Update: 7/10 berm made. Making a safe berm for shooting at home

E

Eurodriver

Sergeant of the Hide
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Minuteman
Oct 21, 2011
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#1
I had a farm with miles behind my backstop of nothing but timberland, corn, and pasture. I wasn’t too concerned about ricochets. Trespassers beware.

I sold it and recently bought a hobby farm that is not nearly as rural (but still rural) so I have no control of 4000 meters of danger area for rifle rounds.

I have a tractor and a backhoe. I can get dirt delivered. What suggestions do you guys have? I don’t need anything enormous - just a place to put a paper target, full size IPSC and maybe a 3”-6” gong or two. I want something with as little chance as possible of a ricochet. (Would love a roof made of railroad ties)

I’ve seen guys locally just shoot into trees or even into the woods, but I am a little more risk averse than that.
 
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#2
I helped build this range. We cut the berms with a D5 and slope board. The berms are hard to see from above but they were +/- 15 feet tall and cut at 1.5:1. We found that ricochets would go mostly up and come down on the back side of the berm occasionally. We added some radiused steel over the targets which stopped that.

The soil we used was native high clay nevada stuff that compacted into very hard stuff.

Screenshot_20240531-104839_onX Hunt.jpg
 
#4
I can not get my 338 to go through haybales. My back row is parallel to the range, and then the front row in perpendicular. Then the next row is reversed. They are stacked 10 high with a concrete wall for anything that goes through the haybales. Nothing has even touched the backwall. If ever in a gun fight, hide behind haybales! I shoot pistols at close range and the rifles at 100 yards or more. I also have a lot of wooded area behind that, but like I said, .223, .308, 6.5, nor my 338 has ever made it past the haybales. On top of the haybales is a roof that covers the haybales and sets on the block wall and wood post on the front.
 
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#5
I shoot into a berm with a roof. supported by wood sides . Basically a a box surrounded by dirt. I used a couple of pieces of old angle iron to support corrugated steel as the roof . It supports plenty enough dirt to prevent a ricochet from escaping.
 
#6
I have 120 acres surrounded by 60,000 acres of nothing, nearest house is 5 miles away, hill past impact are is 200 ft of elevation change not much gets out. We have blown up 150 pound pumpkins with gallon jugs of Tannerite and made pumpkin gut clouds that stopped cars on the highway 3/4ths of a mile away. If a projectile escaped it would die of boredom long before it became a problem.
 
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#8
I can only shoot suppressed 22s in my yard. Liberal neighbors... I DO have quite the piece of property behind me tho.

I'm basically using a stack of felled logs as a backstop. Someday I'll shoot thru them, but it won't be for a while yet

M
 
#12
hero's machine said:
I helped build this range. We cut the berms with a D5 and slope board. The berms are hard to see from above but they were +/- 15 feet tall and cut at 1.5:1. We found that ricochets would go mostly up and come down on the back side of the berm occasionally. We added some radiused steel over the targets which stopped that.

The soil we used was native high clay nevada stuff that compacted into very hard stuff.

View attachment 8429368
Click to expand...

Front Sight/Prairie Fire?
 
#13
I don't have any good pics of mine, but I've got 100 yards behind my house. My berm is about 6' x 8' with a base of old tires buried in sand. We've shot it with .50 BMG FMJ without penetration. There's 3 miles of woods before you get to another house.

This is my 2nd berm for 2 reasons. The original was only put at 95 yards, and it was washing away. I threw a bunch of grass seed on this one. It's about 7 years old and still in good shape.
 
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#17
TriggerJerk! said:
Did you fill and pack them with dirt? I ask because I was thinking of making some backstops with earth filled tires.

And I have plenty of snakes if you ever run low😀
Click to expand...

Backfill and pack them all you want, they'll eventually get voids in, between and around.
Not mine, had a buddy that had a nice range with tires. Had snakes in and around them.
Course, anything you pile up, stack up that gets voids, rats, is gonna be a snake harbor.

I'm making a small shooting lane this year. I plan to stack sand bags.

Tires do work good, but they are bad for voids after a few years.

Logs are bad. The rings turn bullets into ricochets.
 
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#19
This is one of ours…built up a lot better now though. This was about 10 or so years ago, screen grab from a video, when my son was still in HS:

IMG_6317.jpeg


Basically a shallow “U” or open “C” shape backstop made of old railroad ties (2 layers deep now btw, and the dirt is now piled up over the rr ties), all spiked together and to the ground with 2’ rebar throughout. It’s then filled with dirt/sand, with a layer of logs set on end in front of that, and we sometimes just staple plates to the logs, but usually set targets in front of them.

Or steel gongs set low if we’re shooting from the bench back under the trees at 100 yards.

i-Xjpd6dS-X3.jpg
 
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#20
Pile of dirt.


Roof is unnecessary. If a ricochet goes up it falls back down. Drops rarely fall hard enough to do any damage.

Good steel hung with the posts tilted forward, allowing the steel to swing back, deflect 99% of everything into the ground right below the plate.
 
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#24
This is what I ended up with. 30 railroad ties, 15 tons of dirt, and some 2x6s. Will eventually add OSB to the top for ricochets

Started off by using a buddy’s bobcat to clear a 30y deep by 15y wide spot in the edge of the woods so it wasn’t an eyesore in the middle of my pasture. I graded the land and removed tree stumps and as many roots and I could.

IMG_1561_Original.jpeg


Then I got 1000lb of gravel to make a level base for the bottom layer to rest on. I drove two 4’ pieces of rebar through each of the bottom 3 ties. I bent the top 4” over to “hold” them down.

I used three 10” timberloks on each railroad tie. Each corner is staggered so they’re supporting each other. I put two pieces in the front to help support the dirt and then 2x6s on top to keep the sides from falling out.

IMG_1758.jpeg
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It cost about $1200 in material. I had a buddy and his son help me put it together. With forks on my tractor it really wasn’t bad at all.

The hardest part was that I could only buy 6 at a time due to weight and size constraints. Took 5 trips over a week to get them all.
 
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#27
I have a berm that’s 8’ tall and 25’ wide and about 12’ deep, all beach sand. Have had people over that have concealed carry permits that at 7 yards were hitting the last 10” of the berm ;-(

Nice job

Rich
 
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