Negotiations with the wife have resulted in me obtaining an end of our field to use as a range.

I've a 125yard lane pointing in a safe direction but definately need a safe backstop. Rifle use will be limited to subsonic 22lr and cast 243, 7mm08 and perhaps 308/30-06. Maybe a couple of rounds of full throttle hunting loads very occasionaly.

So how to construct a good back stop. I had thought railway sleepers stacked on edge about 5 high with about 4 foot of soil beyond. The sleepers aren't cheap so if you have any alternatives I'd be interested. Needs to look quite neat (wife!)

what works the best is just a big pile of clay. Clay will encapsulate the lead & prevent leaching. The timbers will get shot to pieces is short time, better is actually old tires. May look like hell, but stacking them up and filling them with dirt works well. 4' is plenty thick, unless you're shooting a 50. 8'-12' high (the 12' high is one of the requirements we have here)

Get a few bales of hay. You can shoot it to death then just spread it over the area which will cause the bullets to drop out, allowing you to pick them up, thereby keeping the environmentalist idiots quiet...

I use a combination of two things . Homebrewer's hay bales and a Heavy about 1/2" thick kevlar Rubber mat behind the bales hanging at an angle .

I stacked two bales on top of each other and end to end . Four bales total ( As I sight scopes on my range also ! )

I didn't get anal and make the tarp 45 degrees exactly it's some where between 35-45 ?. I guess .

I got my mat from an Indoor range which was shut down .

However any heavy duty Gravel pit or heavy construction operation may be able to put you onto a similar reinforced Rubber mat like that .

Worn out gravel conveyor belts or dust flaps work also just pop rivet them together if they need to be thicker .

Anything which hits the back tarp falls onto the ground . So lay an inexpensive tarp on the ground . Now weight the corners with sand bags so wind doesn't pick it up and recover your projectiles .

Shoot Straight know Your Target . ...

I went to a tire dealer and got a bunch of old tires. Then I wired them together in 3 columns and filled them with rocks. I put some pipe in the ground and made a target holder out of old 2X4s and plywood and stuck the legs of said hold in the pipes which were in front of my backstop.

My backstop will stop anything at least up to 458 Lott. and it has held up pretty well. I do need to haul away a bucket of gravel created by bullets occasionally and have to add rocks at times but all in all, my backstops have held up pretty well.

Stacks of tires side by side with stacks behind in a checkerboard fashion. And then filled with dirt. Build a frame in front to fasten blackboard target backers to and you're good to go.

I built a backstop consisting of a "U"-shaped wall of field stone 6 feet high, 8 feet across the front, and 8 feet deep. I closed the front with railroad ties stacked up 4 ties high and spiked together, faced with 3/4" plywood to a height of 6 feet. I then shovelled it full of dirt from the local pasture up to the top of the walls and front wooden structure. It probably contained four or five tons of dirt, sand & small rocks when done. It would have stopped a 20mm cannon round!! The plywood across the front was used to hold the target frames, and was replaced periodically when bullet damage started to permit dirt leakage. I built a heavy log benchrest 100 meters from the frame.

One could build a similar structure using sandbags for the wall, or even railroad ties all the way around. The dirt inside the "U" stops the bullets!

8" or even 12' high would be better. I had to make sure that I never shot over the top, which was only 6' high. But it is pretty hard to miss something that is 6'X8' from 100 meters!

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
... better is actually old tires. May look like hell, but stacking them up and filling them with dirt works well. ...

Maybe he could use "pretty" tires so his wife would be happy.
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Have a bulldozer come in and dig a pond. Use the dirt he pushes out as a backstop between the Bench and the Pond.

Oh yes, in order for it to look "neat", plant some "plastic" flowers along the edges of the berm.

Or, hang a beautiful picture outside the window she would normally look through to see the Range.

All posted are effective back stops for projectiles . I did mine so I could recover the projectiles after entering my target medium .

33 , 100 & 200 meter range set up .

I have a 2X8 which lays flat through a cut out slot in my vertical 4'X4' plywood target holders .

They lay into the hay bales and stick out about 4' each way makes a shelf if you like .

I some times put plastic water bottles or old wet phone books , modeling clay behind the target to capture projectiles . Check expansion weight , retention or visual fun with water bottles exploding .

Plywood has an 8" circle cut out in the middle target centers there with around 2" of plywood left before the slot . Most everything goes through the circle cut. However occasionally an errant pistol or Iron sight military will put a hole here and there in the plywood .

Pistol range is off set 4 Ft. too the left, 200 meter range off set too the right 4Ft., 100 meter centered from my shooting bench .

Pistol range has hay bales and Ash and Avocado stumps for back stops ( I have an abundance of spares with our current water shortage ) .

Behind all that is mother natures finest natural back stop , Blue granite !. 28 Ft tall sloping into the ground in 80 Yd. by 60-80 Yd. thick ?.

Funny little episode which happened a few weeks back !.

Only one complaint ! .From some new neighbor somewhere . Didn't appreciate the Laupa .338 or one of my .223's ?.

Sheriff came out !. Some new not so local yokel , said he had a complaint . I replied yea and so ?.

He repeated we've had a complaint !. I replied , I heard you the first time so what do you want ?.

This DUMB BASTARD a Sheriff no less , repeats himself for the third time !!.

So I now reply did I kill somebody or shoot somebody's house or what ?. What is it your poorly attempting to communicate to me ?.

Now he's become defensive !.

I need to come on the property to see where your shooting and see if it's safe .

I pulled a target out of my back pocket , while asking him if he knew it was legal to shoot where I live .

His partner was just standing there not saying a word until then . He then replied , yes we know it's legal to discharge firearms in the County on the east side of I 15 !.

I showed them my target , nice neat little groups of holes labeled with loads number of rounds Etc. .

The other Sheriff says , I still need to see where your shooting . I then proceed to inform him several of my other neighbors shoot on a regular basis and I've never heard them mention an inspection or even a complaint !. As I've never even asked them to see where they were shooting at !. ( I've had a couple of errant stray bullets punch through my shop wall several years back !. ) I believe who ever was responsible has since moved least I hope so !!

So why would it be necessary for you to inspect my place but not theirs , no one has complained about them ?.

He gets huffy now and tells me he's going to inspect my range !. My two German shepherds now come to the fence , he decides that might not be such a good Idea .

I simply reply ; Perhaps you didn't see the target well enough , would you care to take it with you ? because your not coming on these premises without a signed warrant and a U S Marshall !.

Our conversation is now concluded , if you have any further question ?. I suggest talking to your lieutenant such and such as I'm sure he'll vouch for me .

Gooday gentleman !.

I've only had to tell my Dog twice before it stopped or did what I told it to do !.

I've seen some Ignorant and Stupid People in my life but this knothead is in serious lack of communication skills !. In his line of work that's a HUGE NEGATIVE !.

I have several close friends who are Sheriff's and are real decent guys and gals !. So it's not an authority problem on my end !.

Shoot Straight Know Your Target . ...

An overwheling intelligence has never been a prerequisite for local law enforcemnt. It seems this clown took full advantage of that loophole...

As I was just going home, I was charged with reckless endangerment for not having a good back stop in logged off private forest land, where I had permission to shoot.

When the district attorney called me to tell me that the charges had been dropped, I went on about the injustice of it, with me having a stop, and the sheriff never even saw where I was shooting. She asked me, "What do you care, the charges are dropped?"

Later, the same sheriff knocked on my door, wanting a water hook up to his house. From the address I could tell, he was the nearest house to the logged off land, ~ 1/2 mile away. He was using his authority to make the sound of gunshots go away. I was not breaking any law. Harassment worked, I never shot there again.

What does it all mean?
It is possible to find something to criticize about anything you do or say or anything you fail to do or say.
If someone does not want you to shoot there, they can find something to criticize about your backstop, even if they have not seen it.

I think there are some good tips here, and probably all of these stops worked for the various posters.

I would be hesitant to set up a backsto system that has rocks in it by design. It is prohibited in commercial ranges that I have participated in building (2) of them, and seems to make sense to me. Why would you want to incorporate something that is known to cause ricochets into your backing system??

Must work OK, but seems counterintuitive to me.

Being able to recover your projectiles with some sort of disintegrating medium like hay with a backstop of conveyor belting is interesting, I would just like something more durable, I would shoot up a bunch of hay pretty quick IME, a range at a hunting preserve I have gone to shoots at the magnum rolls end to end, and they barely last 3 or 4 months. Definitely need some target frames in front of them after a rain or two, folks try tacking targets to them, and that doesn't work after they've b een shot a little or rained on a bit.

Good luck, let us know how it goes.

Scrap yards sometimes bale plastic bags to resemble a cotton bale, About 4 X 5 feet . They make fine backstops. Be careful with backstops that have wood or rubber or the like for fronts. You will be catching subsonic rebounds from subsonic shots. Excavate a little into the side of a hill and set the bale in.