The Super-Sized Bullet trap
One of the things that I’ve wanted for a long time was a Bullet Trap which is generally a small box that catches the bullets. You can find an example of a bullet trap on Amazon.com. Here is a pic of the “Champion Heavy Duty Metal Trap”
I, however, wanted something bigger. Much bigger. So here is the shopping list for my trap. I figured out the basic design and called the local scrap yard to check if they had some 1/4″ steel plate in stock. Most scrap yards don’t have the ability to cut the large plates for you, so you may have to alter your design based on what is available. I got lucky and they had a sheet that was 44″ by 60″. Then I headed down there to see what they had for the frame. This is what I ended up with:
Materials:
- 1 x 1/4″ Steel sheet 44″ x 60″
- 2 x 78″ x 2.5″ x 3.5″
- 2 x 22″ x 2.5″ x 3.5″
- 2 x 55″ x 2.5″ x 3.5″
- 2 x 47″ x 2.5″ x 3.5″
- I needed some more steel sheets but decided to get them new from a company that can cut them to size.
Luckily, I got a call from my friend, Aaron, who offered to come over and help and my other friend, Craig, was not far behind. A couple of beers and some tools from Craig made the job much easier.
First, we cut all the pieces to size with the correct angle to attach the plate. Then we welded up the frame that would hold the steel sheet.
In this pic we’re already done with the frame and Craig is now welding it to the steel sheet.
Looking good!
The sense of accomplishment is in the air…
SMILE!
Aaron trying to move almost 400 lbs. of steel 🙂
In this pic I still need to get the steel for the sides and weld them in.
Here is the almost finished version. Since I built this over the the holiday weekend my usual suppliers of steel were not open, so I decided to use some liquid nails to attach some boards to the side to protect the 22ga. steel sides I added. I also opted to frame out the opening with some 2×4’s so I could attach targets easily or even just screw a board over the entire opening that I can shoot through!
