How do I set up a 100-yard shooting range?

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Make sure you can legally shoot on your property
Excivate a backstop berm at least 100 yards from where you want to shoot making sure all shots go into the berm or ground before it and nothing behind it can be shot.
Build a shooting bench or shooting shelter if you're so motivated.

Or if you don't know how to do this contract someone to do it!

Seriously though I'm concerned as you're asking. I'd suggest going to a public range or other outdoor range and see how they did it.
 
Hokie_PhD said:
Make sure you can legally shoot on your property
Excivate a backstop berm at least 100 yards from where you want to shoot making sure all shots go into the berm or ground before it and nothing behind it can be shot.
Build a shooting bench or shooting shelter if you're so motivated.

Or if you don't know how to do this contract someone to do it!

Seriously though I'm concerned as you're asking. I'd suggest going to a public range or other outdoor range and see how they did it.
Click to expand...

I will ask for permission.
I know someone will know how to do it.
We will have safety checks.
I already know I need legal permission.
I will figure something out.

We will get help from other shooting range owners.
There might be some people that already own property for shooting ranges and we might shoot there.
Don't worry here.
nothing illegal at all.
 
My dad and I setup a nice 100 yard range behind his house. Don't need permission, own plenty of land. We cleared a nice wide path through the brush. Setup targets stands at 25, 75 and 100 yards. Used the tractor to make a nice berm behind the 100 yard targets. We are shooting slightly uphill so most hit the ground at 75 yards. No water flow near anything. Our next project is a 300 yard range. No close (miles away) neighbors behind the house. Just a nice forest.
 
I'm not a lawyer but the law in the USA is based on exclusion not inclusion.
Hence why I said to check that it's legal. Unless there is a law, you shouldn't have to "ask". So your job is to make sure you know and understand the laws.

For instance I live in a town, it's illegal to shoot in it. Down the hill from us on the back of the property is the county line. So our neighbors can and do shoot on their land while we can't.

If you were to build a structure you have to know the laws. In the county my folks live in, building a shed is legal without a permit if it's not set on footings. Not in my town. So laws carry.

Now with all of that said. Never get legal advice from a cop, and don't get it from anyone but a lawyer. I'm not a lawyer, cop and don't stay in a Holiday Inn so please check your local laws
 
An important consideration is making sure that accident/negligent/unintentional discharges don't pose a threat to those outside the range. If someone is holding a rifle at a 45 degree angle and inadvertently fires it, it will clear the berm (unless the berm is about 100 yards high), so what is it going to run into on the other side? You need to be imaginative in how careless you might be or how irresponsible your guests might be to see all the ways things can go wrong and then figure out how to mitigate the danger.
 
Hokie_PhD wrote:
Never get legal advice ... from anyone but a lawyer.
Click to expand...

Amen.

And in this case, it may be hard to get technical advice from an engineer.

When I first started practicing, the firm I was with would do site surveys for someone's intended use and provide them a report of certain things they needed to be aware of. But as liability jurisprudence has developed, there is too much liability doing that. Today, if the engagement doesn't include the full-blown design of the site including risks and mitigations - something far too expensive for a private 100 yard range - we won't even bid on the job.
 
So much "depends."
Number of potential shooters tends to set the width.
Available terrain is a factor.

Ok, some ideals:
Orientation: Shooting position to targets ought to be SW to NE.
Elevation: Shooting position ought to be higher that target (if only so that drainage is away from the shooting position). Ideally, the target area ought to be a tad higher than the lowest part of the range (so drainage is away from target area).
Ideally, the change in elevation is less than 5º (a 2%, e.g. 1:50 suffices).
Berm height: Really, twice what's needed. Ergo, if 6' works, you want 12' high.
Berm geometry: if you hold the slope of the berm to 40º it will grow grass, and grass is yout friend for holding a slope. If you use something else, tires, railroad ties (sleepers for our Euro readers), or the like, those materials will be worn away by shooting, and will need replacing at some point. Planning ahead for that replacement costs you nothing now (unlike picking creosote covered splinters out of a backstop, your gloves, etc,)

That's what I can offer for 2¢

In doing the physical layout, what you want is a helper and a rental place to set you up with a dumpy level and a hundred foot tape.
 
hdwhit said:
But as liability jurisprudence has developed, there is too much liability doing that. Today, if the engagement doesn't include the full-blown design of the site including risks and mitigations - something far too expensive for a private 100 yard range - we won't even bid on the job.
Click to expand...
Sigh, do you think you could describe that in words of less than one syable to some developers in las colinas? That a property survey is not an Alta survey, and that, yes, such things matter?
 
Johnjane3000(Northpark) said:
I will ask for permission.
Click to expand...

As pointed out, your state and county will have laws that limit how close to roads, homes and public property you can fire a gun and may have range restrictions. You need to research the law as well as being a good neighbor.

There are a lot of threads on how to set up a range at home you can read if you search for them. They'll detail berm and shooting position descriptions. A lot depends upon the topography of the property since flat open ground requires much more effort (excavation equipment) than property like mine with natural safe shooting topography. You've gotten some good advice here and some good reference material. Complying with the law, making sure your neighbors are happy and that you focus on safety by keeping all rounds in the range and prevent negligent discharges from leaving the property will guide you.
 
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"...a 100-yard shooting range..." For shooting what? That matters as you need several miles(Canadian Army 1,000 yard range has a 10 kilometer fall zone. 10K is about 6 miles.) behind the back stop with nothing built on it and nothing happening for a fall zone for .30 calibre, etc. rifles. Almost as much for cf handguns and .22's.
"...contract someone to do it..." Expensive.
 
Sunray said:
"...a 100-yard shooting range..." For shooting what? That matters as you need several miles(Canadian Army 1,000 yard range has a 10 kilometer fall zone. 10K is about 6 miles.) behind the back stop with nothing built on it and nothing happening for a fall zone for .30 calibre, etc. rifles. Almost as much for cf handguns and .22's.
"...contract someone to do it..." Expensive.
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If you used these standards as a standard rule, nobody east of the Mississippi would be shooting at all. Ridiculous. Thousands of us have well designed and safe home ranges designed for personal use on relatively small acreages with "fall zones" nothing like that. I only have 20 acres and can assure you that in over 30 years of shooting tens of thousands of rounds on my 50 yard range, no bullet has ever crossed my property line.
 
The steel trap looks good but I gotta believe it will add to the noise coming from your range. I hope your neighbors are old and hard of hearing. :cool:
 
bhk said:
If you used these standards as a standard rule, nobody east of the Mississippi would be shooting at all. Ridiculous. Thousands of us have well designed and safe home ranges designed for personal use on relatively small acreages with "fall zones" nothing like that. I only have 20 acres and can assure you that in over 30 years of shooting tens of thousands of rounds on my 50 yard range, no bullet has ever crossed my property line.
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Agreed!

I live on 80 acres and have a range that runs from zero to 760y with individual berms for long range targets. As long as your zoning and local laws allow it, all it takes is is some common sense, use of terrain, and maybe a little dozer work. Don't do stupid chit, have respect for your neighbors and you'll be "OK". Legally here in KS as long as the round stays on my property I'm good to go, but I still limit my shooting to decent hours and only a few times a week. I figure nobody, including myself wants to live next to a range, I've also invited my close neighbors over to shoot.

Walk outside here on a decent autumn day and it sounds like the 4th of July, there are private "ranges" everywhere.

Chuck
 
A lot depends on location, distance to other folks, and local topography.

There is no universal recipe for stopping all the bullets and keeping sound levels tolerable when they reach the ears of your neighbors.

One close family friend developed a range on his property, followed all the laws, but still had to endure several years of legal wrangling with neighbors who kept calling the police on him and pulling strings with the bureaucrats to try and stop him from shooting on his own property. He eventually prevailed, but neighbors concerned with their "property values" (including one LEO and other government employees) worked hard to stop him.

Be aware that if the law completely protects what you are doing, neighbors who don't like it may well exaggerate what is happening on your property to bolster their attempts of using government to shut you down. If the truth is not good enough, gun haters will lie.
 
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1. Bullets striking the ground short of the target will often fly over the berm.
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This is absolutely true.

Please (everyone) understand that the safe impact zone for your bullets is IN the berm. NOT in front of the berm, or somewhere between you and the berm. Bullets can strike the ground at a shallow angle and then skip like a stone on the water, traveling off to hit other things.

A range I know well had exactly that happen, and the bullet stopped in the front door of a neighboring home. :eek:

While you need to design a shooting range very carefully, you also then have to pay close attention to what kind of shooting you do so that every bullet is completely contained, every time, no matter what.

Keep your targets VERY close to the face of the berm, and as centered within it as possible. It is tempting to assume that since you have (let's say) a 100 yard range you can put up targets anywhere between your firing line and the berm. Not so ... without a great deal of focused and mindful care. It is quite easy to put up a target at 25 yards that's a few inches too high or too much to the right or left and, when you step back to the firing line, will have your bullets passing right over or beside your berm. That can easily get someone killed.

There is nothing about a shooting range that is casual or "easy." Every detail can have monumental consequences.
 
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