06-04-2012, 04:22 PM
There are those, blessed with either owning or leasing property on which one can shoot pretty much anytime wanted.. Personally, two of the main reasons I bought acreage way out in the country was for a place to shoot, and the other a place to be able to hunt..
Through a weird twist of fate, out in the country we can actually live farther away from formal ranges; e.g. when I lived in Austin, I lived within about 20 miles of a couple nice public ranges.. These days the closest public rifle range to me is over 40 ~ 50 miles away..
Many will turn to setting up a private range so we can shoot out the back door so to speak.. As for me, Ive had a nice set of steel pistol targets at 25 yards for years set up near the house.. And from time to time, Ive set up a temporary target out to 100 yards or so when I wanted to sight in a rifle or one of my scoped pistol.. But this past year, I have started work on my 150 yard rifle and scoped pistol range..
After the pictures by grimmy in his recent post New Grendel birthed, I thought Id see if we can start a discussion of what the members have set up and share ideas.. I know from a couple other lists on which I am a member, there are some really nice private ranges..
So far I have nice clearing along a fence line where I have set up a back stop composed of dirt and brush which has been cleared from the firing lane.. Google Earth makes determining what is down range a snap these days.. When I first moved to the country aerial photos were very expensive.. But It is very spooky what you can see in Google Earth.. I can see the horses eating at the hay bales.. Anyway, ultimately I will set up a stack of tires filled with dirt as a backstop..
I do have a pretty solid shooting bench, being made of 2x6 with 4x4 legs.. Since I often will be shooting with my youngest daughter or a buddy, I plan on building another.. The bench is currently just sitting out under a tree on the ground, but the plan is to build a small shooting shack; something like 8x12.. And this being central Texas, where 3 digit temps are not uncommon from April to Oct, it will be air conditioned..
I have 2 wireless, 12 volt color/ir cameras I am hopping I can set up at 100, and 150 yards.. This way I dont have to come off of the rifle to record a shot.. I have found when doing load development, it is nice to be able to correlate the bullets MV with where it hits on paper..
I am hoping the receiver will be able to receive from cameras so far away technically at 300 ft, and 450 ft, they are beyond their listed specs.. In the country though there will not be many stray signals to interfere, and it will be a straight shot between the antennas, so I have hope.. Time will tell..
To get power for it all, I have plan and a backup.. Just about all of the power needs for the computers, DVR, etc. can be supplied by an inverter on a couple of truck batteries.. However the need for an A/C unit in the summer, will kill any simple solution..
My neighbor has a power pole within about 75 feet of where my shooting shack will be.. The pole was set up for what looks like an old pump house, which doesnt look like it has been used for years.. I am hoping I can work something out with my neighbor to be able to get power from there.. If not I have a 3500 watt generator which I can use.. The only question being if it will big enough to carry the AC unit..
Ill post some pictures of the simple range as it stands today, when I can snap a couple.. The plan is to update it as I get the range and shooting shack finished.. We are entering the anvil of god season, and doing anything outside is done before 9am by most folks.. So it will be slow going until Oct..
Flk k
Through a weird twist of fate, out in the country we can actually live farther away from formal ranges; e.g. when I lived in Austin, I lived within about 20 miles of a couple nice public ranges.. These days the closest public rifle range to me is over 40 ~ 50 miles away..
Many will turn to setting up a private range so we can shoot out the back door so to speak.. As for me, Ive had a nice set of steel pistol targets at 25 yards for years set up near the house.. And from time to time, Ive set up a temporary target out to 100 yards or so when I wanted to sight in a rifle or one of my scoped pistol.. But this past year, I have started work on my 150 yard rifle and scoped pistol range..
After the pictures by grimmy in his recent post New Grendel birthed, I thought Id see if we can start a discussion of what the members have set up and share ideas.. I know from a couple other lists on which I am a member, there are some really nice private ranges..
So far I have nice clearing along a fence line where I have set up a back stop composed of dirt and brush which has been cleared from the firing lane.. Google Earth makes determining what is down range a snap these days.. When I first moved to the country aerial photos were very expensive.. But It is very spooky what you can see in Google Earth.. I can see the horses eating at the hay bales.. Anyway, ultimately I will set up a stack of tires filled with dirt as a backstop..
I do have a pretty solid shooting bench, being made of 2x6 with 4x4 legs.. Since I often will be shooting with my youngest daughter or a buddy, I plan on building another.. The bench is currently just sitting out under a tree on the ground, but the plan is to build a small shooting shack; something like 8x12.. And this being central Texas, where 3 digit temps are not uncommon from April to Oct, it will be air conditioned..
I have 2 wireless, 12 volt color/ir cameras I am hopping I can set up at 100, and 150 yards.. This way I dont have to come off of the rifle to record a shot.. I have found when doing load development, it is nice to be able to correlate the bullets MV with where it hits on paper..
I am hoping the receiver will be able to receive from cameras so far away technically at 300 ft, and 450 ft, they are beyond their listed specs.. In the country though there will not be many stray signals to interfere, and it will be a straight shot between the antennas, so I have hope.. Time will tell..
To get power for it all, I have plan and a backup.. Just about all of the power needs for the computers, DVR, etc. can be supplied by an inverter on a couple of truck batteries.. However the need for an A/C unit in the summer, will kill any simple solution..
My neighbor has a power pole within about 75 feet of where my shooting shack will be.. The pole was set up for what looks like an old pump house, which doesnt look like it has been used for years.. I am hoping I can work something out with my neighbor to be able to get power from there.. If not I have a 3500 watt generator which I can use.. The only question being if it will big enough to carry the AC unit..
Ill post some pictures of the simple range as it stands today, when I can snap a couple.. The plan is to update it as I get the range and shooting shack finished.. We are entering the anvil of god season, and doing anything outside is done before 9am by most folks.. So it will be slow going until Oct..
Flk k