Building an action/shooting bay?

[Lead Ringer]

Hello the fire,

I'm needing some advice and or opinions on how to build an action shooting bay. I'll give you a few details of my situation.

 

My house sits on 3.5 acres. Its in a rural county and ok for shooting. I do have some neighbors and would need to build walls of some sort? Maybe railroad ties? double fence style filled with gravel? or those huge concrete blocks?

I don't think dirt berms will work, because of the foot print required to gain a berm six to eight feet high.

Is a 2x6 wall/fence safe for the side walls if always practicing safe down range muzzel control? In other words; Loading, unloading, and shooting always to the back of the bay (safe direction)? The wall would be more for splatter control? Back side of bay will face a 4 acre lot of land and past that a farmers field that rises above our elevation. (I've tried to purchase the 4 acres, which is a flag lot behind my place, with no luck)

Bay would be approximately 20 yards deep and 30 yards wide.

I'd also incorporate quality steel, with a good angle to help control the bullet plaster and send the bullets to the ground

 

Advice on design, etc would be great.

 

Thanks in advance for your input.

 

Ringer

[Sedalia Dave]

Have you thought about old tires? Two rows, each interlocked like bricks. The outside wall offset from the inner so that any gaps are not in line. fill each tire with dirt or sand. A little labor intensive but costs a lot less than bricks. Tires seem to last forever and I bet that you can get them for free from your local dealers.

[Warden Callaway]

I have a suggestion to help control lead splatter somewhat and recover the lead.

 

 

I have built two of these traps based on this design and they work well. Some amount still escapes but doesn't go very far.

[Lead Ringer]

Have you thought about old tires? Two rows, each interlocked like bricks. The outside wall offset from the inner so that any gaps are not in line. fill each tire with dirt or sand. A little labor intensive but costs a lot less than bricks. Tires seem to last forever and I bet that you can get them for free from your local dealers.

Haven't? When I say concrete blocks I'm talkin' 6ftx3ftx3ft or bigger? not brick or cinder block.

Ringer

[Dusty Boddems]

Haven't? When I say concrete blocks I'm talkin' 6ftx3ftx3ft or bigger? not brick or cinder block.

Ringer

I think I would look into the actual berm being dirt . you could bring wings out on each side and make a U shaped berm. still if houses are close by you could consider rubber shoot thru targets or paper. if you had your mind made up to shoot steel a shed roof out of railroad ties covering your targets and resting on the berm would keep any lead in. plant some trees and shrubs around the area if it is seen by neighbors and it will blend in very soon. those blocks you're talking about more than likely weigh 5500 to 6000 pounds apiece. that takes a good sized chunk of equipment to place them . wouldn't use gravel. also if you have a drainage or low area, a pond could be built .that would give you a dam and plenty of dirt so you wouldn't have to haul so much materials in. dusty boddams

[Warden Callaway]

It depends on how well you know your neighbors but it may be helpful to invite them over to see your setup and get comfortable with it. Even invite them to shoot.

 

We have the luxury of having a 214 acre farm with hills and woodlots so shooting is no problem (yet). The neighbors are actually further away than our property line as their farms back up to ours. Our closest neighbors are 1/4 mile away. Even so I took the opportunity to show them our shooting range. They said they could hear us shooting so I hope showing them our range put their minds at ease.

 

On the other hand, there are a couple of neighbors on either side that shoot some heavy arsenal - AKs, ARs, and other hunting rifle rounds - a lot and day or night. One night I awoke to full auto rifle fire. I got up and could see the headlight of a 4-wheeler in the creek 1/4 mile away. I only hope they are using some sensibility because we are well within the danger range.

[Matthew Duncan]

I used almost new railroad ties. Stack them 5 feet tall with a braces of treated 2 x 4 on the backside for support.

 

New neighbor keeps horses close to our shared property line. So I restrict myself to pistol or close range rifle.

 

Long rang rifle at the local gun club.

[Ace_of_Hearts]

I would sure as hell make sure there was not any human activity in the line of fire for at least 2 to 3 miles.

1 errant shot over the berm and ...............................................................

[Warden Callaway]

I would sure as hell make sure there was not any human activity in the line of fire for at least 2 to 3 miles.

1 errant shot over the berm and ...............................................................

Wouldn't that rule out 90% of the United States?

[jrswanson1]

I take it you don't have a 10' tall hill somewhere on your property? Dig out a section of that and you'll be set.

[Fingers McGee]

"The NRA Range Source Book - NRA's guide to planning and constructing shooting ranges", might be of help to you.

 

http://range.nra.org/sourcebook.aspx

[Samuel "Doc" Eells]

Ringer, not sure if you remember in Piqua, Ohio, but we used the large concrete blocks for side wall berms. They work great!

[Santa Fe River Stan,36999L]

Give me a shout sometime. 386-547-0255 I share what I did.

[Doc Tombstone, SASS #49630]

If you are the only one shooting (one posse so to speak) you won't need side berms, perhaps short wings on the end berm would be an OK idea to catch splatter off the targets, when its just you and one or two others you just keep your guns pointed downrange all the time. (Sounds like you may need a visual barrier though) Then if you don't have a natural height of contour on your place a couple loads of dirt for a backstop will work, another thing that works well from a safety standpoint is shooting from the top of a rise into a swale, I did this for awhile but found I preferred a more level practice range.

I also built a noise muffler for shooting from the bench with bigger guns but my neighbors don't seem to mind the CAS noise.

[Key Hay]

How about a used shipping container with both ends open. TCGC has 4 in the action range. They keep rounds from leaving the club and the inside walls have some sound deadening and keep the sound down nicely. The berm at the end is high enough to prevent rounds from getting away. Lead splatter may be a different story.

[Most Wanted]

I would make the berms from natural materials like wood and dirt . You may need to remove it one day and trying to get rid of tires and huge concrete blocks will be difficult . Also if you dig down say four feet and pile the dirt you just dug out you could be at eight plus in a hurry . Any small natural grade will help with this . Good luck with the project .

[Two Spurs]

We have tree protection at our range which is made out of either vertical landscape timbers (big flat sides face-to-face real tight) or stacked 4x4's.

 

Some of these are directly behind targets and for a couple of years now show no signs of a round getting through. (non cowboy loads might/would be a different story I imagine)

 

Dirt berm or railroad ties would be tops but I wouldn't be scared at all to build one out of regular lumber- especially if you have access to quantity for free. If you've got a friend at a large construction site you'd freak out at how much material actually get tossed in the dumpster; form materials, glass crates, etc. While typically not treated wood, freebie stuff can last a while if money is tight.

 

[Brother King, SASS #69031]

Hay bales....big squares... cover them if you want them to feed later. Corn bales will last 3-5 years uncovered... forever if covered. Stack (2) & alternate the length down the sides...double in the back.

 

We tested a 762 shot a full mag straight on without penetration. Depending on your area someone surely puts up big squares of something.

 

Here ya go...these gotta be 5-7 years old: http://www.briggsdalecountyshootists.com/photogallery/phpslideshow.php?directory=photo20140222&currentPic=7

[Sedalia Dave]

Haven't? When I say concrete blocks I'm talkin' 6ftx3ftx3ft or bigger? not brick or cinder block.

Ringer

 

Those are some very big Legos

[Assassin]

Problem with dirt berms is they are typically 3 times wider than high, 8 feet high eqates to 24 feet wide. Dirt must be maintained, if you're in an area that gets alot of rain you must deal with erosion. NRA likes to use concrete sidewalls 8 inches thick x 8 feet high, dirt backstop, I'd go 10 feet high in the back. My wife and I are lucky to have miles of open country behind us and to the west, we can literally shoot behind the barn. We even have an indoor range. We have a great place to shoot but little time to practice. As Brother King said bales work great, with the humid environment in KY I doubt the bales would last more than a couple years. Concrete is the way to go, up front cost is high, when the walls are completed they will last with little maintenance issues.

 

Assassin

[Brother King, SASS #69031]

The downside of course is that the upfront cost of concrete is high and they are permanent. Feller might work a deal with a farmer or a dairy to feed those bales every 2-3 years and get new ones for the cost of transportation. If you sell the place they can be gone in a morning.

[Assassin]

But, who wouldn't want a shooting bay on their property. That's a big addition most of "us" would pay more for and it would be an interest deductible part of the mortgage rather than all out of pocket expense.

[Lead Ringer]

I take it you don't have a 10' tall hill somewhere on your property? Dig out a section of that and you'll be set.

 

I wish!

[Lead Ringer]

Thanks for the advice and links!

Ringer

[Bones McCracken SASS #46721]

The "big concrete blocks" being referred to are called Ecology Blocks. Concrete companies dump extra concrete that comes back in their trucks into forms to make them. Essentially free materials (to them) is why you can get the blocks for about $75. The real cost is getting an excavator to your site that is big enough to move/set them for you. They are a great/compact wall solution, and standard enough that when done with them finding a new home won't be impossible. Beware of tires, disposal of them later will be problematic, and if they are not buried/shielded you WILL get bullet bounce-back. I watched a bullet bounce back, hit my daughter, then me at a match.

RR ties are interesting too. If they are used, the centers are typically rotten, and don't stop bullets like you might expect. Then, when you are done with them... getting rid of them isn't as easy as a nice cozy bonfire.

Good luck.

[Tuco Taveras SASS#79313]

The downside of course is that the upfront cost of concrete is high and they are permanent. Feller might work a deal with a farmer or a dairy to feed those bales every 2-3 years and get new ones for the cost of transportation. If you sell the place they can be gone in a morning.

You mean you're feeding lead filled bales to your livestock???????What??????folks worry about too much lead in livestock drinking water......After the bale is gone do you scrape up the lead????????What dairy farmer would feed lead filled bales.......Takin" down any shooting range is alot of work....Don't do it if you plan to take it down.........Free advice is good......don't make work for me......My wife does enough of that........I hate to move fences and gates around when she don't think things thru.......Tuco.........

[Key Hay]

Hey Ringer, Here is what TCGC did.