Making a Berm For Rifle Range

[WhiteBassFisher]

From what I can tell, an earth berm is as good for a bullet backstop on a rifle range as any other method. When making a berm, would any type of support system help? It seems that building a wall of support to help keep the berm high enough would cost more than just using soil. It would take more soil without a support system, but buying and moving that soil I think would be cheaper than building a support. Any thoughts from those who made have done similar?

[SmithRanchZ]

NRA used to have plans. On line as I recall.

If the range is on a small tract, where rifle rounds can potentially leave the property, and you are not shooting down hill, it takes a big berm to be safe. We are talking 8 feet or so. As such, yeah, it requires a whole bunch of fill. You don't want those rounds skipping up off a sloped berm and launching onto the neighbor's place.

One approach is to bring in old tires. Fill them with soil or sand as you stack them up. Then, cover it all in soil, and plant a hardy ground cover to hold the soil. But, if anyone ever pulls the berm down, now they have a disposal mess getting rid of tires.

[WhiteBassFisher]

Timber company land beyond where target would be, but I want it safe.

[SGrem]

Rail road tie to build three sides.... fill in

[wfishtx]

Some tips.

https://www.pewpewtactical.com/build-backyard-range/

[SmithRanchZ]

If you think dirt is expensive, price out railroad ties. Plus, the old ones are leaching into your soil. And, 8 foot RR ties often weigh in excess of 150lbs. Stacking them 8 feet high is not an easy job. Bring a lunch, and a whole bunch of water unless you have something with a front end loader.

A three sided bay, 8 feet long on each side, stacked 12 high, is 36 ties, at what? $25 a piece? Quick $900. And you have to load them, unload them, drill holes, stack them, and then pound rebar thru the holes to anchor them to the ground and to one another. Then, fill with dirt. And, unless you anchor them real well, or use multiple layers for the wall, the soil will push them over if it's a single layer stack. Figure on braces, maybe three per section, with the base of the brace buried, and running at a 45 degree angle, to brace the wall from the rear.

Meanwhile, tires are free (except for the end of term disposal cost), form a very stable pyramid stack when filled with dirt, and have the mass to better resist lateral forces from soil piled in front to them.

[Univ.of Hard Knocks grad]

BIL had a neighbor that installed 100 yard of culvert pipe below grade with a pit on each end.

[WhiteBassFisher]

The RR ties sound expensive and a lot of work to me. But I have read that tires are prone to some ricochet, and are not recommended because of that. My question is, since there is a big opening where a tractor or a dozer could push dirt from, wouldn't enough dirt with no walls or supports work well enough? Obviously I would be shooting away from the highway on this attachment. It seems if the berm covered a big enough area that the height could be high enough.

[jimk]

Better to shoot down to berm...from your pic it looks like you'll be shooting uphill away from highway.

[Flounderface]

You may want to reach out t the mob as they might have a need to hide a corpse, a-la Jimmy Hoffa. They will probably cover all expenses x10 if you allow it.

[SmithRanchZ]

I was suggesting using tires as the backbone, covered with multiple feet of dirt.

The link with the pointers is talking about a 12 foot tall berm, 4 feet thick at the top. You will need a very big tractor to move that much material by digging. Skid steer would be better, and dozer and/or excavator better still.

For me, the cheapest option was to simply buy 60 yards of fill dirt, have it dumped on site, and pushed/poured/piled up with a skid steer.

Digging out 60 yards, unless spread over a large area, will likely leave behind a muddy pit in the winter and spring, and a festival of weeds summer and fall.

[WhiteBassFisher]

I understand your point about buying fill rather than digging. That may be better in the long run.

[CSN]

Just don’t let the EPA find out, they’ll make you submit a Lead Reclamation plan…and charge you inspection fees.

[Flounderface]

I would still try the mob. They own the EPA.

[Rusty S]

We expanded an existing pond, used the dirt. It's probably 10' high. 20' wide, and 60' long. Works great, but rarely gets used anymore, just need a dozer and an excavator.

[DEXTER]

Dirt and more dirt is all you need. Anything else is way over engineered

[dwilliams35]

I just built a big steel bullet trap. Built on skids so I can just hook it to a tractor or truck and drag it to different yardages. As long as you can keep it in a 5x5 foot square, it just deflects any bullet into the dirt. I've run up to 300 WBY in it without any issues..