How do I make a backyard friendly pellet stop.

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I built this one from 3/4" plywood , with a removable lid. About 24"long , front is 12"X14". I put a metal frame 5" from the aperture to put a A4 sheet of paper kept in place with magnets.The inside walls are covered with accoustic foam. Behind the target there is a sheet of rubber foam and some plastic bags filled with sand , enough to stop a .30 pellet at 50 yards.
However , it seems that most of the noise is coming from the pellet hitting the target paper , and I struggle to fix this problem and make the system quieter.
Some kinds of paper are quieter than others , but still not perfect to my taste.

It seems that most of you use rubber mulch as a backstop ; this is a stuff Ican't find here in Belgium . Is it really made from rubber , and what is the "normal" purpose for this?

Thanks

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aldea6 said:
I built this one from 3/4" plywood , with a removable lid. About 24"long , front is 12"X14". I put a metal frame 5" from the aperture to put a A4 sheet of paper kept in place with magnets.The inside walls are covered with accoustic foam. Behind the target there is a sheet of rubber foam and some plastic bags filled with sand , enough to stop a .30 pellet at 50 yards.
However , it seems that most of the noise is coming from the pellet hitting the target paper , and I struggle to fix this problem and make the system quieter.
Some kinds of paper are quieter than others , but still not perfect to my taste.

It seems that most of you use rubber mulch as a backstop ; this is a stuff Ican't find here in Belgium . Is it really made from rubber , and what is the "normal" purpose for this?

Thanks

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Aldea6- that there is one of the coolest traps I’ve seen. I gotta say it’s in the top three! I can tell you put a lot of thought into the design and fabrication.
Sounds like you’ve done everything right towards noise reduction. Think of that impact at the target, and look around the direct sides. There’s nothing around the sides of the target front to deflect or muffle the sound. Maybe build a three sided enclosure out of wood, a top and two sides, and give it a clearance of 8” from your immediate trap. Make it about 2’ long and just set it a few inches behind your traps front, say 5”, so a whole 19” of this enclosure goes past the target.

Being 3 sided it’ll be easy to lift up out of the way for target changes. Even line it with 1” insulation board if you want to further quiet it down
 
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Looks like a lot of answers for quiet backstop, but no one really answered your question about metal targets, spinners making noise on impact.

You could change to other types of targets. Plastic army men, plastic animals, etc. but you would spend a lot of time picking up pieces and buying more.

You could also mask the noise. Take up a hobby of making wind chimes. Hang them around the yard, and detune them a bit with some clay or duct seal to be closer to the sound of the spinners. Hang a bunch near your backstop, and even give a few to the neighbors so they will here the chimes louder near them.

Otherwise, you are looking at shooting paper with the previously mentioned backstops to keep the noise down on impact.

Hope this helps
 
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rc4fun said:
Rubber mulch is old tires ground up into 'mulch' size chunks with the wire removed. It is colored so it's not black, even the black is colored, guessing it keeps the rubber smell away. People use it in their yards expecting it to last longer than regular mulch.
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Thanks!(y)
Emu said:
Cutting in half a car old tire and making a wood shelf to hold it in place should work perfectly well. You will never have a pass through and there should be no sound at impact.

The wood shelf duly made would avoid having something so horrible at your garden.
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Clever idea :)
 
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I haven't tried this but I think horse stall mats could make an effective backstop. Tractor Supply carries them and there are other sources. They are around 1/2 inch thick of solid recycled rubber. Not sure if one would be sufficient with higher powered air rifles but I would think 2 would stop about anything. I used them to cushion the stringers of some stairs on a roof. I cut them with a track saw.
 
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Emptied out three of my mulch bucket target holders today as part of upkeep. I have two out of the five I made currently in use but those will fill up before too long and the 1/2” thick anti fatigue mat I was using to hold the mulch secure is getting shot up, so I like to have two to three at the ready.
Here’s a pic of the shot up mat-
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And the pellets that were in it-
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I finally took advantage of the cleaned out mulch and redid a couple of buckets with new steel shrouds. Heavier than the originals at 16ga(originals were 22ga) and bolted up the protective 1/4” plate frame on the face. You can see in the pic what happens to 22ga sheet metal when hit with high velocity pellets. With that heavier shroud and the plate bolted to the face, it’s like a bumble bee into a car windshield which is traveling at freeway speeds.

Lastly, on this second gen version I allowed for the buckets natural taper when designing so this version my targets are facing me straight on and not angled down-
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Since rubber mulch is reusable in this application, my only needed consumable is the rubber pad insert. Through a connection from one of my ex students who runs the sheet metal shop I used to work at, a new duct liner came out in the last few years. Thick closed cell neoprene vs the old style insulation that got glued and pinned to the insides of the ducts. This type of liner is ideal for clean rooms and hospitals as no lung clogging insulation gets in the airstream. With its natural sound deadening trait, it’s also very ideal in ductwork installed in theaters, court rooms, etc.
He told me he’s got tons of scraps at 1” and 2” thick, so he’s bringing me some to see what works best.

You all seeking the best sound proofing materials along with all weather and anti rot properties, this material is what you want. Go to a local commercial HVAC shop and see if they’ll give you the scraps.

If the 2” pad works that’ll last a long time I’m thinking.
As soon as I have some in my hands and have shot thru it I’ll post a thread or maybe reply back on this one.

Sure wish that was around in my work life. I’ve sucked in my fair share of fiberglass dust in the 35 years of working around it.
 
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Well , as rubber mulch is not available where I live , I decided to make my own ! So I cut the flanks of some tyres into pieces and put them in my backstop ; seems to work , but I need some more to get better results , and rubber is not that easy to cut but with the right saw and a good machete to chop , it's easy.
I 'm not sure about the size of the rubber pieces , maybe smaller would be better.
The target paper is still noisy ; a kind of soft cardboard should be quieter , I think . Some experiments to go .....

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I collect all my amazon boxes for a few months. I take the biggest box and fill it with unfolded and cut to fit layers of the smaller boxes until it is filled up. Tape the outer box tight. I tack targets to the box and rotate it if one side gets too shot up. If the outer box is not big enough I tape too smaller boxes together. This lasts long enough until I get more boxes to make another one (a few rounds might barely escape towards the end). Then I just shove the old box in my recycle bin used pellets and all.
 
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JirehP05 said:
I am wanting to shoot my air guns more in my back yard but I live in a fairly populated area. How can I make a backstop or pellet trap that won’t make a ton of noise and be able to stop my pellets completely. I would just shoot metal targets but I feel like the pinging of the pellets hitting the metal every few days would become annoying for the neighbors.
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I use an archery target that I bought at my local farm supply store. i’ve shot a large out of pellets and slugs into it at close range while tuning my FX air gun and have never had one pass through it yet.

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I don't like to overthink things.
I use a wood pallet. I screw a section of rubber horse stall mat to the pallet, and then a second to that.
That gives me about 1 1/2 inch of rubber to stop the lead.
As good measure, I will stuff scraps of wood in the spaces of the pallet.

My wife has horses, and I work at horse shows so I have a pretty endless supply of old damaged rubber mats to replenish with once I have shredded what I have hung on the pallet now.
 
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jmohme said:
My wife has horses, and I work at horse shows so I have a pretty endless supply of old damaged rubber mats to replenish with once I have shredded what I have hung on the pallet now.
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You're fortunate.

I too use horse matting for my small 24" * 14" trap that I initially built using matting from Tractor Supply. Unfortunately, it's become nearly impossible to find small (4' x 8') sheets locally.

Additionally, though I like the matting, it's not very quiet.
 
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I use a 12 inch section of a large diameter softwood log (like white pine) as a target butt, pin a target to it and shoot into the end grain.

I attach 3 legs to the log to raise it to a convenient height.

They last quite a while. When the log gets too shot up I split it and reclaim the lumps of lead for making jigs and sinkers.

I use a wall of logs as the safety backstop but the target butts collect the lead.

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