Canadian Airgun Forum

Hi all. just tried duct seal for the first time. The store only had 2 pack,s, so I ordered 4 more. When I tried it out, the low power guns, 500 fps and below, barely penetrated or even bounced off. The high power guns, like my sumatra and diana 34, only penetrated about 3/4 ". Is this normal ? Seem,s to me that 2 inch thick would be adviseable for a back stop, but if the penetration is only 3/4 inch with a 1000 fps gun, why not go only an inch thick and save some money ?

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If I had only one wish, it would be to be able to "unsay" things.

I've no interest in nor experience of 1,000fps nor anything over 500fps, but what I can tell you is that with my roughly 470fps pistols (Baikal 46m and Pardini K10, the K10 adjusted to shoot slower like the 46m as I find there's less muzzle flip that way) pellets go about 1.5 pellet lengths into the duct seal when the seal is new. Once I've pulled a few hundred pellets out of the duct seal and smoothed it over a few times the paper content goes up obviously, and the duct seal gets stiffer. Then pellets only go in about their full length. When the skirts start standing proud of the putty surface, after a few thousand shots into a pound slab, I swap out the putty for new stuff as the odd one will start bouncing off.

Never had any problems at that lower velocity with anything going through a 1 pound block flattened to about 1/2 inch. Certainly never hit the backstop through it. The stuff is enormously effective at absorbing pellet energy. If you're finding it's stopping your pellets effectively, well before they hit the backstop board or metal or whatever, then why worry? Of course that's taking for granted you pull out the pellets pretty often and use a putty knife or something to level it again. If it's eaten through by pellets of course you'll hit the backstop. I heard a story somewhere about a testing range back during WWII maybe, in a city, where they used a room packed with something like 15 feet of wet sand as the backstop, firing pretty large calibre full-auto rifles. Nobody thought anything about it until one day someone noticed holes in the building across the street. Luckily no one died. But the thousands of rounds had eaten a hole right through all that packed sand. Guess they should have used dry sand... or 15 feet of duct seal and keep on packing new stuff into the hole.

Thank,s for the info. I didn't consider the affect of boring a hole from repeated hit,s in one spot. I have to build a nice trap yet, so what I might do is make it like a pyramid on it side so the middle is thicker.

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If I had only one wish, it would be to be able to "unsay" things.

If you hit the sloped side of the pyramid, the projectile could very easily be deflected on an angle. If you make a pyramid with a flat top or plateau and only hit the flat surface, that could increase the ability of the medium to absorb a few shots in the same place.

Although the .22 metal trap is noisier, I use it most of the time for the safety factor. I use wide plastic tape to cover the entire front, so that no dust escapes and also is easy to attach targets to. After shooting, I just tape over the holes. About once a month, I take the tape off, clean out the lead and then re-tape. Clean, safe and can handle any air gun I own.

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Tim
CAFTA Governor and lifetime learner

The idea was to make the sides slope inward at a steep angle to deflect the pellets into the duct seal. I just cleaned the pellet,s out of the duct seal for the first time today. What a pain that is. There has to be a better way to quietly shoot indoors. I think I might go with the highway safety cone idea with some old jeans stuffed into the end.

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If I had only one wish, it would be to be able to "unsay" things.

I use 2" of duct seal in my trap. It's a 12x12x4 steel electrical junction box. When the pellets pile up in the center from my precise shooting I just take an old steel cookie cutter and remove a plug and replace it. Wife wan't impressed but I sure was The knockouts in the sides of the box also came in handy to install some lighting to backlight my targets. This trap has been hit with a 22lr only mild dents after 3 or more shots in the same location.

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41 years young

My trap is made of 3/4 plywood
I use one layer of duct seal
It stops my aa s410 at full power - if I continue in the same spot - I can get to the wood
However - I clean my trap after the 3rd round of target shooting
I also shoot at 1/2 power to 1/4 power in the basement
I get more shots and the pellets do not go as deep
The warmer the duct seal - the deeper the pellets go as well
Anything under the 500 fps [ my 4h group shoots these ] and the pellets do not really go in to deep at all
They do stick in though - in 177 - almost 3/4 of the pellet is in the duct seal - this time of year
Deeper in the hot summer weather
My targets are made at the local print shop on target grade paper
Costs is 0.05 per sheet in black and white
has 25 - 1 inch square targets on it with a dot in the middle of the squares
Cant beat duct seal - in my opinion anyway -
But - indeed - it can be a bit of a challange digging the pellets out with the needle nose plyers -
I shoot at 14 yards in the basement
Brian

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Too darn many - but - still not enough

I have discovered that I prefer not to use target,s at all. I just smooth out the duct seal and make a small indentation with my pellet pick, and shoot away. I find it shows very clearly where each pellet hit,s. I especially like when I stack 2,3,or 4 pellets, all stuck together in a lump. Very pleasing for the ego.

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If I had only one wish, it would be to be able to "unsay" things.

I tried this out for my first 'indoor' target. From 25 feet at 700fps these don't even think about going through it. They do bury in but you can see them. Whoever came up with the idea sure deserves a tip of the ole beer mug

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Airgun Addicted since 2012!

Yup.. I second that motion. (tip of the ole beer mug)

Great Idea for sure.. (indoor shooting winter months)

I also get the same penetration results with my home brew trap..
If I knew that in advance would have saved some bucks on duct seal..
needing only 1 inch deep rather than 2.5

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In the collection:

Ruger BlackHawk (Umarex)
Beretta Px4 Storm (Umarex)
Avanti 853 Legend (Daisy)

After reading your observation Joe, I bought some duct seal last week and applied a half inch to my metal pan and then placed that pan in my pellet box trap tightly securing it to the back. This trap is primarily used for my sub 500 airguns and they do the job perfectly. I even went as far as to place a cut-off section of an old pair of jeans to mount and stick over the duct seal so the pellets don't get imbedded in the seal forcing me to clean them out in the future with needle nose pliers. On occasion, I'll get the odd pellet that pierces the jean, but not enough to imbed itself fully in the duct seal. I'll be making another trap with 1" thick duct seal for my PAL rated air rifles soon.

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Megiddo65

I built a plywood pellet trap with a clipboard target holder a couple years ago using duct seal. I made the duct seal layer about 1 1/2-2" thick. Have fired well over 6,000 .177 pellets into it from sub 500 pistols and rifles as well as 900fps rifles. I've never taken pellets out of the duct seal, I just dump out any that have fallen into the bottom. I once pushed some of the seal from the sides to the middle where the pellets were getting thick. No rebound problems yet, but the trap is getting very heavy!(BB's do rebound off of imbedded pellets though)
May have to replace the duct seal fairly soon as I may not be able to pick up the trap at the rate pellets are accumulating.

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"The good thing about science is that its true whether or not you believe in it."
Neil deGrasse Tyson

Never had to "Dig" pellets out since 2010, just have a tray in the bottom to collect pellets that have fallen
to the bottom of the trap. The Trap sits on top of a Shelving Unit and reinforced for weight.
The trap is a direct copy of the Archer Silent Trap. http://www.archerairguns.com/Classic-Si ... ictrap.htm
The Trap has two layers of Duct Seal.

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President and CEO of Procrastinator Unlimited.

Arsenal..
Kraft Marshmallow Pump and Shoot Rifle.
GoodYear Gatling Gun rubber-band shooter.
PEI Potato PCP Rifle.

Glass ..12" Dobsonian Reflector.
Shooting for the Stars.

My trap is maple, the back is lined with 1/8" steel plate. I have 2" of duct seal as well. The pellets all stop in the first 1" and the metal would stop the rest... With the metal backing, I would bet 1/2" of duct seal would be more than enough.

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Daisy Red Ryder