target trap

[newbie]

I'm new to the sport of air pistol and wondering which target trap you use to practice.

Which air pistol target trap do you use?

Where did you buy it?

[Eurastus]

Where did you buy it?

The best thing to do is make your own trap. Cheapest and easiest.

Use a metal electrical breaker box with a door (easy to mount on the wall and just close the door when you're not shooting). Fill it with a layer of duct seal, use a magnetic clip to hold the target and you're good to go.

I have made several of these and they work great.

Let me go borrow back my camera from my daughter and snap a few photos.

I'll post 'em in a minute.

[Eurastus]

OK. Here you go:

The bottom photo is of the first pellet trap I made. It's a small metal electrical breaker box barely large enough to hold a standard sheet of paper as a target. The door pivots down. This works OK for me, but you can undoubtedly see a number of shots that missed wide; the boys aren't as careful about always hitting the paper. You can see the many thousands and thousands of pellets embedded in the putty, as well as many of the boys' airsoft pellets. This is in our basement 6 meter range.

The other three photos are of my second-generation trap. It's a much larger metal breaker box with sideways hinged door. This holds slightly more duct putty, but has a very large metal area around the target area to catch boy's errant pellets. Funny thing is that since I installed this trap in the garage 10 meter range, they've not missed the paper.

I bought all the materials (boxes and duct seal putty) at the local Home Depot and/or Lowe's. I think the first, smaller, box cost less than $10, but the second was around $25. The putty is about $2.00 per one-pound "brick". It seems like the first trap used about 7 pounds while the second uses 12, if I remember correctly.

I highly recommend these. They're easy to make; you can use any old box you want, but I like these metal boxes. If you're a good shot, you can use a small box, like the first one and save money.

Besides that, they're virtually silent. The pistol makes more sound than the pellet whacking against the putty. Also, the lead pellet does not splatter or break apart, so there's no danger of lead dust, etc.

After many, many hundreds of shots at the same bullseye, the pellets tend to collect into a giant mass that is easily pried out of the putty with a screwdriver and recycled. I give mine to my blackpowder-shooting buddy at work who melts it down for his own ammo.

Any questions, just ask.

[Eurastus]

Here's a guy that makes his out of wood: http://www.babymd.net/aa_improved_silen ... t_trap.htm These are very nice.

You can buy them here for a lot more money than I spent on my home-made version. These look nice if you want to keep in the living portion of your home. I could see this sitting on a shelf, perhaps, if you wanted to shoot down a hallway and have a more understanding spouse then I: http://www.archerairguns.com/airgun-pellet-trap-s/6.htm

Here's a long discussion thread with several photos and other variations on the box material: http://www.californiapredatorsclub.com/ ... topic=8103

Lastly, here's a blog-type post on the subject. Part one: http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2007/07/ ... art-1.html
and part two: http://www.pyramydair.com/blog/2007/07/ ... art-2.html

I can't say enough great things about these putty-based pellet traps.

I shoot very frequently in the garage late at night without disturbing the neighbors or my sleeping family. Without these "silent" traps, I wouldn't shoot a tenth as much as I do.

[Rover]

So...$37 bucks, when a box of rags will do the same thing better?

[david alaways]

My first one was a box of rags. Pilks sent me targets but messed up on the trap. So I mounted the emptied target box on my wall and filled it with rags. Most of my shots r 10s and 9s , so when my trap showed up and I went to mount it . I found a quarter size hole thru my wall. doesnt take long to go thru the rags.

[GaryN]

If you use rags, use the rags as the front layer.
Behind the rags put a few inches of magazines or newspaper. I found that magazines are very good to stop pellets as the pages pack densly. But you need the rags in front as the magazines can be so dense that the pellets will bounce back out. The rags will keep the pellets inside the box.

[Misny]

I've been using the trap Pilkington sells for many years. You can check them out at http://www.pilkguns.com/buildrange.shtml