Mods- if there is a better forum for this question, please move at will.
My soon-to-be father in law build a range at his house. Nicely done overall. He dug into a low rise, piling the dirt at the back resulting in a berm about 10 feet tall. He then lined the sides of the trench with decking boards and we muscled in some ~12 inch diameter logs to to retain the near-vertical berm. The result was an 8 foot wide lane from ground level at the front to ~7 deep 25 feet back at the berm/backstop. Hopefully I've decribed it well enough to give you a mental picture.
This hole in the ground now needed something to keep it from being a huge mud pit. I lobbied, put in my thoughts, but lost. The "floor" is currently covered in gravel. I was thinking about laying rubber mulch on top of the gravel, extending 8 feet or so forward from the backstop. I was curious if any of you had any thoughts on or experience with doing something similar. What would you think for a minimum thickness to be effective? Let's say "all" (no .50 BMG) calibers since other folks in his neiborhood use the range as well and I couldn't/shouldn't guess what may show up. I'd like to be able to chase plinker targets around on the ground, so I want someithing that is "100% ricochet proof."
I hope I'll be able to convince him to let me add some vertical baffles along the sides and horizonal ones along the top edge of the walls. The MIL is quite the green thumb and I'm sure I can steer her towards some dense evergreen plantings along the edges to further mitigate chances of ricochets leaving the range.
Any thoughts or tips are appreciated.
My soon-to-be father in law build a range at his house. Nicely done overall. He dug into a low rise, piling the dirt at the back resulting in a berm about 10 feet tall. He then lined the sides of the trench with decking boards and we muscled in some ~12 inch diameter logs to to retain the near-vertical berm. The result was an 8 foot wide lane from ground level at the front to ~7 deep 25 feet back at the berm/backstop. Hopefully I've decribed it well enough to give you a mental picture.
This hole in the ground now needed something to keep it from being a huge mud pit. I lobbied, put in my thoughts, but lost. The "floor" is currently covered in gravel. I was thinking about laying rubber mulch on top of the gravel, extending 8 feet or so forward from the backstop. I was curious if any of you had any thoughts on or experience with doing something similar. What would you think for a minimum thickness to be effective? Let's say "all" (no .50 BMG) calibers since other folks in his neiborhood use the range as well and I couldn't/shouldn't guess what may show up. I'd like to be able to chase plinker targets around on the ground, so I want someithing that is "100% ricochet proof."
I hope I'll be able to convince him to let me add some vertical baffles along the sides and horizonal ones along the top edge of the walls. The MIL is quite the green thumb and I'm sure I can steer her towards some dense evergreen plantings along the edges to further mitigate chances of ricochets leaving the range.
Any thoughts or tips are appreciated.