Homemade Pellet Trap
I used an unserviceable SCUBA tank for a pellet trap.
Without the fins on the side the pellets would continue around the curve and zip right back at the shooter (the welds suck-I know). A white sheet showed that flattened pellet fragments flew out no further than three feet, no matter if the pellet hit the back or the swinging target. Most of the fragments collected in the base.
I don’t think I will shoot this in the house without a tarp or something if shooting on metal. I may just get some gooey backstop stuff and shoot paper.
The max shooting distance is only 15 yards, as seen in the lower picture.
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Duct seal is hard to find on the shelves. Its a very anonymous looking box. You can usually find it in the electrical component section (wire nuts etc).
Check online first to see if your store stocks it:
Once you get this stuff you’ll never look back.
I’ve pulled all kinds of stuff out my girls mouth. She loves loose carpet fibers. Once I saw a green thing hanging over her lip, and pulled out a long lettuce leaf -it was kept comming and comming like a magic trick. When she’s of age I’ll introduce her to the world of airgunning.
I was looking for duct seal at Lowes the other day and could not find it in electrical or plumbing and ductwork. It sounds like rags really do a good job at slowing pellets down.
Got my first fill of HP air yesterday and filled the bottle to 3000 psi -can’t wait to reach out past 50 yards, which is what the reactive targets are made for. One is 1.2 inches and the other is 1.5 inches.
That was my big concern, so thanks for sharing the experience.
been there mines 17 months old now…..stuffing it with putty would probably do the trick…until you find the kid digging in the putty for chunks of lead…really gotta be careful ….she will be walking and much more mobile soon, and gonna get into everything…hehe
My low power trap is a cardboard box with a cut out opening high on one side. Fill it with alternate layers of styrofoam and heavy carped backed up with rags, a piece sheet metal (to tell when wearing out) and another piece of wood in back.
For higher power guns, I simply sacrifice soft wood 4 X 4’s of scrap wood or stacked pieces of wood crate framing. They get chewed up pretty quick, but all pellets are trapped in the wood with no fragmenting.
I’ve heard that any barrel velocities over 800 fpm result in some lead dust being released to the environment.
Thanks for the suggestion 80. You’ve come up with a very handy system.
I’ve done some researching and found a site that talks about lead levels in members of an indoor shooting club:
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5423a1.htm
What concerns me is the dust formed from the friction of the pellet in the barrel. This is concerning, so I’ve decided to switch to depleted uranium pellets and a smooth bore barrel. 😉
Nice job!
for my indoor target (17 yards) I use a home depot bucket with duct seal in the bottom layer and the rest of the bucket is filled with old rags. I periodically replace the cardboard front which is held in place with Gorilla tape. When it gets heavy with too much lead in it, I dump out all the pellet riddled rags and replace. Not too many make it through the rags into the duct seal. Real easy trap…real easy to transport.
Yeah dollar, I read up on the effects of lead and it scares me now too.
The picture is in the basement and we do our living on the first floor, but I bet a good amount of residue can accumulate around the actual muzzle area.
I remember that the Army had decided to close down some full-size indoor pistol ranges built in the ‘70’s because of concern over lead dust and lack of filtering ventilation.
I live in crappy Spokane, Washington where you can’t even set off fireworks on the 4th of July, so most people drive 15 miles over into Idaho to celebrate. They have “no shoot” areas that extend beyond the boundaries of the city.
What I wouldn’t give for a one meter by 100 meter strip of land to shoot all day at.
Some of you guys are very fortunate.
just glad i don’t have to shoot indoors. the hill behind my target frames soak up all the lead i throw at it. the frames are just metal tubes with 3/8 plywood attached to them and when they get shot out, i just replace them. shooting indoors like that with a crawling infant in the house would scare the hell out of me for several reasons.
I like reactive targets but for my indoor I use Electrical Duct Seal and Paper plus lower pressure.
Outdoors! Game ON! I now use 4×6″ pressure treated as a backstop because my double 3/4″ pressure plywood was getting busted up. 😆
fill it with Great stuff expanding foam
then cut the fron flat so targets will hang
garranteed the pellets wont bounce back out!!
You could drop an LED down through the hole on top!
In retrospect, it would have been a better trap with the top removed, shooting down the length, with sand in the bottom. This will be fine for outdoors though, except the neighboors may hear the beautiful metal “ding”.
Sweeeeeet!
Deadly Accountant : Would it be possible to add some duct seal to your pellet trap to help collect the dust and fragments ? Just my .02¢’s
Sam ❓
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yes the duct seal will take allot of shots with minimal maintenance , all you have to do is mash the holes together after shooting a while.
Carpet scrapes work well too.