TargetTalk

There's been a lot of discussion lately about traps. I don't really need a silent trap, but curiosity got the best of me. So I built one. Here are the pics and my findings.

First, this is the trap I use. My father made this one for me a loooong time ago. It's a little loud and I tend to shoot at night, so to minimize sound a bit, I just taped a sand bag on the back of it. It's now no louder than the pistol itself.


Anyway, on to the project. So a couple of 2x4's, dado'd for a 1/2 inch piece of OSB, done.


A little rough finish work, some flat black spray paint, done.


I went to Home Depot and bought (6) one-pound pieces of conduit putty. It was about $2/pound. So $12 is the cost of this project.


I started putting the putty in place. Yuck. It was cold too, so I used a heat gun to get the stuff to mold better.


After getting it molded in there, I realized that a lot of it was wasted in the corners and the putty would be a little thicker if I used up some of the wasted space. It also provided a better mounting point to put the target on.


NRA targets fit well. Putty is over 2" thick where it counts. I was actually concerned with how thick it was. False concern as you will soon see.


First shot, worried about the depth... and no need.


That's as far as the pellet penetrated into the putty. And what the pellet looked like, just for fun.


Before and after pellets - just for fun.


So, yes. The trap is perfectly silent. But the pistol is still the same SPL. So I'm not sure that this is really reducing total sound over my sheet metal trap with the sandbag on back.

And the other interesting issue I see is that the little paper circles the wad-cutter pellet makes, find themselves all over the floor. A lot messier than my sheet metal target.


Final thing to consider is that the putty in this thing WILL need to be replaced at some point... I would imagine. How soon probably depends upon how much lead is focused in one particular area and how many pellets you shoot.

For me, shooting 80+ pellets per evening, 6-7 days per week, most of them sorta centered ;-), I don't think it's going to have a lot of longevity for me. But it was still a fun project, and yes it is silent.

If you need a silent trap and you do a high-volume of well centered pellets, the box of rags w/carpet backing is probably a much better way to go. Otherwise this is a great and very compact solution (thickness of a 2x4).

Oz

Great write-up Oz! I was thinking of a similar design, but it seems that the putty is not easily available in my area big-box stores.

For everyone else here using putty - do you take the pellets out and re-mold the stuff after a while?

Tim

Nice job Oz, but I must say I really do prefer your Father's pellet trap.

It might not look pretty (in some peoples' eyes) but it'll still be catching pellets for many more years.

Nice job Oz's Dad.

I have a "putty trap" made of 3/4" plywood with slots to insert ISSF targets. there is a trough section at the bottom to collect the debris from pellets that drop from the lead "pancake" and the paper punched out. The several pounds of duck seal that line the trap (about 1.5" thick) has lasted well into 6 years. In the beginning, I plucked the pellets out of the surface with every target change....that didn't last too long. Now I shoot a couple of tins before I pry off the lead mass. At that point, I use a small block of wood and tamp the remaining putty to refresh the surface. I have added about a half a package of the putty to make up for any loss. This has not only been quiet, but effective and all the lead has gone for recycle (black powder shooters seem to love the chance!) Long answer to short question: Yes, I remold the putty surface.
CraigE

A good source for the non-hardening putty is an electrical supply house. The putty, or "duct seal" is used in the electrical industry to seal around metal conduits going through a non-fire rated partition. Comes in 5 or 10 lb blocks. I pluck out the fired pellets when there are so many imbeded pellets that I can hear the newly fired pellets bouncing around....no more will stick in the putty. Then re-shape the duct seal and start over.

Best of Luck,
Pearre Chase

For those who want to reduce the noise made by their metal pellet traps, this duct seal material helps there, too.

I have a Gehmann metal target box, the style that is just a simple square box with a big coil spring pushing forward against a flat steel plate which acts as the backstop for the pellet. When the pellet strikes this metal plate the plate itself "rings", making quite a noticeable sound.

After reading about others using duct seal material on their traps I decided to install two pounds of this gooey stuff behind the metal backstop plate, within the diameter of the coil spring.

The net result is the backstop plate no longer "rings" when struck by a pellet. Instead, all I hear is a dull "thunk" sound. My guess is the net sound produced by the target box has been reduced at least 50%. The duct seal material has been in place now for five or six years without any signs of degrading, nor has the metal plate to which it is attached degraded.

Great write-up !!

My trap is similar, with a handle on top for portability, and 2 picture-mount "d" rings on the back that mate to 2 drywall screws on the wall.

I also added 2 mini paper clamps on the face for easy target attachment, altho the targets will stick to the paper.

Until my IZH 46M arrives, I'm stuck blasting away with an Airsoft co2...this requires a layer of softer plumber's putty about 1/2 to 1" thick to give the plastic Bbs something to stick into...they bounce off the duct seal putty.

CraigE wrote:I have a "putty trap" made of 3/4" plywood with slots to insert ISSF targets. there is a trough section at the bottom to collect the debris from pellets that drop from the lead "pancake" and the paper punched out. The several pounds of duck seal that line the trap (about 1.5" thick) has lasted well into 6 years. In the beginning, I plucked the pellets out of the surface with every target change....that didn't last too long. Now I shoot a couple of tins before I pry off the lead mass. At that point, I use a small block of wood and tamp the remaining putty to refresh the surface. I have added about a half a package of the putty to make up for any loss. This has not only been quiet, but effective and all the lead has gone for recycle (black powder shooters seem to love the chance!) Long answer to short question: Yes, I remold the putty surface.
CraigE

The problem I have with using "duct seal" is that I want to be able to re-cycle the lead. My experience has been that it's practically impossible to retrieve the pellets from the putty in a condition that can be re-cycled. Surely pellets can't be re-cycled covered with duct seal?

I ended up pressing a piece of 3/8" plastic "chopping board", cut to size, over the duct seal. Not quite as quiet, but not bad and the pellets stay clean!

Superstring,

With your chopping board on top of duct seal putty, does your pallet bounce straight back in your direction?

I tried the plastic chopping board once, the pellet actually bounced back and hit me on the feet 10m away !!

Negrin wrote:Superstring,

With your chopping board on top of duct seal putty, does your pallet bounce straight back in your direction?

I tried the plastic chopping board once, the pellet actually bounced back and hit me on the feet 10m away !!

Heh, heh, OK, confession time! ;-) I STARTED with the chopping board mounted vertically against the duct seal but eventually I re-situated it at a 45 degree angle with the duct seal on the back. My pellet box is relatively deep, ~ 6" but the pellets would definitely bounce back, occasionally breaking through the target. With the board at 45 degrees the pellets drop straight down into the box.

I wanted a quiet trap and thought hard about it. I didn't want to use putty because of the maintenance and wanted an easy build as I lived in an apartment at the time. My solution was to purchase a cheap Marksman trap which has a good mechanical design to prevent ricochets and glued heavy rubber sanding blocks on the back and sides. It deadens the sound and I can recover the lead.

Best Regards,

Dave F.

Damn, you guys like to make work for yourselves!

Just stuff a small cardboard box with rags, use a clip to hold targets to the face of it, and put it in a slightly larger box with some of the face cut away to catch the lint and target paper.

The more you shoot at it the better it works as the pellet mold themselves into a wad. After a few years throw it away and make another.