I have a 58" tall stack of unissued telephone books. Have any of you ever used or built a bullet trap that uses paper to trap the bullets? I was thinking of a welded metal box with the books at the back. The other idea that I have is to stack the books where the sand is in other traps. I would be shooting .22 long rifle and maybe .38 special.
.22 long shouldn't get through more than one wet phonebook. .38 special might not either.
I saw a show on The Sportsman Channel where they were shooting through refrigerators, doors, bookshelves with different books in there to show what was an effective form of cover in your house. They were not penetrating 2-3" thick books with a 9mm or a 5.56mm. I'd think 1-2 phone books backed with a metal box would be PLENTY to stop either of the rounds you're firing.
I am taking a dozen phone books to my cabin tonight. I will ventilate them tomorrow. I will report my findings monday.
pilotbraden wrote: I am taking a dozen phone books to my cabin tonight. I will ventilate them tomorrow. I will report my findings monday.
Awesome!
When I was a kid we had a rifle team at school, and we used bullet traps similar to this:
However, they were designed for .22 bullets; anything larger would probably go right through it.
Mythbusters got a car door and one phonebook to stop all the way up to a .45 pistol, so a welded metal box with the phonebooks inside or behind would probably work.
Remember my father using a box of them to stop the 308 or 30-06 rifle. Long time ago, worked well.
Are you trying to simply stop the bullet or are you trying to recover the bullet with as little deformation as possible?
if you keep hitting the same center even 22LR will hollow out a stack of phone books, move the target center around
If this works and vz is your local phone company, you can request an unlimited number of local area phone books at no cost. I'd guess that other phone companies are the same.
used to use a 5gal bucket filled with non clumping gritty kitty and laid on its side (target on the lid) for rimfire - they never got more than a few inches deep.
I can tell you a bathtub full of water will catch a .44 Magnum fired out of a rifle without hurting the tub. Won't stop a 5.56mm M855, though.
Sometimes bathroom remodeling can be fun.
Two 2 inch books stop .22 long rifle from a pistol and a rifle, it also stops .38 special 158 grain round nose lead and 148 grain wadcutters from 7 paces. As fasted 58 pointed out the books get big hollow spaces very quickly, 12 shots from the .38 make the book unusable. I could see using this method for a few shots to test a gun indoors but not for extended shooting. It is a good way to make a big pile of shredded paper, the pieces being about the size of half dollar coins.
Take any pix?
In reply to nderwater:
No, the camera had a dead battery.
You know if you put the books on a string and record how high they go after shooting them (either camera or a light mark on something) You could use a sum of energy equation to calculate total energy transferred to the phone books and then use the published weight to determine the velocity
fysics si phun!!!!!
You'll need to log in to post.
