How deep a sandbox is needed to make a pistol bullet trap?

[nitesite]

I'm planning to capture my bullets in a trap made of an angled plate over a box filled with sand. Mostly going to shoot .38-Special with some 9mm and .357 thrown in. Maybe .45 Auto and 10mm as well.

Discuss....

[AdamN]

Read this, sand is pretty good at stopping bullets.

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot7.htm

[nitesite]

Thanks, Adam.

That's very close to what I was envisioning. A box with 6"-8" of sand on the ground and I can sift out the bullets every now and then. Plus I want to get the audible "CLANG" that you can't get with paper targets. Maybe I'll save them for a Festihannuchristiquanza gift if I draw a bullet caster's name.

Hitting the plate ought to take a little steam off of them, so the bullets almost certainly won't go very deep.

[AdamN]

A friend of mine does that, he doesent even use any sand, just catches them in a bucket. They splatter out pretty good from the metal plate.

He uses what looks like a big squarish funnel, with a hole in the bottom. The angles direct everything towards the hole. The majority of the bullets hit the angled back but the sides are angled in a little as well. I cant recall if the bottom is flat or not??

There are some good traps shown over at cast boolits....


A 5 gallon buck of "splatter" is really really heavy

[AdamN]

Huge bullet trap thread http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=26627

[Brass Nazi]

As a bonus you may find that a few feral cats uae your trap as a litterbox. FREE REACTIVE TARGETS:68:

[Pitmaster]

Good topic and info. I've been thinking about filling a 5 gallon bucket with sand and use it when pulling the trigger on a gun in the basement after checking it.

[Fatdaddy]

A 5 gallon bucket full of sand makes a fair bullet trap in itself for handgun rounds. You'll have to replace it around 6-8 hundred rounds.