Tires for Backstop

[gaowlpoop]

I have been thinking about building a new backstop for shooting. I have been toying with the idea of using old tires filled with sand. I was wondering if anyone here uses a backstop like this. Pictures would be nice if you have some.

 

[Doug b]

My friend uses truck tires filled with our Black Swamp clay.Works great for pistol but high power is a little shaky.Nothing has shot through yet.Sand might tend to run out.

 

[GhostlyKarliion]

don't have pics, but I know it works if they are staggered and sand is filled all around them well, just need alot of it.

 

[cpttango30]

Why not just use a big dirt mound? Many of the construction companies will give away topsoil and dirt if they have a bench left over on a job. Just go around and look for the housing devlopments and see if they have any dirt they need to get rid of. I worked one job that we had 3 piles 300' long 100' wide at the base and 50 to 70' high that were excess.

 

[DeputyVaughn]

I built my backstop out of railroad ties. It's 6 feet high and 8 feet wide and two rows deep. The gaps are staggered so a bullet going between the ties on the first row won't on the second. I've since started picking up tire treads off the highway and am hanging them vertically on the front of the frist row of ties. I can shoot 30-06 armor piercing and not get through the first row. It cost me less than $150 to build the whole thing and I expect it to last many years.

Scott

 

[TEDDY]

backstop

tires make a great backstop.stager them and fill with sand/dirt they stop rifle bullets and you can recover lead after some time.dont stand to close if you shoot light loads as they "may" bounce back.
woburn rifle club in mass.has that kind of back stop.I have shot there many times but yrs ago.--

 

[RonE]

As costly as it is to get rid of tires someone might just pay you to take them.

Using tires sounds like a great ideal to me.

 

[unspellable]

NO tires please!!!!

No tires please!!! Here in Iowa we had a fatality that involved a 45 ACP bouncing off a tire!

 

[mec]

The NRA used to recommend that Stagger-stacked on a dirt backstop but not filled with sand or anything else. It was kind of neat. I could reach inside the tire and scoop out pistol bullets for casting. They tended to go into the tire and then run round and round till they stopped.

The dirt backstop we used at that time took on a slope over time and what with the rocks, there were some ricochets. The tires stopped that.

 

[Jeff White]

First check local laws. There are a lot of regulations and laws concerning the disposal of used tires. You may have to have a permit to have more the 50 or 100 used tires on your property.

Place a post in the ground set in concrete. Stack the tires over the post. Fill with sand. When you've got your backstop built, wire the posts together at the top with fence wire. Two rows staggered should work.

Jeff

 

[Navy_Guns]

Maybe it's urban legend, but I have heard of bullets spinning around in the tire - until they find an exit hole which could send the bullet in an unsafe direction.

 

[Deanimator]

He's a better idea:

Use rubber crumbs contained within sheets of rubber conveyor belt material. It's what our indoor club range uses. A few feet in depth worth of tire crumbs will stop a .30-06, nevermind any handgun rounds. In addition, the crumbs capture the spent bullets, making it easy to recover them, either for melting down and re-casting, or for sale as scrap.

An even better advantage on an indoor range is that lead levels drop dramatically, since there's no vaporization when the bullets pierce the sheets and hit the crumb.

Maintenance is easy. Just patch holes in the sheets using pre-cut convery sheet patches and drywall screws. When we clean the range once every year or two, we use a large propane powered vacuum cleaner to suck out the rubber. Then we sieve it for the bullets and blow it back.

 

[bluetopper]

Just wanted to second the notion to beware of a tire backstop shooting a big slow round like 45acp. They CAN bounce back.