Crawl SpaceBullet trap?

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WestKentucky

WestKentucky

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My House is on a really rough piece of ground and the rear of the house has a 5+ ft crawl space, 7 ft in one corner which has been improved by digging it out level, pouring a concrete slab and adding cinder block retaining walls. I use this area as storage currently, but I would like to also use it as an informal rimfire range, especially for shooting colibri ammo as it is so quiet. I will need to build a bullet trap. I have a couple 5’ sections of large I beams that could be utilized. Max range will be about 10 yards. Will see pistol and rifle on the targets.
 
For pellets, Colibris, etc. I stuff old books or newspapers tightly into cardboard boxes and tape it shut.

You only need 3" deep of tightly layered paper to stop the above ammo, but you will need to spread the shooting around. If you keep shooting in the same spot, eventually a through hole will be made.

But you mentioned you have wood to make a frame out of. If I went that route, I'd make some sort of box and fill it with dirt or sand. The trouble with dirt or sand is that it will leak out of the holes you shoot. With a paper filled target, you only get little paper pieces that fall free.
 
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WestKentucky

Something that would be of concern to me would be the amount of lead and dust (and possibly Radon), in the air in such a confined space. Is there some sort of ventilation in this crawl space area?

There's also the off chance of a ricochet should the bullet trap be missed.
 
Ventilation, standard cinder block sized crawl space vents. The shooting area will be near a 5’x5’ door. Above the shooting area is an oscillating floor fan rigged up to push air around.

As far as a chance for a miss, of course. There always is. The area where the target would be is very well contained. It’s like shooting down an alley between cinder block foundation on 3 sides. Dirt below. Laundry room is above. Since it’s low power rimfire I would think that a piece of plywood screwed above would stop any ricochets from going up, and if they did go up then they would be under the laundry room.
 
I forgot to mention one thing I use for misses/ricochets. I'll put a shipping blanket on the wall behind the bullet trap. Actually, I have back up boxes of layered paper behind the first box of layered paper, but the shipping blanket prevents bounce backs from misses. A shipping blanket won't prevent a Colibri from going through to the wall, but it will stop a Colibri from coming back. Use two layers of blankets for insurance.
 
Crawlspace ventilation, to code, is barely adequate for crawlspaces, sad to say.

I'd install at least a 250cfm bathroom fan, and wire it into the light switch, so that it would be on when the light was. Would be even better on a timer switch that would run for 15-30 minutes after the light was turned out. You ant all the airborne particulates to be exhausted. Which is better than having all that material fall on the floor, where it will be stirred up when you next walk over it.

Really, you probably ought to have a filter on the vent exhaust--that's kind of a push/pull.

I'd use a mushroom cap and not a dryer-style end on the outside vent exhaust, get and keep as much exhaust velocity as possible, to carry material out farther away from the house.
 
[QUOTE="WestKentucky, post: 10917443, member: 215823"]Ventilation, standard cinder block sized crawl space vents. The shooting area will be near a 5’x5’ door. Above the shooting area is an oscillating floor fan rigged up to push air around.

As far as a chance for a miss, of course. There always is. The area where the target would be is very well contained. It’s like shooting down an alley between cinder block foundation on 3 sides. Dirt below. Laundry room is above. Since it’s low power rimfire I would think that a piece of plywood screwed above would stop any ricochets from going up, and if they did go up then they would be under the laundry room.[/QUOTE]

IMHO. You need to get a strong Exhaust fan hooked up to one of the crawl space vents. I used to use one when I refinished bathtubs, it moved a lot of fumes out fast. The air needs to be drawn from behind you and out, not pushed around by an oscillating fan.
 
Knowing what I know about construction nothing you're going to "rig up" is really going to be adequate for proper ventilation.

That being said with all of the CS vents open a good fan in the doorway should be as good as anything simple.

As for a "trap" or backstop, I use something like below, which would work in a situation like yours as well as outside in general, and can be made bigger pretty easily.


IMG_20180908_192253523_zpspb8tm1nb.jpg




That's basically a 4x4' piece of OSB on the front and back of three 2x8's, lagged to two 6x6's and filled with sand.

If you're mainly shooting .22 it'll last for quite a while. When the front sheet of plywood starts to look ragged just screw a fresh sheet over top of it.
 
Seriously,, I would suggest you sit down, stone sober, with a strong cup of coffee, and really, really think this through..........is it a good, SAFE idea?
 
I just told my wife about this, and her response. “trying to take a dumb idea and make it look smart, is even dumber”

Big thing is ,,, after a few shots with the Colibri,, you’ll be going,,,”yeah,, a little rimfire, if I shoot careful will be no problem”

Please , don’’’t do this!!...Just give up the idea and move on.
 
I wont address the ventalition and lead issue, that's been covered. For the back stop you can get away with a whole lot of things since you're shooting CB's. My recommendation is to use a pair of mild steel plates angled to create a V with a gap at the point (so from the side the profile would look like <). Add another piece of steel at the back, titled slightly downward (/). So the whole contraption from the side would look like /< . All rounds will enter the trap, exit through the gap, and stop against the back plate. Our giant reclamation berm at work is the same principal, it just used armor plate. You can set a 5 gallon bucket under it to collect the scrap. I can guarantee that no rim fire round striking the interior of the trap is going to penetrate, or come back.
 
Thanks for the helpful responses. To others, I assume you have never heard of an indoor shooting range because most of those that I have seen are in a basement, not at all different from what I’m going to be doing. The concerns about airborne hazards are something I wasn’t really giving much thought because I was focused more on sound and stopping a bullet. I was considering a more significant air handling system anyway because one corner is not getting good air flow. I will likely install a couple fans on the east end of the house that pull air into the crawl space which will be behind me. The air should put positive pressure under the house to push air out in the other directions. I hope to use the area more as a hobby room in the future, so upgrades like that are going to happen. Currently there are 2 outlets, 2 fluorescent light fixtures, and a functional hot/cold sink in the area.
 
They make a smallish .22 LR rated rimfire trap that you can place on a bench and shoot into that is about a foot square (see DO All bullet trap). Put something behind it that would absorb the round should you miss the trap. Add enough ventilation and you are done.
 
WestKentucky said:
My House is on a really rough piece of ground and the rear of the house has a 5+ ft crawl space, 7 ft in one corner which has been improved by digging it out level, pouring a concrete slab and adding cinder block retaining walls. I use this area as storage currently, but I would like to also use it as an informal rimfire range, especially for shooting colibri ammo as it is so quiet. I will need to build a bullet trap. I have a couple 5’ sections of large I beams that could be utilized. Max range will be about 10 yards. Will see pistol and rifle on the targets.
Click to expand...

Don't forget these are around again https://www.speer-ammo.com/en/bullets/plastic-training-bullets in .38 SPC and .44 SPC/MAG using pistol primers and Speer plastic cases.
 
It is the old stone soup story. A beggar comes to town and tells them he will make them a wondrous soup from stones. They don't believe him and say prove it. He takes the stones, puts them in the hot water, and asks for first some carrots, then beef, then etc. After a while, he serves them delicious soup.
The moral is thus, you have to spend money to save money.
 
I think your idea is fine, IF you stick to airguns. Anything with lead gases from primers will probably cause liability problems when you to eventually try to sell the house (and it won't be covered by your homeowner's insurance).
 
patmccoy said:
I think your idea is fine, IF you stick to airguns. Anything with lead gases from primers will probably cause liability problems when you to eventually try to sell the house (and it won't be covered by your homeowner's insurance).
Click to expand...
There are non-toxic primers now. Might have to adjust the flash holes though.
 
WestKentucky said:
Wax bullets...that’s an opportunity to buy a casting operation, even if it’s just for wax. So...molds for 32 cal, 38 cal, 9mm, 10mm, 30 cal...and you can’t settle for just one bullet type...
Click to expand...

I have molds for 9mm, 38, 357, & 30 cal you could borrow. I also have some x-ring plastic bullets for 38 I’ll probably never use.
 
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