Posted: 7/16/2007 3:40:59 PM EDT
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I have access to 60 acres and I am looking into making a private range for myself, family and friends. I am thinking of making it a 5-8 lane range. All that will be shot out there will be hand guns, .22 rifles and one 30/30 Winchester. So my question is how big of a berm do I need and how do i do it? If anyone has pics of their private range please post them. Thank You 
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Depends on the area. What's behind it? Are you shooting into a hillside or is the ground flat? What kind of equipment do you have to work with? I shoot at home all the time, but I don't really have any special range set up. There's a hillside where we have a dump, and there's a pile of dirt about 130 yards from the front porch for rifles. It just depends on your situation. |
All flat and I have access to two tractors. |
My personal range isn't that impressive, though. I mainly shoot .22lr on it but I do zero my AR's on it too. I built three walls about 4 feet high and then had a truck load of dirt dumped in it.  The burm is only about 4' high (at the center) and 12' deep. I used a topographical map plus shot an azimuth through the woods to make sure there wasn't anything behind it. ETA- This picture shows the 3 sided box I built a little better. Both pictures were taken from 50 yards. It only goes 100 yards total. 
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One of my neighbors brought his backhoe and his bulldozer over and carved me out a range in the woods beside the pond in the back. My berm is seven feet tall or so, so my targets sit a little lower than I would like. The ground rises up in the woods behind it and there is nothing but woods for miles that way. I have another smaller berm across the pond from my shooting bench that is about a 100 yards as well. I use my smaller range more because it is marked off for yardage, and the berm is higher. It's really only wide enough for one person to shoot at a time comfortably, but at the 15 yard line its wide enough for two or three. My berm is only wide enough for two targets max, and some steel spinners on the ground. I'll be outside on it tomorrow, maybe I can remember to take a picture. One thing though, if the berm is dirt like mine, it will have to be built back up every year or so because the bullets dig out quite a bit of earth over time. You'd be surprised, even as rocky as the dirt is on my berm I have a ravine being formed in the middle. Obviously rifles do this a lot faster. There is an Army regulation on how much earth is needed to stop rifle fire, I think it's six or twelve inches, but don't really remember. Just make yours a few feet deep and high enough that you aren't shooting over it. Put it at the base of a hill if possible, and know what is down range. |
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Build a nice berm and then install one or two of these: range system bullet trap |
Dam I need more).