New Backstop In Progress

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Good Ol' Boy

Would it help to put the sand in sandbags so as to stack up more easily?
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I was just thinking the same thing as AlexanderA posted. That's what a friend of mine did at a range he had built on his property. He had a fairly substantial backstop plowed up when he had his house built, Then he started piling bags of sand (like you find at Home Depot for kid's sandboxes), and just continued stacking them up, til they were several feet deep.
 
In an assumption that you are shooting at a somewhat downward angle.

I think I'd run lumber across the bottom as high as the vertical and part way up the diagonal and then after it is filled with sand, keep a couple of cans of FlexSeal aerosol for the stray holes.

One or two stringer panels against outward flex maybe.

Of course, depending upon what yard denizens you have - might be building a ballistic condo for the borrowing crowd. So, some screen at the top might be in order.

Todd.
 
CapnMac said:
Bagged sand can be expensive--although it's very compact for the density.
Another alternative is to watch for home center sales and get the big bags of potting soil, peat moss, or mulch will give excellent mass to a backstop. (Especially if laid the long way to bullet flight.)
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It looks like 50 lb bags of sand are on sale at Lowe’s for $2.50 each through Wednesday. ;)
 
You get surplus military sandbags (empty) and fill them yourself. Even at a sale price, bagged sand is expensive. Besides that, the flimsy plastic bags that bagged sand is sold in won't stand up to gunfire. The military sandbags are reinforced for that very reason.
 
CapnMac suggested, regarding sand (or mulch or whatever) bags:
(Especially if laid the long way to bullet flight.)
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Good point.
Bagged sand can be expensive --although it's very compact for the density.
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That kind of threw me for an instant until I realized what you were getting at. =D

Terry
 
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Insignificant bill said:
Sand by the yard would still be cheaper.
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But, harder to place by a single person.
(Not that most of our backs would not complain about that amount of work.)

Bags of stuff can be easier for a lone DIY than having to go rent a skid steer or walk-behind to place material delivered by the yard (especially since the guy delivering the material may not want to drive the boss' truck to your preferred location).

AlexanderA's point is apt in that the flimsy bags used by home centers are not going to last long. But, they will likely last long enough to get into place.
MilSpec bags are a bit more durable, but in no way are they bullet resistant. PFC-resistant, perhaps, when armed with a spade. MilSpec bags are meant to be able to be filled with any local material, from gravel, sand, loam, peat, whatever.
The scraps of either, once torn up in a backstop will want cleaning up, but, maintaining your backstop is part of the responsibility of owning one.
 
CapnMac said:
AlexanderA's point is apt in that the flimsy bags used by home centers are not going to last long. But, they will likely last long enough to get into place.
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I would tend to agree. The filling, whether sand, dirt, or whatever, will eventually spill out. You might consider planting some kind of vegetation on the front of the berm, so that the roots would tend to hold things together.

Another question is whether you would want to recover spent bullets from the backstop. That would be a reason for keeping the sand loose.
 
AlexanderA said:
You might consider planting some kind of vegetation on the front of the berm, so that the roots would tend to hold things together.
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An excellent point.
Tricky part is the slope.
You can get English Ivy and Asian Jasmine to grow up a vertical face, just not quickly, and leaving a backstop to "ivy up" for 2-3 years is not in our nature.
You can get ice plant (dichondra) to climb a 60-70º slope, and to establish very firmly in just a year. But, it needs shade, and does not tolerate gunfire so very much.
The best thing is grass, particularly the prairie grasses like Buffalo, Johnson, Dallis and the like. Problem is that grass has a maximum slope of 40º; call that about 10" of rise for every foot of run. Which totals up to a considerable amount of dirt.
Amounts where renting a walk-behind skid steer is probably to your advantage, even at $250-350/day rental rates.
 
My plan is to buy bags of sand and spread them like I want. Why not just stack bags? Because that would allow penetration I dont want and eventually the bags would break down and I'd have plastic bags to deal with after the fact.
 
hso said:
What's behind it?
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Nothing but woods for about a mile to the next farm.

Some folks see a 4ft chain link fence and suspect suburban living but in fact I'm very rural and shooting regs are extremely lax in my county.

Having said that I'm well aware of the responsibility of shooting on my own property and that I'm responsible for every round I fire.

And I'm perfectly at peace with that.
 
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Good Ol' Boy said:
Some folks see a 4ft chain link fence and suspect suburban living but in fact I'm very rural and shooting regs are extremely lax in my county.
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....looks to be another fence maybe 100 feet or so beyond the one behind your backstop. Is that yours too?
 
More progress. Think I'm done with framing just need even more sand. Probably at least as much as I added today, maybe 2x as much.
 

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Good Ol' Boy said:
More progress. Think I'm done with framing just need even more sand. Probably at least as much as I added today, maybe 2x as much.
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I really like the way your building it , and your right about skipping the bags , leaving the material mounded up against the back board makes it easy to dress it up when needed , with a square point shovel , plus you can retrieve your bullets pretty easy ....good job buddy....
 
Good Ol' Boy said:
My plan is to buy bags of sand and spread them like I want. Why not just stack bags? Because that would allow penetration I dont want and eventually the bags would break down and I'd have plastic bags to deal with after the fact.
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.....Go to your local gravel pit and buy a ton of sand about a yard , a small tractor scoop , in your pickup and put it where you want ....it will cost just a few bucks .........
 
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