I’ve been thinking a lot lately about building a training course/ range on my property. I live out in the country and have 40 acres with fields and wooded areas.
I don’t want to build anything to crazy or expensive but would like to setup some steel targets and some barriers and places to take cover and engage the targets.
Have any of you done this or have any suggestions? What would be the minimum steel thickness to use to withstand 5.56, .40sw, 9mm, and .357? How about size, half an acre or one acre dedicated?
I have a tractor to move earth and setup barriers around the coarse but not much would be required do to the topo features around the property and limited amount of ppl living close by.
I have never attended any training classes, so my ideas of a layout just mainly come from videos I have seen, so any input on layout would be welcome too.
My buddy and I built a nice 100 yard range on his property. We used his Bobcat to build the berm. Turns out it should be higher than 8 feet, we’ll have to add more height in the spring. He owns more than 80 acres behind it, but the berm is important. We put up about 30 signs, but people will trespass.
The gongs in the picture are 1/2 inch AR500 steel. They stand up well to 5.56/.223 (not M855) from about 30 yards or more and all handgun ammo. We have some knock-downs we cut out of 1/4 inch mild steel and a dueling tree.
I built a very serviceable shooting bench and that’s turned out to be very valuable. It’s on wheels so can be moved easily.
I highly recommend training. Trying to teach yourself is likely to build in training scars. Better to practice what you’ve been taught than try to make it up as you go.
Thanks for the info guys. I will look into the NRA range sourcebook for sure.
I plan on getting some quality training when the budget allows and I have all the required equipment for the classes, but that’s another story. I believe trigger time and decent practice is better then no practice.
I’m from the mountains of WV so every range me or any of my buddies have set up has been up against a mountainside, so I can’t tell ya much about berms and what not, but use AR500 steel. Definitely put down gravel or something, and make sure you have good drainage. Nothing is worse than going to shoot after a rain and having to deal with four inches of rutted mud.
I dont know if you have ever stood on a nicely done football field. But unknown to those who have not is the amount of slope from the middle to the side line. If you stand on one sideline you can barely see the knees of the people on the other sideline. If you can manage this amount of grading practical to the amount of width you will have you will greatly increase the run off. And Higher berms always make me feel a lot more assured. And knowing what lies beyond.
Thanks for the input. I have some extra gravel but that might be a little rough when doing any prone shooting or some tacticool body rolls while engaging the BG’s lol.
I could probably manage a grade like a football field. I have a really good idea of what is all around my property. The closest house in the direction that the shooting would be, is probably 3/4-1 mile away. But for sure the bigger the berms the better
So what about width? I’ll prob have some thing in the area of 50m long dedicated with a clearing to shoot 100m+ but just not sure about how wide would be ideal… 50m?
50m wide will give you a lot to work with. Up close at 20m working target transitions will give you a good amount of lateral swing.
50m long is good, plenty of room to work shooting on the move, moving into cover, etc.
If you can only work a 50mx50m range but can grade a flat shelf at 100m that’s about 10-15 meters deep and the same width as your range you’ll have a great area for the 100m zero and some positional shooting.
We made our berm about 25 yards wide. Only 3 or 4 of us shoot at it on any given day and virtually never beyond 50 yards. Sighting in a deer rifle from 100 yards certainly doesn’t need a wide berm. 25 yards is plenty. The last carbine course I took had 20 shooters and that range is 50 yards wide.
Have you looked at your homeowner’s policy yet? It might exclude firearms accident on a shooting range on your land. Also, I’d recommend leaving it grass. Gravel hurts on the elbows and grass is cheaper and easier to return to “natural” if you ever abandon the range…that much pea rock is going to be very expensive and if you ever shoot tannerite…well, that could be interesting. If you leave it grass, you’ll need to mow it short in order to move well and to be able to see brass on the ground. Note that if you leave a lot of brass laying around, it sometimes comes out of the mower deck at high velocity. Be careful as to what you use for fill for the berm. If it has a lot of rocks in it, you can get ricochets.
This graveled area is about 75m x 25m. You can get a lot done on a range like this.
If i made it seem like you needed 50m wide to sight in a deer rifle I apologize. I read “building a training course” and think multiple shooters on the line. 50m wide on the main area will allow for good transitions as previously mentioned but if you want just one 5mx5m patch cut out at 100m then that will be fine.
Also, as to the gravel, I again think of multiple shooters and hard usage. If it is just you and some boys and you don’t care about a few bare patches from time to time then grass is fine.
A good source for information is the National Shooting Sports Foundation Digital Library.
Planting grass on the backside of the berm helps to keep erosion in check. Keep a pile of dirt nearby for berm maintenance. And as Hmac said rocks in the berm can cause ricochets, surface clear any rocks that are fist sized or larger.
I guess the grass versus gravel debate really does come down to how often and how populated the area is gonna be. I just know if you take 5 or 6 good ole boys in Chippewas trompin’ on a small area of damp grass it’s pretty much a mud hole by the time you are done, but you are right gravel is expensive and hard on the elbows and knees…and I suppose eventually it’ll get ground into the mud and you’ll have to regravel which is more money…so it’s up to you in the end. As far as width I think even 20 yards is much more than you think it is depending on how you are going to be using it. Especially if you put some sides to make it kind of a shallow, upside down U.
Good input. I think I will stick with grass to save the money and put it towards ammo. I guess I just need to find a good source for the steel to cut some targets.
I have my tractor and access to a bobcat and dump trailer so the berms are easily doable but will be a little time consuming for sure.
Just so you know AR500 steel is usually cut buy laser. This limits the amount of steel affected buy the heat. Heat will reduce the hardness of affected area. This can prematurely wear the edges, possibly creating craters which is not good. Other ways are water jet or submersed plasma. Regular plasma cutters would create to much heat. You would probably be better served with precut targets.
I don’t know much about AR500 steel and the target making process, I just know that’s what everyone recommends, and the steel that me and my buddy had laying around that we shot at did nothing to stop M193 at 50 yards.
You can’t really cut AR500 without destroying its temper around the edges. Most of the targets I use are plasma-cut underwater. You’ll have to buy the AR500 pre-cut, and preferably from a reputable dealer who won’t screw you on the temper or the cutting method. There a lot of good steel target makes and a lot of shady ones. Be careful buying these things off ebay (don’t ask me how I know that). I prefer 1/2 inch thick. Some say that 3/8 is thick enough. We routinely shoot as close as 30 yards and haven’t worn out a gong yet. We bought these over the years from Quality Targets http://www.qualitytargets.com/servlet/the-Gong-Targets/Categories
1/4 mild steel will work fine for 9mm or 40 cal handgun ammo, but .223/5.56 will go through it like butter.
