We Built A New 75 Yard Backyard Range

My original outdoor range was only 50 yards and was just fine for my needs, then back in March the property across the road from mine was purchased and a very nice family began the process of clearing the land and built a nice three bedroom two bath home directly downrange of my backstop.

Now my backstop is designed to U.S. Department of Energy specifications and will stop anything up to a .50 round, but being a responsible firearm owner and shooter, I will not take a chance of a round going downrange and hitting something or someone outside of my property line.

I simply will not put someone else at risk of property damage or injury because of a round that any of us fired.

So yesterday my son and I took down the original backstop brought it into the shop and made an improvement by adding another sheet of one half inch AR500 to the front of it and changed it from a six bi six wood frame to a 2" by 3/16" angle iron steel frame to support the additional weight of the back stop.

I also designed a new set of side splatter guards upgrading from two by four splatter guards to two by six splatter guards.

I use pressure treated wood planks because they absorb the lead and jacket splatter versus having it ricochet somewhere else, they last about a year of so and then get replaced with new ones once they have absorbed splatter from a couple thousand rounds.

I only protect the sides as what goes up merely falls back to earth and is so light it cannot cause an injury and what goes down just gets buried in the sand, however what fly's off to the sides can cause an injury to anyone within a hundred feet or so from the backstop.

We re-installed the backstop on the South side of my property backed by an undeveloped two and a half acre lot I bought last year.

What follows is the description of the installation of the new backstop.

The backstop and the holes for it to be dropped into.



Up with the crane getting ready to place.



In place ready to be leveled and plumb.





Continued next post.

 

Splatter guards installed.





Testing 1, 2, 3, 4.



Continued next post.

 

.40 S&W and not a scratch in the AR500.





Target holder placed and ready to go hot.




Continued next post.

 

Let's wipe a decommissioned hard drive, this works much better than amateur method of using BleachBit.



Drives wiped to a level the NSA couldn't recover the data that was on them.



I guess this blows my warranty away.

And the view from 75 yards.



And so much for the idea people cannot have some fun with firearms.

 

Why not a big dirt berm?

 

It requires a lot of space and is much more expensive.

 

You never heard of the phrase "dirt cheap" ?

 

Anyone who uses that term has never had a tandem load of dirt delivered.

 

Nice! I would not shoot at it from much farther away.
I like the jib mounted to your trailer.

 

That's awesome. How's it coming along?

 

the dirt is already there, trench it up from behind where his backstop is located.

EDIT: that said, he's being extremely responsible, which is the point of the op... he even purchased extra acreage to accommodate the new range of fire...

that said, i'd still build up a berm behind the backstop, at least 5 times wider than the backstop and a tad higher than it...

 

It's a nice set-up but I certainly wouldn't want to live downrange.

 

was thinking the same thing, I do like the idea of building up a dirt hill behind it though, less chance of a stray bullet hitting someone, which if happens, should mean prison time as well as being sued, why take the chance

saying one could not afford the dirt would not be a valid excuse if i was on a jury

the op may be a good shot, but is everyone that may use this for target practice, friends\family, ect..... and of course even the op could have a bad day

 

It's working just fine.

 

Need me some acerage, saw a fixer upper for 40grand in the paper, but it's ...no land and probably in the quarters, i'm gonna check it out, tomorrow.

 

The only way I could build a berm tall enough would be to build a box out of railroad ties and fill it with dirt, I have been to a couple of other backyard ranges out here with berms made of dirt and after a year or so they flatten out to the point of being useless, the only safe way to set such up is with a solid backstop that is rated for what will be shot at it.

Now we did take down an oak tree and the cuts (32" across) from that are going to be placed to the right and left of the backstop to widen up the backstop.

Also the property behind the backstop belongs to me, and the tree density is such if a bullet did miss the backstop it would never make out of the woods.

 

There's a lot of land for sale out here which runs around $6K per acre and it's mostly platted on 2.5 acres.

What's gets real screwy is when someone develops the land, it seems the first thing they do is remove all of the trees, which to me doesn't make sense, now the lot I live on someone used their head, they only removed the trees where the home was to be sited making it fire safe, the Florida Forest Service recommends having defense zone of 30 feet around any structure which excepting a single tree I have, and that tree stays cut back far enough the VFD can get into the area safely.

Other than that I have 12 mature oak trees and 9 mature pine trees, I did cut down 2 pine trees that where closer than I liked (50') to the home just to be safe as those suckers being full of turpentine can really burn hot.

 

I'd like a 5 acre plot, west of town about 5 miles, high and dry. 50K
Pine Level

 

it really doesn't matter unless someone is actually shot accidentally, that would be the only point you would be under scrutiny as to why you did not take extra precautions to prevent it, a lawyer for the victim could make life hell is why I would suggest making a dirt mound behind it as the other poster suggested, especially if the defense got a hold of this thread somehow where you discussed this topic

but I am not a lawyer, I could just understand how a juror might side with the victim

if your 100% sure that will never happen, then probably not an issue - but you seemed concerned enough to reinforce the target backdrop you use, which to me would seem to mean if a bullet missed that reinforced backdrop it could possibly injure someone

 

Anybody ever complain about the noise?

 

Not that I know of, on Sunday it is very common to hear gunshots, lots of them in the afternoon as folks get together fire up a BBQ and go out back with their children and everyone has a afternoon of shooting and learning how to safely use a firearm.

My two neighbors to the North, lacking a backstop have brought a number of their grandchildren over here to learn how to shoot rifles, hunting is a family tradition out here for both girls and boys and they start the children with .22 bolt action rim-fire at around ten years old, now my backstop will not handle center fire .22x, so for that we use tree trunks which will stop up to a .30-06.

As for noise complaints, I have more than once noticed a Sheriff's Deputy driving by with his window open (he smokes) and he has no reaction to the gunfire, it's normal out here.

Now go East to Clewiston to Harlem and he would be getting out of his truck to find out why he heard the same noise, the properties there are postage stamp sized and by state law home ranges are forbidden.

And that community is were 80% of the counties crimes happen.

It's two different worlds in the same county, both armed, but in one gunshots are normal, in the other it is more than likely a indication of a criminal activity in progress.

 

I've heard of folks who don't have enough space around them on their property building underground ranges. Some are just buried shipping containers, but the one I think sounds neatest is a 48" or 60" chamber (like a sewer manhole) that goes down maybe 10' with a 24" to 36" pipe that goes horizontally underground (just a few feet below the surface would suffice) the length of the property. Typically, there would be another chamber on the other side for access, but it wouldn't really be necessary. Not only is it 100% safe for nearby residents, its also basically silent. The biggest problem is building something like this 'to code.' If you don't have the space for an outdoor range, its unlikely you could build this without attracting the attention of code enforcement, and I doubt they would even know under what guidelines such a thing should be inspected...

 

nobody lives downrange.

 

If one is considering an underground range would be they well advised to look into Oldcastle CEV's, they are not cheep but do appear on the surplus market once in a while.

These can safely be placed underground and serve as living quarters, ranges or storage units, and are designed to be ventilated and dumped out.

https://oldcastleinfrastructure.com/products/communications/

 

I must have misread the op