My Private Shooting Range/New Saiga .223

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Drakejake

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Dec 31, 2002
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Nashville, TN
It took me five months to buy this 38 acres because the owner was in jail for growing pot and there was a state tax lien on the land. It is clear that he was growing pot on the land I bought and probably had plans to expand his operation. But I surmise that early on he decided it would be easier to grow at his home in a nearby town. That is where he was caught.

This land serves my purposes very well, but not perfectly. It is a hollow between steep hills with a pretty creek flowing through it. The fact that it is a hollow means that it is very safe and there is no need to put up berms. On the other hand, the southern border is a county road that is probably only a couple of hundred feet up the hill. I have good access to the center of my property from the county road by way of my own fairly level dirt road, which runs beside the creek.

I have considered some kind of noise-deadening structure but my nearest neighbor recently told me not to worry about noise. There is very little level land, but enough for my shooting. There is a small swampy area where a target stand can be easily stuck into the wet earth. I just got an inexpensive magnetic broom--the kind used by roofers. It is helpful to me in picking up Wolf cases as well as detecting nails which can cause flats.

I bought a 20 foot steel shipping container and had it installed near my shooting area. I have used a wood frame and three storm doors to create an inner wall which lets in light but provides some protection against the elements when the steel doors are open. I recently bought a small wood stove and have put it into my "cabin." The big advantage of using the container is that it locks up like a safe when I leave. There are some malicious people wandering around and I don't want to be a target for them.

I am very happy with what I call "Camp Copperhead" because it is beautiful and about half as far from my house as the public range I have been using for several years.

Today I fired my first shots out of my Saiga .223 with factory dragunov stock. I used the factory 10 round mag and one of the Surefire polymer 30 rounders I bought with the rifle from Gilbert's in Kentucky (got to my dealer in less than 24 hours). The mags and the rifle functioned well in this initial test. The bolt locks back after the last round, but closes when you remove the mag. Still a nice feature.

Drakejake
 

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Very nice! I am landless. Well, I don't have real land like that.


I'd rent a bobcat or something like that and build a berm. 38 acres is huge, but you never know what's back there!


That is the dream. To have your own range, shoot at your convenience, and not have to deal with all the range morons.
 
it's fun aint it!

I only have 20 acres currently, but will have 150 in January. Mine is pretty similar to yours (I'm in a canyon with decent sized hills on both sides), although I am jealous of your 'cabin'. Currently I just shoot off the back porch, and when the wind kicks up there's nothing I can do about it.

Anyway, some things I've noticed about a private range:
1) Neighbors don't care
2) Neighbors ask to shoot just after you reset all the targets :)
3) Animals don't mind. We have a herd of deer, some elk, and occasional cougar that all keep coming back no matter how much I shoot
4) I go through a lot more ammo than when I had to pay at a public range

Glad your all set. For your next move, I'd recommend reloading if you don't already do so :D
 
That is an awesome idea!

I wish I had some land, I would do the same. Buy two or three shipping containers and join them together into a straight row, use a huge pile of dirt on the end as a back stop and seal them all together. Put in some lights all the way down range and have a perfect legal pistol range!
 
I use the hillside as a backdrop for my targets. The hill is 100-200 feet high.

This place is several dreams come true for me. My initial impulse was to have a private place to shoot where I would not have to worry about paying fees, complying with restricted hours, or not knowing what idiots might be on the range when I got there. But also, as a child I was a Boy Scout and enjoyed hiking, camping, even being in the woods around my house in Vicksburg, MS. What makes this place special is the stream, which is shallow, but flows year round over a limestone bed. I do have a sizeable pool which covers perhaps 20 by40 feet and is about two feet deep at its deepest. Turkey and deer wander through quite frequently and there are signs of other animals active mainly at night. I enjoy climbing up the hills and working on little projects. Lots of fun.

Drakejake
 

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Nice score on the land!!!
Love your shooting "shack".
Might I ask what a 20' container goes for?
Enjoy your home away from home.

CnR
 
Cost of shipping container:

I shopped around for containers, 20 feet and 40 feet. You have to buy locally because the shipping cost is so high (the 20 footer weighs about 4600 pounds). I looked at e-Bay and Craigslist. No one would let me pick out the box. They select it for me and I pay sight unseen. Then when I became interested, they had nothing in stock.

Then, by accident, I passed a storage lot while driving in town on the Interstate. They had dozens of the containers piled up. I went down and looked at what they had and the prices. One of the sales people came out to my land to check on the difficulty of making the delivery. He told me to forget about the 40 footers--delivery was out of the question. (The forty footers are only a few hundred dollars more than the 20 footers and obviously double the space.) The new 20 footers were much more expensive than the used ones. I selected a container which supposedly had been used by the military to store ammo! The dealer called these "army boxes." The one I selected had no holes in it and had a cover welded over a special locking piece--much harder to break into than the exposed locks on the locking handles. The box had some rust which I have scraped and primed--and other small spots of rust, as well as some minor dents. But the roof is in great shape and the box is tight. The plywood floor is in decent condition. I paid about $2200, tax and delivery included. You can get them for much less, especially if you live in a major port city like L.A., but many are in horrible shape, all rusted and dented. I saw some that actually had holes in them. I am very happy with my box. Compare this price to one of those wooden storage sheds and you will see it is not too bad.

Drakejake
 

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Good deal! I have 20 acres out behind the house, but it's all flat :( Thought about putting up a berm with my tractor, but that's gonna take some work and planning, I guess. It's nice you have some hills on your place for a backdrop. Nice container, too!
 
O.K. i admit it. I'm jealous. That looks fantastic. The only problem i see is that you need a spark arresting chimney cap so you don't burn up your woods. Have fun.
 
I have a rain cap to keep rain from getting into the vent pipe. I haven't installed it yet because I am still experimenting with the set-up. My problem is that before I can lock up the box, I have to put out the fire in the stove and remove that part of the pipe that extends to the outside. Slightly inconvenient, but I do not want to cut a hole in the steel roof for a permanent installation of the vent pipe. The container comes with two small vents built into the walls but these are inadequate for a wood stove.

So far as fires are concerned, I had them going for weeks, burning up fallen trees, roots, limbs, etc., from clearing and cleaning up the land. The tree people set the first huge fire while I was absent, but then I kept the fires going for a long time to get everything burned up.

Drakejake
 

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