Home Shooting Range

[Anb618]

For those of you with a home range, anything you’d do different? Before folks waste their time, I’m not worried about legality or safety. I’ve already checked with local LE and I’m good to go on legality as long as I’m not charging for use/teaching classes as business there. Geography/elevation changes makes the location plenty safe once I add a little more berm. I have a few acres that sits in a bowl near a country block corner (roadways in all 4 directions move up in elevation, 3 of those sides are very steep elevation changes). Range would not shoot towards any roadway, and the nearest house in that direction would be well over a very tall hill.

I was out looking for shed whitetail antlers last week and found a location that is usually so overgrown that I’d never really inspected it before. Noticed a natural dirt drop-off/cliff face about 12-15ft tall and 30-40ft wide. It also has a slope/plateau all the way around that cliff face creating a U-shape around it where I should be able to get a skid-steer up top to build the berm up another 10-15 feet all the way around. The ground is relatively flat with an estimated 2-3° upward grade towards the cliff face, so it should be perfect for draining water away from the target area as it is. A quick bucket drag with the skid steer after clearing trees/brush to fill any low spots followed by a semi-load of sand and a semi-load or two of gravel should be sufficient. Probably underestimating how much I would need. Looking away from the cliff-face in the direction of the shooter, I should easily be able to clear this section of woods out for the entire width of the cliff face out to 25-30yds for handgun work, and I’m thinking I’ll make a small grass path for entry/egress of the range leading out to a 50yd rimfire platform which would butt up against my yard.

As usual, I’m already getting ahead of myself. ? I bought a bunch of 1/4” AR500 66% IPSC’s and 12” diamonds from a guy in the PX this week, and last night I ordered a bunch of MK Machining T-Post brackets to hang them. Thanks for the SH discount @Tyler Kemp . I already have plenty of T-Posts.

While I refine my plans, is there anything you wish you’d done different on your home range? Would love any ideas you might have. I know there are prior posts discussing this, but most threads are pretty dated and centered around shooting extended range rifle (obviously, because this is SH). New and established members with short home pistol/rimfire ranges and expertise to share would be appreciated!

 

[bassmaster07]

Drive posts at exactly 100 yards or 100 meters to check scope tracking. Level dirt. Good level target stand at 100 for sighting in.

 

[b2lee]

1. Under your steel pistol targets....put a bucket or trough to catch the lead that falls down...so you can melt it down and pour more bullets....Makes less work than bending down in the soil.

2. Don't go crazy cutting all the trees and vegetation. Leave some...sometimes a nice wind break when it is below 30F keeps you on the range longer....instead of simply saying screw it and going back in.

3. If close to the house...run some power. LED lighting is cheap...Stereo....fridge....

 

[Anb618]

1. Under your steel pistol targets....put a bucket or trough to catch the lead that falls down...so you can melt it down and pour more bullets....Makes less work than bending down in the soil.

2. Don't go crazy cutting all the trees and vegetation. Leave some...sometimes a nice wind break when it is below 30F keeps you on the range longer....instead of simply saying screw it and going back in.

3. If close to the house...run some power. LED lighting is cheap...Stereo....fridge....

1. I have always used jacketed bullets in the past, and thinking I may use a lot of frangible if I can find a reasonably priced source of loading components. Definitely a good idea to find a way to collect materials though.

2. I’ll still be surrounded by trees on almost all sides, so I’m good there. An excellent point. Realizing now because of this I’m gonna probably need to spend some good money on citronella torches. In the middle of the summer the mosquitos are probably gonna be pretty rough. ?

3. Power is an excellent idea I hadn’t even considered. Definitely close enough to the garage I could trench power out there; maybe 100 yards. Something to look at for the future for sure.

 

[Anb618]

Drive posts at exactly 100 yards or 100 meters to check scope tracking. Level dirt. Good level target stand at 100 for sighting in.

Probably won’t have a 100yd setup officially. Just not in the cards for this property. Definitely something to look at for the 50yd rimfire line though.

 

[Gustav7]

I technically have two ranges:

At my house, I have 175yds from my back porch to the base of my woods. There I have Railroad ties set in a wide V with dirt filling up to about 5ft. I'd like to move that set just into my woods and make the berm more like 7-10ft.

At my dads farm (1/4 mile down the road), set on the corner of his field I made a berm out of old tires with t-posts and fill and surrounded by dirt. This berm is about 5-6ft tall. Behind this berm is a 10 acre woods and 1.5miles before you hit any other home (google maps).

How big are you guys making your berms? I work at a tree service, so I also planning on bringing a big load of logs to help reinforce the back and cut down on the amount of dirt I need.

 

[Anb618]

I technically have two ranges:

At my house, I have 175yds from my back porch to the base of my woods. There I have Railroad ties set in a wide V with dirt filling up to about 5ft. I'd like to move that set just into my woods and make the berm more like 7-10ft.

At my dads farm (1/4 mile down the road), set on the corner of his field I made a berm out of old tires with t-posts and fill and surrounded by dirt. This berm is about 5-6ft tall. Behind this berm is a 10 acre woods and 1.5miles before you hit any other home (google maps).

How big are you guys making your berms? I work at a tree service, so I also planning on bringing a big load of logs to help reinforce the back and cut down on the amount of dirt I need.

Figuring my berm could easily be made 18-20 feet from grade without much extra dirt-work. My starting with a natural earth feature should make that easier than for most people though.

My thinking is safe height depends on the type of shooting you plan to do and who you plan to have doing it. I spend most of my time shooting handguns. I’m looking forward to being able to shoot while moving and drawing from holster as none of my local ranges will allow it. Likely gonna bring some of my shift newbies out too and let them get some practice when they want to as well, so I’d like it as tall as absolutely possible.

Evening crowd have any ideas or thoughts?

 

[Gustav7]

I'd love some natural berm, but my land is flat as a table lol. At my home I have 3 acres of woods behind my shooting pit, so really all i'm looking at is piling up wood and filing in with natural dirt.

At the farm, I shoot long range, so I'm more worried about missing the small berm. Although I'm confident that a ground burner or ricochet would not contact anything. Theres 1.5 miles behind the berm of nothing, 800 yards in front, about 1/2 mile to the left, and about 800 yards to the right...its literally in the middle of multiple fields. However, I don't have a ton of room where the berm is, so I'm trying to make it about twice as wide but as high as I can get it. I'm more picky about who shoots there as well, to reduce the risk of someone coming with an unzeroed gun and flying it high over the berm.

IF I had my choice I'd make a 3 sided square out of railroad ties and line the back with concrete blocks, then fill with dirt. Only issue with making a berm and pit out there is its 900yds from the road, and the lane is only a skidloader wide lol.

 

[calamjn]

Drive posts at exactly 100 yards or 100 meters to check scope tracking. Level dirt. Good level target stand at 100 for sighting in.

Yep, this. 100 is a great exact known distance range to have. Really helps speed up sighting in process, scope track checking, and especially load developments. Then you can have serval other targets at random or predetermined ranges. Congrats should make for a fun range.

 

[Anb618]

Getting started. Got the outline string-trimmed out, working on cutting all the shrubs and trees out of the interior of the square. Definitely going to be more dirt work than I initially thought (now that I can actually see the ground level with the undergrowth mostly gone). Lots of hills and valleys that need smoothing. I figure that just means more dirt to make a higher berm, so I’m staying optimistic and saying that’s a good thing.

 

[Mach1pilot]

I built a 435 yard range in my backyard... Its long and narrow, with trees lining both sides. Built a shooting deck with an upper deck for prone work. Depends on what type of shooting you like and design around that. A covered shooting bench is real nice, and I used fence posts, with pvc pipes with a cap to make range markers for distance. Even spent the extra pennys to do reflective as I do NVG work on it also. I have built plenty of steel plate holders, baricades, roof top simulators, loop hole practice boards, moveable walls for building shoot houses.. We kinda do it all on mine.

I would only add possibly power to my layout. I wish i spent a bit more time on working on the lane elevation as I have a hump in the middle, also I would work some form of water management. During the heavy rains in late winter, it gets muddy to get to the shooting platform. I am going to fix that in the long term with either some form of raised road or ditching. I would also have made my backstop a bit wider to use for more action pistol work. Right now i have to plan the layout of the shoothouse to have the shots go into the berm. ALso on my list of upgrades in the future.

 

[Mach1pilot]

pics

 

[Keel Haul]

1. Under your steel pistol targets....put a bucket or trough to catch the lead that falls down...so you can melt it down and pour more bullets....Makes less work than bending down in the soil.

Along that line I know a place that puts their steel into the middle of some tires and then the bullet remnants sit in the bottom of the tire and then they just use a shop vac to empty it out at the end of the day.

 

[338dude]

I’ve had the plans to build a home range on my property I own 50 acres in Tennessee and can get 400 yards from my backyard to the back of my property with enough room for a berm now if I can just get my buddy with his dozer to do it I helped him rebuild his dozer engine and he owes me but I have been waiting two years starting to get a little upset

 

[Anb618]

No pics right now, but I’ve got 95% of the trees chopped out at this point. I can’t possibly have enough bonfires to burn all the black walnut I’ve chopped out of this area before the wood rots. I’ll be having a bunch of scrub brush bonfires in the range clearing this winter to get rid of all the small limbs/brush, and hopefully burn out some of the stumps to reduce my workload stump-grinding.

Wanted to add a few ideas that have materialized since starting this project;

- I purchased an aluminum frame/plywood platform 8x10’ snowmobile trailer on Craigslist (bent axle and no title, but new green-treated 3/4” plywood deck and an aluminum fairing/wind break at the front...paid $100). Gonna yank the axle/cut the tongue off, sink a few 4x4s, and use it as an elevated platform for a 50yd Rimfire bench/prone shooting position. Gonna place it next to my access path at the edge of my yard to shoot over the scrub vegetation. Should cut down on some range maintenance if I don’t have to weed wack a shooting path for the 50yd line every few weeks in the summer.

- I found a complete TV Antenna tower (2-10ft sections) laid out for scrappers and snapped it up. Thinking I’ll eventually use it at the back of the 30 yard square range to add a few floodlights when I eventually get around to running power out there. My wife yells at me for being a pack-rat...I don’t care, and I might put out a Craigslist WTB ad to grab another one so I can do one in each rear corner.

 

[Anb618]

Forgot about this thread until today.

2021 brought lots of overtime and my twins, so my time for shooting range work was minimal.

My hiatus meant I was basically starting over for 2022, since overgrowth happened way faster than I thought it would. I finally got the rest of the trees cleared, and burned all the brush/small trees I cleared off to the sides during a warm snap in early spring.

I rented a stump grinder over Memorial Day weekend and split the cost 70/30 with my brother in law. I had a bunch of stumps I needed to get rid of in my actual yard, and a metric shit-ton here in the shooting range. Ended up looking like I have a demon-gopher infestation by the end. Didn’t save a photo unfortunately.

On Father’s Day I told my wife I didn’t need anything, but I wanted 5 hours of uninterrupted time in the skid steer before we fulfilled family obligations. I got a lot done, I figure about 1/3 of the necessary dirt work completed (which is a small blessing, with diesel prices where they are). Just gonna keep at it 1 hour at a time throughout the summer and I should be able to have it done before fall.

My planned skid steer path to the top of the berm along the left side worked out pretty well. Once I got my path cleared, I leveled the top off, cleared a few turn-arounds on top of the berm, and have added a few feet of elevation to the top so far. Probably about 14ft tall right now, plus the remaining hillside past that.

Still a lot of leveling to do, but it’s currently useable for occasional pistol work. If anyone in Northern IL has a run down garden shed they want to get rid of, I’m searching for a place to store steel, targets, spare t-posts, VTAC barricades, etc…

 

[The D]

Forgot about this thread until today.

2021 brought lots of overtime and my twins, so my time for shooting range work was minimal.

My hiatus meant I was basically starting over for 2022, since overgrowth happened way faster than I thought it would. I finally got the rest of the trees cleared, and burned all the brush/small trees I cleared off to the sides during a warm snap in early spring.
View attachment 7900132

I rented a stump grinder over Memorial Day weekend and split the cost 70/30 with my brother in law. I had a bunch of stumps I needed to get rid of in my actual yard, and a metric shit-ton here in the shooting range. Ended up looking like I have a demon-gopher infestation by the end. Didn’t save a photo unfortunately.

On Father’s Day I told my wife I didn’t need anything, but I wanted 5 hours of uninterrupted time in the skid steer before we fulfilled family obligations. I got a lot done, I figure about 1/3 of the necessary dirt work completed (which is a small blessing, with diesel prices where they are). Just gonna keep at it 1 hour at a time throughout the summer and I should be able to have it done before fall.

My planned skid steer path to the top of the berm along the left side worked out pretty well. Once I got my path cleared, I leveled the top off, cleared a few turn-arounds on top of the berm, and have added a few feet of elevation to the top so far. Probably about 14ft tall right now, plus the remaining hillside past that.
View attachment 7900134
View attachment 7900135

Still a lot of leveling to do, but it’s currently useable for occasional pistol work. If anyone in Northern IL has a run down garden shed they want to get rid of, I’m searching for a place to store steel, targets, spare t-posts, VTAC barricades, etc…

Where at in N IL?

 

[Anb618]

Where at in N IL?

Vaguely, Winnebago, Boone, and McHenry Counties cover work and home.

 

[MK20]

IF you dont have a gasoline powered welder and can swing it, get one. It makes doing all the fab work for building out a range so much better.

 

[Anb618]

IF you dont have a gasoline powered welder and can swing it, get one. It makes doing all the fab work for building out a range so much better.

I can’t see much need for a welder at all in this application, unless I’m missing something?

 

[lonegunman762x51]

I own a 120 acres about 20 mins from my house. I use a tractor and 60" mower to keep the grass down and mow it to 200 yds. There are various steel targets from 200 to 725 yds from the graveled shooting area. If you diagonal from 200 yds inside the gate you can shoot 1600 yds on the property.

Backstops, we don't need no stinking backstops.................. The nearest neighbor is 4 miles away. There is a 200 foot elevation change past the downrange end so bullets cannot really get away and if they did it is five miles to the next house and there are three houses in a 20 sq mile area that way.

We blow up pumpkins and watermelons with gallon jugs of tannerite if we want to, no one cares. Pistol can be shot safely in three directions depending on the neighbors cows. We shoot class 3 crap all the time and bother no one, the nearest town's police chief signs my buddies letters for post-86 samples.

When I went to the county to check shooting laws, the rules are "must own 5 acres and cannot shoot towards houses or over roadways", got it. Checked with county sheriff's office and several guys asked, "can we come too?" They are welcome to swing by anytime they see people out there. They rarely do, it's a big empty place.

It was $250 an acre and the nearest landowner said, "You paid wayyyyyyyyyy to much."

 

[The D]

I own a 120 acres about 20 mins from my house. I use a tractor and 60" mower to keep the grass down and mow it to 200 yds. There are various steel targets from 200 to 725 yds from the graveled shooting area. If you diagonal from 200 yds inside the gate you can shoot 1600 yds on the property.

Backstops, we don't need no stinking backstops.................. The nearest neighbor is 4 miles away. There is a 200 foot elevation change past the downrange end so bullets cannot really get away and if they did it is five miles to the next house and there are three houses in a 20 sq mile area that way.

We blow up pumpkins and watermelons with gallon jugs of tannerite if we want to, no one cares. Pistol can be shot safely in three directions depending on the neighbors cows. We shoot class 3 crap all the time and bother no one, the nearest town's police chief signs my buddies letters for post-86 samples.

When I went to the county to check shooting laws, the rules are "must own 5 acres and cannot shoot towards houses or over roadways", got it. Checked with county sheriff's office and several guys asked, "can we come too?" They are welcome to swing by anytime they see people out there. They rarely do, it's a big empty place.

It was $250 an acre and the nearest landowner said, "You paid wayyyyyyyyyy to much."

Pics of this glorious estate?

Sorry to derail, op

 

[The D]

Vaguely, Winnebago, Boone, and McHenry Counties cover work and home.

I’ll ask around. I grew up vaguely in that area and have family there still

 

[Aftermath]

I own a 120 acres about 20 mins from my house. I use a tractor and 60" mower to keep the grass down and mow it to 200 yds. There are various steel targets from 200 to 725 yds from the graveled shooting area. If you diagonal from 200 yds inside the gate you can shoot 1600 yds on the property.

Backstops, we don't need no stinking backstops.................. The nearest neighbor is 4 miles away. There is a 200 foot elevation change past the downrange end so bullets cannot really get away and if they did it is five miles to the next house and there are three houses in a 20 sq mile area that way.

We blow up pumpkins and watermelons with gallon jugs of tannerite if we want to, no one cares. Pistol can be shot safely in three directions depending on the neighbors cows. We shoot class 3 crap all the time and bother no one, the nearest town's police chief signs my buddies letters for post-86 samples.

When I went to the county to check shooting laws, the rules are "must own 5 acres and cannot shoot towards houses or over roadways", got it. Checked with county sheriff's office and several guys asked, "can we come too?" They are welcome to swing by anytime they see people out there. They rarely do, it's a big empty place.

It was $250 an acre and the nearest landowner said, "You paid wayyyyyyyyyy to much."

I haven't seen land for $250/acre in several decades, even in eastern Warshington (which is 1235 yards from my deck).

 

[akmike47]

1. I have always used jacketed bullets in the past, and thinking I may use a lot of frangible if I can find a reasonably priced source of loading components. Definitely a good idea to find a way to collect materials though.

2. I’ll still be surrounded by trees on almost all sides, so I’m good there. An excellent point. Realizing now because of this I’m gonna probably need to spend some good money on citronella torches. In the middle of the summer the mosquitos are probably gonna be pretty rough. ?

3. Power is an excellent idea I hadn’t even considered. Definitely close enough to the garage I could trench power out there; maybe 100 yards. Something to look at for the future for sure.

Plant citronella around the shooting position maybe. Could have them in buckets even.

 

[akmike47]

- I found a complete TV Antenna tower (2-10ft sections) laid out for scrappers and snapped it up. Thinking I’ll eventually use it at the back of the 30 yard square range to add a few floodlights when I eventually get around to running power out there. My wife yells at me for being a pack-rat...I don’t care, and I might put out a Craigslist WTB ad to grab another one so I can do one in each rear corner.

Why run power? Ge one of those quiet generac suitcase style generators cheaper than a Honda and run great. You’ll be glad you have it other times too.

 

[hollowoutadime]

I poured a pad for my generator (5500w) behind the backstop. Pretty useful having that. Useful for tools, might do lights.

 

[Anb618]

Why run power? Ge one of those quiet generac suitcase style generators cheaper than a Honda and run great. You’ll be glad you have it other times too.

Already have a generator planned for the house.
Not that it wouldn’t work, but I’ll already have enough stuff to lug out there when I want to shoot. Wouldn’t take too much work to run some power out there, so that’s my thinking. It would allow me to hook some lights up in a supply shed too where I can keep a maintenance bench, my targets/steel, and a small ammo stash (again, reducing the amount of stuff I need to lug out there when I want to go shoot).

 

[502Chevelle]

I am envious of you guys. I had a 300 yard range near the house several years ago, until the city of Charlotte annexed us in out of the kindness of their hearts. Now I have to drive about an hour and the range only has 200 yards. It is a super nice range, with a 22 range, two rifle ranges, 5 stand shotgun and a ton of pistol bays, I just wish we had more distance. The bay I was using today had three side by side plate racks. I’ll probably be crippled tomorrow.

 

[diggler1833]

I'm fortunate that my primary shooting spot is from my shop, which is about 30' away from the corner of my house. My shop holds my reloading stuff too, so it's a 20 foot walk from reloading bench to firing table. I am very blessed.

There are directions with houses that could come into play, but my closest neighbors are really about ~600 yards away (about 90 drees offset from my range). My biggest problem is cattle. I have to account for every round, so missing the target is a no-go. I also don't want to lead up a pasture or hay meadow...so targets have to be placed at spots that don't grow grass.

My solutions: From my shop, I have a small, 100 yard berm that I do my load development on. I keep adding more dirt to cover the holes as they get dug out by impacts. I also have a 160 yard fence that I will hang a steel target from, and I have a 250 yard tree that is surrounded by fire ant mounds that I put a steel target in front of. I can hang targets out to 340 here, but I rarely do. Usually I'll just verify good 100 yard loads at my 250 tree.

From the corners of my house patio, I have a perfect indentation in the trees to hold a 300, and a 385 yard steel target. Again, I can't miss due to the potential for cows hidden in trees downrange etc...but 385 isn't exactly a challenge in fair conditions. The biggest benefit is that I can step out the back door and take a shot or two in the matter of a minute to cold bore map a hunting rifle etc... No houses for 1.5 miles in that direction.

I have to cross the creek below the house to get to a pasture with any real distance. I have a hay meadow that is 494 yards across, and then 765 from that shooting point to the best backstop area. I can stretch to about 900...but no backstop to spot misses, so I almost never shoot that direction or distance. I could probably build a platform and stretch out to 1100, but I doubt I'll ever put in the effort.

So I basically have the lazy man's range where I improvise (except at 100 and 250) my shooting positions and bang away at a steel target. No. I don't have a lighted range, and nothing that I do have is awe inspiring. However, for the quick CBS check or for when you only have enough time to pop off a couple rounds before you go back to work, it is great.

 

[lonegunman762x51]

I haven't seen land for $250/acre in several decades, even in eastern Warshington (which is 1235 yards from my deck).

Complete dumb luck, about 12 years ago I was surfing the internet one night looking for property and daydreaming of my own rifle range and this property popped up. It was part of a group of 40 old tax auction purchases by a guys dad and he had to dispose of them.

 

[lonegunman762x51]

Pics of this glorious estate?

Sorry to derail, op

As you gaze off into the distance there are steel targets in the shape of tombstones creeping in from 725 yards, they are spread over a 1/4 mile of width so they cover the wind from different angles and their rusty hide makes them tough to spot. I paint them tan with an MOA circle in their chest when its time to practice for hunting season.

There is a fire pit and sometimes I drive out in the truck camper, set up a canopy and enjoy the peace and quiet for a couple of days.

 

[The D]

I’m sure it’s beautiful but, um, it’s not showing up for me

 

[338dude]

I haven't seen land for $250/acre in several decades, even in eastern Warshington (which is 1235 yards from my deck).

1000 and acre was a good deal in Tennessee 20 years ago

 

[lonegunman762x51]

I'll eventually find a picture that works.

 

[Hattrick]

Make sure it’s mowable. One thing we did was screwed a piece PVC board perfectly level and plump at 100 yds it keeps you in check with rifle cant. 50 yds even better Also great when setting up your rifle, If you put your targets against it it keeps them plump and level as well. It’s quite the aid and so simple. I’ll post a pic next time I’m out shooting.

 

[Keeper22]

I've had my 75 acres for 10 years, in two weeks I am going to take a bulldozer out and redo the range for the third time. Maybe I will be satisfied this time. If not it's fun to do.

 

[Anb618]

I spent about an hour leveling the southeast corner this afternoon (far left of the berm face). It’s not done, but it’s getting there. Quickly realized that the stump grinder did not dig down far enough for as high over grade as that area was. Ended up with a ~10” diameter stump that was a bitch to dig out with the skid steer, but it’s gone now. Roots were huge, and much deeper than I’d planned to have to dig to get it out, but it’s all backfilled and looks good now. Likely the last legitimate tree stump that remained in the leveling/excavation.

Make sure it’s mowable. One thing we did was screwed a piece PVC board perfectly level and plump at 100 yds it keeps you in check with rifle cant. 50 yds even better Also great when setting up your rifle, If you put your targets against it it keeps them plump and level as well. It’s quite the aid and so simple. I’ll post a pic next time I’m out shooting.

It will absolutely be mowable, even now. I’m still in the excavation process, but every time I’ve stopped dirtwork I’ve taken 5 minutes to back drag the entire thing and knock down any high spots. That way, if I don’t have time to work on it for a month I’ll still be able to mow down all the weeds and remaining grass, and it won’t start to get overgrown like it did last year.

I thought about adding a gravel layer for easier brass cleanup, but I’ve decided I’m going to rent a roller when I’m done to really level and compact the whole thing down. I’ll just drop the mower deck an inch to cut the grass shorter inside the range’s border than in my yard.

 

[forthehunt]

Redoing mine at the moment. Current set up is just 200 yards of flat paddock with a 8ft tall dirt berm made from heavy clay taken out from my water catchment.

Relocated the whole set up to the dirt path that goes straight down my property. Will be leveling the path as much as possible. Once it is done, I can shut the gate on either end and all grazing blocks and have an enclosed range.

 

[fpgt72]

Below is a photo of my shooting area. I hit 96 yards and could likely get to 100 but I need to clear some brush including tons of poison ivy and black locust trees....it will likely stay at 96.

If you look at the photo you will see an old tractor tire, inside that tire I hung a plate. The splatter was amazing and shredded that old tire in pretty short order, the splatter is really amazing. Anything sat around the targets will be shredded in short order if it is not metal....I don't think that even something as simple as a metal bucket would have issues living there long term but I don't know, I just let the splatter go now. The "wall" is just there to hold the dirt berm back, you do not shoot into the wall, it is cut into the side of a hill, and that wall starts at about 5' from where the targets sit.

Today the edges of the area are very over grown, I put concrete blocks on one side but never got to the other, weeds are an issue about everywhere, that is something you need to think about, lots of weed eating time. It is just too far away for the fragments to really do anything with the weeds.

What I would change, I want a little out building down there to put "stuffs" in. Things like cable for the plates, a good trash can for boxes and old paper targets. Power down there would be a huge pain, but would be nice from time to time.

All in all I like my setup.

 

[Anb618]

Anyone have a steel garden shed? I only have experience with wood kit sheds, but this deal from Menards looks too perfect for my purposes.

 

[fpgt72]

Anyone have a steel garden shed? I only have experience with wood kit sheds, but this deal from Menards looks too perfect for my purposes.

View attachment 7925582

If you live somewhere windy, as in real windy you need to secure them to the ground and some kind of foundation.

 

[tomcatmv]

If you can't pour a concrete slab, I'd recommend some crushed gravel compacted with a plate compacter and some sort of anchors. Maybe some t-posts or re-bar stakes.

 

[Anb618]

Well damn. Menards already sold out of them. Should have ordered online the moment I got the email. Still going to keep an eye out for a similar building, used or new for a good price.