[Irate]

I have been working on the idea of turning the old barn on my property into a shoot house. So far I have decided to make minimal conversions to the barn and set up targets in various places with backstops behind. Before anyone goes off on me and says that I need a berm and things of such nature, let me stress that this is a very controlled and slow speed shoot house. I am aware that misses can still occur, but tactics will be the main focus of this shoot house, not speed shooting. That will be practiced on the range outside. And of course we will do many many dry runs in this house before we run it with bullets. Rest assured that I am taking every precaution. While training to go over to Iraq, I have been through real live shoot houses that the SWAT teams use so I am not new at this. That being said, I don't have the black, dense, spongy material the police shoot houses have on their walls, so I am looking for an alternative. Something cheap that will absorb the bullets after they travel through the targets. Currently I am using an idea I got from something we used to shoot our M4's into. It's a stack of cardboard sheets compressed by two 2 x 4's on the top and two on the bottom connected by 4 threaded rods. Once the cardboard sheets are in between, you compress the sheets by tightening the nuts on the threaded rod and bringing the 2 x 4's closer together. You then shoot into the side of the press. With mine, I have been able to compress it only enough to make the bullets plop out the other side, not stopping them inside. I plan to construct more once I get more cardboard using the lessons I learned from constructing this one. So, my question to you guys is this: Have you seen any other backstops of this sort that will stop a 9mm or possibly up to a 45? Keep in mind I am looking for something to absorb the bullets so steel plates are an option but I would prefer something a bit safer. Any ideas are appreciated, thanks.

Irate

[Matt Cheely]

How about layer the cardboard and then have a steel plate behind that? No splash back towards the shooter.

[shred]

Stack of railroad ties? Pile of old tires full of dirt? I've seen both used to decent effect in similar situations.. but, even with careful planning a shot is going to go somewhere outside the target.. so be sure the rest of the walls and 'downrange' are safe enough as well.

[kimel]

I have been told the SureFire shoot house at Berry uses the old discarded tarkets to buffer the steel backer plates.

[George]

The shoot house designs I have seen (MGM Targets manufactured) are solid steel houses that rounds cannot penetrate/leave. The walls are covered inside with 3-4" thick heavy rubber sheeting that absorbs the fragments after the rounds penetrate the rubber sheet and smash to smithereens on the steel. The rubber sheeting compound is designed to pass the bullet and close up so no holes appear for splatter to come out of. The rubber is replaced periodically and the steel is inspected for craters. This style of construction allows for any angle/direction shooting in any room. The best ones are multi-floored and have re-configurable interiors.

Call Mike Gibson at MGM Targets for advice. He builds shoot houses like I described for a living. If anyone has the tricks, it's Mike.

[Irate]

George, on Dec 23 2006, 09:09 PM, said:

The shoot house designs I have seen (MGM Targets manufactured) are solid steel houses that rounds cannot penetrate/leave. The walls are covered inside with 3-4" thick heavy rubber sheeting that absorbs the fragments after the rounds penetrate the rubber sheet and smash to smithereens on the steel. The rubber sheeting compound is designed to pass the bullet and close up so no holes appear for splatter to come out of. The rubber is replaced periodically and the steel is inspected for craters. This style of construction allows for any angle/direction shooting in any room. The best ones are multi-floored and have re-configurable interiors.

Call Mike Gibson at MGM Targets for advice. He builds shoot houses like I described for a living. If anyone has the tricks, it's Mike.

Thanks George, that sounds like just the stuff I'm looking for. I will definately check out MGM Targets. It sounds like steel with some sort of buffer in front is the way to go, I'll start with that. Thanks all for your replies so far.

Irate

[warpspeed]

+1 on the tires. At the range out in Palm Springs, they have a maze of tires filled with concrete IIRC. Seemed to work well.

Tires are usually easy to get and could filled directly from a redimix truck.

[Irate]

As far as tires go, they would definately work well. In the future, I plan to construct an entire house from scratch using tires and concrete. For now, all I have to work with is an old barn. I found a nice site called supertrap.com. On their product page they have 2'x2' sheets of the ballistic rubber they use on ranges and I emailed them to see if they sell the sheets individually. If they do, I intend to purchase a few and back them with sheets of 1/4 or 3/8 inch steel. I would then put the target in front of that and fire away. If they do not sell these individually, I will probably just use about 6 inches of cardboard in front of 3/8 inch steel and shoot only 9mm and maybe 45 into it. MGM has a very nice site and from what I have read on this forum, they have high quality products, but they are just out of my price range right now.


Irate

[nmipsc]

At the Double Tap Champ in 05 they had swinging 3/8 steel IPSC target size plates with 3/4 inch Plywood bolted over the steel and IPSC cardboard target stapled on the plywood for a truly inpentrable target and had no splater back when hit even with 38 super rounds. But you where at least 7 yards back. it seemed to work real well. edge hits might be a problem with steel. rounds going in directions you did not intend

This post has been edited by nmipsc: 24 December 2006 - 09:17 PM

[chendersby]

First, if you use the stacked tires DO NOT FILL WITH CONCRETE. Use sand. I would make bullet traps. 2x4 frame front is half inch plywood. back is a steel plate. Does not need to be armor. fill the gap with shredded car tires. I do not know the direct source but it is a recycled product.

[ChuckS]

I did a little googling around the net and came across this:

http://www.dtic.mil/...larms/Hunts.pdf

It's a presentation about SACON (Shock Absorbing CONcrete). It sound like an interesting material.

Merry Christmas,
Chuck

[Irate]

ChuckS, on Dec 25 2006, 08:11 PM, said:

I did a little googling around the net and came across this:

http://www.dtic.mil/...larms/Hunts.pdf

It's a presentation about SACON (Shock Absorbing CONcrete). It sound like an interesting material.

Merry Christmas,
Chuck

Thanks Chuck, that stuff sounds like just what I am looking for. I checked out the pdf and I went to the website http://www.terrancorp.com and it sounds great. I just wish you could buy this stuff on a small scale. A lot of these websites I go to with this sort of stuff looks like they are geared toward companies building ranges, which of course they are. For this SACON stuff, I would just like to purchase a bag or 2 of the cement powder, mix it myself and use it instead of emailing the company. I wish there was a more straight-forward website that I could buy off of instead of advertising websites that just tell about the product. It seems like no companies even want to deal with the private sector because I'm sure there just isn't enough money in it. But thanks guys for all your links, info, and advice so far.

Irate