Hello all! I am the league secretary for our local Bullseye pistol league. We are having a meeting soon with the range officers to come up with a plan to have a higher and more thorough barrier between our rifle and pistol firing points. They layout of the ranges is difficult to describe on here without a diagram but it would take a lot of effort on someone's part to intentionally fire a rifle shot and hit someone on the pistol range and vice versa. My feeling is that dirt and natural shale (found in copious amounts up here) is an excellent barrier and if it is topped off with discarded railroad crossties, this should last us several decades. We just rebuilt our berm at the 25 yard pistol range and the ties, having been installed around 1984, were still quite solid. Does anyone have any other ideas? How about a combination of earth, cinder block walls and crossties? I'd appreciate your input. Thanks!

The range I go to has a berm about 12' high separating the two, the first bench or shooting lane on either side is about 20' from the berm. BTW it's just dirt and vegetation.

A high fence made with phone poles, wood sheathing on both sides, and filled with gravel. Not as a backstop, but an enclosure.

Jacketed bullets can bounce off cross ties. Not so important if they are 25yd away, but stand closer and it can cause an injury. Seen it happen.
Might look over the barrier design with that in mind. Same with rocks and blocks hit at an angle.
Saw one Maryland range temporarily closed because a shooter fired at an upward angle, bounced a bullet off a beam, and scored a building. Have to plan as much as possible for odd angle shots (oops).
Good luck.

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Science plus Art

Hadn't thought of phone poles. That's good and dense wood! I should have added that if there were an accidental rifle shot, it would have to travel 75 yards before it hit the barrier.

We used 2’x2’x6’mafia blocks for the side dividers, the impact areas are earth berms with silt.



We did 3 walls about 35’ x6’ and 1 wall 75’ x 8’. This gives us a much more useable range.

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Shoot fast & live long
Warren

We use NRA insurance approved dirt berms. May be overkill for you. 12' tall and 20' at the base IIRC. Mucho dirt.

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Incoming fire has right of way