Hey all,

My parents recently purchased 5 acres of land outside of the city to build a house on.  In my infinite wisdom I thought it'd be a great idea to create a small area to shoot.

There are 2 neighbors on opposite sides of the property.  The property is narrow and long, approximately 200 feet wide and however long necessary to be 5 acres.  The neighbors are positioned like so:

..............-------------------------------------------..............
...neighbor      -------------------us---------------------neighbor...
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Basically, I'm curious if any of you guys have an idea on how to create a safe range for this property, if it's possible at all.

How high should backstop be?  How wide?  Any ideas?  Concerns?

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Easier to make sure the shooting position forbids shooting outside of the range. I.E., shoot through a 4' piece of concrete conduit so that no matter what, your rounds go directly to the berm. Make the berm out of something solid. Tires filled with dirt, or road plate (3/4" steel) angled downward. That way, no risk of stray rounds. Do that, and you're pretty safe and won't ever have issues where someone can claim you shot into their property. Which is, btw, about the only way someone can keep you from shooting on yours.

You could also do what I did, which is to buy a shooting shed (std. garden shed). Then, you have a covered position, something to keep you shooting in 1 direction, and some baffling to keep you a tad quieter. Works like a charm, and best of all it doubles as a....you guessed it....storage shed.

Cheers.

Come to think of it, I think the NRA has a nifty book on the subject. Might be a fun read for ideas, though I'm pretty sure it's intended for full-on ranges.

Wherever you constructct your berm, I would reccomend you put down a layer on concrete underneath that pile of dirt; if you do not put concrete down, lead from the bullets wil get into the ground water on your land, and will eventually contaminate your whole property with lead.

You can also make a backstop out of railroad ties. Set two 6 inch post 8ft tall 4ft apart and at least 3ft in the ground. Depending on the ties it should be 4-6 ties tall and lag bolt them to the post. A 4x8 sheet of plywood will cover the ties and give a smooth place to hang targets.  If the ties are fresh they will stop all handgun rounds and until they start to get shot up most rifle rounds.  This set up will work well from 25 yards in but a berm that is at least 5 ft taller than the backstop would be best is shooting at longer distances.

Thanks for the help guys, great suggestions. BTT for the day crew.

pics needed.  Get an aerial off of terraserver or something

Sounds close to mine (300' x 6.5 acres)

I just have a huge mound of dirt in the back that is about 8' tall x 25' wide and 10' deep.

I only have a neighbor on one side and shoot while they are at work. My other neighbor is a country singer on 36 acres and I can barely see his house so no problems there.

...............................__700 (etc..) yard target
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....................  Your station here


P.S. Invite the neighbors who like guns over to use it and don't shoot rocks they ricochet.

Take a look at this stuff for a backstop. Very nice.

http://www.supertrap.com/Main.htm