Rifle range at home?

[ksubuck]

I bought a piece of ground in the middle of flat farm country this winter. Closest neighbors are 3/4 mile to north, 1 mile to west, 1 mile to south, and 2 miles to east. I am the last person on the maintained section of road and have one car that passes each day (mailman). I want to build a rifle backstop without having to haul in a mound of earth and without spending a ton of money.

I have plenty of unused concrete blocks and railroad timbers, some sand/gravel mix, and a little extra dirt laying around.

My plans are to build a U-shaped wall out of blocks that is 8 feet wide, 8 feet deep and 6 feet tall, then stack timbers across the middle to form a dead space that I will fill with sand/gravel mix. Then I will push dirt up the face of the timbers. I plan on placing this backstop in front of two old silos on the property for an added measure of security for the neighbors to the east.

My question is, does this look safe, should I still be concerned about riccocets? Any thoughts or criticisms much appreciated.

[Larryjk]

We found you get a large number of bullets the "flip" out of the dirt backstop, but, most were full metal jacket. Seems the exposed tip bullets break up and stay in the dirt.
No matter how good your backstop is, I wouldn't shoot toward any inhabited structures. A bullet can travel up to 4 miles. You want to make sure your "guests" can hit the backstop.

[Adam Helmer]

ksubuck,

As a board member of a gun club, I have dealt with range backstops. Your photo shows some really flat country; here in PA we are blessed with hills and mountains that are great backstops.

What calibers do you plan to use on your range and what distances will you be firing? The NRA has a book detailing range plans and backstops. You may be wise to check with your local planning board or zoning board to see it they have requirements for range backstops. Some ranges have a baffle over the firing line, sort of like a short roof facing down range, which prevents shots above the backstop.

One more thing, your neighbor's houses may be a mile or two away, but how close would their farm machinery be or livestock to your property line? Hope this helps.

Adam

[Larryjk]

ksubuck, You are fortunate to be in farm country. Most of those folks are probably shooters also. You might want to contact them about your plans and see what their attitude is! Most of them won't care unless they hear whining bullets. Ours is a municipal range, out of town, shooting away from town, berms about 20 feet high at the impact area and 14 feet along the sides. Some folks mentioned an over head baffle so you couldn't shoot over the backstop.
We finally had a ($) consultant from Florida come in to evaluate our range plan and apply some common sense to the local situation. He didn't feel the overhead baffles were necessary because there weren't any habitations for over ten miles. You can spend a lot of money, but some lawyer will say it wasn't enough.
The main issue is never having a bullet go where it shouldn't be.
Check to see if county regulations have any issues. If it is your personal range , it is easier. If you invite people in, you are dealing with the unknown. The box type backstop you describe should contain the bullets (lead) and have a lead remediation plan if the county requires a plan. The plan can say you are going to keep the lead in the box until you abandon the range, then the soil will be buried in an approved landfill. If you have a plan, they can't shut you down for not having a plan.
Good luck.

[ksubuck]

Thanks for the thoughts.

The range would just be for personal use to practice with and work up loads for the hunting rifles. Calibers up to 325WSM at a range of 200 yards. I can see only shooting twice a month and then only shooting 20 or so rounds in a session.

Is my plan for the box close to an appropriate size, overkill, or underkill?

[Larryjk]

It may be a little overkill, but I would do it. It shows that you have every intention of keeping your bullets at home. That set up where you are the intended user should be okay. Like I said, you can't ever overbuild where lawyers are concerned. I would contact those neighbors and let them know what you are doing and maybe give them an invite to come over and try it out under your watchful eye.

[ksubuck]

Thanks again everyone.

I think I will talk with all of the neighbors just to let them know what I want to do. I don't know about the guys to the east though. They are AVID shooters, ie. occasional evenings and most weekends it sounds like when I lived near Fort Riley in Kansas. Hope they have a nice setup

Anyone have concerns about return rounds off of the face of my silos in the event of a really poor shot?

[Larryjk]

A richochet off of any hard surface is always a possiblilty. Usually those silos are made of concrete block. They have a tendency to crumble when hit by a large bullet. Maybe you can watch them come down to your shot; if you get a lot of misses. Actually, the bullets will have less tendency to richocet off of the blocks than solid concrete. Do you plan on missing that 6' by 8' box often?

[ksubuck]

I might know someone who brought a silo down with a small arsenal. Could be a videotape of the event

They had a comebacker or ten, but at a lot closer range and with a slug gun.

[Larryjk]

ksubuck, I think you will be okay. Congratulations, you are a man of property now.
My father said he would never sell the mineral rights to the hill east of our buildings because my brother and I had shot a fortune in lead into that hill. Farm boys and their toys.

[Rapier]

KSUBUCK,
Just finishing my 200 yard rifle range. It is 50 yards wide and 200 yards long with a 10 ft berm at the end. I had my contractor build it when he dug the new pond at the farm.

I have been around ranges for about 50 years in various capacities. There is a reason that the stops are mostly dirt and that is because it works best. I have seen a 458 cut a pine log 18 inches in diameter in half with 6 shots, so do not count on any wood laid across the impact area to stay. In the old days the USAF used RR ties on end as an inpact area to sight in 50 Cals on fighters. They had to change the ties out on a regular basis.

As you shoot the dirt tries to level out, so the top tends to run to the bottom with rain and ploughing by bullets. Watch your blocks, once shattered they are a pain to put back in place.

The best I have seen so far is old tires staggered in two rows, stacked up and filled with dirt as they are stacked. You can shoot a tire all day long without much effect and a bullet will not go through two layers of dirt filled tires. But they are ugly.
Best,
Ed

PS: Invite the neighbors to use the range whenever they want, without bottles or leaving junk. End of problems. They will watch it for you also.

[skeeter@ccia.com]

Ksbuck, why not visit your neighbors to the east and see what sort of set up they have...I also like the rows of tires filled with sand..good idea..can stack them high...maybe your local tire shop will even pay you to remove some of them laying around the shop?...
another good thing to do is this...go to 'google earth' and you can back out the picture enough to make a line of fire that has nothing behind it for miles and miles..I had done that here..the best set up showed too many houses a few miles over the hill and in line and concern for those that might get out of the pit made me change the angle a little. Don't let anyone tell you different but there is a chance not all rounds will 'dig into' the dirt... I experienced that first hand while ground hog hunting in the past...I don't hunt with the other guy anymore either...

[huntingvet]

KSUBUCK, I think that range is asking for a volunteer to help break it in! ;-)

[GoodOlBoy]

My range (or at least when I still had one on my property) was a stack of old railroad crossties. In front of it was an old barbque pit made of a steel 55 gallon drum that the bottom had rusted out of. On anything but high powered rifles I didn't have to worry because typically even if it did manage to penentrate two sides of the drum (which I later filled full of old tin cans to help slow progress more) then it buried in the crossties. A buddy of mine had a backstop made of two layers of crossties with 4' of dirt inbetween them. We never got anything to penetrate that.

GoodOlBoy

[Brother Rockeye]

you could always buy an old van,board off the back and fill it with it sand...then it would be mobile...