How to build a shooting range

[Huskerguy]

A friend has the room to build a pistol range. Rifles may be shot but this is only going to be a 50 yard range. We know they recommend at least 12 foot high berms. He has started with railroad ties, two layers deep and a dirt face.

The big question is what material works best for the face so that the range can be mined and also will hold in place? We know rocks are not good because of bullet deflections and the area he lives in is mostly sandy loam soil but he has access to about everything.

Thanks in advance

 

[Kinman]

As a board member of a local range we were approached by a guy selling tire "mulch". Might be something your friend could look into, seemed like a viable alternative to sand to myself and a few others. We already had years of experience with sand as a ballast for retaining bullets and it did not seem like a good idea to change to something new and basically untried. We used to allow members to come in and "mine" areas but they did more damage than good, if you remove the clump of lead that will develop behind a popular shooting position it must be replaced with more sand and grading to match the rest of the backstop, members did not do this resulting in degradation of the backstop, you should not borrow sand from the surrounding unmolested area. Sand is eventually reduced to dust after continual pounding, we bring sand in on a regular basis. The loss was only aggravated by those mining and not replacing sand from the area. It seemed to me that the tire mulch was a good alternative, the producer had no true experience with how the mulch would deteriorate with repeated shooting, he had sold it to a few people and it was new in its use as a shooting mulch. He said it was popular on playgrounds and fairly easy to maintain, I could see where it would necessitate having bags of mulch for maintenance and therefore more costly than sand which for all intent and purpose is "free" by comparison.

 

[mtgianni]

Second tire mulch as I know of people using it in small ranges for lead recovery 10 years now. Make sure that the 12' tall backstop has an angle toward the shooter preventing ricochets from going over it. Either angle towards you or put a lip/wood awning 2' long across the top.

 

[vonn]

Check out the NRA for information.

 

[smoothshooter]

If possible, set it up to where the shooter faces northeast.

Reduces the negative effects of the sun shining in your eyes and glare issues on iron sights.

 

[growr]

Try to obtain the NRA Range Standards manual, it is full of information on range building and development.

Randy

 

[jjfitch]

I have shot at ranges with tire mulch as a bullet back stop and recovery system. When engineered correctly it works as advertised.

The one that seemed to work best had a base that had grates that allowed lead to fall through into a trough. The trough was raked from the back side to reclaim the lead. The base was quite deep and angled upward about 12 feet.

The agitation of rounds impacting the rubber mulch caused the lead to gravitate to the grate at the bottom. The rubber had to be raked upward periodically to keep it's shape and prevent shoot through.

I'm not sure this system is still a "thing" since this was 25 years ago!

Smiles,