Moving soon, need some advice.

M

Mosin-Marauder

New member
I'm going to be moving sometime soon, And my shooting range is going to be drastically increased (200 yards is the maximum I want to shoot) and I was wondering, if I ordered a 8" diameter 1/2" thick AR500 gong, would it be safe to set it up to swing at 200 yards? I'd be using steel core 7.62x54R, soft point 7.5 Swiss, and maybe some steel core 8mm Mauser, I just don't want any ricochets To come back and hit me/my family/the homestead/anything else. Last question, I'd be shooting at an angle into an abandoned cow pasture. I'm not going to set up any targets unless I can assure that any misses/ricochets/ and bullets go directly into the dirt. Otherwise I'll be building a dirt berm with grass and everything. Is this safe? Thanks for any help you can provide. Suggestions are always appreciated.

Regards,

-Mo.
 
200 yards is more than adequate. Unless you're shooting armor piercing ammunition, the round will just splatter upon impact, and most of the fragments will come off parallel to the surface of the plate. Also for the rounds you specified, a 3/8" thick plate is all you need. I've had a 3/8" AR500 plate for about a year, and it's taken a ton of 30-06 and 7.62x54r without any dents. I've never shot steel core at it, but at 200 yards you should be fine. The steel in the steel core is significantly softer than AR500 steel.
 
Are the neighbors tired of all the noise and running you out? :)
Seriously, though, not having a back stop is not considered cricket.
Misses can skip all kinds of ways and do surprising things.
Make a little more effort and include one and you won't have to worry.
 
The bigger the better.
Kind of depends on the size of the possible misses.
And the distance, too.
4ft from 200 yards is adequate, but not very big.
 
Any mineral soil free of stones and organics will do. Stones will deflect rounds and organics rot to leave a void, causing no resistance initially and settlement later.

The bigger the better.
 
So, a topsoil berm 6'x6' would cut it? It's a very hilly/grassy pasture with no cows remaining. I might move the gong to 100 yards so I don't have to build another berm. This berm would be at 100 yards with the 8" gong.
 
25 ft high sounds like a mountain side.
25' wide maybe.
Most ranges around these parts are about half that or less.
10' high and 25-30 wide wide seems common.
An 8" gong at 100 yards won't be very challenging for a rifle.
On a good day, that would be about right for a handgun. :)
 
Build a berm. It's the safe bet.

High enough to account for any over-the-top misses should be sufficient.
...4 feet? 5 feet? ... depends upon how you hang the gong, and what is beyond the empty pasture.
 
Beyond where the pasture ends (500 yards past my berm) us about 300 yards of pine/oak/trees/brush) I still need to build a berm though. My target stand is going to be a little holder 1' off the ground, my gong is going to be on a Shepard hook maybe 3' above the ground.
 
If the gong is going to be 3 feet off the ground, I would make the berm a little higher than 4 feet, only leaves you with 12 inches of coverage over the gong.

Especially if you are using iron sights as you mentioned. Regardless of a shooters skill level, it is not that difficult to pull a shot 12 inches at 200 yards using irons.

As when doing anything with our lovely hobby, always err on the side of caution...
 
Okay, gong out of the question, shooting a paper target on a bit more than a foot High, would a 5'x5' berm contain all bullets? It would be 5 feet tall, 5 feel wide, 5' from the front of the berm to the back. I just want this to be safe. I keep hearing about how a round can somehow ricochet off of the Berm and go and hit somebody 400 yards away. If all of the bullets aren't contained in the berm I'm probably just going to have to start shooting at indoor ranges or something (very boring but better than a lawsuit). the area where I will be shooting is flat but hilly at the same time ( only 3 houses near and one is concealed by a hill) the rest is woods, woods, and cow pasture). I'm kinda freaking out about this, whether rightfully so or not.
 
The easiest way to avoid having to build a really tall berm is to elevate your shooting position by either shooting from a hill, or building a platform so you're shooting at a downward angle instead of horizontal.

Get the 8" steel if you want that size
Then stick some 1-3" target dots on it as your actual aimpoint

Unless there is tall grass, there's no need to hang the targets high off the ground
 
See, I'd be shooting off a balcony/deck type deal at an angle into to berm. I just don't want the bullets to be bouncing off the berm and hitting somebody (Though that seems very unlikely)
 
The bullets won't bounce off the berm if you're shooting at a downward angle, and into the berm itself

Large ranges make their berms tall because they have lots of different target distances, and a bullet hitting flat ground far ahead of the berm can skip over it

That doesn't happen when the target is close to the berm, and if you want top shoot shorter distances, you can move the shooting postition rather than the target
 
Mosin does the new place have a fireplace? If it does maybe you could set up your target using large log ends so you could recover some lead. I wish I could have done that for the range I set up at the cabin tract instead of shooting into a dirt bank. Or you could weld up a bullet trap.
 
How about using clay birds for your reactive targets?
Cheap, easy to see, no ricochets and about the right size for iron sights at 100 yds.
A real challenge at 200 yards.
Too big a target gets boring in short order.
Just scatter a bunch of them on the berm; the misses will be easy to see, too.
 
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