The Bullet Bucket!
Making a bullet catcher out of a 5-gallon bucket
By Steve Sheldon
2012
I've been shooting in the N-SSA for about a year-and-a-half now. I buy my lead from Rotometals for $2.10 a pound, with free shipping. It's more expensive than some of the sources folks have told me about, but I can be sure it is 99.9% pure lead. I usually buy it at 70 pounds an order, which comes out to about $150. 70 pounds of lead is enough lead to make about 980 bullets, which is enough for about 5 months of shooting 500 grain bullets. After my last order, I decided to do some calculations on how much it actually cost to shoot.
I buy FF Goex from Back Creek Gun Shop in Winchester, VA for $15/pound. I shoot a 44 grain charge in my Richmond Carbine, and a 48 grain charge in my P53 Enfield. 48 grains of powder is about .007 pounds. That comes out to $.11 per shot of powder. Dynamite Nobel primers from the same store are currently $73 per 1000, or .073 each. And a 500 grain bullet is about .071 pounds of lead, which works out to about $.15 of lead per shot. So that works out to $.33 per shot total! I was kind of surprised as this is more expensive than modern Winchester White Box 9mm ammunition.
Now we can't do much about the powder or the primer, which burn up, but the lead accounts for 45% of the cost, so if we could recover the lead we can shoot for almost half-price!
I live in the city, so I have to drive to a range for target practice, so I needed something very portable. A 5-gallon-bucket seemed to be about the right size in terms of portability and something I would have a good chance of hitting most of the time.
For my first attempt, I tried filling the bucket full of sand. This made a fine bullet catcher - it stopped all of the bullets before they hit the bottom of the bucket. But it had two problems. First, that bucket of sand was heavy! I had to use a wagon to pull it down range and back again. Secondly, the sand would leak out of the bullet holes in the front of the bucket. The more holes you put in the lid, the faster the sand would run out, and then your bullet catcher stops catching bullets anymore.
I wanted to come up with some kind of filler material that was tough enough to absorb bullets, but chunky enough not to come out the bullet holes. I came up with the idea of the rubber mulch you can buy at places like Home Depot, Lowes, or Walmart for about $9 a bag. This is chipped rubber made from old tires.
By Steve Sheldon
2012
I've been shooting in the N-SSA for about a year-and-a-half now. I buy my lead from Rotometals for $2.10 a pound, with free shipping. It's more expensive than some of the sources folks have told me about, but I can be sure it is 99.9% pure lead. I usually buy it at 70 pounds an order, which comes out to about $150. 70 pounds of lead is enough lead to make about 980 bullets, which is enough for about 5 months of shooting 500 grain bullets. After my last order, I decided to do some calculations on how much it actually cost to shoot.
I buy FF Goex from Back Creek Gun Shop in Winchester, VA for $15/pound. I shoot a 44 grain charge in my Richmond Carbine, and a 48 grain charge in my P53 Enfield. 48 grains of powder is about .007 pounds. That comes out to $.11 per shot of powder. Dynamite Nobel primers from the same store are currently $73 per 1000, or .073 each. And a 500 grain bullet is about .071 pounds of lead, which works out to about $.15 of lead per shot. So that works out to $.33 per shot total! I was kind of surprised as this is more expensive than modern Winchester White Box 9mm ammunition.
Now we can't do much about the powder or the primer, which burn up, but the lead accounts for 45% of the cost, so if we could recover the lead we can shoot for almost half-price!
I live in the city, so I have to drive to a range for target practice, so I needed something very portable. A 5-gallon-bucket seemed to be about the right size in terms of portability and something I would have a good chance of hitting most of the time.
For my first attempt, I tried filling the bucket full of sand. This made a fine bullet catcher - it stopped all of the bullets before they hit the bottom of the bucket. But it had two problems. First, that bucket of sand was heavy! I had to use a wagon to pull it down range and back again. Secondly, the sand would leak out of the bullet holes in the front of the bucket. The more holes you put in the lid, the faster the sand would run out, and then your bullet catcher stops catching bullets anymore.
I wanted to come up with some kind of filler material that was tough enough to absorb bullets, but chunky enough not to come out the bullet holes. I came up with the idea of the rubber mulch you can buy at places like Home Depot, Lowes, or Walmart for about $9 a bag. This is chipped rubber made from old tires.
To keep the rubber mulch from leaking out the bullet holes in the front cover, I put a wad of landscaping netting on top of the mulch. The bullets blast through it, but tangle up the mulch. As it turns out, I don't think this is really necessary. As you will see later, the cover almost self-heals from the bullet holes.
On my first trip to the range, I filled the bucket up with rubber mulch and had a go! Sadly, my shots broke the bottom out of the bucket:
Not to be deterred, I tried again, only this time I put a 3/4" piece of chip board in the bottom of the bucket, followed by two disks of .03" sheet metal. Another thing I did, which I think is important, is I stood on the mulch in the bucket to compress it firmly into the bucket. This allowed me to get a good 5 inches more of mulch into the bucket. I think the denser packing is important to stopping the bullets. Without the packing, I could push a 1/2" dowel rod most of the way into the bucket without any trouble.
3/4" chip board and two sheets of 1/32 sheet metal
Ready to go to the range again!
I took this arrangement to the range, and I'm happy to report it works perfectly! It stopped 19 bullets I fired into it in one session (One bullet missed the bucket!)
The HDPE material that the bucket and the cover are made from is very tough. When the bullets pass through the plastic it does not tend to crack the plastic, but instead pushes through it. The cover almost self-heals. But if the holes get to be too much, you can easily slap some duct tape on the face of it and you are back in business. As such, one cover should last for a hundred shots or more. And the lids are cheap - they are about $1.70 at Home Depot.
When I got home, I dumped out the mulch to recover my bullets. As you can see from the pictures, the wood and sheet metal were necessary - about half the shots made it through the mulch with enough force to give the sheet metal a good wallop! I'd like to find a piece of 3/16" thick steel, but for now I'll probably put another couple players of the 1/32" stuff I have in my shop.
You'll also notice that I'm currently shooting "traditional" style Minié balls. As soon as they are back in stock, I intend to buy a mold for the RCBS Hodgdon "skirmisher" bullet, which is a hybrid wadcutter with strong shoulders around the ogive nose of the bullet. I suspect those shoulders, which cut such clean holes in paper, will catch up in the mulch a lot more than these traditional bullets I am currently using. This should make them dissipate more energy before reaching the bottom of the bucket.
When I got home, I dumped out the mulch to recover my bullets. As you can see from the pictures, the wood and sheet metal were necessary - about half the shots made it through the mulch with enough force to give the sheet metal a good wallop! I'd like to find a piece of 3/16" thick steel, but for now I'll probably put another couple players of the 1/32" stuff I have in my shop.
You'll also notice that I'm currently shooting "traditional" style Minié balls. As soon as they are back in stock, I intend to buy a mold for the RCBS Hodgdon "skirmisher" bullet, which is a hybrid wadcutter with strong shoulders around the ogive nose of the bullet. I suspect those shoulders, which cut such clean holes in paper, will catch up in the mulch a lot more than these traditional bullets I am currently using. This should make them dissipate more energy before reaching the bottom of the bucket.
The recovered bullets and the deformed backstop materials.
So I'm very pleased with the results. I think I need a bit more metal in the bottom of the bucket to soak up the last of the energy of the bullets, but that's OK. The total cost of the bullet bucket is less than $20.
Now obviously this won't help me recover lead at actual skirmishes, but when I'm practicing, I can now recover the lead every time I'm able to hit the bucket! At 50 yards, that's not much of a problem. At 100 yards it's tougher, but hey, it's a good incentive not to miss!
Now obviously this won't help me recover lead at actual skirmishes, but when I'm practicing, I can now recover the lead every time I'm able to hit the bucket! At 50 yards, that's not much of a problem. At 100 yards it's tougher, but hey, it's a good incentive not to miss!