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Shooting Backstop ?

dav1965
I am surrounded by woods on all 4 sides of me.

In the direction i shoot i own about 50 yards of woods and there is about another 100 yards before it opens up into a field. The closest house in that direction is 3/4 mile i guess.

I dont have a problem shooting pistols in the yard. If i shoot from the deck im shooting about 5 foot in the air to targets on the ground.

I am thinking of making a 6 ft high and 6 ft wide by 24 inches deep and filling it full of dirt.

What would be the biggest gun that i should use with that backstop?
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Comments

7 comments

Date Votes
  • grumpygy
    Unless you can say for a fact every gun you have, you can hit the target in the Backstop. Then None.

    The way you are shooting now if you hit a rock I would bet that it will clear the trees and hit somewhere in the field or maybe even farther.
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  • wpage
    Sounds adequate for standard pistol and rifle calibers. The NRA and others have good pubs for recommended range set ups.
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  • hillbille
    kinda agree with grumpy, just fill with good sand make sure no rocks you should be good. but for safety sake fill behind the stop with dirt sorta half a turtle shell, few feet dirt stop about anything you can stand to shoot
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  • remingtonoaks
    If using dirt I would make sure it has a low level of clay in it. And has been screened of all rocks.

    But as somebody else said, Sand that has been sceened of rocks would be better

    By the way, by your dimensions, you'll need a little over 2.6 yards of dirt/sand to feel your back stop
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  • Mobuck
    When I was shooting quite a lot of .30/06, 308, and the mid-size magnums, I built a backstop using a double tier of RxR ties with a double row of sand filled stacks of old truck tires. Nothing passed through that combination. I don't shoot the bigger stuff much now and see no need for the sand filled truck tires on the next backstop.
    Take this FWIW since my location is absolutely secure with nothing beyond except a very tall, steep, brushy hill which I also own. .
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  • Ditch-Runner
    my son has added to "our back stop" several times its now about 7' tall about 12 to 14 feet wide and at least 6 feet thick to about a foot thick at the top that's all dirt and tires in the back portion burred in the dirt
    then two rows of rr ties stacked in front with wings angled in on each side , even steel plates we shoot in front of all that .its over a mile to the next house behind us and its not inline with the back stop
    we have shot every thing up to 50 cal nothing goes thru the back stop 80 % is 5.56 or smaller tons of 22 lr and handgun 9mm 45 and so on .
    when we have new shooters we move them up to about twenty feet to start to prevent any misses and slowly back them up as they get better
    we normal shoot 100 yards to the back stop .
    we want to add more back fill and have a small mountain range in the
    end [:D]

    at least your considering the safety at least shows you care . some do not bother just shoot with thinking of where th ebullets may go
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  • oldWinchesterfan
    You should be concerned about that house in the distance. Does anyone else shoot at your range? I once saw a guy shoot some rapid fire down hill into a solid backstop of wood at a friend's range. He was shooting an AR with a drop in 3.0 # trigger and on recoil sent a round out accidently with a little bit of elevation. There's no chance he hit the backstop. That round may have hit trees or may have not. If it passed through the trees, no telling where it landed.

    My point is I'd be hesitant to set up any range with a house in the same general direction because s--t happens.
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