Bullet trap for round ball?

I was wondering if anybody has constructed a bullet trap for round ball? I am thinking of trying to make one so I can recycle my lead. Theoretically I could melt them down and recast them with minimal losses. It seems like a shame to just waste the lead on target practice.

Lots of info in the search feature..

I made mine from a 35 gal barrel filled with rubber landscape mulch put wood over the opening where the lid was so i can staple targets to it .The mulch will stop all lead bullets in my opinion

Link to Jerry’s trap:

I read about a shooter who shot into the ends of large tree trunk sections. The lead was retrieved by burning the wood.

Try a large high caliber square silhouette hung at a 45 degree angle (sloping down to the ground) with the opening facing your shooting position with a sand trap under it. You could block in the sides if that is a concern.

Here’s one someone posted awhile back.

Here's a basic illustration. I add it here because although it's essentially the same as the photo in post 7, it shows the wood frame that holds the sawdust. IF you don't use sand or sawdust, then the lead you are trying to recover will imbed itself into the soil below, complicating recovery if that's part of the goal.

Actually I think the bottom edge of the plate, is supposed to be down inside the sawdust frame, and not resting on the back edge of the frame, when done right.



LD

My brother made one that mounted on a hand truck and was filled with sand. It's a box about 8in thick. Believe it or not, 8in of play sand will stop about any muzzleloader short of a cannon. I can personally attest his box will stop a 45/70 so I seriously doubt it would have any problems with a revolver.

Why doesn't someone take the discarded worn out heavy rubber conveyor belting cut into proper lengths ..bolt it to angle iron top and bottom and hang rack it from only the top iron with spacing
I should think rotating the the location of the positioning of the bullseye as well as changing up the order of the mats should produce a system capable of hundreds if not thousands of safely collected lead projectiles
If I had my own range this idea would already have been built but I give it an 80% chance of expected success
This and $1 will get you a Senior decaf coffee at McDonalds

Bear

Loosely fill a large cardboard box with old clothes/rags/towels and surprise yourself with how well it works.

Old Sparky said:

I was wondering if anybody has constructed a bullet trap for round ball? I am thinking of trying to make one so I can recycle my lead. Theoretically I could melt them down and recast them with minimal losses. It seems like a shame to just waste the lead on target practice.

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I made a bullet trap for my minie balls, it cost me a total of $11.42 cents. Find a metal or plastic 55 gallon drum, remove the top and fill 3/4 the way with damp sand. Create a drain hole for excess water to flow out, lay the barrel down with a brick under it to keep sand from falling out. Whenever you are ready to harvest your lead just sift though the sand (be sure you use masons sand and not fill sand, masons sand is fine and will work better with a sift) I had the barrel laying around and I bought a total of 500 pounds, only used about 350 pounds though, just dump the sand around the barrel to help hold it in place. 500 grain .575 minie balls only make it about 8 inches in before they stop.