How to build a range?

[gunguy1991]

I am going to build a rifle range where I live for personal use only, does anyone have any design's they would be willing to post? The max yardage would be about 50yd's, and there are a lot of rocks where I live. It is to expensive to go to the range each weekend to practice for any upcoming competitions that I have.

 

[Win1892]

My range has a metal carport over a poured concrete and concrete block rifle rest. For handguns and rimfire, I have swinging steel targets in a .75" square tubing frame. I have steel plates 18" wide by 36" tall that have legs welded to the bottom that stick into the ground, so they are easily moved.
For rifles I have a dirt berms at 100 and 300 yards with a target rack built out of inexpensive landscape timbers and used railroad ties.
I have 2 portable racks for paper targets that can be moved easily as needed.
Everything made out of wood gets shot to pieces over time so I just use PT 1x4s screwed together so repairs are easy.

 

[tkcomer]

I basically built a box a little over 100 yards from my shop. 8 feet wide, 3 feet deep and 5 feet tall out of lumber screwed to posts. I put used railroad ties in front of the box. I then filled the box with gravel. The ties will stop about anything I shoot except for the bigger guns and are easily replaced if they get too shot out. But then again, I have a tractor with a front end loader making this job a lot simpler.

 

[Tirod]

There are numerous Army manuals that spell out a lot of the details, from Marksmanship to Sniper Training, and specifically the construction of ranges. Those would be an invaluable aid to getting a range constructed in a professional manner.

Ranges don't always look pretty, but they all have fundamental concepts that have worked over the last hundred years. It's all about downrange safety and containment.

 

[snakeman]

Build a dirt bank for the bullets to hit after passing through the target. I always shoot at a cardboard box with my target taped on and weighted with rocks. It works for me!

 

[Hatterasguy]

I'd push up a dirt bank on one side, than on the other pour a concrete slab for the shooting area as big as you want, and put a roof over it. Its pretty simple.

 

[gunguy1991]

what kind of army manuals would have the range descriptions?

 

[Dimis]

basicly what i did was put a pile of dirt at the end of my trail
i set up a table and a first up tent at 50 yards
over the years the tent wore out and the burm got bigger as we piled all sorts of stuff on it and then backfilled with more dirt
this past winter/spring we had a huge snow storm and then heavy rains followed
trees fell all around the property and we built a pole styled building where the first up was useing four 10 inch diameter logs as corners and smaller stuff for rafters
we also piled any unusable pieces on the burm and made a flat face to staple targets too
its been alot of hard work but with free fill dirt from the local classifieds and labor being me and a friend who uses my range as much as i do we only have $150 invested in the whole project

 

[XxWINxX94]

Dirt, Clay, Sand, anything of that nature is always great. Maybe some wood in front or back.

 

[jmorris]

What are you going to be shooting? You can build a steel bullet trap pretty easy and that will allow you to recover the lead too.

 

[Magoo]

Here's a link to some reading for ya:
http://www.hss.energy.gov/SecPolicy/pfs/Range_Design_Criteria.pdf

It is a government document, so be prepared to get bored. It is organized nicely though. It's a bit more involved than a simple dirt pile (though there are nice charts of how much of what types of dirt for what weapons) but there's a lot of good info in there.

Another:
http://www.rangeinfo.org/resource_library/facility_mngmnt/design/design_criteria.htm


Best of luck. I want an invite when it's done .

 

[aka108]

Guess the first question is how much is your budget for your range. Easy to go from just about nothing to several thousand and do you have any neighbors down range?

 

[fase3]

I have a 300 yd range here at my farm. I placed truck tires 8 across -8 rows high -8deep filled with river silt and staked with driven re-bars. I put used rail road ties in the front and it works for me. The nearest land behind me is 1 1/2 miles away.