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Originally Posted by 1917-1911M
One I welded together out of scrap. I don't think your plate is going to hold up. Why stainless, you can find some scrap steel plate for free just about any iron railing, welding shop. Some of those guys are shooters and will weld you up something for minimal costs. I'd shoot for 1/4" on that back plate. This one has about 100,000 rounds splattered on it. No bulging but it will not hold up to larger caliber pistol rounds and rifle rounds will go right through it.
Your lead is going to splatter off the the spinners so careful of what is up, below and to the side. You might make the backstop so that the spinner could sit just inside of it. The lead also splatters off of metal backings, notice in mine all of the lead plastered to the sides and bottom of the contraption. I've actually had lead splatter back out of these with enough force to draw blood at 50' if hit in the neck or face. So keep the eye protection on. I now put a board on the front to catch any splattered lead but that only works for just so long before it is shot to doll rags.
Make it large enough so that you don't miss should you try a little faster shooting action. My 2 cents.  M1911 |
Thanks for the input. I got the stainless for next to nothing - it was a scrap at a fabricator that is near me. I definitely would not spend the money on stainless intentionally. The owner is ex-military and when I told him it was strictly for CB's and air gun pellet's he brought this out and was very confident in it's stopping ability. So far he was right. The only indentations were before the rubber and sand were added so it was taking direct hits. Even then it was only with the CCI's. I filled the rest of the trap with sand today so it should have a little more stopping power towards the top. If there wasn't any sand then I would definitely go with 1/4" or even 3/8" but most, if not all, of the rounds aren't even getting to the plate now. So I think, and I may be wrong, that between the rubber and the sand I should be OK. Plus there is a layer of 2X4's behind the metal that I check between mags as well - so far they still look new. I am definitely being careful and after each mag (10 rounds) I am inspecting the metal. Since adding the rubber and sand the metal doesn't have any additional dings. Thanks again for your advice it is very much appreciated! Please don't take this as I am arguing with any of you, I definitely am not. It is somewhat of an experiment and I am taking every precaution to make sure it is safe. So far I am the only one that is using it and will continue to do so until it has had hundreds of safe rounds through it. It has about 200 as of today.