Shooting backstop

I am a volunteer at a museum. At our annual rendezvous we have a shooting contest (roundball only). We put our targets on hay bails in front of a small canal. On the other side of the canal is a uninhabited island covered by trees. Of course all shots go through the target and the hay bails and sometimes skip off the canal and into the trees. We would like to construct a backstop that would be easy to take down and store but would keep the ball from going through. It's usually 1 shooter at a time. Any plans out there ?

How about sandbags? Easy and secure. Best of all for institutional uses- They're cheap.

just about what I was thinking. Build a plywood box, say about a 3' cube with one open side to face the shooter and stack sandbags in it. Ive also seen metal traps built on old small trailers sloped sides a bit similar to a large sheet metal airgun trap, keeps the lead for recycling

Piles of tires filled with sand or dirt.

I’ve been thinking about how to make something for use at home for several weeks now. Beyond stopping the bullets, I want to make something that will make reclaiming the lead as simple as possible.
I am going to be paying attention to this thread.
My thoughts so far.
While the sandbags mentioned so far would work for a short time, it wouldn’t be long before the sand was pouring out all over the place. One of my earliest ideas was to build a box and fill it full of dirt. I quickly abandoned that idea for the reason just mentioned.
My current thoughts run along the lines of making a box, front dimension slightly larger than an NMLRA six bull target by maybe two feet deep. This would be raised by some kind of stand. The front would be made so that ½ or ¾ inch plywood or OSB could be slid in from the top. The pieces of wood used to stop the bullets would be the height of the box (actually a frame more than a box) by maybe four or five inches. This would make it possible to move badly shot up sections around and conserve the wood being used as much as possible. By using a series of baffles installed the same as the ones in front, any bullet would have to penetrate several inches of wood. A ¼ steel plate on the back would stop anything that managed to penetrate all the baffles.
I have also given thought to stopping by the local CSX operation and asking if they are going to throw away all those old broken ties.
In regards to the needs of the original poster, I wonder if it would be possible to have some dirt brought in and make a permanent backstop. After a year or it could blend in to where it would be hardly noticeable.

Build a wooden box fill it with dirt or sand and to make it more primitive you can always line it with hay bales again will work well and can be emptied lead collected (reused) and moved where ever you need. Old railroad ties work great too just drive a few stakes in the ground and stack them up add a few stakes to the back and it will hold them together a muzzleloader ball wont come close to going through the rr-ties. For permanent placement use metal banding to get them tight and pile dirt behind them.
Ok I am changing my idea since randy posted his as I was typing. And easier method could be use your current set up and locate some large rubber mats around 3/8-1/2 in thick and add a couple hanging behind the straw bales and held in place with rebar or pickets of even wood driven into the ground to hold them in place.

2_Tall said:

Build a wooden box fill it with dirt or sand and to make it more primitive you can always line it with hay bales again will work well and can be emptied lead collected (reused) and moved where ever you need. Old railroad ties work great too just drive a few stakes in the ground and stack them up add a few stakes to the back and it will hold them together a muzzleloader ball wont come close to going through the rr-ties. For permanent placement use metal banding to get them tight and pile dirt behind them.
Ok I am changing my idea since randy posted his as I was typing. And easier method could be use your current set up and locate some large rubber mats around 3/8-1/2 in thick and add a couple hanging behind the straw bales and held in place with rebar or pickets of even wood driven into the ground to hold them in place.

Click to expand...

See, that's why I'm watching this thread.
My design idea just got modified to placing a double thickness of stall mats from Tractor Supply at the front. Rubber might last longer.

When I was in college we shot at a 50 ft indoor range, a synthetic woven mesh caught and stoppedthe standard vel bullets just fine

An alternative would be a swing set type frame with pierced of plate steel hanging

If you have ever seen the Crossman 22 bullet trap you have the basic idea. Just make a larger version of that with a heavier backing plate, and if you want to be able to move it put am axle and wheels under it.

Stops the lead balls just fine, you recover all the lead and it is easily movable, no wear parts to replace.

Erect a frame of treated 2 X 8 or 2 X 10. Face it front and back with 3/4" plywood. Use screws to hold it together. Fill the empty area between the plywood with crushed limestone like you would pave a driveway with.

I saw a similar one used at a rendezvous for a week. Hundreds of shots went into it and not one came out the back. The nice thing about the gravel is that it won't run out the holes in the front.

To make it more permanent, build a roof on top of it. If the front piece of plywood starts getting too shot up, just fasten another piece over it.

Many Klatch

You don't say what kind of hay bales you are using. I presume they are small square ones. Try using round bales. If you buy last years crop bales they will be inexpensive. Use a tractor to stack. You will find they will last years before decomposing. I don't like your apparent reliance on a vacant back groud across the river. Those kinds of assumptions are what get people hurt.
FWIW, my backstop is a brush pile. I have a lot of trees and pile my branches and storm down tree trash on the pile. Works fine except I cannot recover the lead.

I agree shooting over water and into that "uninhabited" island are completely irresponsible. It's only uninhabited as long as nobody's there.

We were shooting on private property when I was a kid using a thick wood lot in a hollow as a back stop. Nobody else had permission to be there so we thought we were being safe.

We'd been shooting over half hour when we heard a "hallo" from the small wood lot. We stopped shooting and "hallod" back and a guy with a big smile on his face comes riding out on horse back to see what all the shooting was about.

Lucky for him Darwin and Murphy weren't there that day, but I imagine one of 'em caught up later. :shake:

A few kind words and words of warning were exchanged....but we never did that again....just in case. Enjoy, J.D.

Are you sure it wasn't more of a halllllllllloooooooo Thats isda the way its said up in nordern Michigan in da U.P. dontcha no aaaaaaaaaaaaaa

You didn't say what kind of budget you have. If you have the money, contact the city and find out where they get the steel plates that they put over the holes they dig in a street. Those plates are very heavy but they will stop any round balls. You can place it where you need your backstop and support it with steel posts. Do not use wood because the wood will be shot away and let the plate fall. Set the plate at a 45 degree angle and all of the balls will be deflected into the ground where you can easily recover them. To make it even better, you can dig a pit under the plate and fill it with sand. Then bullet recovery will require only a sieve made from hardware on a 2 x 4 frame. You would then just shovel sand from the pit and run it through your sieve to recover the lead. Add sand to the pit as needed.

This is a bit more costly way of doing it but it would be a permanent backstop that could be used at any time. To hide it, just build a small wooden fence around it with a double gate on the front side. A few strategically placed plants and you have your backstop nicely hidden from view but readily available when you are ready to shoot. Just open the gates and you are good to go. A little less costly but a bit less permanent way would be to use railroad ties. If you shot at them much, they will soon be shot away. Besides, the lead is harder to recover since you will have to dig it out of the ties.

The idea of a box filled with sand will work just fine but the plywood will not last long and then what do you do with the sand? Since it contains lead, you cannot just dump it into the water.
Where would you put it? I don't think it would be a good idea to spread it around on the ground. It kind of presents a disposal problem. Tires filed with sand will do a good job, too but then you have the disposal of the tires to contend with as well as the sand.

I think the best idea is the steel plate with the sand pit. The lead is easily recovered and you do not have to dispose of anything. The sand stays in place and is reusable indefinitely. A nice wooden fence will hide everything. A little more money but a far better solution in the long run. :thumbsup: