Great not so little bullet trap

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MrP

MrP

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Apr 29, 2020
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New Lebanon, NY, USA
I bought a 12” x 12” centrifugal bullet trap off of eBay. Not much more than the (less effective) standard .22 rimfire traps but much more effective for recovering intact lead nuggets and producing essentially zero back-splatter of lead fragments. Because the lead is always hitting at a shallow glancing angle it doesn’t break up as much as in my rimfire trap.

I’ll attach a couple of photos… I admit the one showing the inside of the catch container isn’t a great shot but you can kind of see the streaks from the pellets running along the inside of the curve.

The trap is quite heavy and very solid construction. I got it for $140 which i feel is a great price.

Search for 12” bullet trap on eBay and you should see one listed. The seller seems to list one at a time, with a brief pause after the end of each auction so if you don’t see the centrifugal trap available try again in a few hours.

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Perfect for that scenario. Been shooting high powered airguns into a standard rimfire trap and putty trap in my garage for the last two years and i wish I’d had this. The rimfire trap is way too dusty and kicks back too much lead - makes a mess fast and lots of dust created. The putty trap is too much of a hassle to recover lead from - and the lead stinks when melted down.

This trap does not have a closed container - the pellets just drop out of the open bottom of the cylinder into a box or bag once they slow down.
 
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My trap is home made and quiet - noise comes from the pellet hitting the target. I found a small electrical breaker box in my shed. Probably about 12x12 and about 4 inches deep. I screwed some 3/4 x 3/4 wood pieces to the sides to fasten cardboard to. I filled it with rubber mulch. If the mulch slumps I may hit the back but nothing has come close to going through. My most powerful airgun is a little over 40 ft lbs.

I've recovered pellets from the mulch before. Best method of sorting I've found is a leaf blower. The mulch moves a lot more readily than the pellets. Only takes a few minutes to get the pellets out and the mulch is reusable.
 
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BlackICE said:
Seems like a great design for recovering the lead with minimal damage. Too bad quietness is more important to me then lead recovery. I presume this one is quite loud. I wonder how quiet it would be after gluing on the outside some Dynamat or similar product.
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It’s not as loud as a gong or my .22 rimfire trap, again because the pellet hits only at a glancing angle, but it definitely makes a good “bong” sound when you hit it. Rubber mulch or putty seems like the way to go for your case. Putty trap is great because there is very little to no lead dust and very little mess as long as you maintain the trap
 
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What could potentially reduce the BONG of impacting pellets on that trap might be to put a layer of duct seal on the outside of the cone. It sticks well and would dampen the metal vibration caused by the impact. Would still be a bang but should "ring" less. Split the blocks lengthwise, about a 1/2" layer should be enough to make a difference.
 
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MrP said:
It’s not as loud as a gong or my .22 rimfire trap, again because the pellet hits only at a glancing angle, but it definitely makes a good “bong” sound when you hit it. Rubber mulch or putty seems like the way to go for your case. Putty trap is great because there is very little to no lead dust and very little mess as long as you maintain the trap
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I've been using this DIY rubber mulch trap. But it weighs like 38 lb with no pellets in it. I have an emptied it yet but I think it's well over 40 lb now. How much does your bullet trap weigh? Someone commented on my on my use of a rubber tile in front having the pellets bounce off. I built it for my 25 caliber gun and it works perfectly for that. However when I got a low power 177 more than half the pellets or bouncing off the front of the rubber tile.


Quiet rubber mulch pellet trap.

Another forum member has mentioned, Well…being involved in a whole lot of "suspicious activity" in my 75 years, I've learned that unseen and quiet are two good friends to take along when shooting. https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/help-deciding-on-air-gun/page/2/#post-378582 I totally...
www.airgunnation.com www.airgunnation.com
 
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BlackICE said:
Seems like a great design for recovering the lead with minimal damage. Too bad quietness is more important to me then lead recovery. I presume this one is quite loud. I wonder how quiet it would be after gluing on the outside some Dynamat or similar product.
Click to expand...
might try the spray foam crack filler covering the outside and then in a baggie wrap for weather protection ? there was a post that did the spray on standard pellet trap a week or so ago here .
 
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BlackICE said:
I've been using this DIY rubber mulch trap. But it weighs like 38 lb with no pellets in it. I have an emptied it yet but I think it's well over 40 lb now. How much does your bullet trap weigh? Someone commented on my on my use of a rubber tile in front having the pellets bounce off. I built it for my 25 caliber gun and it works perfectly for that. However when I got a low power 177 more than half the pellets or bouncing off the front of the rubber tile.


Quiet rubber mulch pellet trap.

Another forum member has mentioned, Well…being involved in a whole lot of "suspicious activity" in my 75 years, I've learned that unseen and quiet are two good friends to take along when shooting. https://www.airgunnation.com/topic/help-deciding-on-air-gun/page/2/#post-378582 I totally...
www.airgunnation.com www.airgunnation.com
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It is all 1/4” steel and is definitely heavy. 40 lbs seems like a reasonable estimate to me. Much heavier than my rimfire trap. I was surprised the first time I picked it up.
 
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I’ve got the same one but I’ve made some modifications to mine. I welded a carrying handle on the top, added two more tabs on each side to clamp cardboard backers to and welded a small vertical lip on the bottom edge to keep dust from falling out. I also fabricated a pan to fit the open end of the pipe to collect lead.

Fun fact… we see guns shot on TV and sparks fly when they hit an object and then we rationalize this in our mind because we all know that lead is non ferrous and can’t cause a spark right? In low light, shoot a pellet into your trap, without any target or backer and aim at the side wall. You will see a spark. Impossible you say? That’s what I thought too. Try it and share your results.
 
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That’s great that you can weld. I’m just trying to figure out where to situate this thing right now. A cover for the cylinder would be a nice touch.

I’ve actually noticed that in the past, little flashes of light where the bullet impacts. Also I have noticed some combustion smell near my traps when shooting at higher power


And I just checked - the trap is ~45 lbs.
 
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Those centrifugal traps are cool but I like my trap to be a little quieter. I have a rimfire trap but got tired of the clanging noise and mess from back splash and lead dust. So I stuffed it full of rubber mulch. I cut cardboard to size and use blue painters tape to fix it over the front. The blue painters tape doesn’t leave sticky residue behind like duct tape. I find that two layers of cardboard help keep the mulch in a little better and makes the target front lasts longer. I tape up the hole as I shot it out then replace the cardboard when it’s lost it’s integrity. I’ve thought about using a rubber landscape paver as a front to see if it’s quieter than the cardboard but cardboard is free so I haven’t tried the paver yet. Don’t know that I would recommend buying a rimfire trap to make a rubber mulch trap but if you already have one and don’t like the noise and mess like me maybe try stuffing it full of some rubber mulch. The mulch is cheap and the trap is a whole lot quieter and there’s no backsplash and broken lead pellets and lead dust and already has a built in backdrop so no worry about a pass through either. Works great.

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I bought one of these traps from the eBay seller a couple of years ago and love it. It's well worth the $140.00. To make it quiet I screwed and silicone glued pieces of 3/4" rubber mat material I bought at the local farm supply store. It weighs at least 50 lbs now, and makes more of a thud sound rather than a ringing noise when hit with even the biggest of ammo. To catch all the lead I set it on a a 9" pan and empty it out after several tins or boxes of ammo.
 
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Well I feel this guy deserves some business - he’s making a great product for much cheaper than other centrifugal traps I have seen. I was surprised that this was available.

one small update to my earlier report:

My 9mm ammo shot out of a Rex p stays in a single lump more or less. I shot some .25 H & N pellets at about 65 fpe and they did not hold up as well and were wafer thin and some were fragmented. I know that’s to be expected but one important thing for me personally (as I have been doing a fair amount of indoor shooting) is minimizing dust and crumbs. So a duct putty trap (and rubber mulch it sounds like) remain my gold standard for clean and quiet shooting.

Also I think I had said that there was no back splatter but there is a very small amount. maybe 1/20 as much as with my rimfire trap.
 
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MrP said:
I bought a 12” x 12” centrifugal bullet trap off of eBay. Not much more than the (less effective) standard .22 rimfire traps but much more effective for recovering intact lead nuggets and producing essentially zero back-splatter of lead fragments. Because the lead is always hitting at a shallow glancing angle it doesn’t break up as much as in my rimfire trap.

I’ll attach a couple of photos… I admit the one showing the inside of the catch container isn’t a great shot but you can kind of see the streaks from the pellets running along the inside of the curve.

The trap is quite heavy and very solid construction. I got it for $140 which i feel is a great price.

Search for 12” bullet trap on eBay and you should see one listed. The seller seems to list one at a time, with a brief pause after the end of each auction so if you don’t see the centrifugal trap available try again in a few hours.

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i want one but 14 x 18
 
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