Modifying a backstop

[Blackfeet]

Been shooting into rubber mulch for a couple years now and am quite confident of it's characteristics. I did mention that I ring my traps with treads, use the sidewalls as baffles in layers.

I was a member of a club that thought that it would be a great idea to use tires as a backstop and proceeded to build a berm with tires and filled them with sand for the pistol range. Worked good for about a week. I was at the pistol range when a fella started shooting a 45 acp at the berm and we started hearing bullets bouncing off the berm and hitting his car. Big slow bullet hitting a tire that had been hit before leaving a hollow behind it. Busted a side window and scared the crap out of us.

On another adventure, I drilled through a golf ball, hung it from a string at our berm and was letting the kids shoot it with their 22's. Didn't end well as we were getting bounce back in many directions, no harm, no damage, no more hanging golf balls

[Blackfeet]

I have emptied the backstop and have made some improvements. I will post some pics tomorrow as I put it back online.
After smelting I reclaimed 69 lbs of lead

[hotfxr]

     Where I shoot they have a 20 foot high earthen  backstop,  but the targets get stapled to 1/2" thick conveyor belts and a stout RB load  penetrates the rubber belt and those that are not a stout load will occasionally   bounce back to me from  50 yards.

     But I assume you meant to put the rubber tire treat on the back side of the steel plate??

No, my suggestion is to glue a tire tread to the front of the steel plate.  Now, it won't be easy to cut the tread into pieces that will cover the plate but if you have access to a bandsaw or some other similar cutting saw then use some very strong epoxy and cover the strike face of the steel plate with the tread.  Be sure to have the plate set at an angle, about 45 degrees IIRC (someone please correct me if I'm wrong)  slanting towards you. [ \ ].  The tread should absorb a lot of the momentum and direct the bullet downwards, ready for you to collect and melt down for later use.

Had a friend make one with tire tread. He told me if I did one to make sure the outside tread face was fastened to the metal so the bullets were hitting on the belt side of the rubber. Never made one so I don't know if it makes a difference or not..