Building an outdoor range?

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  • AWKIII

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    Mar 10, 2008
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    Wortham Tx.
    I recently purchased a home out in the country and want to build a range for my personal use. I don't really have an idea of what the best and cheapest way to go about it would be. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I would really like to see some pictures of some of yall's ranges. Thanks in advance for any help.

    Andy
    DK Firearms
     

    AWKIII

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    Mar 10, 2008
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    Wortham Tx.
    I'm not worried about ever having to remove the lead, so that won't be an issue. I don't really want to use concrete block beacause it would probably take a couple hundred of them. I am wanting something about eight feet tall, ten feet wide and at least five feet deep. The concrete blocks would work really well, but they are going to be cost prohibitive. I don't want to sound like a tightwad, but i am trying to do this on the cheap.
    Thanks again, Andy
     

    popo22

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    Feb 1, 2009
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    I can only tell you how we built our "shoot house" when I was working on our dept.'s SWAT team, when we basically had $0.00 budget. We were able to locate some used "railroad ties" which were stored and piled for destruction and got the railroads permission to take them. We then constructed walls much like a "log cabin" which were 2 layers of "railroad ties" thick with about 6" of space between. We filled the 6" space with gravel (although dirt might work). The walls were held upright by poles (used as spacers for the dirt) burried several feet in the ground with the ties bolted to them.

    We limited our shooting normally to handguns but we did shoot .308 and .223 numerous times and it never penetrated to my knowledge. If you know someone with the railroad that would be a big plus in finding some, otherwise you'd just have to keep your eyes open for when they are repairing tracks and ask for them. If you are willing to haul them away its a win win for both parties. Good Luck
     

    Texas Solo

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    May 4, 2008
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    San Antonio
    Rent, barrow, beg or steal a Bobcat. Simply drive back and forth in a straight line piling up the dirt at the end. What more do ya need?
     

    baboon

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    May 6, 2008
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    Out here by the lake!
    What's the lay of your land? How close is your nearest neighbor? What all do you plan on shooting? The private ranges I've been on vary considering the above.

    I've seen car tires layed flat then filled with dirt & pounded into them, stacked like bricks & stabilized with rebar pounded thru where they overlap have been pretty impressive. Very labor intense, but cheap as the were removed for free from another property.
     

    Gpz1100

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    Mar 15, 2008
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    Warren, TX
    i have timber company land behind my backstop, 10' from property line, which is several loads of sand. target stand is only 4' tall and 3' wide and placed 6' in front of the pile. nearest neighbor is 1/4 mile in the other direction. bought one of those cheap carports for $600 and put it 100 yards away. dumped wood chips in it for a base. i'm shooting low, and down a slight incline.
    i tried to find rr ties but couldn't. the tire idea sound good. may start putting up a wall of tires behind my piles.
     

    popo22

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    Feb 1, 2009
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    RR Ties

    If you live near the Austin area, if you are interested I have a co-worker who works with some people on the local "railroad co's". If your interested, "pm" me and I'll check and see if he can get you a contact on used RR ties, but no promises. Good luck.
     

    Old Man of the Mountain

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    Jan 5, 2009
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    Bullet lead is a different alloy than shot (shotshell) lead.

    According to a study conducted by the University of Texas, bullet lead is not a threat to drinking water. I guess the alloy in bullets renders the lead inert. But shot lead (shotshell lead) can contaminate water.

    That is unfortunate when you consider water foul hunting.

    Hopefully the surface will corrode and become inert, but I don't have any information on that.

    (I got that information from someone who was involved in that study, and it might be published by UT, I would expect it to be.)
     

    Gopher

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    Mar 5, 2008
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    Far, far, far North Dallas
    I built mine out of crossties in front of a small tank dam. I used two 8tf 8 inch poles stuck in the ground 3 1/2 foot. ( 4 might be better) I drilled holes in the poles and lag bolted them to the ties. Stack the ties 6 high. I placed a 4x8 sheet of thin plywood across the front of the ties. Made it easy to place targets.

    The ties stopped almost everything I shot it with from 50 yards in. All pistol rounds plus .223. The only problem I had was if a round hit the spot where the two ties were resting on each other. You could back this up with two or three rows of sand filled used tires.
     
    Every Day Man
    Tyrant

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