Compact Bullet Trap

So I decided I needed to shoot at targets like when I was in Gun Club the 6th grade. I would walk to school with my Remington .22 and Ammo and then go shoot when school was over. But now I shoot pellets in the basement.

Oh yeah, this is my new backstop for Airgun pellets. I used the Rubber Mulch method that many others have described online but wanted a compact, relatively portable (32 lbs.), and, in my opinion, handsome unit.

This trap protects a 12 inch by 12 inch area. This is good size for like 10m target distance, for example.

I like making stuff so I have a lot of odd materials in stock. Therefore, I decided to build this for only the cost of the Rubber Mulch. I was able to scrounge the rest. Bet you can too!

Needed are a sturdy plastic Milk Crate, 1 bag of Rubber Mulch, and a contractors trash bag. Other supplies to be revealed as we go along. There are various ways to go but the emphasis is on using what you may already have lying around.

Rubber Mulch comes in a .8 cu. ft. bag. Putting .8 cu. ft. into the 1 cu. ft. space of the crate = 9.5" depth. This seemed like a good depth and doable with one bag of the Rubber and this project only allowed for one bag!

The trash bag will allow the Rubber to be packed, unpacked, and repacked as necessary and should contain dust generated by shooting into it.

I put the trash bag into Crate, filled it with the whole Bag of Rubber compacting as I went, Hmmm. Looks like 8" to me. I still need the 9 1/2" depth. I also need something to attach targets to.

Looking around, I found this item that used to be a greeting card rack. It is 3/16" hardboard with 3/4" x 1" wood strips. These were attached with ring shank nails, so forget about taking this apart in one piece! I cut it up as shown to form a box. Not really necessary but I used what I had, it added a level of safety for angled shots, and it took up some interior space.

I put a piece of 1/4" MDF and a piece of 26ga sheet steel that was exactly the right size right out of my junk metal box! I then added a 4"x 4" piece of 1/8"steel plate package-taped on. Since all shots will be bullseyes, the middle might get worn out. I added 1/2" shims in 4 places. Finally, I put the hardboard pieces into the Crate. I didn't bother to fasten them together. The way they nest and the next step takes care of that.

Add the Rubber a few inches at a time and thoroughly pack it down. I used a length of 4x4. The depth was still not where I wanted it be. I dumped out the rubber, added scrap wood 'filler' pieces to all four sides and filled it back up again. The depth looks good now and the Rubber is concentrated more toward the middle of the Crate where it is most needed.

I trimmed off the excess trash bag, folded it over the Rubber, and secured it with 4 sticks wedged under the target frame. I positioned these out of way of the bullseye, so of course, I will never hit them. But should that happen, they are easily replaced. Using pushpins, I attached a piece of heavy, black paper to the perimeter frame. Targets are also pinned to the frame.

Well, this thing stops pellets from my co2 pistol alright!. They penetrate into the mulch maybe 1". This is certainly overkill for stopping an air pistol pellet and is probably more suitable for larger caliber center fire use.