Anyone have any experience setting up a back yard shooting range...

Anyone have any experience setting up a back yard shooting range? I'm looking to set one up on my property and while I know I'll be in compliance with all the local noise and general firearms ordinances, I'd love some tips on how to make it work from a practical perspective.

I've looked at the DOE guidance (energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/05/f1/Range_Design_Criteria.pdf) regarding commercial ranges but it seems massively overbuilt for a personal use facility. On the other hand pic related seems woefully underbuilt.

Other than getting a big ass pile of dirt, what do? Calibers will range in level of enthusiasm from 22lr and handgun calibers to 308 and 54r.

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A natural hill is best.

The site in question is pretty much flat woodland. I'd like to clear as little as possible but obviously some trees are going to need to come out and some dirt is going to need to get rearranged. The lot is roughly 700ft square.

I don't think you're talking about a back yard range anymore if you're talking about removing trees.

Given the tree density, it's pretty much impossible to establish long sight lines without it.

That's a lot of fucking work unless you have a heavy skidder and drag or something like that.

yeah but the cops showed up and took our guns. so DONT DO IT.

I'm pretty sure I won't get through this without renting some equipment for the earth moving at the very least. Aforementioned bigass pile of dirt isn't going to move itself.

I'm not looking for anything major; probably won't even rip the stumps out. Just enough to be practical and safe.

>On the other hand pic related seems woefully underbuilt.
You dumb white boy.
Everyone who has a range either goes with mound of dirt or sand with track ties in front or a cleared natural hill(which is what I have)

I spoke with the local sheriff and the state police and as long as I comply with distance requirement from residences and AM/PM noise ordinances it's fair game.

That's not my range. Just some shit I pulled off the interwebs for "shooting range berm". I intend to put something far more robust together.

But I'm liking the track tires idea.

There are an enormous amount of questions, what targets you will using, number of shooters at one time, vertical hazards, SDZ overlay for the area in general, yadda yadda. If it's truly some backyard gig on your property at least understand what an SDZ in and try to account for it to make sure you're not putting ricochet fire into anything important.

Yeah, I've got all that. I linked the DOE document containing all those regulations. 26ft @ 100m, 5% deflection angle yada yada. I'm just talking about construction and practical considerations. Wood backed sloped earth berm? Someone on Jow Forums has to have set something like this up.

Earth medium is obviously going to be the most cost effective option. If you have all the regulations then why do you need anything else?

Yup.
Step 1: setup a target
Step 2: shoot at it

Because for small scale home use, I feel like they're massively overbuilt and as far as I can tell aren't actually the letter of the law in a non-commercial or institutional setting. I'm looking to adjust my plans within and around the guidance to be practical to the situation.

Well. How much space you got? Draw a range card. It shouldn't be difficult to construct a backstop out in the open, you could do that with a pick up truck that has a scoop on it or renting a fork lift. It'll require maintenance to keep it that way. I think if anything kind of assume what sort of shooters you want there and what they'd bitch about it for regulations you set on it. Range distance. How many people you can have and how far they'll be off from others. It's really not that weird for shooters to overlap and hit the other areas targets. I'd try to set up some kind of natural barrier to maybe if you just looked at it for the first time think this lane is here to here without setting up some flags or something. Are you really doing this without setting foot on the ground or using it yourself? I doubt you're going to be in noise regulations if you don't.

If it were me I'd clear a lane with a mini x, and then build my berm with a bobcat. Maybe build the berm to where you'll have a retaining wall behind it. Make sure you use dense cover for erosion purposes and compact the fuck out of it. Walk that bitch in

Then fall somewhere between the regs of an actually safe range, and understand every corner cut you do is a safety concern.

At the very least you need an appropriate backstop, you need to not shoot anything that has a danger zone able to overlap anything you dont want destroyed, including on the vertical, and depending on with medium you intend to shoot into (steel will obviously change things)

And just be aware of safety concerns in general. Fire, medical, etc.

The lot is roughly 700ft square and it would be exclusively for personal use, or for single shooters under my direct supervision. I'm already cleared by local / state LEOs and the township regarding noise and distance issues. The land is flat so any berm will need to be functionally imported (or dug up onsite). I'm going to need to clear some trees and get my ranges established, but from I'm mostly looking for tips from a construction perspective like .

Thanks, user. Yeah, I'm thinking a bobcat will do the trick. What do you think about the retaining wall construction? Pinned wood? I figured I could drop a few pilings, stack lumber (maybe the cleared trees) and then secure them against the piles with the weight of the berm itself.

Yeah, that's why we're talking here. Like I said, from a construction perspective what does the average Jow Forumsommando do?

I've got the regs, now I want someone who has some practical experience to tell me what they've used and what they have had success with.

Retaining wall I would go with make sand bags, and cover them in concrete. Ram earth construction kind of stuff. When I'm talking about shooter over lap I'm not talking about the stuff in the middle. I mean the ends of it. They have a cone of fire. If you don't have some walls limiting it. Shooters might not think about it, or care, but it's sort of a cone of fire that it could extend a bit past what is the intended path. If I were doing it, I'd make a semi-circular berm towards the ends where it curves inward to catch that sort of stuff.

And while we're talking steel, what do you figure the best way to make a spall or deflection trap would be? The spall will loose energy pretty quick and most steel targets are set up at a decline to direct most of the projectiles into the dirt but if you have any advice, I'd take it.

>A natural hill is best.
Hank Hill approved

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Semicircular is actually a good idea. I was going to make a right angled enclosure but that sounds better.

For the retaining wall construction what you said wouldn't be awful but I'd do just a poured concrete one myself. Kinda like those boxes that they put like mulch and stuff in. Pic semi related took me maybe 10 seconds so hopefully you see what I mean

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Thinking out loud: maybe dig a shallow trench at the base of said angled steel?

Yea, so I found a bullet hole in my house and a hole in my porch screen. I measured the drop from the screen to the wall, Found the bullet (9mm), looked at the ballistic charts, measured the back bearing and used google earth to measure the most likely shooter position. . Then I thought about how to handle it until I was grilling and heard handgun shooting and I called the county sheriff dept.. Dept shows up and I hand over the bullet and he hears it and goes over there - 1200 ft away. Finds the guy doing it. Here's the point - go to a range. Unless you live miles away from every building down range, do you want the sheriff showing up because you flew one into a house? The backstop at my local 100 yard range is at least 40 ft tall. Can you do that? What is 1500 yards behind you?

Yeah, I see what you're saying. More of a construction project then just piling dirt against a fence but build once, cry once I guess?

Feels a little elaborate but it wouldn't necessarily be hard if I kept it fairly small.

Distance is your most cost effective friend.

The direction I'm looking at is a solid 2+ miles of uninterrupted woods but I only own about 10 acres of it and I'm just taking the better safe than sorry approach.

Fair enough. I don't actually own any steel targets. I typically just punch paper and shit, but if I'm going through all the effort, I figure I might as well get something more fun set up.

What about excavating a trench and putting the fill as your backstop.drop a drainage tile down the center and cover it with gravel. That gives you a berm and side protection. /k can you use old tires filled with soil, or it is an environmental problem?

Rounding off the corners a bit more than intended. Not great for a rectangular lot since it removes a lot the more narrow it is. I wouldn't just go with flat out rectangular sections. Anything behind it is pretty much wasteland that isn't getting use for anything, cutting off the corners makes a narrow spot to start with suck a bit more but the entire spot sucks if it's poisoned with lead or has it flying around.

Trust me it's not that hard. Not like you'd be building a foundation on bottom just the open retaining wall box. I overbuild things in general just so they're absolutely done right though so there's probably a more cost effective method. You could skip the retaining wall and continue the berm back down the backside as well. Just depends on how you really want to build it. You don't need anything too fancy just make sure your berm meets your backstop requirements as far as height goes. I'd do the concrete so mowing is easier too though. I'd hate to drive all over that hill to mow it on my tractor.

I've got a local track I could source old tires from and it shouldn't be an issue unless I sell the land but I'll look into it just in case.

Yeah, I'd want to be looking at 20ft wide, end to end. If I went with something like is discussing, that might still be overkill but it'll sure be impressive.

Those concrete cubes they put mulch in weigh around 5000 pounds.
Concrete costs money and is a lot of work.
Use piles of dirt. Put an ad in the paper asking for fill and you might get a few dump truck loads for free.

The fill they put in shouldn't matter as long as it gets compacted down so good idea. Concrete does cost money but like I said I always take the hard route so I'll never have to worry about the shit again. And chances are if you have the cash to put a range in your backyard you can afford to buy about 25cu ft of concrete. At $108 per cubic foot (just an average) a retaining wall that is 18in wide (little overkill), 25 ft long, and 18ft tall is right at $2700. Not bad for concrete.