Sufficient Backstop and berm, give me your opinion

[sulli08]

Hello all,

I am a new member to this forum, but have been reading a lot of posts for about 3 years now. I have never quite been able to get a good feel for what would be needed for a sufficient backstop and birm for an outdoor range, so I will start with the rounds I will be shooting. Most pistol rounds and then .223 and .308 nothing bigger, ohh and 12ga 00 buck or bird type shots. I have about 1.4 acres and was planning on the backside of the lot building about a 20 x 40 U shape with two cinderblock walls on the three sides then fill the back side of the U with dirt/sand mix. Behind the back wall is a farm field approx 20-40 acres then about another 5-10 acres of dense woods. Would this be sufficient assuming the farm land stays that and doesnt get developed into a cookie cutter housing addition. I want as many opinions on this for two reasons, one is safety, majority of members seem like more then average shooters and second to not waste the money if I dont have too. Thanks in advance.

 

[ilbob]

how tall will the berm be?

how will you prevent errant rounds from escaping the berms via richochets?

 

[sulli08]

Ahh forgot those two parts... it would be atleast 15 ft tall and then planned on putting some sort of beams 6x6 or old railroad ties if possible. Might make the range less wide, since I will be the only shooter. Thanks again.

 

[rcmodel]

It takes a surprisinglly small amount of sand & dirt to stop any bullet. Your proposed dirt sand bank will do nicely with an occasional filling right behind the targets.

The main danger is someone shooting over or under the berm due to unforseen circumstances.
Most failures of a range to contain a bullet fall into those two catagories.

The best solution is a bench & covered firing point that prevents raising the gun muzzle above the top of the berm, or shooting under it and richoceting one over the berm and out of the range.

rcmodel

 

[Neophyte1]

sulli08: Sir; I believe you understand what has been said.

A point that shouldn't be overlooked. Those fields with forest trees would have made me a great place to wander about as a youngster.

I would suggest never and I mean never assume the Trees as a barrier for bullets.

Follow up with your thinking.

 

[ilbob]

its also surprisingly easy to bounce one off the ground in front of the berm and have it skip over the top of the berm.

 

[Double Naught Spy]

sulli, that is a very small piece of property to be shooting on, especially .223 and .308.

Your U shaped setup sounds good, but cinderblocks are not good ballistic barriers. So don't just have the backside covered in dirt, but also the sides at least several feet out from the backstop.

Given your calibers, it was noted that you have some way to keep the rounds from being shot over the berm unintentionally. You can do that with a series of baffles, but that will likely be expensive and require some high up construction.

Do you plan for all the walls to be 15 ft tall or just your backstop?

It was noted that a surprisingly small amount of dirt will stop a bullet. That may be true until you have somebody bullseye shoot 50 or 100 rounds and burrow a hole several feet into your berm. If the berm has enough clay content, the tunnel may be stable and you run the risk of a through and through hole, depending on how thick the berm is. If of looser fill such as sand, then the burrows will collapse on themselves and you will simply have an erosion problem.

Since you will have such an area walled on 3 sides, have you considered drainage?

 

[Match14]

"A point that shouldn't be overlooked. Those fields with forest trees would have made me a great place to wander about as a youngster."

sulli, you may want to check with the people who own the farm property and see if they have children. Or perhaps you can coordinate with your neighbor who owns the farm, so that no one will be back there while you shoot.

 

[EHCRain10]

if you could get a-hold of enough of them, old bald tires stacked and filled with sand would be a good choice

 

[GlowinPontiac]

be careful with tires. ive seen many ricochets from bullets that failed to penetrate a tire and simply bounced off. sometimes straight back at the shooter.

 

[mekender]

you can build a wall for the top of the berm, say 2x6 boards with a gap of about 3-6 inches in it filled with sand and about 8ft high... ive seen it done at commercial ranges and it will stop most rounds... best to use bolts to put it together that way its a lot easier to replace the boards as they get shot up...

 

[mekender]

you can build a wall for the top of the berm, say 2x6 boards with a gap of about 3-6 inches in it filled with sand and about 8ft high... ive seen it done at commercial ranges and it will stop most rounds... best to use bolts to put it together that way its a lot easier to replace the boards as they get shot up...

 

[Gary G23]

IMO 1.4 acres is not even close to being big enough to shoot .308 on.

 

[def4pos8]

SOMEBODY at the NRA ought to be able to provide clues regarding range design.

My primary experience in range design was related to a new ChAir Force range in Europe. Trust me, the Germans were thorough! We had rounds escape that $7 MILLION-dollar shooting palace on the first day!! (Doggies with M-60s. . . .)

You'll likely find information regarding danger fans discouraging. You might want to consider concrete sewer sections of six to nine feet. These will contain mistakes and minimize sound signature for the neighbor who moves in five years from now.

 

[M2 Carbine]

This is my rifle range. The total length is 110 yards. I shoot up to 30.06. (this day I was shooting a Bushmaster Carbon 15 .223 pistol up close) It's on 10 acres and is a work in progress. I'm still increasing the size of the berm, looking for benches, etc.
I consider this good enough for decent shooters.

The berm/backstop is more important than the size of the land it is located on.
Unless you can afford enough land that a stray bullet will always fall on your land, than you have the responsibility to see that a bullet won't leave your land.
For some shooters that may be a small pile of dirt or some steel plates and for others they may be safe shooting at only a large berm.



This is my backyard pistol range, using steel plate and bullet traps to stop the bullets. There's a ranch 450 yards behind this range, so only a couple friends, good shots, are allowed to shoot here.

 

[sm]

Paper Bails

sulli08,

Do you have anyone like Kimberly Clark near you?

We used these square bails for backstop in addition to berms .
We also used these in shoot houses, square and round ranges too.

These are made from paper byproducts, from disposable diapers,(baby and adult), feminine products and other items in a mfg product line.

DENSE, and Heavy!

WE got ours free and had deal worked with a scrap dealer for recycling.
These held up to all sorts of weather, and for a long time.

We ran everything at these including Brenneke Slugs, and .50 cal.

We used a forklift to set in permanent on some outdoor ranges, and onto special stand with wheels to move for other uses.

Crane was used to put into a two story shoot house, with basement, before this shoot house was finished out.
This shoot house was up against and "into" a hollow in a mountain side.

 

[wbh]

It would help to know the state in which you live, but I can add this for your information. I work for a civil engineering design/consulting company (I'm a mechanical engineer, but just can't help playing in the dirt ) and have recently done such a design for a local private gun club.

Without getting into too many details as far as companies, clubs, and locations involved here, this design is for a berm for a pistol/rifle/shotgun range, which sounds very similar to your situation.

One item of importance is to know where on your property you can place your berm. You probably won't run into this problem, but if there happens to be a regulated drain easement where your property butts up to the farmland, the county will be all over you for placing fill in a drainage easement due to the potential to cause flooding upstream which you will then be forced to remove, restore, and regrade (at your cost, too). So, before you begin, do a little leg work and check out where any drainage easements, access easements, utility right-of-ways, etc are located, if any. That may not be an issue for you, but a little work up front will save you a ton of headaches down the road.

Now as far as the berm design itself is concerned, what was designed and approved (finally) by the county and local municipality is as follows:

Overall Berm Height - 25'
Overall Berm Thickness at Base - 110'
Overall Berm Thickness at Top - 10'
Side slope - 2:1 (2' vertical for every 1' horizontal)
Berm Material - Compacted Clay with a minimum of 1' of topsoil
Berm cover - Vegetative Cover (plant some grass, it keeps your berm from eroding quickly)
The shape is somewhat of a U shape. The "base" of the U being ~275' long and as described above. The two, "fingers", lacking a better term, measure 25' thick at the base and also have 2:1 side slopes. The fingers protrude ~116' out from the base.

The entire area of the range encompasses 2.06 Acres

I can attach some drawing/sketches if need be.

As I said, this was done for a local club and may be a bit on the overkill side of things for you, but is a rifle/pistol/trap & skeet range that met with all local requirements.

Your mileage may vary. One per customer/household. Offer not valid where prohibited by law.

 

[Rembrandt]

One of the best ways to prevent errant rounds from escaping is to install a series of baffles near the shooter. These are made with pea gravel sandwiched between layers of treated lumber....as the shooter looks down range the view is somewhat like that of a tunnel....only thing visable is the target.

 

[PRazz]

Passing this along:

http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot7.htm

 

[googol]

Sufficient Backstop or Berm

Man, some of the advice I've seen here would put me off shooting forever. I live on about 7 acres in an area that is sparsely populated, but does have homes nearby. My berm is about chest-high and about 15 feet long, mostly piled-up rock and dirt from an old landscaping project, with a few old tires and railroad ties in the mix. The range is only about 30 yards long and is used almost exclusively for pistols by people I know and trust. (I've patterned my shotgun there, too.) We mount our targets on the ground at the base of the berm and I'm confident we've never had shots go past the berm into the neighbor's airspace. A government safety officer would probably have a vapor lock if he saw it, but I don't have the money for some of the elaborate safety described in this thread.

 

[sulli08]

Thank you all

Thank you all for your input. All the information will be taken in conideration for building the range. Just for information purposes, this is a wonderful site and full of great ideas. Thanks again.