Temporary Backstop for Rifle Shooting?

[Baltimoreed]

Speaking of rubber, do a search in your area for used conveyor belt. Pretty much indestructible. I used it as a covering for my wood pile, a floor for my dirt floor shed and backstops.

[Drm50]

Conveyor Belting is tough stuff. I use pieces of belting hung from 1/2 steel rods in a bullet stop in my basement. Most all shooting is 22 but it will stop 38sp target loads easy. With 38 noise is the problem. 22 HPs very seldom penetrate more than 2 sheets of belt and holes almost heal. Sheets are about 4” apart. I made the mistake of using end grain of locust in stove wood pile as bullet stop. Bullets come off it worse than steel.

[Winger Ed.]

I just used a chainsaw to cut a dead fallen tree into 3 foot lengths and built a pyramid out of them.

That reminds me of my first backstop at the poison ivy farm and tick ranch.
I did all that and had several logs all stacked up.

I went up there a few weeks later and they were gone!
I asked my Dad about them, and he thanked me for cutting up & stacking all that fire wood for him and his buddies.

That's when I went to junk tires..

[Baltimoreed]

A little too temporary.

[Petrol & Powder]

I'm not sure what the OP's definition of "temporary" is. Just about anything that can be constructed can be removed, it's just a matter of effort. In order for a backstop to be effective, it needs to be capable of stopping any and every projectile that is fired into it.

To me a backstop is something I can stand on one side of without worry, while someone else shoots into the other side.

A big pile of dirt is temporary, it just takes some work to remove it.

[am44mag]

Temporary in that it could be removed in an afternoon without the need for renting a bulldozer or a back hoe.

Rubber media does work very well. I have a box that I mainly shoot pistol rounds into that's 18" of rubber mulch followed by 4-5" of sand. Very few rounds make it to the sand, and nothing has ever made it through the whole thing. The closest was hot loaded 200gr 44 mag out of a 20" rifle. It was trucking along at around 2000 FPS. High velocity rifle rounds like 5.56 and even more powerful stuff like 30-06 do not penetrate the box well. They basically shatter and stop half way through. To build one that would be large enough as to be effective for longer range shooting would probably be pretty expensive.

I'm thinking that making a backstop out of railroad ties and angling them so that ricochets are deflected in a safe direction might be the best idea.

[Petrol & Powder]

am44mag, you mentioned a highway in the distance. While it may be very unlikely a misplaced shot would make it to that road, I wouldn't want to take a chance.

If you're relying on that backstop to stop projectiles, it needs to stop every projectile.
I'm certain you can build a backstop that is sufficient to stop every round but I would suggest you rank your criteria as: effective first, temporary second. If it takes a little longer to remove the backstop some day, so be it.

[country gent]

a trick to using bales is to compress them tighter. Add 2 mire wires to it and a bar to twist the wire like a tourniquet. We also added a 2 X 8 down each end under the wire to compress a wider area front and back. The first one we did we compressed so tight arrows barley entered it. As the bales wear you can pull them up tighter to compensate for the wear also.

Keep them off the ground and covered with a tarp makes them last much longer.

A local archery range has racks they fill with card board and compress with threaded rods. They can make it so tight that arrows bounce off.

2 big bales high and deep compacted as above should stop most anything

[Chihuahua Floyd]

Couple of post about six feet apart, cut a few small trees into eight foot sections and stack against posts. Rots away after several years, pick up old bullets, repeat.
Worked for me for several years. I used sweet gum logs, kinda considered trash wood. If you want to get fancy, square up logs a little with chainsaw.
CF

[McFred]

A large pile of dense mulch will rot away to nothing in 4-5 years. Round hay bales a bit quicker.

In my experience, I can get complete penetration shooting at the flat end of a round bale with 7mm-08 162gr AMAX inside 300 yards. You'd think it'd stop in 4'+ of compact grass, but the projectiles are undamaged besides the rifling marks laying in the dirt behind the bale. Just a cautionary tale is all.

Of course maybe a flatnose/soupcan is less 'slippery' through hay.

[ulav8r]

Soak the hay bales thoroughly to reduce penetration.

[nicholst55]

In the sandbox, we had a portable range built by Caswell. It was on a long semi-trailer, and fully enclosed (and air conditioned). The bullet trap was a steel box with angled steel plates in it to direct the spent bullets into rubber mulch-type stuff. It was a very nice, very expensive facility (your tax dollars at work). It was long enough to do a reduced-distance zero on our M4 Carbines, and was suitable for up to 7.62mm weapons - but no tracers (for rather obvious reasons). It did provide a means to function-test repaired weapons without the hassle of making a trip to the local (host-nation) military-run range, which was nowhere near as simple as it sounds.

The bullet trap had a thick rubber fabric covering the front that prevented the mulch from leaking out, and was extremely resistant to forming holes from bullet impact. I could see where the rubber would need to be replaced periodically, and the rubber mulch (made from ground up tires) had a specified life expectancy.

[samari46]

Only reason I mentioned railroad ties is that the local RR BNSF usually pulls out the old ones,tosses them on the side of the berm and installs the new ones. Don't know what type of machine they use but usually get the old ties out pronto. More than once have seen folks pull up with a trailer and load up. They are heavily creosoted and they have a super version of roundup that when sprayed nothing but nothing ever grows back. What ever you do do not burn the old ties. With the creosote it gives off the worst smoke and fumes you can imagine. Used to work in NYC years back. One of the old docks caught fire and even after dark you could see and smell the acrid odor which isn't good for your lungs. The fire took over ten hours to put out even with the east river to draw from. Some of the firemen ended up in the hospital due to the fumes. Frank

[am44mag]

How about this. I found two places out of the way where I could possibly put a more permanent berm. One is down in a small hollow and would be up against a thicket. There's a decent sized hill on the backside of it, and it's about 155 yards from my bench. The other is towards the edge of the property against another thicket, followed by 50 yards of open field and then 50-100 yards of thick woods before it reaches the fence. That's about 350 yards from my bench. I could get away with less of a berm on that 155 yard spot since it's basically got a natural berm behind it (I still want something there though), but I would want a pretty good berm for the 350 yard spot. There's nothing but thick woods on the other side of that fence, and it's secluded, but I don't want rounds leaving my property. Would a 10' tall, 10' wide berm be sufficient? I'd probably use some logs to retain the side and back of the berm. I'd want the dirt to be about 4' thick at the top.

[jmorris]

How about something like this.

[toallmy]

I shoot into a berm of seasonal firewood . At home or at the shop depending on the season . But for longer range rifle shooting - a irrigation pond sand pile makes a very nice back stop at a couple farms I shoot at .

[Baltimoreed]

How about something like this.

Neat idea. I like it.

[Petrol & Powder]

am44mag - you seem to be seeking confirmation more than advice.

You're responsible for every projectile you fire. Only you can see the land you're referring to and only you can determine if it is safe to shoot at particular location.

If you're relying on a berm to stop bullets then that berm must stop EVERY bullet. The criteria is: would you put your wife, child, best friend, etc. behind that berm and shoot into the opposite side?
Anything can be temporary, it's just a matter of how much work will it take to remove it. The effectiveness of the backstop is far more important than how temporary the backstop is.

[SSGOldfart]

I have used the rubber mulch in a 30 gallon barrel layed over on its side for about 10 years now I just shoot into the front end so it has about 3 feet of mulch to stop the bullet or boolit.
Before that it was a 5gallon bucket with steel target in the bottom then packed with rubber mulch very easy to recover boolits for recasting. If you set a bucket of mulch in the yard to shoot from your porch and
leave a paper target with a good grouping it also acts as a warning to anybody that comes around that your well armed and know how to use it.

[bigdog454]

stack rr ties about 3 feet apart and fill with sand. will last for years befor you shoot the rr ties in front apart and can be replaced. now I shoot into a big pile of sand about 4 to 5 feet high, will stop a 50bmg and then there's 1 mile of woods till the rail road tracks. the dirt will spread out and you can easily remove the rr ties.
BD