Finally got around to building these-

I don't see any CCWI181 pukie on those seams, you want to have an air leak and have the Duct tester guy fail your Bucket trap .... , Nice little pellet catcher, oh and watch out with those seamers, they bite.....

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Ha ha! You must be a fellow tin smith. Area local?

Posting results of first time using these rubber mulch bucket traps. Had my friend use my 30 cal LCS SK19 shooting the 48g vortex strike pellets at approx 965-970 FPS, at Full Auto.



This was at 50 yards in full auto. No penetration out back for sure. 


I would call this project a success then. 


My buddy had never fired a semi auto anything ever before, so as a warm up I had him shoot a single shot into this beer can that was filled with water. The large carnage opening is the point of entry

Today I finally emptied out one of my mulch bucket target set ups as the screen was all shot up and the mulch was pouring out. I think the screen, with a backing behind it helps to hold back the mulch longer from falling out. 


I used the cut outs from the buckets as my backer the first time and it made it thru 15 full high capacity magazines before needing to get replaced. That’s about 400-420 shots. Here’s all the pellets strained out of the mulch-


as it turned out, dumping the mulch into an inverted plastic garbage lid worked out as the heavier lead sifted its way towards the lower middle section of the lid as I grasped the mulch back with both hands cupped and shaking to shake out any pellets before I dumped the mulch back into the bucket. 


oh, and the concept of pouring the rubber mulch into a bucket of water thinking the mulch will float up while pellets drop to bottom, don’t even try it, as rubber mulch also does drop to the bottom.

So I simply replaced the screen and this time for my backer I had a roll of leftover aluminum flashing from a waterproofing job I did recently on my front porch beams, and this in combination with the screen will help to keep the mulch intact for another 400, maybe 500 rounds-

Ha ha!!

My design was fueled by a few things-

1. Portability- I made five of these so at 60 to 100 yards I could set these out in 10 yard increments and leave them out there. When it came time to pick them up just drive around in the side by side and toss them in the back

2. I had a lot of buckets left over from chlorine tablets. Hate throwing buckets away, so I figured out a way to put them to use.

3. Magnets or inexpensive plastic alligator clips hold the targets so easily.

Nothing wrong with using totes. I give all credit to INTENSEATY22 as he was the first to come up with the plastic tote and rubber mulch combo. It was his concept that started me in finding a way that would better suit me.


I also had to look ahead at the maintenance part of it, and that is emptying out the bucket and sifting out all the lead. I go thru almost 18 fx high capacity mags before having to empty out the bucket, which is approx 500 pellets. One five gallon bucket perfectly hold exactly one bag of rubber mulch to the lid. I cleaned out three buckets the other day. Dumped the mulch, sifted out 95% of the ammo, replaced the front backer, and re dumped in the sifted mulch and it took me exactly one hour.


The bucket idea to me just sounded easier handling wise than a box or tote full of probably two bags of mulch.

♫♫ •¤ª"˜¨¨¯¯¨¨˜"ª¤•--•¤ª"˜¨¨¯¯¨¨˜­"ª¤ SUPER ¤ª"˜¨¨¯¯¨¨˜"ª¤•--•¤ª"˜¨¨¯¯¨¨˜"­ª¤• ♫♫

Now sell me one!

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I actually have plans on producing these for sale. Just have to see if there’s a large want for these as hand making the sheet metal pieces are a labor intense deal and take some time. 

@bigragu You’re smarter than I going the route you took. You don’t seem to let yours get too full. I’ve been working on cleaning my trap out for a few days. It’s filled with rags and pieces of paper backing that have been shot to dust. Seems like I have a few thousand rounds in this thing. Next go ‘round will likely be some sort of rubber mulch outfit.

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What keeps me from going too full is when I go to change the target and the bucket starts vomiting out the mulch thru the sheet metal fitting, ha ha. Then that means I have to dump, sift, and change out the screen and metal backer that holds the mulch in place. 

I’ve already got a 1 gallon bucket full of used pellets. I’m hoping I can meet up with a local member that’s into melting lead and ill just give it to him/her