Shooting into......

[deerstalkert]

My home range once had open land all around. Now, we are surrounded by industrial parks. We have to keep all fired rounds inside our property area, or we run the risk of permanent closure. Already, we have been shut down for police investigations, looking at spent rounds being found. I do question the police findings. The pistol range is in a pit, 10 feet below access road level with overhead baffles in place. Police study team armed with lasers somehow decided that pistol rounds made the journey out of the pit and landed in the parking lot of one of the buildings. Figure that one out.

same group that investigated Kennedy's assassination?

 

[Grimord]

At our ranges, we use concrete Mafia blocks to build a "u" shaped target placement area. Sand is used to fill the area up to the top of the blocks. No ricochets, and every 6 months we sift the sand over a screen to recover the spent bullets and lead.

 

[alcessapiens]

A three sided box of railroad ties filled with sand. The sand or dirt soak up much of the impact and you can sift it to recover lead then shovel the dirt back against the ties.

 

[Felonious]

I used to use large pieces of hard-to-process firewood rounds as a backstop. A bullet ended up ricocheting off of a particularly hard knot, and literally landed on my shoe. It stopped hundreds of rounds, no problem, until that one ricocheted right back at me.

I haven't shot at wood like that since, and have no intention of doing so in the future, ESPECIALLY with low(er) velocity rounds.

 

[waksupi]

I use my stapler to attach targets to tires. Just sayin'.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

At our ranges, we use concrete Mafia blocks to build a "u" shaped target placement area. Sand is used to fill the area up to the top of the blocks. No ricochets, and every 6 months we sift the sand over a screen to recover the spent bullets and lead.

I hate to sound like the Judge from My Cousin Vinny...but whats a Mafia Block?

 

[alcessapiens]

I hate to sound like the Judge from My Cousin Vinny...but whats a Mafia Block?

Geddouttahere! Doesn’t know from a mafia block. Fuggeddaboutit!

It’s a big cast concrete block.

 

[sussexmuzllodr]

Geddouttahere! Doesn’t know from a mafia block. Fuggeddaboutit!

It’s a big cast concrete block.

Honestly I have never heard the term....

 

[TreeMan]

What I'm dealing with now
View attachment 212235

Why not just put up two poles holding up a sheet of OSB and let the dirt bank catch the bullets? That’s what my range is like.

 

[Frontier's]

Why not just put up two poles holding up a sheet of OSB and let the dirt bank catch the bullets? That’s what my range is like.

Exactly my plan!

Just crazy what non shooters were suggesting at work because the material is free.

 

[flconch53]

Looks like you have enough dirt to have a berm pushed up.

 

[stewart.leach]

In my extended time on this [planet I have had a hand in constructing and operating four shooting ranges. Far and away the best system for holding targets has been what HSmithTX suggests. Heavy steel angle iron with the corner pointing toward the firing line, spaced a bit over ten feet apart. Brackets welded to back of angle iron hold target panels, half a sheet of plywood, Homasote, or OSB with a 2 x 4 stringer at top and bottom. Plywood is held to stringers with drywall screws. Workday crew can turn out a bunch of panels in a short time. Shot up panels are easily removed and replaced by two people.

 

[Ditt44]

For muzzle loader velocities... Straw bales. Bottom row side-facing, top row end-on. I place my targets to line up with the top row. Once it rains and the bales get soaked, no round ball is going through them. I use a shipping pallet faced with 1/2 plywood in front of that stack. I have one stack at 25 yards, one at 50. If I want to shoot further I move my table back. Next spring, tear the bales apart, shake out the lead and collect then start over with new bales.

 

[jd945043]

I use a set-up close to what is pictured above and never had a problem. Behind the wall of wood is a mountain of Red clay. Been shooting into it for years and never had a ricochet. I have had to replace the middle ties a couple of times over the years. The Four H club should be alright.

 

[Lippy984]

Old tires filled with dirt work well.

I’ve been saving used tires from my motorcycle shop for the past year. I was going to fill them with sand, but opted against it just because it would be too much work and not practical for the terrain. I get so many, I stack ‘em 3-4 deep. I love seeing all the lead they catch. I haven’t done a collection yet, but in a couple months I’ll collect all of my personal pure “range” lead

 

[Bandit]

Where I work, someone has the idea to use either power poles or railroad timbers for a target backboard to prevent constant rebuild cost.

I highly disagreed with it, as it's a big safety issue, especially with low velocity rounds, including muzzleloaders.

Opinions?

That will be fine. Power poles and rail timbers are special treated with anti fouling chemicals so they are denser than your normal oak. Heck 90% of the targets out there today are paper. You can use anything you want as a target. Question is what is behind the target?

 

[Loyalist Dave]

Exactly my plan!

Just crazy what non shooters were suggesting at work because the material is free.

OK SO..., there are several ranges around where I live, and ALL of them do what the others have suggested, used railroad ties OR tires filled with dirt, or a semi-walled "pistol butt" area, BUT they then cover the ties or tires, with sand and dirt, or the pistol butt is filled with sand and vermiculite. The police have a "tire house" range that has walls made of used tires, but that's way more than most ranges need or have. These are for the bullet impacts, not for posting targets...

At these ranges, they use several methods for target holders.

You can use U-Channel posts, set into the ground,, and place a piece of plywood between them, which makes it easy to swap out a new piece of plywood when the old piece is shot to bits..., which also keeps the target holders in a fixed position....

The same thing can be done with variable range settings, by using PVC set into the ground, so the shooter may pull up the target holder, move it to a different fixed position, and insert it into the PVC pipes there, BUT can't get into trouble putting them at odd angles. The last method is with "feet" which means the shooters can move these to any distance, but..., they might put them in locations pushing the "safe" boundaries of the impact zones.

They can be made of wood, but the U-Channel steel holds up pretty well. I just use wire supports from old campaign signs to hold my targets when I need to shoot at a distance that the fixed holders won't give me. That's an OK option, but... if you get strong winds the targets will flex back and forth with the winds and IF you hit the wire with a bullet, well, time to get a new wire support, while the U-Channel stuff, although needs a guy with welding skills to make, tend to hold up with being shot

LD

 

[Undertow]

I shoot at state ranges and on private land, both into earthen berms or hillsides. My wife with the help of Amazon, Fed Ex, and etc keep me in a constant cardboard supply so I get out the spray paint and make them interesting. I've got a bunch of pallet wood that l make target stands out of. Easy to transport and when they get shot up they just go into the recycling bin or fire pit.

 

[Encore50Cal]

One range I have been to uses rubber mulch and sand mixture

 

[barnettshale]

At our place in Texas hill country we use a stand placed in front of a large dirt pile. The stand has a piece of conveyor belting wired to 3/4” pipe cross pieces. At a distance sometimes the 31 cal RB will stick in the belting and are recovered.