Best homemade backstops....

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  • Glockzilla

    #16
    DSC01650.jpgDSC01648.jpg

    These tires are pressed and bundled like hay bales right on the range with a huge machine. That's how it's done on the www.tdsa.net range. These bales are very dense and they are hammered by 50 BGM too.
    LEt me know if you wanna talk to Len, the owner/manager of the range.

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    • Texas Sheepdawg

      #17
      Originally posted by bwaites View Post
      I've thought about this quite a bit. A double/triple thickness depth of stacked, used up car/truck tires, filled with gravel or sand should work great. The tires wont shatter like wood, just absorb and then go back to natural shape. They are cheap in most places, too. Easy to make up and define the area you want to use, stack neatly without falling down, etc.
      I am using several railroad ties stacked and secured with T-Posts and behind that, five stacks of used tires in a sort of staggered configuration, three stacks then two stacks. I haven't done it yet but they will soon be filled with sand but even now, they do a pretty good job of slowing down anything that manages to pass through the railroad ties. With the sand in them, I'm sure they will stop just about anything I throw at it.

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      • LR1955
        Super Moderator
        • Mar 2011
        • 3355

        #18
        Originally posted by Glockzilla View Post
        [ATTACH=CONFIG]667[/ATTACH][ATTACH=CONFIG]666[/ATTACH]

        These tires are pressed and bundled like hay bales right on the range with a huge machine. That's how it's done on the www.tdsa.net range. These bales are very dense and they are hammered by 50 BGM too.
        LEt me know if you wanna talk to Len, the owner/manager of the range.
        GZ:

        General statement about tires.

        They burn and once started, can't be put out. And when they burn, the pollute. Not a problem in Afghanistan. May be a huge problem in the USA depending on where a guy lives.

        At Mott Lake many years ago, entire small buildings were made using tires with sand. In fact, every live fire CQB (MOUT then) facility in the Army used stacked tires with sand. The problem was not only the potential of fire but that the bullets chewed up tires that were three to four feet above the ground and it was these tires that needed to be replaced periodically.

        To replace them, every tire stacked above them had to be removed as well as tires to their left and right. The sand had to be removed, then replaced. These walls were upwards of eight feet high so there were a-lot of tires and a lot of sand.

        The shredded rubber is a better solution but it means that you will need a whole bunch of it and will have to spend more time preparing the berm. The good thing about the shredded rubber is that you can easily clean out the lead. Some places are sensitive to lead being shot into the ground and furthermore, I bet lead is going for well over a dollar a pound as scrap.

        I am assuming that the shredded rubber is treated with a fire retardant. I would go with that stuff as it is astounding how well it works.

        LR55

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        • Glockzilla

          #19
          What you say makes sense, LR1955. As for the dtsa shooting range, it has basically become a tire 'recyling' plant. Truckloads of tires are being dumped there and pressed daily, then used for walls and backstops.

          Its a really nice shooting range on which all kinds of LEO agencies meet for training sessions. But hey, you surely don't wann be around in case the darn place goes up in flames.

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          • Grendel-Gene

            #20
            Since the time when I posted this a couple of years back I have been out of commission with melanoma and chemotherapy ( no fun ).

            But I am all well again and back to work.

            My neighbor is a contractor and he has a lot of dirt he wants to get rid off.... so he is gonna move it onto the end of my range. I am hoping he can make a tall mound... I will throw grass seed on it and water it good!!! Will post pics when it happens!!!!

            I am working on an idea of using 5 gallon buckets full of sand, two or three rows deep to hang from some beam about 50 feet in front of my shooting bench to catch any high shots from going onto the neighbors pasture... if one gets shot up, i can replace it easily.... tell me what you think!

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            • Klem
              Chieftain
              • Aug 2013
              • 3509

              #22
              Most cost-effective solution is a berm of soil, used the world over. hire a dozer and scrape up a decent mound. Then either grow grass on it or have it substantial enough that it won't erode too much. You can put horticultural erosion mats on it but they cost money. Private ranges do not get the hammering that public ranges do.

              If space is an issue then a vertical wall of something to hold soil. I have seen wood, industrial tubs and tyres filled with sand. I recommend whatever structure you build then you must fill it with sand/soil. Sand is an amazing absorber of bullet energy. I have seen a pile of single un-filled tyres shot through and the rounds skipped up the slow gradient hill behind to land in the neighbouring farmers car-port (both an amazing coincidence and very untidy).

              I have also seen layers of compressed straw building material used with a steel backing. Three layers of this commerical product absorbing enough of the energy that the steel is not overly stressed. The Stramit product was replaced from time to time.

              One unusual solution is to use right-angled rubber lamels (as in lamella armour). In this case two layers of discarded conveyor belt rubber hung in overlapping vertical strips at 90 degrees to each other in an indoor range. Behind the two layers is a concrete wall where by then the rounds have run out of steam, hit the the wall and fall to the ground for future collection. Works for any angle the round impacts the wall. If you always shoot in one direction like a classic rifle range then a single layer of angled overlapping lamels would work. Obviously less relevant in your case but an interesting idea.

              360degree Indoor Range with Rubber Lamella as the Backstop
              Last edited by Klem; 05-12-2014, 07:43 AM.

              Comment

              • montana
                Chieftain
                • Jun 2011
                • 3209

                #23
                Originally posted by Klem View Post
                Most cost-effective solution is a berm of soil, used the world over. hire a dozer and scrape up a decent mound. Then either grow grass on it or have it substantial enough that it won't erode too much. You can put horticultural erosion mats on it but they cost money. Private ranges do not get the hammering that public ranges do.

                If space is an issue then a vertical wall of something to hold soil. I have seen wood, industrial tubs and tyres filled with sand. I recommend whatever structure you build then you must fill it with sand/soil. Sand is an amazing absorber of bullet energy. I have seen a pile of single un-filled tyres shot through and the rounds skipped up the slow gradient hill behind to land in the neighbouring farmers car-port (both an amazing coincidence and very untidy).

                I have also seen layers of compressed straw building material used with a steel backing. Three layers of this commerical product absorbing enough of the energy that the steel is not overly stressed. The Stramit product was replaced from time to time.

                One unusual solution is to use right-angled rubber lamels (as in lamella armour). In this case two layers of discarded conveyor belt rubber hung in overlapping vertical strips at 90 degrees to each other in an indoor range. Behind the two layers is a concrete wall where by then the rounds have run out of steam, hit the the wall and fall to the ground for future collection. Works for any angle the round impacts the wall. If you always shoot in one direction like a classic rifle range then a single layer of angled overlapping lamels would work. Obviously less relevant in your case but an interesting idea.

                Indoor Range with Rubber Lamella as the Backstop
                One of the biggest ammo makers in Montana uses a dozer dug out berm to test all their ammo up to 50 BMG with a housing sub division right behind it. Not pretty but efficient.

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                • rebelsoul
                  Warrior
                  • Jan 2014
                  • 156

                  #24
                  White Trash solution.

                  Here is another "white trash" solution. I cut the backstop out of 7/16th steel plate. Works great for my Grendel and 30-06. Give a redneck a plasma cutter and a welder is the answer.... The question was, how do you keep an idiot busy for hours ?
                  Attached Files
                  "When you have to shoot... Shoot! Don't talk." Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez a.k.a. "The Rat".

                  Comment


                  • #25
                    My dad built one like that in our workshop.

                    It was initially held up by vise grip pliers. I made the mistake of messing with one of them. It's amazing how fast that plate dropped onto my 14 year-old foot! Fortunately i just got bruises and (I think) no broken bones.

                    Backstop worked great until I went on active duty. Things, of course, changed after that.

                    Comment

                    • rebelsoul
                      Warrior
                      • Jan 2014
                      • 156

                      #26
                      Originally posted by JASmith View Post
                      My dad built one like that in our workshop.

                      It was initially held up by vise grip pliers. I made the mistake of messing with one of them. It's amazing how fast that plate dropped onto my 14 year-old foot! Fortunately i just got bruises and (I think) no broken bones.

                      Backstop worked great until I went on active duty. Things, of course, changed after that.
                      Mine is mounted on skids and has a lifting eye. I move it with a forklift or one of my cranes. My toes are safe for now.
                      "When you have to shoot... Shoot! Don't talk." Tuco Benedicto Pacifico Juan Maria Ramirez a.k.a. "The Rat".

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                      • #27
                        Originally posted by Grendel-Gene View Post
                        Our local range has backstops like these, but instead of putting the dirt in the middle they back filled the tie walls.

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                        • Drifter
                          Chieftain
                          • Mar 2011
                          • 1662

                          #28
                          Drifter

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                          • #29
                            Why isn't wearing hearing and eye protection? After all, he does seem to be on the range (or part of it!)
                            Last edited by Guest; 05-24-2014, 05:04 PM.

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                            • #30
                              Welcome back Gene.

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