I got moved in my new home last week and my property is big enough that I can set-up a 100yrd range and shoot off my back deck. I don't want to piss off the neighbors too much so I'm going to keep it to supressed .22lr, I actually have the Builder's blessing on this and I believe some of the other neighbors do the same. Behind my property is a good size undeveloped neighborhood that is chained off from tresspassing and then nothing but pastures.

I'm planning on the steel targets and mayber a shooting tree so a couple of us can have a little fun.

What would be an appropriate backstop? Would hay bales stacked a couple deep be enough or should I go ahead and get some RR ties?

Here is a pic from my deck, I haven't measured yet but I think I can get 100yds.




The second tree back is 50yds, and I'm thinking I can go back in towards the center of the pic arounf 100yds. I need to get a range finder.

Get a dump truck load of dirt dumped at the back of the property easy peasy nothing to worry over replacing.

I buried some old telephone poles cut in 8' sections (2' in ground), stacked old tires on them, and filled them with dirt. All this, minus labor, can be had for free if you know where to ask.

Not much makes it through. You could do multiple rows if you want better stopping power.

Build an overhead baffle at the backstop. You will be amazed at how many ricochets over the dirt you get . I have had a range for 20 years . The ricochets are an issue .

Thanks guys, you definitely gave me some ideas. I'm thinking building an area with rail road ties and dump dirt in front and put some overhead protection. I want to be able to shoot larger calibers so I'll do it right the first time.

That should work.  If I wasn't shooting downhill into a dirt berm, plus having a hill behind it all, I would have built a berm from power poles or cut logs with rebar driven through them into the ground, 6' tall with dirt piled in front a foot deep or so.  That'll slow anything down to less than terminal speed short of a 50 cal.

The last time I looked into this I planned to build a box out of 2x4's and plywood.  The examples I saw people made a box on legs so it was raised off the ground at the height they wanted the target.  Most left the top of the box open although some made a removable top to keep out rain water, etc.  They then filled the box with something like sand or rubber mulch.  The side of the box that you put the target on and therefore got shot was frequently something semi-self sealing like neoprene gym floor mats.  A good design would allow you to dump and then filter the sand/mulch so you could recover the lead 22LR bullets.

I've seen way better examples but here is the first one I found with a quick search:
http://www.network54.com/Forum/79537/thread/1250481531/Caught+some+big+bore+lead+today+from+my+-458+Quackenbush-

Now that is pretty cool!