pellets. The angle also eliminates any splatter from the pellet that would cause damage the backside of the paper target.

I added a 11-gauge ( 1/8" ) thick mild steel interior “backing plate” to enhance the strength so as to eliminate damage caused by a pellet. I have spent many weeks testing this Pellet Trap from 10-meters out to 50-yards and as a result I have determined that it can be safely shot with no damage under the following conditions:
At 10-meters no more than 30fpe, ( foot pounds of energy )
At 25-yards no more than 55fpe, ( foot pounds of energy )
At 50-yards no more than 70fpe, ( foot pounds of energy )
I have shot this Trap almost 600 times as of today and it shows no sign of wear at all.

I designed this for use with Airgun Pellets ONLY, NOT to be used with any rim fire of center fire ammunition.

I have a good friend who owns a welding fabrication shop and asked him to build two of these Traps for me and here are a couple of photos. They work great and are so easy to set up, change targets, change target backing material, move to different locations and easy to store. All of the spent pellets and target paper and cardboard backing material that has been shot winds up inside for a no mess and easy clean up.

ThomasT
View attachment 326720View attachment 326721View attachment 326722View attachment 326727View attachment 326728
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ThomasT

The only thing I would be interested in being added to the design would be to see if he could make a steel frame/bezel for the front of the trap to compliment the steel backing plate. As someone else had mentioned new and young shooters being taught marksmanship are not very accurate at first. As shooters should be somewhat square to the target there should be minimal amount of shots hitting the aluminum side walls.

-PJ
 
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PelletJunkie said:
ThomasT

The only thing I would be interested in being added to the design would be to see if he could make a steel frame/bezel for the front of the trap to compliment the steel backing plate. As someone else had mentioned new and young shooters being taught marksmanship are not very accurate at first. As shooters should be somewhat square to the target there should be minimal amount of shots hitting the aluminum side walls.

-PJ
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Hello @PelletJunkie

I have a call in for him now but it may be late tonight before he calls me back, they are building Crawfish Cookers now and real busy.

I know he could do it but, I'm not sure how that would effect a production run of 10 units. I will let you know here when I find out. Please stand by.

ThomasT
 
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ThomasT said:
Hello @jccams

At the time he did not know exactly but I will give him a call this morning and find out.

ThomasT
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Before the war on fuel, shipping might have been OK, now? And the noise would make this a no go for some of us.
Nice box all the same!
Sorry I didn't read to the end. The price with shipping is reasonable! The noise is unexceptable to Liz Karen next door :cautious:
 
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rc4fun said:
Before the war on fuel, shipping might have been OK, now? And the noise would make this a no go for some of us.
Nice box all the same!
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Hello @rc4fun

You cannot hear the pellet hit the backing plate. As soon as the gun goes off you hear that report and the pellet hits the Trap at the same time. The sound of the pellet makes so much less noise that the gun report cancels out the pellet sound. Look at where I am shooting indoors at my small shop and I do not hear the pellet. As I had stated earlier, the aluminum absorbs most of the sound and I am shooting at 15-feet.

*** Go to post #43 to watch a video and you will see the Trap is really quite

ThomasT
 
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Martin3528 said:
Do you put anything in the bottom of the trap?
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Hello @Martin3528

No sir just the aluminum bottom. Look at my first post and you will see one photo taken of the inside with a whole bunch of spent pellets and the small bit of trash ( cardboard backing and target paper bits ) that have collected. If you save the lead this makes it so easy to collect the pellets and discard the trash, or you can simply dump everything. Here is that photo.

ThomasT
Big Bang Pellet Trap 104.jpg
 
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ThomasT said:
Hello @PelletJunkie

I have a call in for him now but it may be late tonight before he calls me back, they are building Crawfish Cookers now and real busy.

I know he could do it but, I'm not sure how that would effect a production run of 10 units. I will let you know here when I find out. Please stand by.

ThomasT
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Hello @PelletJunkie

Pete suggest that it would be a lot less expense for you to buy a stock Big Bang Pellet Trap and pick up some steel flat bar locally. Then simply drill some holes in the flat bar and the aluminum angle and bolt in place.

ThomasT
 
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ThomasT said:
Hello @Martin3528

No sir just the aluminum bottom. Look at my first post and you will see one photo taken of the inside with a whole bunch of spent pellets and the small bit of trash ( cardboard backing and target paper bits ) that have collected. If you save the lead this makes it so easy to collect the pellets and discard the trash, or you can simply dump everything. Here is that photo.

ThomasT
View attachment 326888
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I did see that, was just surprised they did not fly back out.
 
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cmatera said:
I have an insanely heavy duty trap that will even stop a .223 powder burner round (the black box with the yellow sticker in the pic), but it is very heavy (like 60 pounds). I am old and weak. I've been using a box stuffed with old blue jeans (the box with the target on it in the pic), but it is hard to clean. I will PM my phone number to you, because I don't do Facebook.

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I've got one that stops most anything, weights a ton, well 2 tons. Packed it full of rubber mulch and some carpet. Wish I'd know about these 6 months ago..
 
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ThomasT said:
Hello @PelletJunkie

Pete suggest that it would be a lot less expense for you to buy a stock Trap and pick up some steel flat bar locally. Then simply drill some holes in the flat bar and the aluminum angle and bolt in place.

ThomasT
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No doubt that's true but given that we are dumb and spend a small fortune on our little obsession....the price is more than reasonable.
 
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Martin3528 said:
I did see that, was just surprised they did not fly back out.
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Hello @Martin3528

The angle on the back reduces the impact of the pellet so much that last bit of motion is diverted straight down. I have now shot way over 600 pellets and not one has hit or damaged any of my Targets.

ThomasT
 
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