GTA
General Discussion To Gateway To Airguns => The Shop => : DanoInTx January 28, 2007, 10:17:06 AM
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I've made a few nice pellet traps in my short time as an airgun addict, but this one has got to be the easiest one, almost the cheapest, and most definately a silent pellet trap. This trap can be made for about $25 if you buy every piece, some of us have this stuff laying around, so it could be even cheaper. I built this in less than 3 minutes, while taking the photos, so it is definately the easiest. I have shot at this thing from 1 foot away with my S1K, my Hunter 220, and my sons daisy 880 BB gun with no ricochet and no penetration...and it is virtually silent and dust free, with the exception of the paper from the targets, but even alot of that stuff gets trapped.
Step #1, go to Wally World, or raid your Tupperware cabinet and find a suitable plastic tub, 12x9 inches or so is best if you plan to use self printed paper targets like me, but you can use whatever you have....keep in mind it needs to stand on edge, so a round tupperware is most likely out of the question. I think this "servalite" container was $2.99 at wally World.
(http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/photos/get-photo.asp?photoid=288)
Next step, go to Ace Hardware, Home Depot, where ever and buy a chunk of 22 gauge or better sheet metal, I think this was $4.50 at Ace, and was pretty close to the right size once folded, although it probably doesn't need to be as big as mine, a flat piece would probably work just as well. I just liked how it fit without cutting and kinda directs the edges towards the center during a ricochet. Bend, cut, fold, whatever you need to do to make it fit in the plastic tub.
(http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/photos/get-photo.asp?photoid=289)
Step #3, alot of people talk about Duct Seal as "plumbers putty", but it's not, it's an electrical item, not a plumbers item, you can buy at Home Depot or probably Lowe's for about $2 a pound, I took my chunk out of my wooden pellet trap that had sat in the rain and become a chunk of moldy splintered wood...I think this was about 8 pounds worth. I've seen this stuff online for less $ also, I think 99cents a pound was the best I saw for 1 pound sizes, and I think you can buy 5-10 pound blocks also for less $$$. Make a brick out of all of your duct seal about the shape of the tub and drop it into the tub. If your sheet metal piece is a tight fit like mine it sticks into the tub and the duct seal will stick to it. I might screw this whole thing to a wooden stand at some point to get it off the ground, at which time I'll screw right through the metal, through the tub, and into a 2x4...which I'll then attach to the stand. Trick to shape the duct seal is to put it all into a plastic grocery bag, then pound it into shape, that way it doesn't stick to you while you're pounding. Or if you have a slick concrete floor like I do in your garage, you can just pile it up into a pile on the floor, then mash it into shape with a chunk of wood, or whatever.
(http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/photos/get-photo.asp?photoid=290)
Next step, tape on a target and shoot
(http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/photos/get-photo.asp?photoid=291)
If your metal plate is small enough you can still use the plastic lid to cover it up when you're done and carry it around!
(http://www.gatewaytoairguns.com/airguns/photos/get-photo.asp?photoid=292)
This trap should handle many, many shots before you need to clean it out. Remember, lead is bad for you, wear gloves and don't eat it! The duct seal should last forever, just clean and reshape as it gets filled with pellets/bb's. I would guess, although I've never had a problem with it, if you shoot enough into one spot with bb's eventually you'll hit the steel plate and start ricochetting, so be careful when shooting bb's...or just stick to pellets.
Hope someone who wants/needs a new trap finds this interesting. I think I'm going to make a whole bunch of different sized ones of these on stands so I can shoot different ranges, targets, plastic army men, etc, for some variety.
Dan
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NICE DANO ! I just happened to have one of those tubs that I keep old pic's in. Dump the pics and make another pellet trap for my range. Once again, super idea guy. Ed
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....I saw something similar on the Crosman forum a few weeks ago made from a "kitty litter" container, I just made it a little less "poopy" (pun fully intended). forget what the other guy used to catch the pellets, think maybe it was phone books or something...can't remember. Either way this is cool because it's a whole lot easier to spend $2.99 at Wally World for a plastic tub than it is to make a wooden box in your garage...even if you do like wood work. I'll most likely also pop rivet a couple of those black metal paper clips to it to hold the targets rather than the tape, I suppose wooden clothes pins would be ok too and you could just hot glue them or epoxy in place. The plastic is also cool because you can just leave it outside, no worries about it getting soggy and turning into mulch like my last trap did. I used this thing in my garage when I'm messing with stuff and put it right behind the chrony, so I can test right there. I made a cardboard "difuser" that sits on the plastic chrony difusers so I can shoot and chrony at night in the garage, pretty simple. The duct seal is fun stuff, you can shoot plastic army men so hard that little pieces of them get stuck into the duct seal....funny, little arms and legs and heads sticking out of the trap:) Don't feel bad for the plastic army men, they are a choking hazard and must be dealt with like any other varmint or vermin:)
Dan
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Litter box, poopy trap ha. My cats sitting on my lap right now Glaring at me, I'll stick with the first idea. Nice kitty. Ed
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Nope, not a litter box, the actual container the litter comes in from the store I think "Tidy Cat" comes in a container like that rather than a bag, like a squared off 2 gallon bucket.
Dan
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eye see'z,gotcha.... Ed
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I use a big box filled with old clothes and when the box has all four sides full of hoiles I just get another box or staple a new chunk of cardboard on it. The old clothes seem to never wear out they just get a little heavy with all the pellets stuck in them.
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Yeh clothes works pretty good.
I just tried that out the other day...half inch plywood doesnt stop pellets from my Quest, but it's no match for one pair of old jeans folded in the bottom of a box.
Go figure huh? :)
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Save the clothes with all the holes in em, might be a new trend for the kid's . Bro check out my PELLET TRAP JEANS, got em on EBAY from the Peterdragin jean outlet hehehe. Ed
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I was using an old bath mat before I got the duct seal. It worked fine and my even have been a bit quieter. The nice thing about a cloth backstop is that it can just be thrown out, pellets and all. No messing with the lead. The disadvantage, as I saw it is that it was messy. The pellets shred the the cloth and sometimes, if you knock it fabric and pellets fall out. The duct seal does a better job of "catching" pellets. It's tidier. I think this could have been overcome if I'd designed more around keeping the cloth inside the box. The fact is, I "designed" very little. I just took some sruff I had around and in a few min I had a trap. Months later I decided it was too messy and bought the duct seal. I sort of just wanted to try it out anyhow.
Adam
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Yup, just a lump of duct seal will do it...doesn't need to be fancy, that's why I liked my cheap Wally World "flupperware" container.
Dan
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Yeah, instead of putting wood trim on the front of mine I an considering putting some cardboard over there. I think it'll help keep that "thunk" sound inside a bit.
Need not be fancy!
The other thing I was thinking of doing is making something more like my cordura drape backstop. Maybe 6 or 7 drapes inside the box. I bet it'd stall the pellets and they'd just fall to the bottom to be cleaned out. With guns like Daisy X95 and 7X7 series target guns it's easy and fun to experiment.
Adam