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Normal Topic Safer Bullet trap for indoor use (Read 240 times)
ssdave
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Safer Bullet trap for indoor use
Jul 20th, 2026 at 5:45pm
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I dumped the lead out of my bullet trap last week.  It always spits out some lead, and I noticed a lot of fine lead dust in front of the trap.

Got me thinking about my lungs and blood lead level.  So, decided to do something about it.

I had a slightly bigger trap that I wasn't using.  I decided to mofify it to use Duct Seal putty, to stop the bullets hitting steel and causing dust.  

I'm very happy with the results.  About $30 worth of putty.  It's quieter, doesn't bounce back pellets and fragments, and no dust.

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« Last Edit: yesterday at 9:19am by ssdave »  
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jimmy
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Re: Safer Bullet trap for indoor use
Reply #1 - yesterday at 8:05am
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22 LR?   

I have a 22 size bullet trap and may try this. Thanks.
  
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westerner
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Re: Safer Bullet trap for indoor use
Reply #2 - yesterday at 9:48am
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How do you recover your lead? I'm using (not very often)  a surplus bullet trap from Fort Lewis WA. Never spits lead back. Has sort of a snail thing on it the bullets go into and drop into an upside down removeable fence post cap.
  
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Jonathan
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Re: Safer Bullet trap for indoor use
Reply #3 - yesterday at 12:11pm
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During the winter months I shoot a lot indoors and have had all the problems associated with steel bullet traps. What I did was to build a simple open box frame to hold old folded up blankets tied into bales about 20" thick. This will stop anything under 700fps and when an area gets shot out just remove the blankets, shake them out and there's your lead. Re-fold them, put them back in the frame and you're good to go. You can get a lot of mileage out of a few blankets and when they are shot to pieces I put them outside in the spring and the birds love them for nesting material. Win, Win at garage sale prices. By the way, this set up is light enough to hang on a wall so it's quite handy. I  also forgot to say that any heavy fabric will work like old blue jeans etc.    Cheers
  
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marlinguy
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Re: Safer Bullet trap for indoor use
Reply #4 - yesterday at 2:13pm
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At our indoor range at the gun club our trap had nothing but exhaust fans to suck dust back into the trap, so it always had some lead on the floor in front for 18"-24" ahead of the trap.
We bought 1/4" thick horse stall mat that comes in 5'x8' size and is made from recycled tires. We buy it at the local Wilco store for $109 and we installed four grommets at one end and screwed four lag bolts above each of our 12 shooting positions to hang behind our target holders. We have 12 upper and 12 lower target holders so the sheet covers it all.
We get zero lead on the floors now, and we can raise the rubber curtain and shovel out any lead that builds up behind it easily. The stuff lasts a very long time, and the vast majority of holes are behind bullseyes of each target. When it eventually does get shot out we drop it down, and cut out the area. Then we use contact cement on the backside to glue a patch over the worn hole and hang it back up.
One sheet of this for a home range would last a lifetime of shooting, and make cleanup and lead recovery extremely easy. Our indoor range sees everything from .22LR to .44 Magnums and the holes just open up as the bullet passes through, and close leaving a hole you can barely see.
  
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