Range shelter

[rbstern]

Last year's range project was a shooting bench. This year, I built a roof so I could enjoy the bench, rain or shine.









Had a lot of fun building the shelter, and was once again reminded how much I hate roofing. Major respect to folks who roof for a living. It's brutal work. I was cooking on top of those shingles, and it's only mid-April.

Next up, some better backstops behind my target areas, so I can catch and recycle cast boolits. The natural backstop is a nice upslope and woods, but there is no chance to recover any projectiles. Would welcome any suggestions for that project. Could also use some suggestions on a free standing rifle rack. It's amazing how small a benchtop gets when you haul a bunch of shooting gear out.

[Just Duke]

Holy smokes! That's nice. All you would need now is a fridge and a barbecue.

[powderburnerr]

For a rack put a 2x6on top of a flat 4x4 and cut notches in it nail it to the bench side .
Get a load of sand and dump it at the target then just rake it back up when it starts getting holed .

[rbstern]

Holy smokes! That's nice. All you would need now is a fridge and a barbecue.

Thanks, Duke. They aren't far away.

For a rack put a 2x6on top of a flat 4x4 and cut notches in it nail it to the bench side. Get a load of sand and dump it at the target then just rake it back up when it starts getting holed .

Have you done this? Seems like the sand would erode really easily in a downpour.

I was thinking a mound of our typical red clay soil and then trying grown some grass, with some sand in front of it, and maybe some railroad ties on the sides for containment.

[Sasquatch-1]

I was going to suggest the railroad tie thing. Build an open end box with them. I beleive they are ten feet long d would make a nice size box. Fill it with what ever is on hand and I think you would have a great back stop. Another option would be to check your local utility company to see if you could obtain some old utility poles. You would probably have to use rebar to pin them together.

[LUCKYDAWG13]

wow is that nice job well done

[FrankG]

For a burm I stacked and filled old tires with dirt then filled in the side toward bench with dirt to top of tires. Has worked well .

[rbstern]

For a burm I stacked and filled old tires with dirt then filled in the side toward bench with dirt to top of tires. Has worked well .

Frank, how well does that work for you being able to recover bullets?

[RP]

I was lucky enough to know a guy that works at a small jet airport where I got my tires. They are small and do not take a lot of dirt to fill. My BIL runs a route to some grocery stores and he picked me up some plastic skids they are four by four and about 2 inches thick. I stacked my tires in a single row screwed the skids to the tire to hold them in place. Then I filled them with sand. I would plant a few post to help hold the tires up stg. As the skids get shot up I plan on adding more to them or removing them collecting the lead and replacing with new. This is all stuff I had handy so cost was not a big deal.

[Janoosh]

You can catch boolits a number of ways. Expensive: RR tie walls and back wall, fill with Pelletized rubber playground material. Cheap: Stack logs (Pine is best, resin holds it together) with ends facing you. Shoot into log lengthwise NOT width wise. Logs should last 6 months depending on usage before needing to be turned so unshot end faces shooter. When turning logs, boolits just fall out or are exposed. We use these logs for our Rifle Range here in NY. Logs should be 4' long, 1-2' in diameter. Tree men just give us them as no one uses Pine for firewood.

[Casper29]

I would love to have the land to build one just like that. GOOD JOB

[plmitch]

Good looking job done on that!

[rbstern]

Thanks for the compliments, gents.

I sank a couple of 4x4's just beyond 25 yards. They're standing about 42" high. I'm going to stack five railroad ties and lag them to the 4x4's, with the last tie creating a small lip at the top of the stack, protruding back in the direction of the bench. I'll start mounding some dirt up against the ties to create the berm. The lip at the top of the stack will hopefully coral any bullets that ride up the dirt as it gets hard packed (soil in these parts is red clay and pretty firm). Might have to put some sheet steel on the underside of that lip to keep it from getting torn up. I'll see how well it does once it gets shot at a few hundred times.

Appreciate all the suggestions. Will post some progress photos as the construction continues.

[quack1]

Nice looking shelter and bench. If you go with dirt for a backstop, pack it down as you pile it up. The range I belong to re contoured and added dirt to the berms with a bulldozer last summer. Before that, I was able to simply pick up about a quart can of lead in 10-15 minutes, now the berms are soft enough that bullets bury themselves and there are very few laying on the surface. The dirt will eventually pack down, but if you want to start reclaiming lead soon, pack the dirt as you fill.

[JeffinNZ]

With no walls where does one hang the centerfold posters?

But seriously, nice work.

[Artful]

With no walls where does one hang the centerfold posters?

But seriously, nice work.

Ceiling - duh

[rbstern]

Yeah, that wouldn't be on my ceiling. If I was going to incur the wrath of SWMBO for a few pics, they might as well be the real thing.

Didn't get too much done on the backstop this weekend. Too much rain falling. The clay was heavy and the railroad ties were too slick to move around without some lifting equipment. Here's the first one in place. After these are stacked, dirt mound will get built in front of it.



Meantime, I did manage to put up a feeder. We had been feeding by hand (inconsistently) and were getting some decent pics on the game camera. Hopefully, with a regular feeding schedule, the deer will get used to coming around each day.

[rbstern]

Finally had time to finish the 25 yard shooting berm.

Helped the neighbor clean out a ravine on his property, which yielded seven discarded tires. Glad to have them as filler. Even with the tires I had to scoop about 30 buckets of fill with my dirt scoop.



After a lot of seat time on the tractor and a similar amount behind the shaft of an entry level backhoe (aka, shovel), I had enough of a mound to put some targets out.



Views from the shooting end of the range:





After finishing, I was too tuckered to try it out. Plan to get some trigger time in tomorrow.

Next up: A smaller berm for a simple paper target backstop, somewhere in the 75 to 100 yard range.

[Chamfered]

Very nice set up, and a good use of the old tires.

[375RUGER]

Very nice!!
75-100yds--around that curve??