Building up a shooting berm/backstop ideas?

[DustyGmt]

Just curious for some ideas and maybe pictures of what some of you guys might have come up with for solutions to contain potential ricochet and fragmentation with a home made back stop.

I know the first and best options would be to have a couple loads of dirt trucked in, which I may do but was thinking some of you guys might share pics for inspiration or share something I've not thought of. I have some ideas, possibly some tires and pine logs and such, thinking like a half circle or U shape about 6' high and 15'-18' wide.

Anybody care to share some DIY backstop projects?

 

[Dave DeLaurant]

What distance are you shooting? If it is relatively short range, you could save some work by digging a trench and using the spoil to form a berm behind it, and then do your shooting from an elevated position downwards, effectively into the ground.

I hope the gravel you're having delivered is very finely crushed. Possibly an additional layer of something finer on top to help absorb potential ricochets?

This is an admittedly elaborate setup. The local peace officer's range used this kind of arrangement to form a positive bullet trap.

 

[mcb]

My current back stop is just a big pile of dirt we made with the tractor. Took a few minutes to get all the big rock out of the front face and throw them on the back side. Shouldn't need more than that.

 

[bearcreek]

I know the first and best options would be to have a couple loads of gravel trucked in,

I wouldn't use gravel. It's gonna be lots more expensive (probably) and far less effective than just using dirt. It'll cause ricochets where dirt won't. With a dirt berm, ricochets and fragmentation aren't really an issue, as long as there aren't rocks in the dirt. If you're using steel targets, fragmentation happens, of course, but doesn't need to be contained unless there will be folks very close to the targets while shooting.

 

[1942farmall]

I just built this berm at my place in Idaho with my tractor.
I'll be building a permanent bench with canopy in the spring at 100 yards.

 

[Scrapiron45]

Built a dirt berm with some logs buried in it about 7 feet tall last year. That's as high as the equipment and dirt supply I had would allow. It settled over the summer so I'm planning to add another couple feet this winter and maybe extending wings at a 45degree angle on the ends to help with splatter from the steel. After the rebuild I'll throw some fescue seed on it to help with erosion and contain dirt splatter at close range.
I have used tires in backstops for fill and stability and they worked fine but the logs were readily available.

 

[v8stang289]

My backyard berm is just a large pile of fill dirt. I did use a few pieces of a large maple I cut down to enforce the sides and back to help keep rain from eroding it so bad.
I mainly shoot .22's there, with the occasional testing of a new pistol load. It's only ~4 feet tall, but serves it purpose. It's also backed up by a few hundred acres of forest

At our rifle range, we framed 6 feet high supports with 4x4 posts and boards, then filled with dirt using a backhoe.
Everything is flat here, so it seems like unsupported berms get washed down by rain in short order

 

[Chuck R.]

What distance are you shooting? If it is relatively short range, you could save some work by digging a trench with the spoil forming a berm behind it, and then do your shooting from an elevated position downwards, effectively into the ground.

I hope the gravel you're having delivered is very finely crushed. Possibly an additional layer of something finer on top to help absorb potential ricochets?

This is an admittedly elaborate setup. The local peace officer's range used this kind of arrangement to form a positive bullet trap.

View attachment 1182591

That is cool!!!!

The majority of mine are on a FWD slope, so I have some hillside as an ultimate stop. From my back deck:

For my pistol through 200yd berm I dug into my hill and graveled the base:

For 300yd berms I pushed up dirt, on the front slope of my backyard hill (there's still another 30' of rise behind this berm)

547yd Berm, pushed up dirt and some from when we had another pond dug:

760yd berm under construction, still below my last intervening crest, but I needed the backstop to spot misses:

For hunting season warm-up, I just run tgts up my hlil:

 

[buck460XVR]

I have some ideas, possibly some tires and pine logs and such

I would refrain from using those in your berm. First, it is against many county/township ordinances to bury tires without a permit. Pine logs will eventually decompose and lower the berm. Tires will compress and do the same. If at some point you want to remove the berm, it is going to be easier if it is just dirt. The cost savings, if any IMHO, is just not worth it.

Depending on what is behind your intended berm placement, will determine how high your berm needs to be. The goal is to keep every bullet you shoot, on your property. That includes ricochets off the ground and any hard targets, such as steel gongs and any metal target hanging structures. Even T-Posts will ricochet a bullet. I see way to many pictures of berms with targets only inches from the top, or with things like cans/clay pigeons placed on top of the target stand. shoot 6" high and no berm is there. Having a natural high area behind the berm is a plus too.

 

[lightman]

A big pile of dirt is hard to beat. Or sand. I probably wouldn't do gravel. A natural hill side would be even better.

Dave's picture in post #2 would be a 1st class set-up.

 

[PWC]

Don't know about your area, but around here, there are always those that dump trucks of fill dirt in vacant lots and the desert at night to keep from paying to haul it away properly. Maybe you could put the word out you are looking for dirt. Or, if equipped, get it yourself.

 

[Will Munny]

One item of consideration is if you want to recover the projectiles. I've often thought a wood face covered with 1-2 feet of sandy soil (ie. not too much organic matter or clay) would make a good material that could be periodically excavated and sifted to recover metal.

 

[whisler]

I use sand backed by railroad ties

 

[dogtown tom]

If you ever want to "mine" your backstop you want as much sand as you can get.

 

[DustyGmt]

Yeah, not gravel. I don't know why I said gravel, I meant regular cruddy old dirt. I'll talk to some of the town maintenance guys and see if I could get em to haul some dirt. I could always get sand too, there's a couple sand pits in town. Just have to talk to some people about it. I use my in laws Kubota sometimes for snow removal, I could definitely use it for this project too.

If they ask me how many yards I'd need I wouldn't really know what to tell them, but a dump truck load should be a pretty good start no? That's like 15 yards of dirt.

 

[Chuck R.]

1 load would make an OK small berm I'm always amazed at how little a standard dump load is. My 760 yard berm pictured about was about 1/2 load.

When we were working on one of our ponds I asked the guy that did some work on my place about bringing in some dirt. Hold me; "Dirt's cheap, it's getting where you want it that's going to cost ya."

Gravel normally costs me about $350 delivered, of that about $80 is "getting where I want it" and I live about 8 miles from the quarry.

 

[Barmcd]

I’m pretty jealous of those backyard ranges.

 

[bearcreek]

Yeah, not gravel. I don't know why I said gravel, I meant regular cruddy old dirt. I'll talk to some of the town maintenance guys and see if I could get em to haul some dirt. I could always get sand too, there's a couple sand pits in town. Just have to talk to some people about it. I use my in laws Kubota sometimes for snow removal, I could definitely use it for this project too.

If they ask me how many yards I'd need I wouldn't really know what to tell them, but a dump truck load should be a pretty good start no? That's like 15 yards of dirt.

You'll be surprised how small 15 yards of dirt looks once it's dumped out of the truck. How many loads you're going to need is going to depend on how the berm is constructed and what material you're using. Sand is great for a backstop but it doesn't pile up high very well. Tends to want to flatten itself out. Clay soil will stay piled higher. If you have walls to contain the material on the back and sides you'll use a lot less but it'll be more work to build.

 

[jmorris]

At our farm we use the natural terrain, dams and such. When I made one for home I bought some left over steel from a local bridge construction project and welded a trap together.

I don’t have to mow it or maintain erosion and I can move it in one trip if I want to.





Hard to make out in that second photo but there is a 1/2” X 4” lip on that top edge because I shoot steel often.

Auto reset targets

www.youtube.com

 

[jmorris]

I often use a smaller, trailer version I can move around with a 4 wheeler or utv, that makes it very easy to recover my lead.

 

[horsemen61]

Great thread I need to figure mine out and get it done!

 

[jmorris]

I made that last one because I liked the one Jerry has at his range, his is made from lighter material but has pretty good angle to it, I also made my “snail“ with 3 layers, just to make sure nothing could make it out the back.



My doors are also flaps on either side so I can open them both up and push the lead from one side, out the other into a bucket.

 

[Thomasss]

A range once used car tires as a primary back stop with dirt behind it. And it was kinda funny because the DNR took over the range and was eventually told the tires couldn't be used any more by the environmental dept. of the DNR and so the tires were slowly covered. It was effective.
There haven't been any ricochets or frags leaving the target zone.

 

[AK Hunter]

A range once used car tires as a primary back stop with dirt behind it. And it was kinda funny because the DNR took over the range and was eventually told the tires couldn't be used any more by the environmental dept. of the DNR and so the tires were slowly covered. It was effective.
There haven't been any ricochets or frags leaving the target zone.

Our club range tried the semi tire wall back stops & found too many rounds bouncing back. So now we have a 12 ft tall 30ft wide concrete back with sides that are protected by steel plates angled downward, filled with dirt. Other bays we have something called ballistic sand, it's like a fine rock that traps the rounds fired into it.

 

[bannockburn]

A buddy of mine had his contractor clear out a 7'high x 12' long berm when they were building his house. He then began systematically layering bags of kid's play sand across the front of the berm. The sand stayed in place despite making numerous bullet holes in the plastic bags.