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AR15.COM
1/3/2017 7:55:59 AM EDT
Behind my house there is about 100 acres of pasture (does not belong to me). My fence is 60yds from by back patio, then small pasture and then a wooded area about 150yds out then the rest of the acreage beyond that. I do some shooting out back placing my target in line with the tree line and also angle my shot where they hit the ground before getting to the tree line. Not a big deal and the guy that owns the land doesn't care. I want to build a backstop just for nothing else slow up the rounds. My plans are to build a wall about 5' x 5' out of 4x4 or rail timbers, leave about a 1 feet gap and build another wall and fill in the gap with dirt adding some side panels. Then may put a piece of plywood on the front to hang targets. Second option is the same build just have the gap wide enough to stack old tires and fill with dirt.

I will be shooting handguns and also some 223, 300 blackout with my Ar's

What do you think?
1/3/2017 8:11:56 AM EDT
[#1]
4x4s will get chewed up very quickly. Railroad ties will last a little longer but you run the risk of ricochets.

Any way to put a dirt berm before the wood backstop? Dirt stops bullets better than anything else.
1/3/2017 8:17:25 AM EDT
[#2]
What about a giant pile of sand?  I just had one plopped down in my yard for $500 for like 15 yards.  It's a7 foot by 7 foot pile that I shoot at.
1/3/2017 8:19:00 AM EDT
[#3]
Relevant tag
1/3/2017 8:25:37 AM EDT
[#4]
Attached File
1/3/2017 8:31:23 AM EDT
[#5]
Dirt or sand free of rocks with a 45 degree face is considered a good backstop. Ideally make a U shape so that the impact area is totally contained
1/3/2017 8:35:24 AM EDT
[#6]
I have 23 acres and I just used two loads of dirt for each backstop.  I haven't had to do any maintenance on either pile.  You may want to look at using some of those thick, rubber like panels that Tractor Supply sells to hang your targets on.  It may help with life of your first layer of timbers/RR ties and it is easily replaceable.
1/3/2017 8:43:28 AM EDT
[#7]
Haul in some dirt, plant grass to keep the pile from washing out, you wont need anything else.
1/3/2017 8:49:43 AM EDT
[#8]
I piled up a few loads of dirt about 8 years ago and my backstop is still going strong.  Weeds and native grasses have taken over and it's very overgrown in the spring/summer, but it keeps the dirt from washing away.  There's some slight settling, but nothing major.  Behind my berm, my property slopes at an upward angle at about 15 degrees for about 1000 ft which gives some added protection.

For a couple years before I built this berm, I did pile up some old tired and poured dirt over top of the pile, that seemed to also work, but it was a bit ugly.
1/3/2017 9:27:14 AM EDT
[#9]
Came across this pic in the 1911 forum (credit to Extracheeze). Something like this doesn't seem very hard to build: