What Pellet Trap For Indoors? That Can Safely Catch a PP .25 Impact ?

Rubber mulch trap 

I filled a cardboard box with three bags of rubber mulch. It's about 9 inches deep. It stops my .25 Gauntlet at 47 FPE no problem. You might need more depth depending on you FPE output. 

I've heard the rubber mulch works very well, although I haven't tried it myself. What I've been using is some 1500 ballistic fabric from Amazon that I have folded about 10 tens over itself to make a backer in a carbdoard wine box. I also line the side with a layer or two of the fabric to prevent anything straying off to the side from getting out. Then I stuff the front with old towels and clothes to quiet the target down. Handles .30 @ 90fpe with no issues.

I use a Duct Seal pellet trap and have for decades. Three of the 5lb bricks, purchased in the hardware store electrical section, gives me a 10x12x2 inch trap. I have shot my 100fpe 9mm into them and it does not penetrate. It did however split the 3/4 inch oak on my trap. ;^( Home Depot has it also. It does not smell like the rubber mulch either.

Made a rubber mulch trap out of a 5 gal bucket for a friend. Just cut a hole in the lid and taped some cardboard there to put the targets on. He uses it in his back yard and it werqs well.

A good friend from another forum that I haven’t met in person jet, made me this out an electric panel for free, how cool is that!!! it’s filled with mulch, Thanks Rick!!!!!!




Renz

This is the one I use in my basement range, it’s designed for small caliber rimfire rifles and is perfect for our airgun use.

This is the same one I use in my shop.They are built for rim fire.

I made one with used conveyor belt 4"x8"..although there are multiple sizes..

Imagine a "table for one" with a 4"x8" cut-out ant the conveyor belt mounted to a spring loaded door hinge.

Stops 80ft/lb .30 no problem. Pellets flatten and don't penetrate. The belt is pretty heavy so it absorbs the impact and the pellets just drop under the target after passing through what ever the target is.



4"x8"

https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Black-Conveyor-Belt-Rubber/dp/B006G2DHAG/ref=sr_1_12?dchild=1&keywords=Conveyor%2BBelt&qid=1585864864&sr=8-12&th=1

8"x8"

https://www.amazon.com/Heavy-Black-Conveyor-Belt-Rubber/dp/B006G2DFLM/ref=sr_1_108?dchild=1&keywords=Conveyor%2BBelt&qid=1585865099&sr=8-108&th=1

I am curious about the sound level of some of these options. I don't have a separate shooting space so silent targets are important. The target I described above is near silent when hit - the smack on the paper is the loudest part.. I am wondering how loud it is hitting the rubber mulch, conveyer belt, duct putty, etc?

The duct seal is pretty much a silent trap. It is like yours the pellet hitting the paper is about all you hear until the trap gets full of lead. Then it makes a little more noise but not allot.

Same with rubber mulch traps. Pellet hitting the cardboard/paper is the only real noise. Best part about rubber mulch traps is that you can repeatedly shoot into the same spot and they don't bore thru. The much fills back in on itself.

My basement tuning pellet trap worked great with 22 but the problem started when I got this my new 25......I got a problem of a shot through (I was tuning up the gun with a chrono in front so pretty much shooting a single spot) solve it with a 1/4" steel backplate. Then I got another problem with ricocheted shred and dust, so I build an extra box around. Then this whole thing is moving from KE. I didn't got yet to a point how can I quiet it down...that 1/4" back stop is laud. I don't know what is making more bang the gun or the target. And still winter at my place 3-5C and the police charging everybody who leaves homes...

I own two traps. One made out of an electrical NEMA pull box, and another out of 1/4” welded plate. The welded plate one weighs close to 60 lbs with 9 bars of duct seal, and that is used on the end of a 6’ table strictly for chronograph testing as it will not budge from a 30 caliber pellet going 940+ FPS. 

The one made out of the electrical box, is my second in this style. The first one got the outer flange mangled from the 30 cal pellets slamming into it at 40 yards away. So I had a 1/4” welded plate picture frame style, and bolted onto the front flange to protect the face of it, and bolted a flat 1/4” plate inside the backside cause continuous hits to the center mass will eventually blow a hole out the back, like I did my first one. 



The electrical box box set up is much lighter even with the 7 lbs of duct seal, so that has become my sight in target box out in the front lawn. I’ve found plate steel to be as effective over pellets like a windshield is to a bumble bee at 75 mph. The windshield wins.

I would need that duct seal to dampen the vibration inside my box, but what happens once you fill the trap with shred anyhow to clean or just scrape it of and put a new in?

Same with rubber mulch traps. Pellet hitting the cardboard/paper is the only real noise. Best part about rubber mulch traps is that you can repeatedly shoot into the same spot and they don't bore thru. The much fills back in on itself.

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Two inch thick duct seal has never bored through even after thousands of shots at higher power levels. After awhile the pellets just build up and form a solid piece of lead.

I would need that duct seal to dampen the vibration inside my box, but what happens once you fill the trap with shred anyhow to clean or just scrape it of and put a new in?

Click to expand...

I just ball it up and chuck it. Put new duct seal in. It takes awhile to get to that point, though..



anytime me I get a package like from a piece of furniture, and inside the box the packers put in slabs of 2 or even 3” foam(not styrofoam, but the packing material that looks more like a dense sponge) I cut those the exact same size as my pellet trap opening, so it’s a bit of a tight fit getting in there. It makes a great backing for targets, and confines pellet dust and schrapnell from falling out.

I packed the inside of the trap with layers of a special cardboard that’s coated in some sort of black paint from the factory and this stuff makes the trap near silent while also trapping fragments of ammo, you need to be mindful of ricochets.

I use a simple Archery based arrow trap.

A block of closed cell foam. Mine is 20" x 20" x 12" thk. It catches .22 pellets just fine. Quiet as a church mouse, pellets don't bounce out of it. I move the target around so there isn't one small area where the pellets go to over use one single spot. And when the front side does get shot up, (a long way down the road), you turn it around and start over.

I use a piece of wire to locate the targets where I want them.

They can be bought in many different size configurations.

And like I said, pellets don't bounce around...so...no cleanup, at all.





Mike



P.s - Mine is on a box at the end of my hall. Shoot across the living room, and down the hall. If I wan't a longer range, I open the back door..!

I'm curious if anyone has tried melting the duct seal and pouring it through a strainer to recover the lead? Does it solidify back to normal or not?