Simple berm/backstop for private shooting, using brush?

[PapaGrune]

We started with some old chest deep freezers filled with dirt. Added more as time allowed. Then pushed up dirt on top of it. I guess it is 8ft tall. We have one at 100 yds and 300yrds. No neighbors for years and do not expect any in my life time. or my children, or grand children life time Shoots down hill towards a creak where we deer hunt.

But this is rural Texas.

I do like the rail road tie setup.

 

[PapaGrune]

Double post

 

[we are not amused]

That's a really nice setup you have there, Chuck.

Sadly my land is fairly flat. It does grade up slightly in the direction I'm shooting but it's so slight and consistent that you can't really tell. I'm not so sure there's that much dirt to scrape, and the dozer guy said as much when we were mapping out where to clear, but you guys bring up a good point that there's such a small (time) investment to give it a shot vs trucking dirt in that it's gotta be worth trying.

I've been wrestling with railroad ties vs tires, and as I don't really care about appearance it probably comes down to what's available. With the tires I can pretty much do the work myself (slowly), but I have to be able to find quite a few. I did some quick math showing that for 10' wide and 6' tall, and two tires deep I need over 120 tires (!). That's like a half dozen loads by pickup, and I end up with a relatively small backstop at the end of the day. Could probably get away with single deep if I can fill in the narrow spots somehow....

Tires would work well, but it is a lot of work to fill the tires, and you would need a lot of them.

Almost 40 years ago, me and a friend thought we would do a soil erosion project, using a lot of old tires stacked up and filled with dirt/sand. What we figured to be a weekend job turned into a summer long project. It is a lot of work to fill tires by hand.

A double row of tires filled with dirt or sand would make a great back stop, but beware it is a lot of work.

By the way, I probably have that many tires! Make you a hell of a deal if you pick up!

 

[frankenstein406]

Around here all you have to do is post on Craigslist or ask a junkyard and they will deliver tires for free. To bad you couldn't rent a tire shredder, that would be a good free cover layer.

 

[Longhorn 76]

I stack some round hay bales for mine. I have to replace them every couple of years, but they are free.

 

[Chuck R.]

Railroad ties approx. 7' high, 12' across the front, two dump truck loads of dirt
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Every time I see that backstop I want to make one, that is extremely well done!

Chuck

 

[JTHunter]

labhound - what is the maximum distance you can shoot on that set-up?

 

[labhound]

The shelter is centered over the 15 yard marker, and I have the yardage marked off at 7 yds, 10 yds, 15 yds, 20 yds and 25 yds. for pistol shooting. I can shoot probably up to 150 yards shooting straight through the shelter without worrying about the gable ends of the shelter. If I move slightly off to the left and shoot around the shelter I can shoot about 175 yards, either way I'm still about 200 yards of the road. The City only requires you be 100 yards from the street and 200 yards from a house. Our property is flat for about the first 200 yards from the street then goes gently downhill towards the woods. I'm shooting slightly downhill towards the backstop with woods behind it and a swampy creek bed about 75 yards into the woods. Nearest house in that direction is over 500 yards from the range, down the hill, across the creek, up the hill going through woods the entire way. I was just shooting my AR (M&P 15 Sport) there yesterday at 50 yards aligning the BUIS and Nikon 3-9X40 scope I put on it. I need to go back to the range sometime within the next few days and zero the scope for 75 yards. My range sets about 200 yards across the horse pasture from our house and I use my golf cart to run back and forth. The rear seat of the cart folds out and makes a table that's the perfect height to use to set the guns, ammo, range bag etc. on it. Like Longhorn 76 I use to stack round hay bales up and use them for a backstop which worked okay for shooting the handguns but it was a mess to clean up and replace them so I built the railroad tie backstop.

 

[we are not amused]

I have used big round bales in the past myself, but with the current cost of hay, they make .22 rimfire look cheap!

 

[M2 Carbine]

I favor dirt.
Years ago I used wood, brush, trees but it doesn't last long and isn't a sure bullet stopper.

 

[Hanzo581]

Getting pretty jealous seeing these backyard ranges...I need to move.

 

[Hardtarget]

Labhound(post #25) That is the cleanest...neatest range I have ever seen! I've told several friends about it and I have to say...I want to build one just like it! Right now I have a five ton dirt pile. It stops the bullits but its not...pretty. Thanks for shareing the photos!

Mark

 

[labhound]

Hardtarget, thanks, I've always kept it tidy and it's in a area that I've always kept mowed anyway so with a little "weed eater work" it's pretty easy to keep up. Having the golf cart with built in table means I don't have to keep any table or chairs down there so nothing to have to move out of the way when I mow. I always take a bucket and my metal detector with me when I shoot so I can pick up the brass. I have a pecan tree straight behind the shelter at the 50 yard mark so no need for the patio stone there with yardage marked on it. I have a couple more pecan trees I want to plant out in the field at 75, 100 yards. There's already several pecan trees at around 150 yards. It's coming along with some small changes here and there.

 

[Esoteria]

I want to thank you all for your input. Looks like this might be useful for people other than me and it's great to see some actual photos of real, usable setups.

As for my personal situation, it turns out there's more movable soil than my dozer guy originally thought out there. He was able to push up about 4.5' with no problem at all. Of course that's a little low for general use, but the good news is that the triangular shape I set up (for shotgun) is lower on one side of the new 50' wide, 4' high berm than on the other side, by about 2 or 3'.

He says he should be able to dig that low without much trouble, so effectively I'll get another 3' on top of my 4.5' on that side, not counting whatever else he can pile on as he goes. I may not need to add tires or buy dirt at all if he can get that low.

I will definitely post pictures when it's done. Obviously it won't look anywhere as neat and tidy as some of the other pictures here, but it might be useful to somebody.

@labhound: That is a beautifully simple solution. Thanks for posting!

@Hanzo581: In my case, that very jealousy is what drove me to buy the land I'm doing this on. It's still a 50 minute drive for me, so it's far from "backyard" convenience, but it's mine. =) I live in North Carolina, where you can still find land at a good price if you're willing to drive a bit. I imagine that's true of all but the most developed areas.

 

[commygun]

Agree about not relying on brush. I've had hay bales fail to stop arrows so I certainly wouldn't rely of it for firearms. I've seen lots of railroad ties rot from the inside out in our climate.