Wall for outdoor shooting range

[Inkwizytor]

Hi!
How thick should be a wall made of two layers 10x10cm thick logs filled with sand? Wil 40cm of sand be enough to prevent a bullet (not stronger than .44 magnum) from penetrating it?
I want to build a wall on outdoor shooting range and I don't know how thick the wall should be.

 

[brucev]

Pistols just simply don't do so well against a dirt backstop. If you want to build some sort of berm, etc., what you describe would be workable. 10-20 inches of packed dirt/sand would stop any handgun bullet or rifle bullet. In 1996 I built a shooting range on the property of a church member. I used simply pallets. Four were used to construct a open top box the interior of which was filled with loose field dirt. The front was faced w/ 1/2 inch plywood. Over the next eight years an untold number of rifle and pistol rounds were fired into that backstop at all distances from hard off the muzzle on out to 200 yds. As needed the facing was renewed. There never was an incident where a fired round exited that berm either out the side, back or top. When I moved to a new pastoral appointment, it only took maybe half and hour to dismantle the berm. The exact same method could be used to produce a berm of just about any length one might require. If a pallet was not sufficient large enough to produce a required height, it would be a simple matter to use 2x4's or 4x4's to with the pallets to construct a framework that would hold fill dirt for a backstop. HTH. Sincerely. brucev.

 

[smokey04]

Ink, if I'm not mistaken the NRA has a publication on constructing shooting ranges. I believe,years ago they were free for the asking to members. Nick

 

[H Richard]

The wall shouldn't be your only consideration. Do you know what is within the range of your intended firearm if fired at a 45 degree angle? A 44 mag. probably a couple of miles. Do a Google Earth search of your possible bullet path and see if there are any houses. I was a member of a range that lost it's range (and about $40,000 of investment in improvements) because on of the members "accidentally" let loose a round from an 8mm rifle and the round was found imbedded in the floor of a little girls bedroom over 1 1/2 miles downrange. Remember the NRA safety rule, Know your target AND what is behind it.

 

[Inkwizytor]

H Richard: This is an existent, post- WWII German shooting range in the middle of a forest, so don't worry about that.

smokey04: What the NRA is?

brucev: so half meter (20 inches) should be ok? Thanks!

I found this work: „Ballistic Penetration of a Sandbagged Redoubt Using Silica Sand and Pulverized Rubber of Varous Grain Sizes, Robert Paul Cole, Univeristy of South Florida, 2010 and after reading it, I think 40cm would be enough.

 

[brucev]

brucev: so half meter (20 inches) should be ok? Thanks!

I found this work: „Ballistic Penetration of a Sandbagged Redoubt Using Silica Sand and Pulverized Rubber of Varous Grain Sizes, Robert Paul Cole, Univeristy of South Florida, 2010 and after reading it, I think 40cm would be enough.[/QUOTE]

I've not done scientific studies of penetration. I have shot a lot of surplus military rifle ammunition at the berm I described. I shot from prone (slow and rapid fire), sitting and standing positions at targets centered on the face of the described berm. No round ever exited. If it had, that exit would have been visible as the sides and top were sheathed w/ inexpensive veneer. If building it again, I would use the same dimensions. It was very effective.