Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Suggestions for building a shooting berm

My wife and I are finally "pulling the trigger" on the retirement thing. We purchased 40 acres in Wyoming 6 or 7 years ago with the idea that we'd build a home/cabin/livable barn/etc. and a shooting range and let our kids and grandkids visit us instead of the other way around. We've sold our house, arranged for movers and are going to get an apartment and start the construction plans.

I have no experience with earth-moving or grading so am not sure what's going to be involved in getting a range build. I need suggestions and advise on what's involved in building a berm--how high and thick it needs to be, the angle (steepness) of the slope that's best, what (if anything) to cover it with (sand, pea gravel, etc.)---as well as any problems that I'm likely to encounter. Earthwork is terra incognito to me (pun intended).

Any advice (short of Deflave's "GFY") is welcome :-). Thanks
Greg

GFY



Travis

I do actually have some advice for you though.

Rent, buy, or borrow a Bobcat/skid steer and go to town. After my dad retired he rented one multiple times (he finally bought one) and built or ripped down anything he wanted. I'd call an 8' berm plenty good myself. Doesn't take a lot dirt to stop a bullet. Making the berm in a U shape could be nice for multiple target placements.



Travis

gmoats;
Congratulations on your retirement sir, I hope you folks have a long and happy retirement phase of your lives together.

Maybe 2 decades back our federal government changed the rules on ranges here in Canada so our club was forced to have berms made in order to comply.

After looking at a few options, the executive at the time brought in a fellow with a loader to create the berms - it was a 966 sized one as I recall.

Anyway after watching how quickly an experienced operator and a big machine could make 100yds of berm up, I'd suggest at very least pricing that option out if there's a local contractor available and comparing it to either renting or buying a skid steer that you'd operate yourself.

I realize your time is less of a factor when you're retired - but fuel and machinery upkeep doesn't seem to be getting cheaper with time and if you are renting for multiple days it might not pencil out to make sense - I'm not sure.

We had our berms hydroseeded and it worked after a fashion, but truly they are a bit weed infested to this day.

Around here where gravel is plentiful and relatively inexpensive, I'd shudder to think of the cost to cover say 225yds of berm with it. It would be nice mind you, just not a low dollar option here.

A lot will depend upon the soil on your property though and what the operator has to work with that's close at hand.

Hopefully that was some use to you sir and good luck in all your retirement projects.

Regards,
Dwayne

Thanks Dwayne and Travis

I'd not cover a berm with gravel, and if I had only gravel to deal with, personally I'd think about covering teh gravel with dirt.

Beyond that, make it 2 times taller than you think... Ya know what i mean, try to get to 10 feet was my goal.

I wished now after seeing how bullets deflect, that I"d have made mine have sides too. But we did not.

Deflave's advice is good. Build it better once and avoid a redo. More consideration should be used as to which direction you wish to shoot. Light is extremely important the more years you accumulate.

You want your range facing North if at all possible. But then, you will also want to orient it so there are no adjoining properties with buildings behind it either.



For your dirt work, if you are not an experienced operator, it is vastly cheaper to get someone to do this work for you. A guy who knows what he is doing can move a lot of earth in a very short time.

Dirt doesn't cause ricochets like gravel/rock can do. Use dirt and plant it with grass to hold it in place.
If you think you might still get ricochets, directly behind the target area you can erect a vertical backstop of thick exterior plywood and backfill behind it. When it's shot out, nail another sheet over it. By the time that one is shot out, the backfill should be set enough to pretty much stay in place. Leave the old plywood there indefinitely.
Besides, if you make a 300 yd range, the holes in the backstop still won't be over 6" wide, right?

I set 4 half telephone poles into post holes in a rectangle 5'x10', nailed treated 2"x6"s on the sides and back, and filled it with topsoil. The resulting 5' high, 5' wide, 7 1/2' deep (half way up the pile) backstop has been successfully catching bullets for me for about 20 years.

Every 3 or 4 years I add a front end loader of topsoil to replace what has splashed out.

.....I didn't realize anyone here had seen me shoot

.....thanks for the advice so far..... I appreciate every bit of input.

Due to the lay of the land the range will have to face east----no choice in that matter. I'll primarily be using it for hand gunning so not terribly concerned with the sun/shadows, plus the prevailing winds are from the west so won't have as much windage to deal with when rifle shooting. Directly east of my property is 120 acres of Govt. owned land with a very large mound (big hill, small mountain) which will be perfect for overshots of the berm (hopefully)---although the times I've shot tracers out of M-60's the randomness of bullet deflection seems impossible to compensate for. (Won't be doing any full auto stuff on this range).

What I envision is a range deck that is 25 yards wide and 50 yards deep---I want enough room for a lateral mover of Bianchi cup dimensions. Side berms I anticipated bringing back 10 yards on each side so I can do 90 degree tgt. placements. Sounds like 8-10 ft. high on the front berm is what I should try for and maybe 8 feet high on the sides???? I have no frame of reference for how much dirt that would be needed for that--also how wide (thick) should I try to make it?

I've heard of guys pushing dirt up against old railroad ties and shooting into the wood and just re-facing it periodically. That seems simple but expensive and messy. Has anyone here done anything like that before?

I haven't moved any earth there but the ground has alot of small rock with a lot of quartz-type stuff (geology wasn't my forte). Don't know how piling it up without covering it with something (sand?) would effect ricochets, etc.

Thanks for the input and keep it coming---I appreciate it.
Greg

.....you were writing this while I was writing mine entree. Thanks for addressing that Theo. Sounds like you're shooting into what would be the backside of what I wrote---yours makes more sense.

Just a suggestion but if the kids around there are like here put a fence on the back side to keep them from trying to jump their dirt bikes. Some of them are pretty bad for thinking they can do what they like on other peoples property. Wish I had the money to do what your planing.

First off you should recognize that you can't build a berm that you can't shoot over so always be safety conscious. The lesson I learned in building my range was to get the best dozier operator you can find...they'll save you money from getting a guy who just bought a dozer and has to learn with it.

My berm was about 8-9 feet high and wide enough at the top that you could drive a dozer on it. It was about 130 feet long which is more than you should need. I tried using old tractor tires and filling them with dirt first and that didn't work.

I would put a deflector about six feet in front of the firing points. Set as many phone poles as you think best with a 2X6 framework on the shooter side and the downrange side, cover in plywood, close the bottom with chain link fence recycled materials could make this cost just about nothing...but leave the top open. Fill with sand/gravel and allow for drainage and replacing filler. The baffle should be 10 feet tall with six feet of shooting lane under the baffle.

Any stray high shots will go into the baffle but probably not through two plys and a foot of fill mix. Now if the firing points are raised about a foot, the berm can be reasonably lower, any round shot under the baffle will hit the berm or in front of the berm.

The police range in Long Beach California was set up this way except the shooters were in a lowered trench and ground level was bench high. The baffle was about two feet off of ground level. Behind the berms was, well a Freeway and ten bozillion folks...Use to be open to the public.

Any indoor range will have a steel (angled) shield to do the same thing. I would guess the lumber and fill would be cheaper than an extra day or two paying an earth mover.

Best Wishes on your project and retirement.

Obammy, holder, hitlery? Take your pick

Maybe think about taking dirt/soil donations from construction companies. With the size of your property, trucks could probably dump in a line real close to where you want your berm. That would minimize the time spent on tractor work.

....double blush ---I thought you said 6 feet, not inches!! :-)

Read the NRA Range Source book.

Also, check the NSSF website.

They both have standards for building ranges. Very solid and accurate information.

dave