Backyard Range

[Love the 1911]

Just started building a range. The wife and I purchased some land last year in November. Planted some trees in the back of the property in the spring, and just this week, spent some time moving some dirt around to build my own range. I spent about 2 hours on Wednesday and another 2 hours on Thursday. I've got a good base going but I'm guessing I have another 6-10 hours of time before I will be able to start shooting pistols. It is between 50 and 60 feet long right now and the plan is to build it up to 4 ft high. It will be about 2 feet thick at the top before I start shooting, but I do not intend to shoot towards the top 12 inches. The nearest structure that is in the line of my shots is 2500 feet away. Far enough for a bullet to easily get to which is why I am taking a lot of care to make sure there is plenty of packed soil. Eventually, I will rent some power equipment and dig out around 6 inches out to 50 yards, add some side berms with the extra soil, and top the main berm out to around 15 feet. I will then fill the dug out area with varying sizes of gravel.

INGO, you have poisoned me. A year ago, I was perfectly happy going to the range to qualify twice a year and possibly shooting on my own an additional 2 times. Now, I need my own range. I would have put more time into building on Thursday but I forgot my gloves on Wednesday and tore the crap out of my hand using the shovel. Maybe next weekend, I can return some lead to its natural place in the world.

Any ideas, suggestions (other than power equipment), insights as to what I can do to make this safer for my neighbors? Please post.

After day 1
INGunOwners - Love the 1911's Album: Range Progress - Picture
INGunOwners - Love the 1911's Album: Range Progress - Picture

After day 2
INGunOwners - Love the 1911's Album: Range Progress - Picture
INGunOwners - Love the 1911's Album: Range Progress - Picture

 

[Chefcook]

Another effective method for making a backstop is to get about ten railroad ties and stack them up, you can put fence posts on the front and back near the ends to keep them standing up. Also if you have the means to drill them you can put like 3 pieces of re-bar through them one in the middle and on each end essentially nailing them to the ground. Then pile a few feet of dirt on the front making for a little extra stoppage. You can then pile up old tires or hay bails or both behind the wall to help catch anything that might try to penetrate the whole way through. This is a great set up for CQC drills but it is important to make sure all your rounds go into the backstop, so I don't really recommend this for a rifle range unless you were maybe to make it double so it would be twice as wide or only use it at close range like under 25 yards.

 

[Love the 1911]

Thanks Chef. I have thought about railroad ties and can get them relatively easy around here at a livestock feed supply. I do plan to work up to using small-caliber center fire rifles in the near future. If I build the berm up to 6 ft tall with a 2 ft plateau at the top and can maintain a 60 degree angle on the slope, the area where I would be firing would be approximately 5 feet deep. This would likely be effective 99.9% of the time using .223 but I think I'd prefer to keep building it up, leaving a 60 degree slope in front and a 45 degree slope in back. That should increase the thickness of the berm from 5 ft to approx 9 ft in the area I would be using for rifles. I may use some ties and a combination of hay behind the entire berm as an additional stop. I also plan to move more trees to the area in the spring, mostly hardwood maples, walnuts, and catalpas.

Here I go into overkill again...but if I could justify it before, I should have no difficulty justifying it now.

 

[Want2ShootMore]

I asked a guy on the board at Deer Creek about the best thing to do for a range where insurance liability would be involved. He suggested that if starting from scratch that building a "cave" is the best approach.

Basically you can do this by taking the railroad ties and anchoring them on top of the berm (or in the berm) so that they lean back towards the shooter and are able to catch any ricochets that may fly off of the berm. I wouldn't be worried about rounds penetrating 5 feet of dirt, but I would be worried about them coming off of the dirt. (If you ever go to knob creek you will see what I mean when you see tracer round bouncing back into the crowd). Just my .02

Congrats on shooting more and having a place to be able to do it at home. It is a goal of mine in the future as well.

 

[ParkeCountyPlinker]

Looks like a good start!

 

[Hellion_1]

Great start! A home range is a wonderful thing to have. I would suggest borrowing/renting a tractor/dozer to move more dirt. I know it is expensive, but a solid dirt burm is about the best bullet stop and individual can afford. If your berm is thin, you can incorporate the railroad ties into the berm. If you have a lot of land, then move some dirt around and make a nice berm.

Fortunately, I have a natural berm/hillside that I use. Just make sure your berm is high enough to keep everything safe. The further away I get from my fireing line, the lower my rounds impact on the burm because of the hillside. Keep in mind, any angles you will be firing from. Above all, know what is behind your target!! Good luck, and keep us updated!!

Pics or my small, but functional range (from 15yards, and 100 yards)

 

[RangeJunkie]

Looks cool, keep working hard!

 

[backfire]

As a teenager, my stepfather & I built a 400 yrd. range in our back field that we used to zero-in his high powered match rifles with. What we did was dig some dirt from a remote area of the field and transport it via dump truck to the 100 yrd. line, the 200 yrd. line and so on. Each mound of dirt was offset approx. 3 feet to the right from the one before it, so that even at 400 yrds., the line of fire was nearly straight for all 4 distances.

Each dirt mound was fortified with a truck load of sand, in addition to the dirt we used, where the base was approx. 10 feet in diameter and approx. 6-7 feet high at its peak. They worked very well and after a year or so, they grew a TON of weeds in the dirt, which further fortified the mound with vegetation that "clung" everything together better.

In 7 years of weekly use, we NEVER had an issue of stray rounds, richochet or any other projectile hazards to deal with. Very effective, cheap to do and easy to maintain.

Funny thing was....the artificial "pond" we created from the digging gave us some unexpected seasonal duck and dear hunting oportunities! LoL!

HTH's.

 

[dsells13]

Looking nice, a dream of mine one day... (the downside to living downtown)

 

[rimfire_crazed]

Railroad ties WILL break down over time. Shooting buddy uses a backstop that is constructed five railroad ties high and three sided. Behind the front row of ties is are 55 gallon barresl filled with sand and dirt.

100 rounds of 30-06 blew straight through the railroad tie I was shooting into, and towards the end of the session, dirt was blowing straight up out of the barrels upon impact.

 

[FERLACH]

Several years ago I made my own range. I had a backhoe pile dirt 6 ft high, 20 ft across. In front of dirt I put a 1/2 thick 4ft x 8ft steel plate. Then I put 8 ft long railroad ties 6 ft high in front of steel plate. I actually fired 458 winch magnum and 375 HH magnums at the range and many lesser caliber guns. Over a period of several years, I dont believe any bullet ever even made it to the dirt. A very safe backstop.

 

[FERLACH]

As a added note, the 4x8 steel plate had to be lifted with the back hoe. Very Very heavy.

 

[xM3RC1L3SS1x]

Great start. Hopefully someday I'll live out in the country and be able to do this...but until then I will continue to go to the range.

 

[KLB]

I'll be moving my dirt berm in the spring. My one neighbor has decided to put a horse pasture right behind the one I have now, and I don't want to take any chances.

One thing I will advise, is watch the water flow in that area. My berm was actually created originally when we had our driveway widened and the extra dirt was dumped on the back of our property. It messed up the drainage back there though, causing a large wet area where rain water collected.

You could also make it less wide, thus giving you more dirt to make it taller and wider.

 

[ZbornacSVT]

As a added note, the 4x8 steel plate had to be lifted with the back hoe. Very Very heavy.

1/2? bah, just 653lbs.....lol.

We can help you out with any steel you may desire, be it buried in the backstop or as targets. It's kind of what we do..