TargetTalk

Does anyone shoot with an airgun at home (apartment) ? How do you prevent the pellets to damage the walls, door and furniture ?
I am using a box filled with maganizes behind the target, but I don't think it is the best solution. Could you give me any suggestion ?

On the contrary, a 2" thick layer of magazine or newspaper stops a pellet quite well (low velocity target gun). For years, I used a beer box full of newspaper as my backstop. In fact it works too well. I've had pellets bounce back out of the box. A 2-inch layer of crumpled paper or rags in front of the layered magazines will help to stop the "bounce out."

Many of us use a "silent trap" made with duct seal or ballistic putty. This is quiet, no pellet impact noise on a back plate. With duct seal, the thing you need to watch out for is the density of the duct seal. I've found that duct seal is not consistent in density, some are MUCH softer than others. In fact I have some that is so soft that a single shot from a 10m air pistol penetrated to over 3/4 of the depth of the 1-inch thick layer of duct seal. A few hits to the same place could easily reach the back of the box. In which case that box better be a good METAL box, or you will shoot out the back of the box. I use a 10"x10" electrical box from Home Depot. With the harder/denser duct seal, the pellet from the same air pistol will barely get 1/2 pellet deep.

Go to this site to see a few of these traps. Joe also has the instructions of how to make them yourself.
http://www.babymd.net/aa_main.htm

Now having said this...you still have to be careful of the wall behind your trap. If you miss the trap, where will the pellet hit? You don't want it penetrating a dry-wall and injuring someone in the next room.

As to " How do you prevent the pellets to damage the walls, door and furniture ? " Don't shoot at them. I repeat my statement from above, "if you miss the trap, where will the pellet hit?" If you can't reliably hit the target, then make a BIGGER trap with more space around the target, or move closer to the target. ALWAYS have a safe backstop, in case you miss the trap, a sheet of 1/2" plywood should work fine for 10m guns.

If you can't hold your shots on the target, move closer to the target (for example 10 ft) until you can keep your shots on the target paper. Then after you can consistently hold ALL your shots on the target, you can move a little further back, then shoot until you again can hold the shots on the target, and repeat the process.

gud luk
Gary

Hi: I use a 2" box filled with an old phone book and some magazines. I then sit the trap/box on a lid from a copy paper box in front of a large door with many windows. Haven't hit the windows yet-knock on wood!! As noted, if you can't put all the shots into the trap, then move closer until you can.
Don

Moving in close isn't just for a novice shooter.
I do that when first sighting in a new gun, especially a used gun. The reason is, I have no idea where the sights are aligned to. The worse case I had was when I had to get down to 5 ft from the trap to put a pellet on the target. Man talk about sights being way off... And yes the pellets were completely missing the trap until I got that close.

If you have trouble keeping a group that reliably stays inside the 3 ring, don't use the multi-bull targets, unless you use a BIG trap. Why, because if the outer bulls are close to the edge of the trap, and if you miss the bull...you could miss the trap. You have one guess to guess how I know about that.

gud luk
Gary

The best way is to not miss the trap :~) Seriously though having a large backstop behind the trap is good advice for anyone cause if you shoot enough the law of averages will catch up once in a while. It is seldom I miss the black but I have a 4x4 piece of 3/8th plywood behind it to protect the wall. I suppose even that might not be enough on a really bad day ;~) Loosely hung carpet can do also. As always wear protective eyeware at all times just in case something goes wrong. quote="Erick"]Does anyone shoot with an airgun at home (apartment) ? How do you prevent the pellets to damage the walls, door and furniture ?
I am using a box filled with maganizes behind the target, but I don't think it is the best solution. Could you give me any suggestion ?[/quote]

There is always the danger of the sudden twitch...

I have my target backed up with two 2x4 ft acoustical tiles
taped to a 1/4 in 2x4 ft piece of plywood.

Jerry

Erick,

I have been using a setup almost identical to Gary's for almost two years and it works very well.

The only difference between what Gary has described and mine is that after putting a 1.5 inch layer of putty on the back of the box, I covered the putty with a piece of very plush\cheap carpeting. The carpeting prevents the pellets from penetrating and building up "hotspots" in the putty.

With the carpet in place, pellets collect in the carpet which you can pull out and shake out over a garbage can and then reinstall. Or you can just toss the carpet and put in a fresh piece once it gets shot out.

Putty is a heck of alot more cumbersome and expensive to replace then the carpeting.


The setup is clean and very quiet. Now get out there and start hammering out some tens and X's

Mine is basically two boxes (one inside the other) made out of 3/4" plywood, solid hardwood face frame, 1/8" steel plate lining, a 1/4 plywood sliding back lid (for removing inner box), 18 lbs 3" thick layer of duct seal, and a large paper clip to hang the targets. I designed and built my trap so rugged so it whitstand supermagnum airgun shots (35 fpe) along with my regular match airguns shooting.

Mjfa - that's superb!

To all - Don't ignore the importance of ventilation when shooting AP / AR indoors - even if you are using a putty backstop or something similar. I know this is a debatable issue that comes up time and time again, but without wanting to be a scaremonger, this is worth a read (it certainly changed my attitude)
http://www.pistolnz.org.nz/ctipart01.asp

Fortitudo Dei wrote:Mjfa - that's superb!

To all - Don't ignore the importance of ventilation when shooting AP / AR indoors - even if you are using a putty backstop or something similar. I know this is a debatable issue that comes up time and time again, but without wanting to be a scaremonger, this is worth a read (it certainly changed my attitude)
http://www.pistolnz.org.nz/ctipart01.asp

A much better idea is to have your lead level checked on occasion. You should avoid draconian paranoid actions that are unnecessary, as well as stupid oblivion. Some people need to take more precautions than others. What you don't know can certainly hurt you.

Larry

I wanna thank you guys for your very kind attention.

All those worthful ideas made me think about a new backstop for my apartment. If I succeed I will post my "project" here to share with you guys.

Best regards,
Erick

Buy the best pellets, R10s etc... and always wash your hands after every shoot. Don't worry too much about lead poisoning, just enjoy the sport and take the basic steps, if you want to be extreme a normal household fan and open window will help.

8x10 metal electical box, filled with duct seal,mounted on a telescope tripod.A flexible arm desk light mounted over the box aimed at the paper. It is in a corner safely away from traffic. I havw a curced piece of sheetmetal behind to protect the wallboard. After 50 or so rounds, I use hemastats to pull out the used pellets. It also acts as a break to separate shooting sessions.

> ... and always wash your hands after every shoot.
> Don't worry too much about lead poisoning....

No fear. Eventually the lead will make you stupid and then you won't care. ;-))

I've got a silent trap that's as big as a single target and I just don't miss it. It's sitting in my book case, so I guess the books or wood panel would stop the pellet should I go into convulsions while shooting.

Bullettrap?
Do it simple. Get a plastic plate of the kind usually used for cutting bread. Put it at 45 degrees angle inside a cartoon box to deflect and decellerate the pellets into soaked newspapers. Change the newspapers whenever they got really torn up by the pellets.

The plastics plate will not wear out by the pellet impacts, and it reduces impact noice.
And, no, do not this plastics plate for breadcutting later.

I use an old electrical box just like someone else mentioned. I don't even line the back with putty. I hack sawed and bent a couple of clips to hold the target. The pellets are completely flattened and accumulate in the bottom until it's time to dispose of them. Then it's a simple matter to dump them out. The sound isn't that loud. I don't have any problems at all. Though I am gradually reworking the back plate into a curved surface :)

John

DavidO. wrote:Buy the best pellets, R10s etc... and always wash your hands after every shoot. Don't worry too much about lead poisoning, just enjoy the sport and take the basic steps, if you want to be extreme a normal household fan and open window will help.

... and when you wash your hands, use soap and COLD water.
Hot water opens the pores and sort of defeats the purpose.

Well? Cold water?
As you said: hot water opens the pores. And thus more of the lead accumulated in same pores will be washed away, I think.

OK, I'll wash first in cold water to remove surface accumulations of lead, then in hot water to get any trapped in pores.

Should I borrow some of the special pink soap the electronic techs at work at told to use after soldering? (stuff that didn't even exist 25 years ago, when I was a teenager interested in Ham Radio and spent half my spare time with a soldering iron in my hand.)

My father pointed out once, that when he grew up in a farming area, everyone ate stuff that was shot on a regular basis and everyone had a pellet (the shotgun kind) or two working its way thru their system at any given time....

Additionally.... he pointed out...

when lead was removed as a motor fuel additive, blood lead levels in children dropped 80%..... during the same time period there was also a significant DROP in scores on standardized educational tests.....

Next question....

when i first got into AP shooting, and read all the TT suggestions, I obediently put the sticky grey putty (ductseal?) in my Nygord Pellet trap (that thing is GREAT with cibles & other high quality square targets) Now, I have several blobs of a conglomerated mass that consists of about 50% putty and 50% pellet.... now what? Many pellets can be picked out and dumped in the used pellet bucket but others are stuck in the putty.....

I would like to separate the pellets from the putty so I can re-use the putty and melt the pellets to make round balls for muzzle loaders or give them to friends who cast bullets.

I toyed with the idea of melting the pellet-saturated-putty and pouring it through a strainer. has anyone tried this? is ductseal flammable? will lingering ductseal putty float to the top of a lead pot or burn off? is the vapor harmful or flammable?

Are Air gun pellets pure lead?

Poole
http://arizona.rifleshooting.com/