Portable range???

[Blucollar]

I'm blessed with some rural farm land to shoot on from time to time, but.....
The livestock are moved an so my shooting range is also.
Is there such a thing as a portable backstop for centerfire rifles?
Most of the time this isn't a problem but due to the lay of the land there isn't a great backstop at any time.
Any ideas would help, thanks blu

[corbanzo]

sandbags are about the best that I can think of.....  they would take some replacement,but are moveable.

[buck460XVR]

My brother and I went thru this same quandary for years and found no suitable portable backstop for shooting any measurable amounts of centerfire ammo. We tried stacking logs, sandbags and even constructed a 4x8 wooden backstop outta plywood and 2x12s that measured better than a foot thick. All worked well for a short amount of time when used occasionally with small amounts of ammo, but didn't validate the amount of work and or expense to build and move when used regularly with large amounts of ammo. We then started shooting from elevated stands and using the ground as a backstop.......this worked well for short ranges, but at ranges over 100 yards, we were still concerned with ricochet. We have since invested in 4 loads of washed sand@ $40 apiece. Two loads were dumped singlely for use for the handguns/rimfires at short ranges and two were dumped together to make a larger berm for shooting at long ranges. Now along with a coupla portable shooting benches we can shoot from virtually any range and direction with relative safety.

[Blucollar]

I was thinking of maybe a 55 gal. plastic drum layed on its side filled with some type of light weight material (layered foam maybe) may work?
May not stop everything but surely would reduce the bullet energy so that between the stop and the ground it would be alot safer.

Sand would be great!  But the land owner don't shoot & piles of sand don't make a cow fat.
If I ever get any land a permanent stop will be made.

[Mikey]

I have read of using steel 55 gallon drums filled with rock.  Mikey.

[Kmrere42]

HI,

If by portable, Do you mean that you can throw it in the bed of a pickup after a range session??


If you can find an old dozzer blade and mount it at less than 45 degrees to the ground it might work.  Might be kind of expensive though. 

A good dozzer blade was made of D2 tempered steel. 




Paul

[Blucollar]

At that angle how thick would regular plate steel need to be or last do you think?

[bilmac]

I know of some guys (years ago) who got hold of some surplus "armor plate" they made metallic silhouettes out of it. You might check with your local scrap yards and steel dealers.

[Lon371]

  If you can build a permenant set up. I would use stacked railroad ties 3 sides. Then I would fill with a layer of dirt then sand.

 If it has to be temoprary, you will have a time. Everything i can thing of would be big and heavy. Unless you build somthing on skids and have access to a tractor for moving.

Good luck
Lonny