Backyard ranges

[FishDFly]

My cows come for food when they hear the truck and noise.

 

[Flintlock]

We, kids and I shoot a lot of bunny fart loads (light loads) at 15-35 yards and a lot of handgun so anything involving tires is pretty sketchy to me. Already took a 45acp to the knee that returned home after firing at a oak log years ago at 25 yards (tree rings looked like a excellent target).

 

[Frontier's]

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[EC121]

When I trim trees, I pile the branches behind my target holders. Over the years I now have a 20ft. deep by 20ft. wide by 10ft. tall backstop of tree trunks and branches. The pile settles as it decays so I can pile more on it plus it becomes more dense. I shoot mostly 50yd. roundball. My plastic lumber topped bench is on lawnmower wheels in front to make it solid but mobile. Nothing but woods behind my 22 acres for at least a mile.

 

[GBG]

Persons not related to me by blood will not use my firing range.

The only person I will shoot with at our home range or in the field is my youngest brother and hunting partner of 40 years. I taught him how to shoot, beginning with BB airguns when he was age 5 (and now the student has far surpassed the teacher).

We always carry radios at the range, plus cell phones and mouth crow calls when hunting together. If we don't know each other's location we won't take a shot, even with bows and crossbows.

 

[Cattywompuss]

Yup . . .
Then there are the Arabs . . . .and their RECKLESS celebratory firing of their firearms into the air!!

Where the hell do they think their bullets are landing??

You must mean Arab, Alabama, cause if you have grown up or lived in any town or city in the South you know it sounds like Kabul 2021 every 4th of July and New Years. I grew up with a 9mm bullet embedded in our porch rail at a downward angle. We are just as dumb as our foreign friends.

 

[SamTex1949]

thank you ! very great idea design !!

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[fleener]

I have built 3 or 4 shooting benches that are very simliar to the concrete ones using treated 2x6's and 4x4's for legs. Very steady, but quite a bit more portable then concrete.

Fleener

 

[DixieTexian]

I would think if you are just shooting PRB a bit of woods behind your target would be just fine if you are shooting to 100 yards or so. Heck, a pasture is probably fine. With the speed in which a PRB sheds energy and the amount of drop it has at any range more than 150 yards or so you would almost have to be trying to send it very far. Obviously, those woods should extend far enough and you should own them.

 

[springfield art]

A few of us have been tossing around the idea of once again putting together another traditional muzzleloading club. I have a nice range for handguns-muzzleloaders out here on the farm with stations at 15,25, 35, 75 and 100yds. The insurance-liability factor was brought up so while making breakfast I went online looking for info. I spoke online to a few people and even watched videos of people putting together or shooting on their home ranges. One thing that really caught my eye was how often there are no backstops of any kind. People firing into the woods behind there homes. I asked about it to a few and was suprised (not really) about the absence of backstops. I recieved several answers of ( it's my property and anyone tresspassin deserves to be shot) or ( it's my neighbors land and he ain't livin thar and the brush is thick so who cares). Just really gets me, especially in these times how many people could really care less where that bullet or ball goes once it leaves the gun. Hell I'm so cheap I use several rows of soft woods like pine as a backstop so I can reclaim all that precious lead and re-cast it. Never did finish wading through the mumbo jumbo about using a range by a organized club. There, just had to throw some ramblings out there.

You are a practical, thoughtful person. Any blowhard that says it's tough luck if someone gets hit with target shots better have a fat bank account to hire a good lawyer.

 

[Marshhawk]

You must mean Arab, Alabama, cause if you have grown up or lived in any town or city in the South you know it sounds like Kabul 2021 every 4th of July and New Years. I grew up with a 9mm bullet embedded in our porch rail at a downward angle. We are just as dumb as our foreign friends.

And don't forget Christmas. Seems for folks around here nothing celebrates the birth of Baby Jesus like cranking off a few rounds.

 

[Okie Hog]

Bullets leave properly designed firing ranges for two reasons:

1. Shooters firing over the berms.

2. Shooters firing out of range safety limits.

3. Ricochets, especially ricochets off the ground short of the berm.

The real sure nuff prosecution of a man whose bullets left a club shooting range:


"A bullet from the Stockertown Rod & Gun Club firing range pierced a Stockertown home and was found on the floor of a guest room, according to Northampton County's district attorney.


The same day, another bullet from the club struck a garbage can in the rear of a Stockertown home in the vicinity of a mother and her young son, the district attorney said.


Charges were filed Monday against the man responsible for the errant bullets:.

Charges filed after bullets from Stockertown gun club struck homes - lehighvalleylive.com


This guy went to prison after his bullet killed his neighbor:


"Gray did it is up to land owners to make sure bullets stay on their property. He noted the 2008 case of Joseph McCarthy, the Essex, Vt., man convicted in the death of his neighbor.

A stray bullet from McCarthy’s property killed John Reiss, who was sitting down to dinner. McCarthy was sentenced to two years in prison."

ttps://www.mynbc5.com/article/highgate-to-take-on-backyard-ranges/3307667#

DNR temporarily closed this range after bullets hit a home:

Michigan shooting range temporarily closes after bullets hit neighboring home (yahoo.com)

 

[Flintlock]

I would think if you are just shooting PRB a bit of woods behind your target would be just fine if you are shooting to 100 yards or so. Heck, a pasture is probably fine. With the speed in which a PRB sheds energy and the amount of drop it has at any range more than 150 yards or so you would almost have to be trying to send it very far. Obviously, those woods should extend far enough and you should own them.

But you cannot see what is in the woods behind the target, could be children at play, wondering around exploring, could be someone looking for someone lost or a dog or how many deer or livestock have been needlesly injured but stray bullets. Firing blindly into the trees even on a persons own property is the sign of a slob.

 

[Flintlock]

You are a practical, thoughtful person. Any blowhard that says it's tough luck if someone gets hit with target shots better have a fat bank account to hire a good lawyer.

Thank you and I consider those who fire blindly into the woods to be slobs, lazy, careless people who only think of themselves.

 

[SDSmlf]

Bullets leave properly designed firing ranges for two reasons:

1. Shooters firing over the berms.

2. Shooters firing out of range safety limits.

3. Ricochets, especially ricochets off the ground short of the berm.

The real sure nuff prosecution of a man whose bullets left a club shooting range:


"A bullet from the Stockertown Rod & Gun Club firing range pierced a Stockertown home and was found on the floor of a guest room, according to Northampton County's district attorney.


The same day, another bullet from the club struck a garbage can in the rear of a Stockertown home in the vicinity of a mother and her young son, the district attorney said.


Charges were filed Monday against the man responsible for the errant bullets:.

Charges filed after bullets from Stockertown gun club struck homes - lehighvalleylive.com


This guy went to prison after his bullet killed his neighbor:


"Gray did it is up to land owners to make sure bullets stay on their property. He noted the 2008 case of Joseph McCarthy, the Essex, Vt., man convicted in the death of his neighbor.

A stray bullet from McCarthy’s property killed John Reiss, who was sitting down to dinner. McCarthy was sentenced to two years in prison."

ttps://www.mynbc5.com/article/highgate-to-take-on-backyard-ranges/3307667#

DNR temporarily closed this range after bullets hit a home:

Michigan shooting range temporarily closes after bullets hit neighboring home (yahoo.com)

There have also been bullets reported leaving ranges in North Carolina in the past. Reason number 3 in @Okie Hog post likely cause, bullets hitting in front of the berm and bouncing over it. Overhead baffles down range make it very unlikely that a bullet could be shot over the berm at this particular range.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/l...with-gun-range-after-close-call/275-286908355

 

[cynthialee]

Back when I had a backyard shooting area I would insist my shooting partner join me in going down range into the brush and making sure no one was out there and any critters got out of the area.
One day I was out there for some shooting and as soon as I shot my first bullet a white tail jumped up from the brush and ran away. Bullet couldn't have missed the critter by more than a few inches. Not my style to shoot game out of season.
From that point on I made it a point to make sure the range was clear.
(That year I also learned not to shoot in an area with dry brush. Had a smoldering patch catch a fire that scared the snot out of me. Got the fire out fast but it ended a day of shooting.)

 

[biliff]

Never underestimate people's ability to do stupid stuff. My home club has very large "baffles" set down range at about the 20 yard mark (see picture). They serve as both protection from errant rounds going over the down range berms and have a coating on them to dampen sound (we're surrounded by suburbs now and keeping sound levels down is a condition of the permit). If you look closely at the picture you can see repaired patches on this sound attenuation material. Some of the repairs are within a foot or two of the top. We have strict range rules against high muzzles, new member introduction classes to explain and emphasize the rules, roaming RO's to enforce the rules and video surveillance on the line and people still let rounds go at 30+ degrees above horizontal. We keep culling the dimwits out of the membership rolls but new ones take their place. We'd have been shut down years ago if it weren't for those baffles but we have to have them because you can't fix stupid.

 

[Okie Hog]

Medicine Bluff Range #1 firing range at Fort Sill was in operation for 100 years. MB #1 was the private weapons range.

About ten years ago a deer hunt drawing was being held at the Sportsman's Center on the other side of the 250 foot hill. A muzzleloader bullet bounced off the ground near the shooting benches, traveled over the hill and struck a parked vehicle.

That was the end of a very convenient and good firing range.

 

[Cattywompuss]

There have also been bullets reported leaving ranges in North Carolina in the past. Reason number 3 in @Okie Hog post likely cause, bullets hitting in front of the berm and bouncing over it. Overhead baffles down range make it very unlikely that a bullet could be shot over the berm at this particular range.
https://www.wcnc.com/article/news/l...with-gun-range-after-close-call/275-286908355

Happened here in GA(work in GA, live in Bama) to a range in either Carroll or Douglas County. They were closed for months or a year or so while the litigation was sorted.

 

[Flintlock]

Someone very close in the family bought a couple "bump fire" trash things and brought over. I looked and saw that he was hitting trees WAY above the backstps, then noticed he shot holes in a old shed and a cattle gate. That was the end of that B.S., I love all types of firearms but they all demand common sense and disapline. My Uncle Sam had a great training coarse for those that wanted to play full auto.