Your home shooting range, please tell me about your backstop?

[Peter M. Eick]

I am in the process of buying enough land to set up my own shooting range but I am wondering about the backstops needed and your approach.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[NYlakesider]

Well I live out a ways in the boonies and have an up to a 100 yard shoot area on my property. Nothing behind me but a 500’’ mountain with the next road behind that by about 1 1/2 miles. Mostly though the shooting is pistol but on occasion a long gun gets fired! For longer shooting I go to a local gun club!

My back stop is a little unusual but it’s what I wanted. I built a rack about 6 foot wide and 3 foot deep and is loaded with cut down logs and branches. My theory is all the different branches and air spaces will stop anything we shoot. Change out wood as needed!. I can attach targets on the front of the rack easily.

Directly behind that is an earthen berm I constructed with my tractor that is a bit wider and taller than the wood rack. To be honest I have not seen a round impact the berm as I and my wife and only TRUSTED others will I allow to shoot there.

 

[moosedog]

I use mounds of fill dirt for my backstops.

 

[jbull380]

I use a steel bullet trap. It restricts my home shooting to static targets and I can only move forwards or backwards. However I réclame virtually all my lead and make more bullets. For more complex shooting/training I have unlimited access to the police range. Kinda handy.

 

[tops]

For big rifles I use 3 stacks of tires in a triangle and fill the tires with sand. For pistols and .22s I use 3/4 metal plate set to ricochet the bullets to the ground. Larry

 

[jrm53]

I built a 6 head falling plate machine and I am now in a small town with a large town on 4 sides, I was grandfathered in the small town with my plate machine. My back stop is a 5 foot by 12 foot by 3/8" thick hanging back plate with a 1.5 x 1/4" fence welded on the top side to contain lead splatters, works great I only use 22's and pistol calibers. Jeff

 

[shouldazagged]

Stacks of old disco albums. And DVDs of Rob Schneider movies.

 

[Frank46]

When I had to put in a new septic system They had to dig a 12x14' deep hole to put in the new 1000 gallon tank. Had about 8 yards good old louisiana clay. Tried to move it with my kabota with the front end loader. No dice, that stuff had set up like concrete.Once in awhile will go out and put a few rounds in it. They don't penetrate very well usually I take a small pick axe just to check the bullets for curiosity's sake. 22's just go in an inch if that. Frank

 

[don5]

I use a hillside as a backstop.

 

[BTHG]

Stacks of old disco albums. And DVDs of Rob Schneider movies.

Brilliant!

 

[forindooruseonly]

We dozed up a tall 3 sided berm.

 

[Brian41]

When my neighbor put in a driveway for his new pole barn I had him dump dirt in the rear of my property for a berm. What was left he dumped on his property. I have a nice solid back stop now to shoot into.
The best part is my neighbor recently bought a 1911 and a 9mm of some type and is now shooting into his own berm. Nice to welcome another into the shooting sports.
I'd like to add another further out so I can extend my shooting distance someday. As it is I can shoot 150 yards without getting to close to my house and disturbing my neighbors. Just about everyone shoots around here and hope too they have good back stops.

 

[snake803]

Fill dirt on three sides for the 200 yd target.. fill dirt directly behind target @ 100 yds.. Steel backers @ 25 & 50 yds, set at 45 degree angle.... works pretty good nothing has gotton loose in 20 years... I don't shoot until after 12 PM on Sundays so as not to disturb the church goers...
JIM.................

 

[sipowicz]

I am in the process of buying enough land to set up my own shooting range but I am wondering about the backstops needed and your approach.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

Will you be shooting your old P7s and if so, are inviting P7newbie from park cities tactical to your new range?

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

I am in the process of buying enough land to set up my own shooting range but I am wondering about the backstops needed and your approach.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

Well, I hope you can find enough land in Houston but I doubt it.
I'd try Clear Lake if I were you

 

[deanodog]

I have a large natural hill behind my house and I use it for a backstop plus swinging steel plates. Many hills here in east Ky.

 

[DR505]

For the 1,000 yard rifle range...an earthen berm, constructed by the National Guard, approximately 50 feet in height. The other ranges have a similar berm amongst the 490+ acres of ranges.

 

[H Richard]

Just also make sure the "over and beyond" area is well checked out. One gun club I belonged to closed up when a house 1 1/25 miles away had an 8mm bullet penetrate the siding and lodge in the floor of the little girls bedroom. The house wasn't there when the range was built, but you need to constantly keep an eye on your "downrange". The range had 6 ft berms behind the targets, but an errant round from an elevated rifle goes a long way.

 

[Frank237]

I use a 3' berm behind my 100 yd target , with a 30' hillside behind the berm. All the rest of the targets are steel with hills directly behind them.

With a 300-400' mountain behind everything.

 

[brucev]

I am in the process of buying enough land to set up my own shooting range but I am wondering about the backstops needed and your approach.

Any advice or insight would be appreciated.

Thanks

Don't own any land. Have however had access to land made available to my use by church members. I have built a number of shooting ranges. The best setup I've found uses pallets and paneling.

Construct a box by nailing the pallets into a cube open on the bottom and top. Place a square of paneling on all four sides of the cube. Fill with dirt. Lay a square of paneling on the top and place a pallet on top. Nail a square of paneling on the front of the cube facing the firing point. Have fun.

I built one of these cubes in 1996 and shot it with all manner of rifles and pistols until 2004. I obviously had to replace the facing pallet a time or two... and there were numerous squares of paneling that were nailed onto the face. At the end of eight years, I moved to a new pastoral appointment. When I took the cube apart, there were many pounds of spent bullets inside, none of which had penetrated even 24 inches into the dirt. This included hard cast revolver bullets fired w/ heavy charges of powder and M-2 AP rounds fired from my 03, 03-A3 and M-1 Garand rifles.

I have used this setup in numerous pastoral appointments. A few of my church members have also copied this setup on their properties. Some of the backstops have by these church members been subjected to large heavy caliber rifle fire. I am not aware of one instance when any round has ever caused a problem.

If one has access to heavy equipment, it would be easy to push up a berm behind and to the side of the backstop. This would be useful if one had reason to be concerned with rounds potentially missing the backstop, etc. HTH. Sincerely. brucev.