Home range backstop construction

Yeah, I'm kinda confused too. One person says it's a major health hazard and another says that tons of lead isn't even a problem. Which is it, and where would I find that out for certain?

I need to figure out what to use for a backstop on my property. I have about 65 acres in a hilly area of Missouri. There are plenty of slopes and what not, so finding a "backstop" is really easy. I currently use an area in a small valley on the property and since the land slopes upward down range, I shoot straight into the ground. But I need to know if this will be a problem long term? There are a couple of springs off to the left of the range. Do I need to be worried about seepage? Should I even be shooting into the ground? Should I make my own mound of dirt instead? Is there a way to remove the lead that I've already shot?

Thanks for any help on the matter.

WATYF
 
Well... Lots of opinions floating around about the health hazards of lead in dirt... I don't really have ahuge opinion, just a few questions to ask.

- Doesn't lead come from the ground naturally?
- Didn't the tree-huggers make us switch from lead to steel-shot for duck hunting because lead was damaging to wetlands?
- Didn't hunters groups protest this saying that the impact was negligible?
- Don't we wear gloves when handling lead for reloading?

Makes you wonder who's right and who's wrong...

One thing you could do is build a trench around your berm... At least you could keep the alleged contaminants contained to one area...
 
Aside from noise ordinances (weekend mornings, or after 8-6) there aren't any legal issues. There shouldn't be any neighbor issues either, as both of them shoot in their yards.


Well you have tremendous liability even if you post and do everything by the book. I own a very big piece of property and used to shoot all the time on it. I have no neighbors for miles around and thought i was safe. But one day while i was shooting a boyscout troop wondered onto my property passed all the shooting in progress signs no trespassing signs and verbal confrontation from me fell on Deaf EARS. Bottom line if anything happens YOU ARE SCREWED. You will have to carry special insurance if its even available in NJ. NJ is not a very friendly GUN state. I would advise against it. Also studies on lead desolving and polluting watter shead is kind of FALSE. Tests have shown that once it gets a coating it does not LEACH out. Example my MOM had a real old house years ago and the watter main in the house was made from lead PIPE. I drank the watter in that house for many many years. The old plumbers believed once it got coated it never leached out. This is a very difficult thing to decide. If for some reason you get a flyer and someone claims a hit you are SCREWED. I would pass on this unless you have lots of acres or live in a real isolated place. Its hard ot figure NJ is isolated but they do have big farms and stuff. Good luck and be careful Tom
 
Living here in FL, the land is sandy soil mixed with some porous limestone - if there was ever a scenario where things might "migrate" into the soils, this is the place. A year ago, we had our shotgun club mined for lead reclamation. The miners scraped off three inches to be sure, but were not finding anything more than two inches below the surface. They cleaned and regraphited the shot; the club got 40% of it and sold it to its members - everyone is happy with the outcome
 
Bullet catcher = free lead for bullet casting.

Backstop is for misses and punch-through bullets.

Backstop = staggered tires, filled w/ local dirt to stop mosquito breeding & stabilize the pile.
 
Old woodstove

A buddy of mine builds side by side rifles and uses old out of date woodstoves as his traps. He just puts a piece of steel inside to angle bullets to the bottom. Most shoot relatively heavy bullets, so his lead recycle rate is pretty good.

'Course it ain't a backstop, but they catch everything he slings at them.

VT birdhunter is right on about the lime. At some point, even as a private landowner, you might be asked about your soil abatement program. It is best to be proactive and to have one in place. Save your receipts.

Renzo is also correct in that what happens on your property is your problem regardless of signage or fences. It is why lawyers drive expensive cars.
 
We had a guy with a bulldozer throw up a 9 or 10 foor berm that wraps around a bit. Been shooting there for 20 years with no issues.
 
God i love the history channel.

Lead does come from the ground, but not in the same form it is coming from your gun. The lead used for projectiles is processed from ore that is taken from the ground and then mixed with other metals to make a bullet. This bullet will be more of a pure-er form of lead. When exposed to other chemicals (air polution, acidic rain or acidic soil) it can react and find it's way into ground water or food supplies or what not. If your running a shooting range near a stream that feeds into farm which has a huge fishing lake down stream, there could be some problems for other people, which would be something you contributed to, which might not be so good morally or legally.

I was taught that as a sportsman, we are suppose to care about what we do, if not for ourselves, for those who come after us. The neglected ranges of the past made the laws that are now in place, and cleaning them up means more range fees for the rest of us.

As for the op: I'd try to shoot away from a creek bed. You don't want to find out that your killing or posioning the game on your own property or god forbid your neighbors. I'd also imagine that even if you and 5 buddies shoot once a week at that spot it would take you a life time or more to reach the point where you'd be meeting a pay range's effect on the environment.
 
Metallic lead is pretty much a non-issue in groundwater contamination.

http://www.handgunsmag.com/tactics_training/HG_fourletterword_090810/index.html

"Scientists at Virginia Tech studied lead bullets on battlefields ranging from 18th century sites to the present. Despite literally hundreds of years of exposure to the elements, the projectiles were quite well-preserved. Turns out, a protective, relatively insoluble coating soon forms around spent lead bullets.

Patterson adds that even in more acidic soils, where the breakdown of lead might be expected, clay and organic materials usually absorb the metal.

“By and large,” Patterson says, “lead contamination at outdoor shooting ranges just isn’t an issue.”"​

http://www.mwcog.org/environment/water/watersupply/lead/faq.asp

What happens to lead when it enters the environment?
When released to land, lead binds with the soils and does not migrate to ground water.​
 
I have a private 300 yard rifle range, not enough strays ever hit the backstop to do much damage ( mine is staggered green treated 2 x 6's screwed together with the boards overlapping so the seams don't seep fill... they are all screwed together on broken off telephone poles... the backstop is about 10ft high & 20ft wide, & 6 ft thick & filled with both old farm junk, sheet rock & dirt... I use empty 55 gallon steel barrels ( with the tops cut off ), with a plastic 5 gallon bucket of dirt in each one ( to keep them from blowing away ) as target backers... I have barrels placed at 25, 50, 75, 100, 150, 200, 250, & 300 yards on the range making easy shooting at any distance... I did at a 4' X 4' piece of 1/4" thick hardened steel plate to the spot just behind my 300 yard barrels... none of my cartridges will even go through the steel, after going through a drum at 300 yards...

I did my pistol backstop using steel 55 gallon drums stacked 2 high & staggered like suggested for the tires, & filled with dirt, but they are starting to get pretty shot up... I've been thinking about using tires for the next one, but am concerned about close range slow moving big bore handguns ( like 45 Colt cowboy loads ) bouncing off the tires & back to the shooter... anyone with expirience with this type of backstop & shooting 45's close up ???

a pic of my range from the bench...

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& my "little mule" ( makes the 200 & 300 yard shooting much more enjoyable, s far as placing & recovering targets )

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I own a very big piece of property and used to shoot all the time on it. I have no neighbors for miles around and thought i was safe. But one day while i was shooting a boyscout troop wondered onto my property passed all the shooting in progress signs no trespassing signs and verbal confrontation from me fell on Deaf EARS. Bottom line if anything happens YOU ARE SCREWED.
Click to expand...

In most civilized states, trespassing is considered a crime and when a person enters on to posted property that constitutes trespass. Any person harmed while committing a crime finds that the civil remedies to injury don't apply to them. In this limited situation, you might call your local police agency and have the trespassers cited.

I agree that there are liability concerns that we should all be aware of and guard against, but in this limited situation, a Boy Scout troop wandering across a posted range, I don't think that the land-owner would be liable in this state.

As shooters we should all be concerned that we don't harm anyone while pursuing our past-time, and we should take steps that reduce those chances to a manageable level.

Magnum Wheel Man - I agree about the Mule, I've got one that is used a lot during hunting, fishing, backwoods roaming and general grandkid outings. I can put me and five grandkids on that thing and we look like a gypsy herd traveling across the hunting lease. It's quite a hoot.
 
I'd been considering trading in the Mule for something more "fun" but one of my best shooting buddies is a 70 year old retired machinist, & the bench type seats are easier for him to get into, than the "sit in" type bucket seats found on the more fun machines... I have ATV's for that use though... so I can still have "fun" if I want...

my Mule has aluminum diamond plate for a roof, & was designed for a folding chair on top ( for spectating at ATV events I used to compete in ) but works exceptionally well for trimming branches on the trees I planted along side my shooting range... I normally hook up my 2 place aluminum ATV trailer behind, & can get quite a pile of brush trimming the rapidy growing maples along the range...

BTW... I have been planting an assortment of trees benificial to the local wildlife... I'm hoping that by retirement age for me, that I can hunt squirrels, & possibly deer right from my shooting range...

BTW #2.... we've had record snows already this year, & seeing those green summer pictures of my range is sure refreshing, considering everything is burryed in about 4ft of white stuff right now, & winter is just beginning :(
 
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