WANT TO BUILD BACK STOP?

[dman]

I've got some acerage but there are some trails behind my place.I want to keep it safe.No rifles,just pistols.How high,thick,wide,and best materials. Thanks for your responses.

[Lukear15]

I've got some acerage but there are some trails behind my place.I want to keep it safe.No rifles,just pistols.How high,thick,wide,and best materials. Thanks for your responses.

I built my out of logs about six feet high. I know that will stop anything that im shooting like hand guns!

[gf45acp]

When I had a 25 yard range on my property years ago, this is what i had.
I took 6 pallets, and stood them on end. Two on each side, and two on the back. Well braced.
I put a layer of logs approx 2 to 3 ft. thick behind the back.
In the middle of this I put newspapers, magazines, cardboard, and some wood as a filler that would degrade with time, and would absorb water when it rained and snowed. Every time I had more of the filler (such as a stack of tied newspapers about 1 foot thick) I put it in on top, as with use it would break down. You can see where it starts to go down, and place new filler on the top there.
I would then use a pallet as a target holder in the front, replacing it as needed.
It should be noted that there was a hill behind this, and the whole setup was a foot or two higher that the firing position due to the hill.
A friend had one on his property as well, he had put up sides of plywood and had it filled with a dump full of sand.
On both we fired up to 30-06 and had no problems.

[MOUNTAINORACLE]

Several years ago I built my backstop out of old (read "free") railroad ties. That backstop will and been stopping everything I can throw at it.

oracle

[Seventy4Blazer]

build it for BOTH cartidges as in time you MAY decid to shoot rifles...

or thats how i would do it anyway...

now, what to use?!? railroad ties. build a box with railroad ties about 7 feet tall and as long as you want it. the box should have an inside gap of about 14 inches. fill that with sand. wet it down as you fill it to get as much sand in as you can. this will stop just about anything you can put down range, rifle or pistol. it will almost stop a .50bmg. ;-)

now, stack a second set of ties in front of the box. this way as you shoot at it, the first set of ties gets eaten up, and the second will last for YEARS!

most things will not make it past the first tie. the sand is for that guy justin case...

[Brick]

My recommendation is to use good old ordinary Pennsylvania soil. Make it as free of rocks as possible. The sandier the soil the better. As long as you make it thick enough, it will be proof against any caliber projectile.

Don't use very hard material like RR ties! Some bullets tend to bounce back off of them. Especially 9mm Para, as the MPs that tried to use the range at Camp Boniface ROK found out! Standard dimensional lumber or logs will eventually get shot through.

The down side of soil is the initial investment in heavy equipment time to get it in place.

[dman]

This is very helpful,thank you all.

[eells]

put your back to the trails

[P89]

I built a backstop out of dirt filled tires...2 rows deep staggered, they will stop a 50BMG.

[bogey1]

14" of sand will stop a 50bmg