Posted: 10/31/2004 8:18:45 AM EDT
| What will you be shooting? You could stack a couple of layers of cross ties and pile old car tires behind them or push a mound of dirt behind them. Two layers of cross ties should be good for small rifle and if you mound dirt behind it you could shoot about anything you can afford. |
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There is a downside to having a "range" on your property. I went to a property auction that had a very small; one bench range on it. Before the new owner could assume posession of the property, the range dirt had to be hauled away in an EPA Aproved Manner to a toxic waste site. The shit of it is that as soon as this was complied with you could resume shooting. Check on this before you build your backstop just incase you ever decide to sell the land. Or you could just bulldoze it all down and deny everything! |
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Do some research on the maximum dangerous range for the rounds you are firing... ask yourself what would happen if you accidentally let one slip over the burm. I don't care how "careful" or "experienced" you are, its a singnificant risk that you should think through. Also, what are your neighbors like vis a vis noise ? Are you gonna be getting the local authorities called out to your place by the John Kerry supporter next door every time you shoot ? |
He has 6 stacks of 10 tires each which makes the backstop about 12- 15 feet wide and 8-9 feet tall . Behind the tires is a large pile of wood chips that he gets for free from a local tree service that is happy to have a place to dump them . |
| A lot of good suggestions. Logs, railroad ties, tires, dirt, etc.. They all work great. I'll tell you what NOT to do. When my son was on H.S. shop class I got some good 1/2" steel plate and had him weld up a nice bullet trap. I figured that would be super safe for shooting in the yard. Well it would take anything from .22 to .45 no problem. Except it made one hell of a lot of noise. The clang of the bullet hitting the 45 degree steel back plate sounded like ricochets to one of the neighbors. Being the cool dude that he is, he came over to investigate instead of calling the cops. I assurred him that no bullets were leaving the trap (which I had in a 6' deep gulley for double protection) but immediately gave up on using the trap. Now we just shoot into pieces of log or timber with a dirt berm backstop. |