Building a back stop part I

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horsemen61 said:
@Jammersix

First of all I never said anything about 1 mile

secondly I’m shooting down into 30 tons of sand!

Thirdly “Most importantly show me where did I say anything about breaking “the 4 rules”

Mods please don’t close this one I am very excited about building my range, it just burns my shorthairs whenever someone who has no clue about me,my property ,or what I am doing chimes in about my situation with nothing to add other than negativity!
:cuss::cuss::cuss::fire::fire::fire::cuss::cuss::cuss:
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This is the exact situation the ignore button was created for.
 
Blackbeard 44 said:
I'm considering building a backstop on my property, I really like seeing other peoples setups, It gives me good ideas
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Yes, and the feedback on how safe or unsafe individual set-ups are is good too, regardless if it gets your short and curlies in a knot. Opposed to others here, I do not see any "trolls", nor do I see any real condescension. What I see, is folks concerned with safety and the promotion of positive images for responsible shooters/gun owners. Over the years there has been a multitude of threads here and on other gun forums I frequent, about folks setting up their own personal range. Some of them are very sensible.....some are downright scary. I have not seen pictures of the OP's final set-up so I will not judge his set-up until I do. I wish him the best of luck with his endeavor and trust he is using sound judgement. As for the picture that put up the hairs on the back of Jammersix's neck.....I'm kinda there too. When I can see buildings clearly behind a small berm like that, I too have concerns. Have seen steel T-Posts like those shown ricochet bullets. I have seen small stones/rocks in a berm do the same. Have seen folks trying to shoot quickly in SD drills miss wider than that berm. Without more of a barrier between that and those buildings, and no other evidence than what is given, I to am skeptical. But then, as my wife tells me, I'm a worrywart, and possible stray bullets and potential harm downrange makes me worry. Comes down to what kind of rounds and amount of rounds also. !00 rounds a year of small caliber, carefully placed bullet, not as much as 1000 rounds every weekend by high powered rifles with FMJ ammo. Pictures do not always do justice. What something appears to be, might not be at all. Just be careful folks, when you make home ranges. Consider every worse case scenario and not just assume every round is going to end up in the 10 ring. I'm lucky. I have a natural place for my personal range. The bluff behind my range is the highest point in the county. The range is in the middle of a u-shaped deep valley. Behind that for 5 miles is nuttin' but woods. I feel secure now knowing I'm safe. When I look back over the years at other places I have shot......not so much. I was lucky then too it appears. Please guys, ....don't depend on luck. That's all any of us are asking.
 
buck460XVR said:
Yes, and the feedback on how safe or unsafe individual set-ups are is good too, regardless if it gets your short and curlies in a knot. Opposed to others here, I do not see any "trolls", nor do I see any real condescension. What I see, is folks concerned with safety and the promotion of positive images for responsible shooters/gun owners. Over the years there has been a multitude of threads here and on other gun forums I frequent, about folks setting up their own personal range. Some of them are very sensible.....some are downright scary. I have not seen pictures of the OP's final set-up so I will not judge his set-up until I do. I wish him the best of luck with his endeavor and trust he is using sound judgement. As for the picture that put up the hairs on the back of Jammersix's neck.....I'm kinda there too. When I can see buildings clearly behind a small berm like that, I too have concerns. Have seen steel T-Posts like those shown ricochet bullets. I have seen small stones/rocks in a berm do the same. Have seen folks trying to shoot quickly in SD drills miss wider than that berm. Without more of a barrier between that and those buildings, and no other evidence than what is given, I to am skeptical. But then, as my wife tells me, I'm a worrywart, and possible stray bullets and potential harm downrange makes me worry. Comes down to what kind of rounds and amount of rounds also. !00 rounds a year of small caliber, carefully placed bullet, not as much as 1000 rounds every weekend by high powered rifles with FMJ ammo. Pictures do not always do justice. What something appears to be, might not be at all. Just be careful folks, when you make home ranges. Consider every worse case scenario and not just assume every round is going to end up in the 10 ring. I'm lucky. I have a natural place for my personal range. The bluff behind my range is the highest point in the county. The range is in the middle of a u-shaped deep valley. Behind that for 5 miles is nuttin' but woods. I feel secure now knowing I'm safe. When I look back over the years at other places I have shot......not so much. I was lucky then too it appears. Please guys, ....don't depend on luck. That's all any of us are asking.
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@buck460XVR I couldn’t agree with you more on some parts other not so much when another member says things such as “ I’m glad I don’t live in the same state as you” please tell how that helps the situation at all when a complete stranger starts assuming my level of safety on nothing more than a few early photos yeah I feel that I have every tight to be mad! :fire:


To wrap this up yes safety is my number one Concern!
 
buck460XVR said:
Yes, and the feedback on how safe or unsafe individual set-ups are is good too, regardless if it gets your short and curlies in a knot. Opposed to others here, I do not see any "trolls", nor do I see any real condescension. What I see, is folks concerned with safety and the promotion of positive images for responsible shooters/gun owners. Over the years there has been a multitude of threads here and on other gun forums I frequent, about folks setting up their own personal range. Some of them are very sensible.....some are downright scary. I have not seen pictures of the OP's final set-up so I will not judge his set-up until I do. I wish him the best of luck with his endeavor and trust he is using sound judgement. As for the picture that put up the hairs on the back of Jammersix's neck.....I'm kinda there too. When I can see buildings clearly behind a small berm like that, I too have concerns. Have seen steel T-Posts like those shown ricochet bullets. I have seen small stones/rocks in a berm do the same. Have seen folks trying to shoot quickly in SD drills miss wider than that berm. Without more of a barrier between that and those buildings, and no other evidence than what is given, I to am skeptical. But then, as my wife tells me, I'm a worrywart, and possible stray bullets and potential harm downrange makes me worry. Comes down to what kind of rounds and amount of rounds also. !00 rounds a year of small caliber, carefully placed bullet, not as much as 1000 rounds every weekend by high powered rifles with FMJ ammo. Pictures do not always do justice. What something appears to be, might not be at all. Just be careful folks, when you make home ranges. Consider every worse case scenario and not just assume every round is going to end up in the 10 ring. I'm lucky. I have a natural place for my personal range. The bluff behind my range is the highest point in the county. The range is in the middle of a u-shaped deep valley. Behind that for 5 miles is nuttin' but woods. I feel secure now knowing I'm safe. When I look back over the years at other places I have shot......not so much. I was lucky then too it appears. Please guys, ....don't depend on luck. That's all any of us are asking.
Click to expand...




I am glad you "feel safe" with your homemade set up.

But really that doesnt matter one hoot.

Public indoor ranges are probably the most dangerous shooting scenarios in regards to folks casually shooting. Yet they are quite legal.

Many outdoor ranges are established quite close to nearby inhabitants. The outdoor range were we shoot USPSA and IDPA is literally within a 1/4 mile of folks living nearby.

Shooting in itself is dangerous. We folks who have the opportunity to legally shoot at home do the best a responsible gun owner can do but there are no guarantees. We are responsible for every round we fire.

But its important to realize that the danger isnt much different than many public ranges.
 
We just stack two staggered rows of used car tires, to about 10 feet, filling them with dirt, every three feet or so, as we go. Then cover the whole thing with more dirt. Stops anything we shoot into it.

But I'd be willing to bet that some folks, from sanctuary cities, could probably penetrate them, with BBs, from an air gun.
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
I am glad you "feel safe" with your homemade set up.

But really that doesnt matter one hoot.
Click to expand...

Maybe not to you. But to me, being confident that no round, regardless of the scenario, is going to leave the property....matters. The same philosophy should matter to anyone building or shooting at their home range.

Good Ol' Boy said:
Public indoor ranges are probably the most dangerous shooting scenarios in regards to folks casually shooting. Yet they are quite legal.

Many outdoor ranges are established quite close to nearby inhabitants. The outdoor range were we shoot USPSA and IDPA is literally within a 1/4 mile of folks living nearby.

Shooting in itself is dangerous. We folks who have the opportunity to legally shoot at home do the best a responsible gun owner can do but there are no guarantees. We are responsible for every round we fire.

But its important to realize that the danger isnt much different than many public ranges.
Click to expand...

Indoor public and outdoor public ranges are also built, so the regardless of the scenario, rounds will not leave the property. They have to be. Otherwise they would not be allowed to operate, either by the local governing body, their insurance carrier or the institution that loaned them the money. The sanctioning body for your USPSA and IDPA would not allow the competition at your range if it wasn't a safe place to shoot, regardless of how close it is to other private property. It's not that hard to do. Folks can do the same with their home ranges. I'm sorry, but many of us here have seen examples of home ranges that were not and are not safe. Has a good chuckle with a Mod here a while back about one. I am waiting to see how the OP does before I make a judgement, seems his head is in a good place about it.
 
About ten years ago at Bray, OK a youngster was shot in the butt with a .30 caliber bullet fired from a two groove Springfield rifle while playing ball at school. Police never found the shooter. Yep, the shooter failed to come forward. i would have a hard time knowing i shot a kid.

Among other stuff i'm a firing range safety guy who designs shooting ranges. If you don't own the property to the maximum range of the most powerful firearm used then you must take serious precautions to prevent bullets from leaving your property. Horseman61 has the right idea. My suggestion is to make the box at least 8 feet long and six feet high. One must be very careful of bullets striking the ground short of the berm. They ricochet over the berm.

My son owns about 20 acres near Hempstead, Texas. Parallel to the back fence is the neighbors firing range. There is a structure about 8 wide x10 feet long and 6 feet high made of railroad ties and filled with sand. It's open at one end. The maximum range for firing is about 150 yards. That range belongs to a member of a well known firearms family. That range has a good safe bullet stopper.

This is my current range. There are berms at 78, 125 and 225 yards. The 78 yard berm needs about 18 inches of dirt added. The 225 yard berm is 30 yards short of the property line.

8KA0hZFl.jpg

.
 
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buck460XVR said:
Maybe not to you. But to me, being confident that no round, regardless of the scenario, is going to leave the property....matters. The same philosophy should matter to anyone building or shooting at their home range.



Indoor public and outdoor public ranges are also built, so the regardless of the scenario, rounds will not leave the property. They have to be. Otherwise they would not be allowed to operate, either by the local governing body, their insurance carrier or the institution that loaned them the money. The sanctioning body for your USPSA and IDPA would not allow the competition at your range if it wasn't a safe place to shoot, regardless of how close it is to other private property. It's not that hard to do. Folks can do the same with their home ranges. I'm sorry, but many of us here have seen examples of home ranges that were not and are not safe. Has a good chuckle with a Mod here a while back about one. I am waiting to see how the OP does before I make a judgement, seems his head is in a good place about it.
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I dont know that we're on the same page in this discussion.

If you are talking strictly about berm penetration then I'm with you.

But what about folks accidentally/negligently setting off rounds over/around the berm or not even downrange at all? This is what I'm speaking on in regards to to this topic.

ALL ranges of any type are subject to this hazard. Which is why I reiterate the fact that we are all responsible for every bullet we fire.

So if one has an adequately built backstop and someone asks "What's behind it?" I can only chuckle and think whats to the left or right of it, or uprange of it?

The outdoor range I shoot comps at does indeed have countless residencies well within 1 mile of the range. If someone set off a round over one of the berms in any direction theres a very good chance its landing in someone's yard/house/etc.


So if we are speaking specifically about the berm and it being well built so that nothing gets past it then we are on the same page.

If not then I would submit y'all are a bit off the reservation. You cant account for everything.
 
I have been following this discussion with much interest as I am, currently, building a range on my property.
This will be a pistol range, and also for testing my reloads for velocity nodes.
Long range accuracy will have to be done at a longer range when they open back up, specifically, at Winamac.
It will be a maximum of 75 yds.
The berm backs up against the old barn on my property that is not used any more.
The berm/wall itself consists of 2 walls, 24" of compressed sandbags followed by a "wall" of 4" timbers.
The barn wall that it up against is reinforced, inside, with another lining of 4x4 beams.
The wall, itself will be 8 ft. Wide by 7 ft tall with side walls 1 sandbag wide angling out towards the shooter.
I have "tested" this setup by shooting various 308, 6.5 creedmoor, 556, and 450bm rounds at it, and none have penetrated more than 6" into the front layer of bags.
So, I am confident that the "berm/wall" will stop anything I shoot at it.
I have 10 acres of open field beyond the barn.

But, I agree with GOB's comments.
I can't control errant, wild shots, except to, constantly be aware and make every effort to avoid them.
I know, and understand the risks, and liabilities involved and make every effort to avoid any possibility of errant rounds.
When a round hits my berm/wall it is not getting through it.
 
BE1E5B1D-C4A1-422F-8041-7BA2A4AC0EFB.jpeg FCBABD09-B3BF-48C8-AF09-D41AEC8F75DD.jpeg So in the Good/Bad news comments

we have gotten close to 10 inches of rain in the last week so the ground is SUPER SOFT...


Which led to my poles leaning hard downhill:oops::barf::oops: So I went out and FIXED it:D:D:D!!!!

More bracing and some fence posts to stop the leaning! 5963135E-44B1-4458-A1D7-2C9CAEC2FB1B.jpeg
 
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