Shooting Backstop Ideas

[jhunter]

I have access to some family owned land. About 100 acres on a river. Normally, the water is down in a spot and I can walk across to place targets on a high bank. However, when the water is up, I would have to do so in a raft.

The rest of the land is flat, and I need to build a backstop. Any ideas on this? There are cattle across the river, and I do not want to have a stray hit & kill one. I need something that will stop rounds. .45, .40 are two of the handguns that will be used. As far as rifles, AR, and maybe some .22's. Every so often, I might sight in the 30-30 & if it holds up well, I might use the 30-06. In other words, I would like something that will stop at least up to the 30-30, but it does not have to. I could go to the range for those.

I know some that have cut a 55 gal drum in half and filled it with sand, but I really do not like that idea. Something using wood would be a cheap means for me. I could get all the sand/dirt I need as well.. Any ideas? Any good websites on the subject? Thanks..

 

[Whatsit]

Regular old earth mound (berms) work just fine - if you want to get fancy you cound stack old tires and fill them with dirt or sand.

 

[The Deer Hunter]

yea dirt or sand pile works fine.

For some reason my club wants to make burms outta concrete and stack sandbags in front of them.

 

[CWL]

Berms. Stick with simplicity, don't get fancy when there are bullets flying.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

If the bank is a satisfactory backstop, except for having to use a raft in high water, why not rig a pully and traveller? Go to any indoor range and you will see how they use a simple system to move targets downrange, or bring them back without stepping over the firing line.

 

[MD_Willington]

If the bank is a satisfactory backstop, except for having to use a raft in high water, why not rig a pully and traveller? Go to any indoor range and you will see how they use a simple system to move targets downrange, or bring them back without stepping over the firing line.

Zinc clothes line pulleys... not just for drying clothes, they work well.

 

[jhunter]

Hey guys, thanks... That pully system is one hell of an idea. I dont know why I didnt think of that, nobody travels down the river. If they do, its only in a small fishing boat. This would still be way above them. Now I will not even have to walk across to get the target, I would use that even when its down. I am sure I can figure something out to make that work. Thanks for the tip.

 

[MD_Willington]

another thing you can do is hook a pulley system to resettable targets on the other side, a co-worker of mine has plate steel & I'm thinking about doing the same, use something as simple as a clothesline pulley to reset remotely

 

[atomicferret]

Sand Works good

check it out here: http://www.theboxotruth.com/docs/bot7.htm

 

[jhunter]

That sand box/dry wall would work good. I guess you would need a few spare pieces for that front side. 4 different people will be using that land to shoot. Those were some interesting results however. It would have been very interesting to see what a 50 cal would have done, or maybe some armor piercing rounds...

I am going to go with the pully system, Just the basic setup. Maybe something resettable later. One of the guys (cousin) has a welder and plenty of steel. I can already see this getting out of hand with time and money... Great idea for sure, I will post pictures when its built..