backstop to salvage minie balls?

[Maillemaker]

So these 530 grain minie balls I'm casting burn through lead in a hurry.

Is it possible to build a backstop out of say 1" steel plate held at a 45 degree angle to deflect the rounds into the dirt for recovery? Or maybe into a bucket of water?

Steve

[RaiderANV]

Recovered lead works fine......long as your recovery system allows you to live through your session. :shock:

[Michael Bodner]

Doesn't really matter too much about the angle (45, 30...), all the lead will ride the plate and end up at the base. It will NOT reflect 90-degrees to the impact angle.

So basically, prop up the plate and put lots of sand at the point where the plate touches the ground.

-Mike

[rampa_room_artillery]

sounds like a great idea, i have thought of it myself, but here are the facts.
4x8 foot sheet of 1inch steel plate weighs 1305 lbs. ok at .30 cents a lb for scrap prices at the salvage yard if you can find the steel. is 390 dollars. and that is just on sheet of steel you will need at least 2 maybe 3. sheets. so we are up to 1200 dollars. well for 1200 dollars i can sell you 1200 lbs of soft lead. how long will it take you to shoot all of that? but if you have free steel, GO for it . i to can get steel almost free. adn have thought of it. i would like to see how well it worked.

rick bryan

[Michael Bodner]

1 inch!! What the heck are you shooting out of that musket!!! 1/4" will be fine for our types of guns. I just wouldn't shoot any modern centerfire at it.

I used a 1/8" sheet for years and shot at it with a .22 handgun. Literally thousands of rounds without issue. A few stray shots with lead .38's - But they left dings in the plate.

Go to the scrapyard and see what they have. 4 ft high x 4 ft wide would make for a nice backstop. When tilted at 45-degrees, the frame would be 34-inches tall - More than enough for 1 target. You might want to toss some sandbags on the back to keep it in place - 500+ grains of lead is a lot of momentum to stop...

-Mike

[Maillemaker]

I guess the weight is the biggest issue. I do all my shooting at a public range so whatever I made would have to be portable.

I was thinking something maybe a couple of feet square that could mount on a 2x4 frame about table-height, at a 45 degree angle to the ground, so that I could walk it down range and it would deflect the rounds into the ground, where I could recover them. But if it has to be like a 4x8 sheet of material I can't easily drag that down range and back.

I wonder if it would be feasible to make a wood-framed box with curtains of Kevlar hanging in it with weights on the bottom of the curtains, so that incoming rounds would get "wrapped up" in the curtains as the "floofed" around the incoming bullet. I know they put these inside the doors of "bullet proof" cars to soak up incoming rounds.

Steve

[Bill Weitz]

A few years back, a member posted how he built a trap that hung behind the target. It was a barrel full of sand or something like that. Unfortunatly it was on the general post so I can't refer the the post. Maybe the fella that made it could repost how he did it.
-Bill

[Michael Bodner]

Actually, a big pile of sand is VERY effective. It will stop just about everything because the energy is transferred into the slowly moving/expanding amount of sand and it disipates quickly. Sort of like a bullet-proof vest - It spread the energy over a larger area and can absorb the energy more easily.

At Picatinny, we used to shoot 155mm howitzer rounds into a 'tunnel' that was backed only by tons of sand. Firing took place from about 50-yards away.

Ever read about WW2 beach invasions and how bombs & mortars were less effective on the beach if they detonated upon impact? Turns out the sand absorbs so much of the energy that the 'explosion' is greatly diminished. Air burst are a different story, however....

-Mike

[MR. GADGET]

i remember some of those posts about the trap.
We made a plate of steel to shoot at for our shoot and it was 1" steel about 18" square. Most of the time there was a pile of lead at the base of it.
If you put the steel at 45 deg and say 1/4" steel you should be fine and have a pile of lead at the base.

[Maillemaker]

Do you set it on the ground, or can you set it on a stand to deflect shots into the ground?

Steve