the neerest shooting range to me is a few towns over and quite frankly it is a pain to drive all that way, and it would be great if I didn't have to. I was wondering since I have a live on a 5 acre yard and we are pretty much the only people that live around here and all the others are all rednecks and gunfire doesn't really bother them. I was wondering if any of you guys have any suggestion on how to build a nice and safe home range. any ideas.  the best solution in my mind is to dig out a small pit, put the targets in there and then use the dirt to add a kinda half moon shaped barrier around the top edge. the other side I would leave at a fairly shallow gradient so that you could walk down into it to retreive your targets, etc. if you guys have any other easier suggestion please do tell.

I used to have a similar set-up many years ago, which worked pretty nicely.  I would caution you to watch your drainage.  Depending on your soil, that pit can become a mud hole that takes forever to dry out.

Obviously you want to be shooting in the safest possible direction.  Within that constraint, try to set it up where you’re not facing into the setting sun when you’re shooting.