The local private range upgraded some of their benches on one of the firing lines, and they set aside their old benchtops. I asked what they had in mind for them, and they seemed enthusiastic to have someone take some of the excess off their hands. For the price of collecting them, I loaded two of them that were in still in good condition into the truck, and set them aside for a weekend project at The Cabin.
The shooting disciplines I practice typically do not involve benches and the older family members complain bitterly when they have to lie in the dirt/rocks to shoot. These benches were installed for their comfort at 100yds to accommodate failing eyesight, sore joints and stiff necks.
Similar to an older post here on AS regarding benches we layed out some holes, cleared rocks and trees, and poured some cement into some carboard tubes. A couple days later we mixed some mortar and set the tops:
The project involved all the family members in some way, it was nice to have 4 people available to set the bench tops due to the inconvenience of getting equipment into "the back 40."
We test drove it yesterday, and it seems like it will work. The stools are just pine blocks that we'll trim to size once we finalize the project. Later, we'll pull apart the remaining form-work, trim some more trees back, level out the dirt around the tables, and add some gravel to mitigate any mud in case it ever rains. We might add to the berm too to have multiple target racks and some .22LR swingers.
So now we've a functional 100yd shooting position/berm with some additional steel at 390yds up the hill, In total, the range now has positions with steel from 50 yards to 1875.
The shooting disciplines I practice typically do not involve benches and the older family members complain bitterly when they have to lie in the dirt/rocks to shoot. These benches were installed for their comfort at 100yds to accommodate failing eyesight, sore joints and stiff necks.
Similar to an older post here on AS regarding benches we layed out some holes, cleared rocks and trees, and poured some cement into some carboard tubes. A couple days later we mixed some mortar and set the tops:
The project involved all the family members in some way, it was nice to have 4 people available to set the bench tops due to the inconvenience of getting equipment into "the back 40."
We test drove it yesterday, and it seems like it will work. The stools are just pine blocks that we'll trim to size once we finalize the project. Later, we'll pull apart the remaining form-work, trim some more trees back, level out the dirt around the tables, and add some gravel to mitigate any mud in case it ever rains. We might add to the berm too to have multiple target racks and some .22LR swingers.
So now we've a functional 100yd shooting position/berm with some additional steel at 390yds up the hill, In total, the range now has positions with steel from 50 yards to 1875.
When it gets closer to a finished state I'll add some more photos.
If shooting/projectiles have to be contained to the property itself, the max range is about 700 yards along a fenceline, maybe a little more, if you got a tractor, and chainsaw, and performed some landscaping. The terrain doesn't really permit target stands at regular 100 yard intervals, so there are a few positions to shoot from relative to fixed target racks/berms.
