I'm not sure where to put this, but...

I am going to put a berm in my back yard for shooting. I have 2.5 acres and my nearest neighbor that will be behind the berm is 4 miles. I ordered 12 yards of dirt to build the berm. Does anyone know if this will be sufficient? The largest caliber I have is a 338-378 wby.

Thanks for any info...

Jim

Twelve yards won't make a very tall berm. Twelve yards is about one large bobtail truck, and I suspect that you'll be very disappointed at the size mound it makes when dumped. I think you'll find that to get the height you will want you're going to need SEVERAL more truckloads. Good luck (and I hope you have tolerant neighbors on each side).

12 yards is roughly 16 tons, it's a 10 wheel load. If I need to order more I will. Both my neighbors are great, I already shoot skeet in the back yard. How many yards do you think I'll need. I was told 12 yards will be 5ft high and 10 ft at the base. I'm just looking to make something nice.

Jim

12 yards is not nearly enough because it won't be high enough an option is have someone come in with a bulldozer and scrape small layers of dirt and you will be suprized at how fast and how much dirt you can put in a suffient pile.I've built several this way for people and have yet to have a complaint.If there is any construction going on in area stop and ask the gc and they might give you excess dirt for price of fuel to deliver

I have been adding to my berm for a couple of years now. I have about 60 yards of material, roughly & it is about 2/3 of what I think it should be for my use.
The nra has some information about building your own range on their website. FYI they recommend 7 MILES of open space behind your backstop.

WHEN I stared with my backyard range, I started about the size you envision, then settling and erosion and just nature starts to take it's course. I did a lot of action type pistol and rifle and I needed bigger.

Had a dozer come in and do the scrape thing while I was burying a bunch of old stumps. My stop now is approx 12 feet high at the top and 20 feet through the base. After 10s of 1000s of rounds chewing into the same spot I still have a safe magin of about 8 feet of dirt left before the hole chews its way through the berm.
It is also about 30 feet wide so that I can practice my action type rifle and pistol shooting.
If you make it "just the size you need" right now, it may not be big enough for something else to try later on.
I would suggest making it much bigger and taller then you would ever envision, then when someone stops by with a .50 to play with, you have a place to try it out.

Ditto 4t1mags exp. The private range i belong to uses old tires layed up in a low wall then covered w/ earth. It makes a very good bullet stop. Your neighbors beyobd may not like the ricocheit factor though.

I will second the motion for a dozer to push dirt up.

In my neck of the woods, $85/hr will get you a D6 Cat with driver, (3 hr minimum) You can get a heck of a lot of dirt pushed for 3 hrs!

If you are up to it, you can rent a D5 Cat or a 650 John Deere for a day for about what 20 yards of dirt would cost. Either rent it and drive it yourself or hire a guy with a dozer for 3 hrs or so. He will make a nice shooting range for you. Both should cost about the same.I have rented dozers on occasion but do not recommend it unless you know how to run one. You will spend the majority of the time trying to fix what you screwed up. Believe me!

What Wendell said! It is difficult to estimate yardage of dirt for a berm because there are a lot of variables as to how the dirt will compact and what kind of slopes you are dealing with how wide etc., etc., etc.

I would stay away from tires, there are a lot of variables there, say steel belts, kevlar belts or whatever and you could have some strange results there. I do think that something in the 16 to 20 foot high range is a minimum height to shoot for (no pun intended).

I have a lot of contractors that do earth work for me, and most of them do side jobs with the companies equipment and permission, in the price ranges Wendell mentioned. This time of year I would recommend seeding the disturbed area with a mix of fescue/winter wheat/ or some other hardy grass for your area, you definitely want some stable ground cover.

It's also a good idea on figuring out how your water will flow around your range, you don't want to always be walking through a soggy area to and from your target area or right in front of it either. A couple of little step across swales can be really handy in getting the water where you want. Also plan on reworking the pits in your berm every so often, I guess it's all in the eye of the beholder, but I know our range does it every year at least.

Wish I had the land to build one on myself,......someday!

Have fun, Good luck--Don

Thanks fro the tip on the drainage. I hadn't thought about that. 16-20ft berm ?!?!?! I have never seen one that large. All of the ranges I have ever been a member of, have been in the 5-8ft range. It would be very expensive to build a 20ft tall berm. Thanks for the advice, but I can't imagine a berm taller than my house.

Jim

20' high would be nice, but I do not think it is necessary. Shoot ... even the range here in Dallas only has a 10' - 12' tall pile of dirt. And this is in Dallas! No 7 mile back clearance here! Maybe 1 mile at best.

They have a wooden "wall" built from 5 1/2 feet up to about 10' tall at the 25 yard distance. (You shoot under it) Any shots that go high will hit this "wall" and be slowed considerably.

I am in the process of building a 450 yard range at the ranch. Luckilly, God put in hills spaced at 100, 200 and 450 yards so my dozer work will be limited to just brush clearing. Unfortunately, God put in a lot of brush too.

Are you going to build an air-conditioned shooting house?

One of the wonderful benefits of living in a rural area!

I've got a range on both my properties and it's the nicest thing to be able to work up a load by just making 3 or 4 rounds then and walking outside and launching them over the chrono and see how they group, working up slowly as you monitor velocity and pressure signs.

My range I dug out of a hillside with a backhoe and piled the dirt around the edges/sides along with railroad ties, so it's about 8 feet high and I've got solid packed earth (DG) behind the target.

If you're at the base of the panhandle, you're pretty close to me. I am stationed at Altus AFB, in Oklahoma. I'm only 30 miles from Vernon, TX.

Jim

338, I think your probably right on the height being a little too much that I was talking about. I was thinking of our range where all of the hills that our target areas are cut out of are at least that high... I also didn't think that on 2.5 acres your probably not talking about much more than 150 yards or so (I'd guess) I think on our shorter yardage ranges, 150 or under, most of the berms are in the 6-10 foot height range. If your just a reasonable shot I guess 6 feet is probably enough.



One other thing, a friend of mine built a range that goes out to 200 yards at his house, no berm he just cut away a hillside that he fires into, and he built a couple of really cool target frames out of angle iron. They are probably about 3' wide x 2' tall, and he has them on a cable which is spooled onto a motor from Graingers and he just flicks the switch and the frame goes in or out to the shooting house, or what ever yardage he wants to stop it at. He has a waterline business so he had all the welding equipment and built them himself, but it is really cool to be in the shooting house on a crappy day and just flick the switch to bring the targets back in and check/change them! He says he has about $100 in the whole rig. He keeps some cut up cardboard or gatorboard in sizes that kind of press fits into the frames and we paste our targets to that and it makes a nice clean target setup.



Just a few other thoughts--



Take Care--D.

A few years ago we were looking for some land in Colorado; one of my prerequisites was having a place to shoot. We found 50 acres of land that bordered national forest and BLM land. I can shoot as far as I want there. Someday we will build our retirement house there.

I am not sure what planes are flying over your house, the two main planes we have are the C-17:







and the C-5:









You say "only a cargo plan"...check out the AC-130 Spectre:











So, do you have a military discount at your ranch ? Actually, I've been looking for a place to do some axis doe hunts. When I was in San Antonio, I used to go the YO Ranch all the time.



Let me know when you're going to christen that 450 yard range and I'll bring my 338-378Wby and 338 Lapua out to test it .



Jim

Of course I give a military discount. What red blooded American wouldn't?

Unfortunately, I do not have enough Axis Does to shoot. right now, I need them to make more Axis Deer!

I think it is the C-17. The pictures do not do it justice. That is a big 'ol plane! Especially when you see it bank your way at 200'.

Sorry to hijack your thread. Thanks for the pictures.

You didn't hijack my thread. It's good to meet folks that are in my area.

I am serious about doing some meat hunts down there...My wife loves all types of wild game. If you need any varmints taken care of let me know . Also if you need any help building your shooting/reloading building, let me know.

Jim

I will probably shoot some Red Deer Hinds next year. Other than that I am pretty set on the numbers I have.

I probably will not build a shooting house for a few years. Too many other barns/shelters/blinds/lodge/feed pens/etc. that will be more important than an AC shooting house.

338, is that photo of the AC-130 Spectre showing it firing anti missle flairs, or is that some type of ordnance.

Just curious--Don.

12 yards is a good start I belive that once you have it in place you well want more. A lot depends on what is behind it and what type of terrain is around it. My back stop at my place is a 30 foot hill. the one at my folks is a 10 foot by 20foot at the base mound of dirt. I'll be adding more to that latter. If you are just shooing at one point a 12 yard mound should do it but if you want mutliple targets and more then one shooter I would go for a bigger mound.

Have you checked out the Indian Teritory Practical Shooters Club? They are 3 miles west of Duke OK and have a 500 meter range.
Gene

Wendell, are you anywhere near Muleshoe or Lazbuddy?? Some of the best pheasant and goose hunting in the world up there. I lived in Ft. Worth for 18 years, made the trip every year, swapped my friend up there tickets and parking passes to the Colonial for hunting rights, he always though he got the best end of that deal. Great country, and people!!!

Lazzbuddy ... that is a name you do not hear very often. No, I am at the base of the Panhandle on the East side. Pretty good distance from Lazzbuddy.

Don't go givin' away our secret that we have good Goose huntin' in that area. Everyone thinks you have to go to Katy to shoot Geese!

Yep, a combo Pheasant/Goose hunt is a good hunt up there. Used to do it often when I was in College at Texas Tech, which handed out a nice butt whoopin' in a recent bowl game.

Couldn't resist ...

Yes sir, Tech did that very thing, but did you notice what happened at the Cotton Bowl?? My Tennessee boys did not look too shabby either, with a third string quarterback at that!