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BlaineHill
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# Posted: 15 Mar 2011 08:46pm
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I once drove past a little house in the country that had a shooting range in the front yard. Well... it was really more of a dump truck load worth of sand with an American Flag proudly stuck on top, but it did capture my imagination. I have been looking for resources on the topic of personal outdoor shooting range construction and design and I have found very little.
One of my favorite books on small cabins is "Your Dream Cabin in the Woods" by J. Wayne Fears. Chapter 19 is dedicated to the enjoyment of personal shooting ranges, but I am still not finding much technical information on the design of the shooting house, shooting benches, design of the backstop, recommended distances, minimum area for skeet shooting, recommendations for accommodating bow and crossbow, etc. The footprint of the site needs to be well-planned because I would have to hire a dozer and operator to clear an acre or two of forest.
Anybody on this forum have a shooting range on their property? Any resources you know of for technical information on the topic?
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:05pm
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i have a 100 yard gun range built on my property , with a dozer, i built a 1 1/2 acre food plot, and on the woods road behind my camp,,,,i park my truck unload my guns and gear on my shooting table, which i built out of angle iron and ply wood, NRA height. I shoot across my food plot, i have a measured stake target. at 50 yrds and another at 100yds.
My backstop is a pile of dirt i dug a water hole and used the materiial for a backstop. I use it all summer and stop shooting on it about 2 weeks before deer season. After deer season, till about a couple weeks before turkey season. I would like to build a roof over the shooting table, 4 cedar posts and some metal roofing---but that is a project for another day.
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hebegbz
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# Posted: 15 Mar 2011 09:43pm
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I can walk out the front door, take three steps, turn left, and shoot for 100 yards. Usually, I just shoot pistols at 75' though. I have a 50' high hill to shoot into.
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cabingal3
Member
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# Posted: 16 Mar 2011 01:56am
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we have one in the back of our property in the meadow.
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BlaineHill
Member
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# Posted: 16 Mar 2011 08:12pm
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turkeyhunter,
It had not occured to me to do double duty with the shooting range. If i need to excavate for a backstop then dig a watering hole. If i need to clear a shooting lane, then seed it as a food plot. Next time I am out at Blaine Hill I will walk some of the areas I have in mind for a shooting range to get a better feel for it. This is something I want to plan for, but I think only one major project per year is a good rule ... and this year I am building a cabin.
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turkeyhunter
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# Posted: 16 Mar 2011 09:36pm
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Quoting: BlaineHill turkeyhunter, It had not occured to me to do double duty with the shooting range. If i need to excavate for a backstop then dig a watering hole. If i need to clear a shooting lane, then seed it as a food plot
thats what i done for sure, good way to keep the creatures use to gun fire too....... :-) hey and they use the watering hole in front of the target no problem..........
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recluse
Member
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# Posted: 18 Mar 2011 03:09pm
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BlaineHill
We use my sturdy metal picnic table in the front yard for a shooting bench and a Bench Master rifle rest. We also use Swarovski binoculars and 80 mm spotting scope to check targets. Targets for the initial zero in are Brunswick 100 yard sight in targets with 1 inch squares to accommodate 1/4 inch click scope adjustments. After that we use 2 3/4 inch soup can lids stapled to a plywood background with a 1 inch black permanent marker circle in the center! A smaller target is easier to concentrate your cross hairs on and black is easier to see than red at longer ranges. We shoot north for the 50 yard target, west for the 100 yard target and south for the 200 yard target. Small natural hills or banks are the backstops for each target! A site that might answer some of your questions is http://www.nssf.com/shooting/
Have a safe, fun shooting experience and always keep your powder dry!
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