New Home Range

[Picher]

This week, I set up a new/used bench in our son's abandoned blueberry field and will be improving the backstop soon. A cover may also be forthcoming. Yesterday, I did some load testing, picking the time with the least wind/mirage. What a luxury, compared with packing all my gear and driving 10 miles or more to the club range.

The range is a half-mile from the house/neighbors, so shooting doesn't bother people or livestock. Right now, the backstop is a large boulder, but we'll add more material to make it even safer.

The area has been unusable for several months because of harvesting operations through the winter that damaged the access road, but it's now been re-graded to some extent. Picture is the view from the firing point. It's about 280 yards to the woods. We'll be setting up backstops at 100 and maybe at the woods line.

 

[Milt1]

Wow, nice field and beautiful color!

 

[imashooter]

Nice place. I can't even imagine going to a public / private "conventional" range with one exception. One of these days I hope to get off my lazy butt and journey down to the CMP Talladega Marksmanship Park.

 

[MCMXI]

Very nice @Picher ... and a beautiful place to shoot!

I can't even imagine going to a public / private "conventional" range

I'm spoiled too and have no wish to go to a public or private range. I have a steel shooting bench with a thick rubber pad set up at the back of a large garage just a few feet from my back door and reloading equipment. I also have a PC near the bench running QuickLOAD. I shoot out of a small window and mounted a tripod head to a stud screwed into the bottom of the window frame so I can set up the LabRadar in about 30 seconds. I have targets at 100, 400, 700 and 1050 yards. I'd like to add more distances and will probably get to it this year.

I don't usually shoot off wood blocks but I was so disgusted with the Caldwell rest that I have (now improved) that I wanted to try something else during load development.

 

[Good Ol' Boy]

Congrats.

I only have 50yds at my place but still, it's great being able to shoot on your own property isn't it.

I envy you...

 

[Picher]

Wow, nice field and beautiful color!

Obviously, the picture was taken in the fall. Blueberry bushes turn a nice red, but often with violet and other colors in some areas. The first 200 yards are taken out of berry production, so we may have to mow a path eventually.

 

[Demi-human]

Very rarely am I envious. However, @Picher and @MCMXI, you have awakened the green eyed beast in me. I dream of having a Shooting House, backed up to a gorgeous set of acres...

One thousand yards and a quart of blueberries please!

 

[nhcruffler]

Lovely spot pitcher. Much better than driving to a range. My back deck is quickly becoming my favorite place to shoot.

 

[Picher]

I've shot coyotes and turkeys from the spot where my bench is now located. One day, while checking the area for turkeys damaging the berries just before harvest, I saw something brown about 100 yards away. I thought it was a rabbit, but after checking with the scope, it was a young coyote. I shot it and two others ran off to the woods. I sat in the truck and waited about 5 minutes and the other two came back out and continued eating. Shot another one and the third ran off. Another few minutes and the third one came out again. Got that one too! Three in about 15 minutes!

 

[Picher]

I'm planning a permanent cover for my bench, but don't think it will turn into a building. Time will tell. We've been here for 13 years and it's taken this long to get a bench set up, so I feel happy to get this far.

 

[Walkalong]

Very nice.

 

[Legionnaire]

Nice! I'm jealous ...

 

[Creed Bennett]

I’ve just finished my new home range. I have 125 acres on my property and it’s hard to find a flat, straight 100 yards to shoot because of all the hills. Originally we were living in town and I had to go to my dads house to shoot and I only had a 25 yard range there. My dad and I built my current house here on my property and I had a range down the hill from me. It never really suited me so I decided to clear out a place out in front of the house and build me a 100 yard backstop out of a stack of logs and 6 transfer truck tires stacked and filled with gravel in front of the logs. The 100 yard target is close to the road we live on so I wanted a really well constructed backstop. After the 100 yard was finished I added a 50 yard stack of tires and filled them with gravel. I have plans for a 25 yard backstop as well but I ran out of tires and will get 6 more when I have time to pick them up. In the next month or so I’ll be building a pole barn type cover to house my shooting bench. I think I’m going to add a enclosed section in one end to store my lead sleds and sandbags. I might even put a window in it to shoot out of when the weather is too cold. I may even put my spare reloading equipment in there too. It’s nice to be able to walk about a 100 feet and start shooting. Here’s a picture of my setup so far.

 

[Bull Nutria]

I would be concerned that those tires may cause some bounced back bullets. you would probably be much saver with a dirt berm. Bullets can bounce off of steel plate so I am sure they will really bounce off of rubber tires! logs will rot and not last!

No offense, I am jealous you have a home range.

Bull

 

[Creed Bennett]

Well I’ve used tires at the original range with no bounce backs and as far as the logs go they have a roof over them to slow the rotting down and the first logs at the bottom of the sack are cedar. With a 125 acres of woods I can top the logs off at any time.

 

[ontarget]

I can shoot up to 125 yards off my back deck. Even more if I shot onto the vacant property behind me, but its all wooded so I figure I better not shoot up other peoples trees. I guess that makes me a tree hugger LOL. I just recently joined a gun club nearby that goes out to 400 yds so I should be set for now. Very nice shooting site Picher. Enjoy it.!

 

[Picher]

Went out and shot yesterday, bringing a Hoppe's front rest and sandbag rear in a covered 5 gallon bucket, to leave there under the "tarp-covered" bench and stool. The leaves are fully out, so it was nice to shoot under the oak trees.

A big tom turkey was strutting around, about 60 yards behind the bench when I got there, so watched him a bit before getting out of the truck. He came about 10 yards closer, but I decided to get out and he melted into the hedgerow and the field beyond. Last time I shot, there were 5 at the end of the shooting range field, but they disappeared after a couple of shots on-target.

Shot some Winchester, .243 Win, "Deer Season" rounds at 100 yards. It was pretty windy, but still got some 1" groups. It's supposed to be great ammo for deer, so we'll see how well it does on other critters, should they appear like the coyote I shot a month or so in the back yard.

My .223 Rem "Light Varmint" 700 shot similar groups with handloads, so I'm hoping for a bit calmer conditions to really wring out the factory ammo in the .243.

I also checked on the other side of the rock wall ahead of the bench to see if the lady slippers were back and they were! Nice!

 

[Picher]

Chronographing .22 WMR today at my home range using my CZ 455. My rest is a newer Hoppes that I'm keeping in a plastic 5-gallon covered bucket under the bench. I also keep the bench covered with a tarp and shoot off it without lowering the screws because the feet hold firmly on the tarp. Love the range!

Just got some Winchester ammo at Dicks and it shoots pretty well at 100 yards. Eight out of 10 in 1" with two flyers...(1" high and 2" high from group center).

Noticed that the velocities are quite consistent with Rem, Win, and Hornady, with the Winchester averaging 2,243 fps and extreme spread of 108. Both CCI and Rem were under 2,100 and had extreme spread of 96 and 114 respectively. Hornady ammo tended to string shots vertically while Rem and Win tended to group more consistently.

One thing I noticed was that there seemed to be significant wobble with one round that I saw that appeared to be travelling in a corkscrew manner, yet printing within the group. It came streaking from left to right just before impact and gave me the feeling that it was under-stabilized.

I'm not used to having such disparity in group positions with rimfire ammo. The uniformity of velocities doesn't give a hint as to why some WMR ammo strings so much. It may be due to bullet construction variations or short length of the bullets and shallow seating depth. The apparent uniform appearance of the cartridges and relatively uniform velocity belies the variation in accuracy. Perhaps the rifle doesn't have adequate twist to stabilize the bullets? Bullet holes are quite round, however.

(The other rifle lying on the bench is my Rem 700 ADL with a Pac-Nor .243 Win stainless barrel. Shoots great and has taken a few deer out to 200 yards! It was born with a .22-250 barrel, but I needed more power for deer and eastern coyotes. Have several grandkids who used it to bag their first deer.)