Talin342
Member
I live on seven acres NE of Dallas in a fairly rural area. We have some nice "country neighbors" close by who don't mind the occasional controlled shooting spree.
We have a small pond in pasture with a good sized berm. When the wife is agreeable I can generally get away with shooting .22lr back there. She's not thrilled when I do it because it requires penning the horses in their sheds, which is a hassle. Secondly, even though I have a good backstop (It's a good berm about 20 feet across and 6' high when shooting from the ground surface. If the pond is dry, which is usually is, you're about 5 to 6 feet below grade.) I'm still firing in the general direction of the house, which is maybe about 75 yards away.
I'm been mulling things over an have maybe come up with another option. The west side of my property is bounded tree line and a ditch. Opposite that is a field used for hay. The ditch is about 5 feet deep, but very overgrown with vines, dead trees, etc. Due to the slope of the Property the ditch serves no functional purpose as most water is diverted into the pond, and any overflow water never makes it to the ditch.
A cross section would look something like this
Looking north there is a slight rise so the natural slope would serve as a back stop.
My plan would be to clear brush and offending limbs in the ditch to clear a shooting lane 25 yards long. At the terminus of the range I'd dump dirt backed by maybe some cinder block or some other retaining feature to keep the dirt in place.
I figure that this is a good solution since the remaining vegetation on the top of the ditch would muffle noise from the range. I figure that I could put a little shelter or some stable platform to shoot off of too which could be a big-kid clubhouse.
Any ideas or suggestions?
We have a small pond in pasture with a good sized berm. When the wife is agreeable I can generally get away with shooting .22lr back there. She's not thrilled when I do it because it requires penning the horses in their sheds, which is a hassle. Secondly, even though I have a good backstop (It's a good berm about 20 feet across and 6' high when shooting from the ground surface. If the pond is dry, which is usually is, you're about 5 to 6 feet below grade.) I'm still firing in the general direction of the house, which is maybe about 75 yards away.
I'm been mulling things over an have maybe come up with another option. The west side of my property is bounded tree line and a ditch. Opposite that is a field used for hay. The ditch is about 5 feet deep, but very overgrown with vines, dead trees, etc. Due to the slope of the Property the ditch serves no functional purpose as most water is diverted into the pond, and any overflow water never makes it to the ditch.
A cross section would look something like this
Looking north there is a slight rise so the natural slope would serve as a back stop.
My plan would be to clear brush and offending limbs in the ditch to clear a shooting lane 25 yards long. At the terminus of the range I'd dump dirt backed by maybe some cinder block or some other retaining feature to keep the dirt in place.
I figure that this is a good solution since the remaining vegetation on the top of the ditch would muffle noise from the range. I figure that I could put a little shelter or some stable platform to shoot off of too which could be a big-kid clubhouse.
Any ideas or suggestions?
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