Thread: help setting up a shooting range

6 inch!

find some red bricks man they are free and we hit them with the AK47 you can see them explode

Originally Posted by Dundee

find some red bricks man they are free and we hit them with the AK47 you can see them explode

They not free round here they bloody expensive.
You would think they would be cheap as what with all of em on the ground down chch
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Originally Posted by P38

The grade steel you need for your targets is Bisalloy 400.

Depending on what you intend to shoot at it you will need it to be 10mm or more in thickness.

As for your range you have to consider what back stops you have in place and how large is the safety zone is behind and to the sides of the butts?

Is the safety zone your property or a neighbours or several neighbours or a combination of all of these.

Noise will get you lots of complaints from neighbours too, unless they also like to shoot and you invite them over.

Shooting down on a slight angle, 10 degrees or so, is a good idea as this may reduce the height of your backstop and size of your safety zone.

Shooting up is not a good idea as this may increase the size of your backstops and size of your safety zone.

Shooting steel will result in ricochets which will need to be taken into consideration.

This link will take you to the New Zealand Police Range Manual which describes the principles for the design and development of shooting ranges in New Zealand.

http://www.police.govt.nz/service/fi...nge-manual.pdf

Here's some ideas to build your bench rests. Make them strong with no movement.

http://benchrest.com/articles/benches.pdf

Good luck

Cheers
Pete

Really good advice this - even if you do not want to get your range certified.

16mm bisalloy is great for most calibers. I would consider 50m a bit close for a centrefire caliber gong. If you do put one at 50m have it angled to deflect bullet fragments in a safe direction - and be prepaired to repair or replace your gong often. As good as steel is i would still allow for paper targets at 100m and 200m.

you guys are legends thanks for all the great info, also the range is in a valley so very safe for ricochets etc, but the putting the plates on slight angle down idea i like

The NZ Police design manual is a bit lean on design details. I have pdf copy of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police range design manual which has a lot more design stuff in it that may be usefull. Most range design manals are based on this document!

You mention its in a valley, so safe from richochet. Do a longsection and plot your richochet path based on 30 deg off the valley floor from -60 mills from centre of your lowest target and I bet its over the hill!...in which case you need 2800m from your firing line for 308 or 4000m for 338 lap to the extent of your safety area, or your into a contained range with more strict standing range orders and/or a f...king big hill directly behind your targets.

Gongs.... I'd be be looking hard and reducing the potential richoche off the fixings for the gongs. I'd be hanging them off webbing straps and timber frames and not steel frames with chains! and setting them into a buttstop

Work on murphys law...if there is anything hard out there, someone going to hit it sometime and you will get! No problem if you have a full safety template, but very few have that luxury.

Cheers

Grant

I made some gongs from redundant grader blade given to me by the local roading contractor, the bit they bolt on to the bottom.Once its worn too much the replace it and stockpile the old ones. Hard as hell. And often the blades are worn way more on one end than the other, so you can get various sizes off the one blade, and weld em together if you want bigger. Whole lot cheaper than biz!

quarries use bizaloy a lot if theres one handy you might get some off-cuts from friendly engineer

What would you like to know, I would be glad to answer any of your questions.