Building a gun range, suggestions?

[Bill Hoffman]

Welllll,

Here in Eastern Connecticut, I actually went before the zoning board
for a special permit to have a shooting range. They tried and tried to shoot
down the application, but I'd done my homework, and could counter
each objection with a statutory permission. I now have a legally
permitted, they can't take it away, the permission goes to future
owners of the property, shooting range.

It's a pit range with side berms. The backstop is held in place with
tires filled with mason's sand, very carefully filled. Targets are
generally steel plates, turned slightly away from perpendicular
to the line of fire. This reduces the possibility of a ricochet heading
back to the shooting line.

I'm an NRA Handgun Safety Instructor, Personal Protection Instructor,
and a Certified State of CT Range Safety Officer. Neighbors are mostly
shooters. I notify the local police when I'm running a class and THEY
settle complaints.

Good Luck!

Bill

 

[deputyrpa]

Good Greif!!! Hide your shooting range?? Common.....This is America! Shooting is an American pastime....has been for years.

Be careful, be safe, shoot straight and be proud of your groups.

I reload and shoot a few thousand rounds a year. (But then...I dont have a neighbor at my land )

If you are referring to my statements, perhaps you misunderstood. I did not say hide it. Be friends with neighbors, let them know you have a range and that you use it.

I bought a large farm in a rural area, in the next town to where I grew up, and built a house. I set up a temporary yard range and practiced often. I noticed that the older couple closest to me would hurry into the house when I drove by or when I worked the fields This went on for weeks. They would say hi and such when almost trapped, but looked really uncomfortable. I finally got a chance to talk to them, share my backround and such, and now we enjoy each other's company often. They admitted that really did not know what to think of me, and were scared of me. Some folks, especially transplants, have only seen and heard the bad regarding firearms and carry preconceived notions. I feel that I must address that hideous propaganda every chance I get, and is not done by hiding your heritage or beliefs.

 

[CurlyDave]

So what kind of 12" x 12" backstop costs $1,000? Got to be taxpayer funded.

It wasn't a backstop, it was a bullet trap -- there is a world of difference.

This looked like a square steel funnel, It had a 12" x 12" opening and then a horizontal funnel part which was 4' or 5' long tapering to about a 3" x 3" part at the rear and then a snail-shaped section which would whirl the bullet around & around until the fragments dropped out of a slot in the back and into a tray.

It was too heavy for me to lift alone and was rated for any rifle bullet of less than .45 caliber and less than 3000 or 3500 fps, I don't remember which. This was not at all like the little .22 bullet traps you can buy in a sporting goods store.

$1000 seemed like a reasonable price for it, and was only a blip in the budget anyway. The alternative was a supersonic wind tunnel. Those little puppies start at about $20 million.

We were doing pulsed laser interferometry on the shock wave from the bullet passing through air. We could measure a lot of things about air density, etc. You are right, it was government funded, but it had application to fighter aircraft, seeker missiles, and other interesting stuff.

My job was to shoot the rifle, because I was the only one who had the stones to thread a bullet through a small opening in about $500k worth of lasers and optics that it took 3 Ph.D. scientists 4 or 5 months to set up. A backstop would have met safety requirements, but would have splashed lead fragments onto a lot of delicate optics.

 

[DieselPower]

$1,000 seems darn cheap to me for a real bullet trap. It cost me darn near $9,000 to build one of my own. I built mine with a 48" x 48" opening and it's made to take 50 BMG all day long. The most expensive part to have made was the snail screw. I ended up having a ship builder in Baltimore, MD roll out the plates which I later welded together to form the snail screw. The final weight of mine is around 4,000 pounds.

On another note, someone mentioned reusing the lead to cast bullets. Excellent idea, that's one reason I wanted a trap. Just make sure you DO NOT USE CAST LEAD BULLETS IN A GLOCK!!!!! They have rifling unlike any other barrel which causes premature fouling, it's in the owners manual. Glock make a good pistol but you have to make sure you use jacketed ammunition.

 

[Tororider]

Neighbors shouldn't be a problem, most everyone shoots. Distance wise, the closest to where I am thinking of shooting is probably 200 yards, but I would be shooting in the other direction where there is no house for over 1000 yards.

I think if I get one of the bullet traps I linked and then follow that up with a sufficient hill of dirt, shoot in a proper direction, I should be ok, right?

 

[Dargo]

An effective bullet trap can be made for far less. It only cost me 2 or 3 hundred bucks to make a 36"X36" one. The most expensive part was the 36"X48"X1/2" piece of armor plating which is welded in the box at a 45 degree angle to deflect all of the bullets down into the sandbox at the bottom. I need to get it back from the gun club I loaned it to a few years ago now that I think about it.

It's probably taken hundreds of thousands of rounds by now without a single issue. Guys are more than happy to bring in fresh sand to replace the lead filled sand so they can have the lead out of the old sand. I made a 6" deep sand tray at the bottom that slides out for changing. It takes about 100 pounds of sand to refill but it's common for guys to get 10 to 20 pounds of lead from the 'used sand', which is generally recycled.

 

[2manyrocks]

How many Phd's does it take to set up a bullet trap?

 

[zzvyb6]

A few words of caution about "dirt piles": My 50 BMG easily makes it thru a dirt pile after 5 rounds because of the tunneling effect that occurs when target shooting. That's a depth (thickness) of 10 yards of settled stone free earth. You could look thru the tunnel when penetration was complete. I hollowed out a target area on the side of a hill with my loader for my own personal range out back. The hillside also cuts down on sound levels. Not saying that you need to prepare for this size round, but in case i ever comes up, you need to know the consequences.

 

[greenmule]

I got hills,so I just shoot behind my house once in a great while before deer season or something,probably don't shoot 20 shots a year and 15 of them kill a deer or a fox or coyoti or other varmit.

My closest neighbors are about 200 yards also,one neighbor shoots alot more than I do,and it really gets annoying sometimes,200 yards don't do much to muffle the noise.

I think anyone wanting to do alot of shooting should go to a range thats used by public,I'm sure there are neighbors to it that it bothers but thats the way of it,unless you live way away from people.Some city people move to the country and forget they still have neighbors,not as close,but still within hearing of gun shots,race cars and other annoying noise.

 

[deputyrpa]

My rifle range is 1/2 mile away from the nearest neighbor, but I'm located on a hillside and botton of a narrow agricultural valley. The sound goes a long way. I also have a private shooting preserve license, so I can raise and release pheasant to keep my shorthair happy.

However, with the punishing taxes I pay for the "privilege" of owning 400 acres in my town and county, I will not be paying at a range to shoot. Heck, the hill I live on is called Battle Hill, where a decisive Revolutionary War battle was fought against Queen Anne's army.