BULLET TRAP OR GONG FOR HOME MADE RANGE

My range for the Bulldog .357 has two rows of bricks, a concrete paver behind it, and two layers of wood behind it. I have had bricks break from a single shot of the Bulldog .357. It requires a substantial backstop when firing the 145 grain Nosler Extreme slug.

this is what i use its made for .22cal rimfire very strong and using it now 3 years still in great shape, i shoot it with .25cal fx rifles and leave it out in the weather. you can put paper targets on it, it comes with a clip but i shot the clip to many times so i just tape targets to it.

Sonny,

Keep in mind a 22 Long Rifle rimfire cartridge hits with about 100 foot pounds of energy (FPE), A bulldog hits with almost 200 FPE.

The advantage of a gong is that it is easier to maintain.

The advantage of a pellet trap is that it keeps the area much cleaner.

I'd choose the gong if pellet shrapnel wasn't an issue. It is an issue in my yard so I use a cardboard box filled with rubber mulch as my trap and bring it back inside when I'm finsihed shooting.

Not exactly portable but I also went with a rubber mulch Trap set at 80 yards . It's 19 inches deep so it will catch anything that ill ever shoot at it . Catches slugs from .257 , .308 , and .45 Texans no problem . I recently hung a 4 inch gong on the 2x4 sticking out at the top and yes it does make a bit of a mess with lead splatter . I bet a 5gallon bucket of rubber mulch layed on its side would catch .357 just fine .

Put an AR500 target in front of a couple of hay bales. Make sure the target is hanging so when the pellets hit it they will deflect down at about a 45degree angle.Been doing it like that with my 6.5x284 for years and that method works great. The hay is for the pellet gun not a rifle obviously. I have two hay bales on top of each other and .25 cal pellets do fly through about one out of a hundred shots where there are soft spots in the hay. With a more powerful gun like yours, I would stack two bales of hay with two more behind them for energy dispersion if you miss the steel target. Hay bales are about $6 each where I live and you can buy an AR500 target on eBay for $10. So total cost will be less than $40. Stoti

I went to wally world (and have used Home D's too) and bought one of the 18" deep, 30 gallon storage 'tubs/totes' and filled it with rubber mulch, shook it around for a couple min and refilled it after it settled, repeat until it is full and does not settle any more.

I used #6-3/8 SS screws to secure the lid more firmly, every 4 inches all the way around because the two securing clips can not take the weight of the mulch when turned sideways.

Set it up turned on it's side and staple targets to the plastic lid. Or screw on a 'bulldog' clip to the top edge hang targets from.

After shooting over 100 shots from my re-valved, 3800 PSI Texan using 364gr slugs at 900 FPS I had to screw a piece of Coroplast to the front as the original cover was too shot out and mulch was falling out the big hole. As it is shot out i have used 1/4 in paneling cut to fit the top and screwed on and other things but I get the Coroplast cheap so like n use that.

After about 4000 rounds (45, 357 and 25 cal) and multiple top changes the plastic rim was too worn out with too many screw holes so I poured the mulch into a new $5.00 tub and started over. Now if I was shooting just the smaller bore stuff it could last many thousands of shots and years but the bigbore stuff makes the trap face only last 4 or 5 months.

I have never had a 45 single slug go through even at point blank range and they only seem to penetrate about 12 to 14 inches. The mulch resettles around each bullet as it penetrates but I have had to add a couple of handfuls of mulch after 500 bigbore shots or so. I keep it in the backyard full time as it is all plastic and rubber and is not harmed by rain.

I do have a 4 x 4 triple sheet of 3/4 plywood bonded together with Liquid Nail adhesive behind the tub as a lightweight backstop just in case to keep any missed shots from going too much farther ... even the 45 slugs drop fast after going through that. Mainly I did this if any slugs were too close to the side of the mulch and deflected out the side, but I have been careful to only shoot the bigbores at targets centered on the tub face to minimize that. with the smaller calibers i am not worried about side exits so much.

Note I used to have a 24 x 36 1/4 steel plate at a 45 degree angle (giving a 24x24 target area) to deflect bullets into a sandbox which worked but the clang disturbed my neighbors. I live on the edge of a ritzy subdivision (built long after I was here, and I bought when there was nothing but miles of nothing around me, sigh) on 5 acres {400 foot long shooting lane/range} and with a good LDC and a trap like the mulch which is mostly 'silent' when the slug strikes they do not know I am shooting, haha

I use a big storage bin filled with rubber mulch, I have shot my bulldog numerous times. A few time we even brought it out to a friends lot and shot some of his handguns at it and nothing passed through. I do have a 1/16 thick hardened steel backer in there but the slugs never get the chance to reach it. The bullet has to go through a foot or more of rubber mulch then steel.