Setting up place to practice with shotgun

[pennwalk]

My Mother in law has a 75 acre farm. I help out mowing the lawn so I get up there weekly. It is rolling land with a couple of steep enbankments. I want to get a shotgun and I was wondering about setting up a place to practice. What do I need to think about to do it safely?

Chris

 

[pennwalk]

Have any of you guys heard of being left eye dominant? The guy at the gun shop noticed that I handle shotguns left handed. Apparently that means that some guns will work better for me than others. I liked the feeling of the Benelli nova but apparently it is better for right handed shooters.

Chris

 

[mjarrels]

I shoot right handed guns left handed... I shoot over/under shotguns, seems to work best for me. I do have a LT20 auto but it puts spent shells to close for comfort. Pump shotguns do not work for me!

mark

 

[the_sandman_454]

You can be right handed/left eye dominant, or any other combination. You need to work through whatever you want to do, and how you want to do things. As to safe shooting area, it depends on what shot size you want to shoot. Light bird/skeet shot won't travel nearly as far as buckshot or slugs.

You can probably get the stocks modified for whatever you need, for a price.

I can't hit much of anything with a shotgun. Stationary, or with slugs I can, but when it comes to leading birds or skeet I just can't seem to get it, so maybe take my advice with a grain or two of salt...

 

[RobertN]

Yes. It is pretty common, and has an affect on sight acquisition for archery too.

Easy to tell though. Put your hands out in front of you with your arms stretched out. Have you palms facing out, fingers straight up, and thumbs sticking out(pointing towards each other). Bring your hads side by side so the tips of you index fingers touch, and the tips of your thumb's touch. This should make a triangle. Start to slide one hand over the other, so the triangle becomes smaller.

Now, move your hands apart. Find a small object on the other side of the room and focus on it. Move your hands together in front of you so you "frame" the object with the triangle; do this with both eyes open, looking at the object. Slowly shrink that triangle.

Now, blink your left eye. If the object remains centered in the "triangle", you are right eye dominate. If the object is offsett or gone from the "triangle", you are left eye dominate. Try the same thing blinking your right eye.

Adjust your shooting style so you do your primary aiming with the dominate eye.

Have any of you guys heard of being left eye dominant? The guy at the gun shop noticed that I handle shotguns left handed. Apparently that means that some guns will work better for me than others. I liked the feeling of the Benelli nova but apparently it is better for right handed shooters.

Chris

 

[Jaybr]

Safe shooting area depends on what your shooting. For buckshot or slugs, I assume your shooting at fixed target? I typically shoot into the side of a hill, with nothing behind it for at least a few hundred yards, and don't shoot buckshot/slugs into the air unless you absolutely know where the shot will fall.

On flat ground shooting flat, buckshot or slugs will typically hit the ground by about the 200 yard mark.

Birdshot fired in the air, such as shooting skeet, won't travel that far and has nothing left when it comes down. Only real risk for falling bird shot is getting it in your eyes. I go to a dove hunts each year, and in a field full of hunters your constantly getting rained on by bird shot and it's no big deal.

Standard shotguns are setup for right handed shooters, ejecting the shell out to the right. If you shoot a right handed shotgun left handed, the ejected shell will pass very close to your face, if not hit you. You can get both pump and semi-auto in left handed models, or double barrels in either side-by-side or over/under. Any of these should work for you, the double barrels are typically much more expensive.

 

[RonMar]

6-8 feet of vertical bank should suffice as a backstop(higher is of course better) as long as there is not something you wouldn't want to hit within range if you should overshoot your backstop. As mentioned, lighter/smaller shot will not carry as far or retain much energy. Trap and skeet clubs shoot into the air as do bird hunters with little or no reported collateral damage from falling shot. Buckshot and slugs are another matter and a slug launched upward at an angle can travel quite a ways and due to it's mass retain quite a bit of energy. It won't go nearly as far as a rifle bullet, but a fair distance. A level shot will impact the ground in a fairly short distance which is why many more dense rural areas have restricted deer seasons to shotgun only. Keeps a missed shot from killing someone in a farmhouse a mile away. Most deer shots are at less than 150 yards which is well within range of a 12GA slug. Slugs inside 100 yards are simply awsome in their delivered impact. Wanna stop a car, a slug will do immediate irreperable damage to a vehicle engine or transmission. Wanna shoot something hiding on the other side of a car? most likley the slug will penetrate all the way thru the vehicle. many rifle rounds will not as they tend to explode/fragment on impact with a rigid structure. The heavy shotgun slug just bulls it's way on thru.

The lower velocity slugs and shot also don't tend to ricochet as bad as a higher velocity Jacketed rifle bullet might, but it can happen. A layer of sand on the hilside with few or no rocks is about the best bullet catcher. Just be sure of your backstop and take a quick walk out behind it to make sure that there is no one or thing back there before you start shooting.

 

[scott_vt]

Wanna stop a car, a slug will do immediate irreperable damage to a vehicle engine or transmission. Wanna shoot something hiding on the other side of a car? most likley the slug will penetrate all the way thru the vehicle. many rifle rounds will not as they tend to explode/fragment on impact with a rigid structure. The heavy shotgun slug just bulls it's way on thru.

Hey Ron,
Were friends right ?

All kidding aside, if youve got 75 acres to play with, using 9 shot shells, shooting towards a hillside, shouldnt be a problem ! I dont know the exact distance but it isnt too far with 9 shot !

All you will need is a clay pigeon launcher !

 

[pennwalk]

The place I have in mind is a 20-30 foot wide flat grassy area at the low end of the farm just above the creek. The embankment rises maybe 20 feet to the field. The field is up hill quite a distance to the neighboring houses. Maybe I'll take my measuring wheel up next week. I have been wondering how long the lane is that we mow.

Chris

 

[LoneCowboy]

go here
RangeInfo.org

this will tell you EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about ranges, etc and the safe ranges you need to run everything.
it's set up more for commercial, but the info is all there.