Hey, I have the chance to build a private range sometime this year and need some ideas from those that may have stumbled this way before.

A chance like this only comes around once in a great while so I would really like for this range to be a showplace that the landowner would be proud to have on his land.

This range I believe will have targets at 50, 100, 200, 300, 400, and 500 yards. From what I've surveyed so far, all of the targets I think can be shot from a singe position, basicly all in a line or almost in a line. Electricity will be available via a small generator. I'm thinking a concrete pad large enough for two benches and a small storeroom. Roof of course for shade.

What about target stands.

Any one have ideas?
Things not to do?
Stuff you wished had been?
This is dream time lets hear it

Suggest you contact the EPA and get booklet # EPA-902-B-01-001 "Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges". It will tell you everything you ever wanted to know about backstops. It's no longer as simple as piling an earthen berm and hanging a target frame in front.

We have a grandfather clause protecting Michigan ranges fromn local harassment over noise, but that has not prevented a number from being shut down over concerns about lead pollution. Most simply can not afford the lawyer bills and hazmat crews. It's simpler and cheaper to do it right the first time.

I had a private range in Southern Minnesota for many years. It's best feature was the reloading set up about 75 feet away. One could try different powders/bullets/ amounts/etc without having to make many trips using this load and then that one. There was also a work bench and machining facility to take down a rifle and glass bed it or inspect for whatever we wanted/ change scopes/float barrels/and whatever was needed.

It's one thing to have a place to shoot.....quite another to have a place to "fix"!!!!!

If you have the choice, shoot from south to north to get the most shooting hours in any given day. I would also shade the shooting position to benefit shooting with iron sights and for shooter comfort.

Concrete bench tops shaped for shooting from left or right would also be a good investment.

A partition between shooting lanes is nice, especially when the autoloaders come out. There's nothing like hot brass down the shirt to ruin your concentration when shooting for groups!

You only mentioned rifle distances...pistol range to the side???

Extend the concrete pad forward enough to both catch more of the flying brass and give a nice surface for setting up chronographs. Leave room for prone/sitting practice too, between benchs or an area of it's own.

quote:

Suggest you contact the EPA and get booklet # EPA-902-B-01-001 "Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges"

Fixed link

I grew up shooting at the Oklahoma City Gun Club, one of the nicest range complexes I’ve ever seen. I trained lots of troops in the US and in Thailand, and worked in the range business for several years after I got out of the Army. What I say here is based on that and on having used hundreds of other ranges.

If you think you’ll need two benches, build four. Extend the pad two positions to the left but don’t build benches or a roof there. Then you can shoot without a cover, which accomodates people who shoot iron sights a lot, since their zero can change with the light. It also lets you practice fast gunhandling with less risk of shooting a hole in your roof. Extend the roof to the right far enough to park a pickup under it, so your gear stays dry on rainy days. Gravel would be nice here. You might also consider a semi-solid walls on the sides to keep the wind from blowing targets, notebooks, etc., off the bench while you’re working.

Instead of a loading shed, consider a bench behind the firing line where you could set up loading gear. If you plan to load there, you’re talking long afternoons, so you’ll want a sit-down toilet. Any women you bring to the range will also really appreciate this. And since it’s Texas, you’ll want a concrete pad with a roof about 100m behind the firing line with a gravel parking area, a BBQ and a picnic table, because your range will soon become a social destination. If the range is very far out in the country and you have pigs, a feeder at the 150m berm would complement the BBQ area nicely.

There are tons of target frame designs. They all get shot up and must be rebuilt. Before you set them in place, have the distances measured by an honest-to-Pete surveyor. There’s nothing like having to re-shoot all of your tests when you realize that your 300m berm is really 315 and the 500m berm is 450. Sierra had to recalculate all of their BC’s once because of this. Also, if you put targets in a line, only one shooter can use them at a time, plus cross-fire and ricochets will tear up your frames faster. Spread them out a bit.

The active range part depends on what you plan to do. For general use, I’d have
- target stands at 25m for zeroing and for kids to shoot 22’s, plink at tin cans and stuff like that. Having this area graveled lets you find your brass easily.
- a stand for a chronograph.
- a stand for a Ransom Rest if you shoot a lot of handguns. A rifle bench can be modified for this.
- a gravel walkway from the bench to the 25m, 50m and 100m berms. You use them most and it’s nice not to have to walk through the mud.
- a clear, well-drained road from the bench to all other berms. This entire road should be visible from the bench so you don’t take fire when someone careless shows up while you’re downrange working or setting up targets. Been there, done that.
- a stand for a clay-pigeon thrower. My Dad designed one that was a block of concrete with three slots in the top. An Outers spring-loaded thrower slipped into the slots, and it was tall enough that you didn’t have to bend over to cock or load the thrower.

All of this lets you shoot, but two simple additions let you train there as well:
- a three-sided berm for IPSC-type rifle and pistol shooting. Your plinking area, 25m and 50m berms could be inside this.
- a trail that winds from the bench to the longest berm. Pop-up or other unexpected targets along the trail let two shooters get a lot of training out of a 500m walk in the weeks before deer season.

Remember that word gets out about ranges and people use them when you’re gone. They shoot up target frames, dump trash and generally treat it badly. It might not hurt to let the local cops use it and ask them to keep an eye on it when you’re not around.

Last, I wouldn’t build a storage shed. There’s nothing like showing up with a truck full of tools and men on Saturday to rebuild target frames and finding that the lumber you dropped on Friday is gone. Been there, done that, too.

Let me know if you have questions.


Okie John

You can make good target stands by: at each measured target distance Bury two 3" PVC pipes about 16" long on 46-1/2" centers(besure they are level). Buy a sheet of 3/8" plyboard and rip it every 16" so that you have six 16"x48" pieces. Buy some 10' 2x4s rip them in half to create two 2x2s and cut them in half so you get four 5' 2x2s. Nail or screw one of the 16"x48" to two of the 5' 2x2s to make legs, nail them flush w/ the edges of the plyboard and now you have a target stand w/ two legs at 46.5" centers that will slip into your pvc pipes at each location. These work great, you can take them down and store them in your shed and reuse on the next trip out. Once you shoot the plywood in two, replace and your ready again.

Build a good berm at the end of you range to catch the bullets.

As far as a bench, you can build T shaped benches that allow for lefty or righty shooting. Wood or Concrete works well. If you use wood, brace it well so it doesn't wiggle.

Also you can build a form out of 1x4s on top of a piece of plywood in the shape of a T, put some reinforcing wire in it, and fill the form w/ sackcrete. You need to chamfer the edges when finishing the concrete so you don't end up w/ sharp edges. Then, on your big slab where you want your new bench you can block up w/ cinder blocks (Using mortar) until you get to the desired height. Usually a column in the front center and a column in the back center will work fine. Once the pad is dry and the block is dry, you can put some mortar on top of the blocks, and set the "T" pad ontop of the block making sure you are level.

As far as a cover for your benches, 4x4 post sackcreted in the ground, 2x8 beams w/ braces running down to the 4x4 columns, 2x6 rafters on a slight pitch, 1x4 or 2x4 stripping, and topped w/ tin works well.

If you'd like some sketches, shoot me an PM w/ your email address.

Good Luck

Reloader

I belong to a small private range here in Kalif. We have 50-300 & a 25yd pistol range. The rifle range is separated by 10ft high earth berms. The backstops are made up of 8ft high tires stacked then filled & covered w/ dirt. The target stands are railroad ties @ 8ft. on ctr. w/ plywood sheets screwed to them. The bench/shooting area has a concrete slab w/ perm. benches w/ separate shooting stools mad up in diff. heights, good idea for the short vs taller shooters. The only down side to the range is you can't shoot all the targets @ all the ranges, but there are enough benches @ 100 & 200-300 to accomidate everyone.

If you're shooting North have something to generate shad from the East and South to facilitate chronography. roger

quote:

Originally posted by bartsche:
If you're shooting North have something to generate shad from the East and South to facilitate chronography. roger

So true, particularly in the winter when the sun angle is low.

I wouldn't worry about the lead issue especially if you are on private land. The only way you would have an issue is if your impact area's would allow the bullets to land in a water shed of some sort. At any rate lead is not a haz/mat unless and until your range closes. Best management practices would be to stay on top of it and be enviromentally friendly but lead is not haz/mat on an active range.

Some features on the list so far.
2 rifle benches w/left and right positions on each
an area for off hand firing.
permenant mounted clay bird thrower
sturdy Loading bench
Roof for shade
Ceiling fan for cooling
Little house out back for those needed trips
Trash can with brooms to police the brass and stay neat
Coffee pot
BBq grill for extended shooting
Storeroom for range supplies.
Steel gongs
chronograph supports
Campfire pit
Awnings to adjust for when the sun gets low
Lights at shooting and loading benches
Powerful flood lights to light up the 100 yrd target.

What part of our great state is this thing being built?

Well if you're going all out, how about automatic target retreival...or does the builder have kids for that!?!?

Since you have a campfire pit and BBQ, all you need is a pad for an RV and you could charge admission...especially in winter with all the @#$%^ snowbirds!

Actually we live in north Tex just outside Dallas a little ways. But this range will be on 950 ac. just over the boarder in Oklahoma. Land has plenty of hogs.... might even put a feeder at the 200 yard mark so we can properly feed the BBQ.

I think we can do a auto-retrieve for targets less than a 100 maybe even 200. But farther out just wouldn't work in this instance.

Here's a concrete top set on cement blocks.

Ray,

Don't forget about gun racks. Always good to have a place to securely prop up a few rifles near by and rotate while cooling.

Reloader

Ray,

If you can get some bikini models to fetch the targets and cook the barb-b-q, Just let me know when you want me there w/ the brewskies

Reloader

Grandkids are the best retrieval system. I spent years working on ranges with automated systems, and I would avoid them like the plague. They're extremely expensive and you end up spending more time fixing than shooting.

These systems have four components: a target carrier, a rail/wire on which the carrier rides, a string/chain that pulls the carrier back and forth, and a drive motor. The string/chain breaks most often, usually from richochets. Figure 30 minutes minimum to fix a string and two hours for a chain. You'll be downrange working, so the whole range shuts down until you're done. Then you have to decontaminate your hands and tools from lead residue, which is a major health risk. A broken wire is a 2-hour fix. If you breach a rail, you have to weld in a new section. I'm not a welder, so I'll rely on those who are to give us a time figure. You can swap out a motor or a carrier in an hour or two if you have one in stock, but they mean extra cost and the hassle of secure storage. And this is just for failures related to damage. Normal wear and tear is another story, and you're in for major rebuilds a lot more often than the makers lead you to believe.

These issues pertain to indoor systems - weather and vehicle damage make outdoor systems impractical. Also, on an outdoor range that isn't monitored 24/7, you'll have untrained people abusing/vandalizing your system, so it probably won't work when you get there. I spent time on some pretty slick ranges in the military. None of them - indoor or outdoor - had automated retrieval systems for the reasons mentioned above. Honestly, for private use, that money would be better spent on a toilet with a septic system, good roads, or other improvements.

If you have questions about retrieval systems, ask anyone who runs an indoor range. I never met one who would recommend one for what you want to do. As for outdoor retrieval systems, good luck finding anybody who has one.


Okie John

quote:

Originally posted by okie john:...ask anyone who runs an indoor range. I never met one who would recommend one for what you want to do. As for outdoor retrieval systems, good luck finding anybody who has one.
Okie John

Thats good stuff to know John thanks for it.

Trash cans

One idea for the targets and backstops. Use old railroad ties to build a "house." Leave one side open from a couple of feet off the ground to the roof. Fill the inside with sand, fine gravel, etc. for catching the bullets. For mounting your targets, place a 2x4 frame one the front and put screws out on the corners facing the shooter. Stretch chicken wire across to the screws and use those laundry clothes pins with the spring to hold your paper targets. The chicken wire will last about a month or so with heavy use before replacing and if the 2x4's get hit then they are not soo tough to replace either. The RR ties can stay put for a very long time because the sand is doing all the work and when it comes time to worry about the EPA all one has to do is get rid of the sand. Hope this idea sounds feasible. It's what's at The Dakota County Gun Club in Rosemount, MN. Very nice setup.

Maybe it's already in the plan, but if you can get a water line there, it comes in handy. We set up our drainage and got a water line in first, then built the range house. At the end of the day it sure was nice to have water to mix concrete, wash things off etc. Since we had electricity too, we put in a water fountain, get's a lot of use. 2 years ago we put an ice machine in the 'shed', and it gets a lot of use in the warmer months for sure.

A used fridge can be had pretty cheap too, depending on your location, stocking that up with soda/snacks/ whatever is a nice bonus item.

We built our retriever system with a simple DC motor and a nylon rope with some pulleys. frame for targets is made out of angle iron with an eye hook screwed into the top which is clipped to the rope by 2 clips to keep it square to the firing line.

Sounds like fun--Good Luck--Don

quote:

We built our retriever system with a simple DC motor and a nylon rope with some pulleys. frame for targets is made out of angle iron with an eye hook screwed into the top which is clipped to the rope by 2 clips to keep it square to the firing line.

That's a good idea, How bout' a modified old trolling motor. Reverse and foward. You could mount a series of pullies and have a pretty neat set-up.

Fish, Are Ya'll using a AC to DC converter or a battery?

Reloader

This tip was stolen from the Pennsylvania Game Commision's Scotia range in Centre county.

Galvanized pipes were cemented into the ground at the appropriate distances from the bench, eg, 25, 50, 100, 200 yards. They were about 4" diameter and threaded at the top to accept an end cap. With the cap threaded in place, they were just at ground level so a gang reel mower could mow the lawn without having to go around each obstruction. In a small shed nearby were the target stands; hem/fir 2 by's with homesote nailed between each to provide a good surface to staple on the paper target. Since each set of pipes was in line with each other, the shooter never had to move from his bench no matter the desired shooting distance. Just pull out the target stand, replace the caps and move out to a different distance.

I thought it was an ingenuous setup. The target equipment stayed out of the weather when not in use. And, if you think about it, shooting one load at each of the incremented target distances will give you your own personalized ballistic chart. I give it 2 thumbs up!

Of course, berms planted with Penngift Crownvetch for erosion control when in full bloom had its own special calming effect to help with tiny group size.

Also, as most who have replied to your query would want some sort of roof over the shooting bench area, I would suggest a wooden bench top; not concrete. If you plan on using a tripod style front rifle rest with those little points on the feet to level it and keep it in place during recoil, wood gives them something to bite into. It also feels better on the skin of your arms when cradling the rifle in the shooting position and certainly during recoil. Use boards spaced about a nail's width apart to promote water drainage. And as rifle cases tend to roll around, those little grooves between boards catch them before rolling off to the floor. Multi-coats of paint keep it smooth and rot free. Good luck.

Reloader, we have a converter from Harbor Freight mounted to the benches. Motor is plugged in permanently. I think a trolling motor would work fine, plenty fast I would think. The trickiest thing we encountered was splicing the rope to get a long enough 'loop' we learned a lot about rope. A buddy of ours tried a rig with plastic coated braided metal cable, he had a hell of a time with the splices and the pulleys working--nylon rope is good enough, has a good bit of sag to it--but that's easy enough to deal with.

We always mount our target faces on cardboard or gatorboard, so we just clip or insert our target/backers into the frames, and never end up shooting out our frames/backers, as the backing is essentially replaced every time we put up a new target. Works slick.

HEY go for it i live in tx, around Burnet area i have been to a few ranges in the past six years our seven years the way we do it is Benches treated wood so their is low maint. targets are made out of bottoms 4x4 treaded wood 1x4 for the frame which is always cedar cause they will get shot up you have your 3x3 target out of plastic with paper attch. clips then if you wunt to put a aunning over this. Metel is the best i think ours is alm. with canvis over it which i guss servers the purpose then you you have your burns from 25 75 100 our what everyou put it as,on the side make up stand up benches for pistol ranch same thing out of treaded wood about 6 foot long and to a heigh a little lower then chest levil from 7 ft. to 25yards our you can have concreate benches in which i shoot at bouth one thing about the wood beanchs is that you can move them and another thing is advertise, well man i hope the info. i give you helps you and the best of luck. later