Personal range/backstop

[Aggar]

Who here has there own personal range or a backstop they’ve built? I’m wanting to put something in at the house so the kids can practice into for shooting sports for 4-h. They’ll just be using a .22lr but I might occasionally shoot my 9mm or 40 into it. Was thinking some railroad ties and dirt. Thanks

 

[Gabriel]

I have. Right now it's settled a lot and I'm not shooting until I get a front end loader to build it back up.

 

[ditcherman]

If you drive around our neck of the woods, you will see a lot of dump truck loads of dirt in the corners of yards. Sure not the greatest, but they seem to make it work. When you look at them you'll see most people have taken their neighbors into consideration and the nearest house is a mile away or more. Not saying it's right, but as long as they don't shoot high it's fine. Teaching kids to shoot, you certainly won't have that guarantee or want to take that risk.
It seems to me that the purpose of any wood is just to conserve dirt, and if you search you can find similar discussions of that on here. If someone wanted telephone poles to do the job I have some.

 

[semperfi211]

I did RR ties and sand. I have gone a couple feet higher after this pic was taken.

 

[churchmouse]

I did RR ties and sand. I have gone a couple feet higher after this pic was taken.
View attachment 132557

Pretty slick.

 

[Trapper Jim]

Nice to have in your own back yard but of course it does advertise there are guns in the house. Kinda like an NRA sticker on your truck.

 

[Farmerjon]

We dug a 1/2 acre pond and all the spoil pile is parallel to the pond so shooting into the bank longwise, never worry about a bullet coming out the other end.

 

[2in1evtime]

Personal range has a 30 ft plus hill[cliff] i can shoot just over a 1,000 yards there. It is on family property so it is private!!

 

[Elcardo]

We have a big built up berm on the back side of our burn pit so its multifunctional, can shoot into it or back up it so you can dump things with the dump truck , plus all the worn out targets just get left there and burned with the brush pile

 

[Jaybird1980]

My grandfather owned a junkyard and built one out of used tires and sand sometime in the 50's. We were still using it when the property was sold around 2013ish. We are still allowed to use it occasionally.

 

[Lushamania]

We dug a 1/2 acre pond and all the spoil pile is parallel to the pond so shooting into the bank longwise, never worry about a bullet coming out the other end.

This is essentially what is going on at my mother’s 40-acre property. I asked if I could turn the massive dirt pile leftover from creating the pond into a backstop and my mother said “have at it.” Dozens of cans later, it’s doing the job perfectly. I’ve even added some steel targets to the “gallery.”

It’s so much more satisfying killing cans and making those steel targets ring than shooting paper targets at the indoor range!