Farm Firing Range - Backstop Question

If it were me, I'd shift my target stands a bit. But I would get a dozier and build a berm behind the 50 yd stand and create a limited area of a steep slope behind the 100 yd target point. The 50 yd target is your likely problem in terms of riccochets. You may know someone who has a small dozier that could do the job. If the scared earth is troublesome to you, I'd just seed the slopes with grass to get some cover on them.

You could do it with a rented Bobcat if the soil is not too hard and the soil zone fairly deep. You can rent them for a weekend (delivered) and they will likely charge you for one day's rental.
 
What a nice view. What about building a shooting platform to elevate you to increase the angle? Like a Mini tower or deck. Maybe room for friends and a grill.
 
What about building a shooting platform to elevate you to increase the angle?
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If he's currently at 25dg and he wants to get to the NRA suggested 45dg, from 400 yards away his "shoot-house" would have to be 437 feet tall.:p
 
I would not shoot at critters with most bullets. When I had my farm, my coyote/dog rifle was a .243 with Sierra frangible blitz bullets.
Your hill should be a good backstop unless it is very rocky.
I don't like the idea of a round bale for backstop. Unlikely any rifle round would penetrate all the way through. But if cattle eat the hay they will ingest the bullets and that is bad news on the digestive system. Even rumen magnets won't help there.
FWIW I have a big brush pile that is my backstop. All my branches and scrap wood go on the pile. Works for me.
 
Unlikely any rifle round would penetrate all the way through.
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Yeah they will. I don't know which ones will and won't, but I shot at one with a 7.62x39 at every round blew right through. I wasn't 400 yards, but it was pretty far, not point-blank.
 
Do not even think of using hay bales to stop bullets: They will fail. i won't trust a round bale to stop a .22 magnum bullet.
 
Scrap Traps

I bought some scrap metal at a local yard and welded these up. Had them now for years and have less than $100 in four traps at various ranges. To make them work better, I later poured concrete bases filled with sand. I have had no bullets leave them to date. Hope this helps.

100Yd.jpg
 
If he's currently at 25dg and he wants to get to the NRA suggested 45dg, from 400 yards away his "shoot-house" would have to be 437 feet tall.
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Not to mention he would be firing at an extremely awkward position hahah :p
 
Do not even think of using hay bales to stop bullets: They will fail. i won't trust a round bale to stop a .22 magnum bullet.
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Read that in a book somewhere?

I used round bails for years and while the front gets pretty chewed up after a season of shooting the back looks like it did the day it was dropped there. Now I will admit that I may not think the choice was wise if a shooter has the idea to run mucho quantities of cheap rifle FMJ's thru it but then you couldn't get me to touch most of that stuff with a 10 foot pole.

Round bails are not loosely packed grass. They're tightly packed by a machine and weigh 100's of pounds.
 
Read that in a book somewhere?
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In your wildest dreams.

My .223 puts 55 grain soft point bullets through round bales. Anyone who depends on round bales to stop bullets is asking for a lawsuit.

Round bails are not loosely packed grass. They're tightly packed by a machine and weigh 100's of pounds.
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No kidding, i sold 625 of those big round bales out of my old dairy barns last year. Average weight was about 1,400 pounds.
 
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Considering a 223 won't penetrate your basic sheetrock, how does yours penetrate several feet of densely packed fibrous material?
 
I have nothing to contribute on the backstop question but, man, I love the view at your farm. Awesome is the word that keeps coming to mind.
 
We have used round bales on our homemade range for years. Not in our wildest dreams hoping to stop a projectile traveling 3 times the speed of sound. We just need to cut the grass off the field anyways and the bales make good contrast areas to staple our targets to....

BTW
I can't say I've fired a .223 at a piece of Sheetrock but,
I've personally seen the 1/4" steel plate of a homemade bullet trap get dented by a measily little 55gn .223 round that has been unaffected by every handgun cartridge we have fired at it from .22 lr to .500 s&w.
 
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