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.
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.
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.
Next step, tape on a target and shoot
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!
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
