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Best Pistol Bay Surface/Ground Cover Material?


ColaGunner

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After many years of wanting a private practice space, I'm finally in a position to build a couple of decent practical shooting bays on our land.  Grading is just underway, but I'm hoping to fit 75 x 50 yards with berms meeting the NRA standards.

 

I've seen lots of different ground cover surfaces inside outdoor bays, including plain dirt, grass, sand, large gravel, and small gravel. My natural soil red clay, so it will be a mess with just a little rain.  I need to cover it with something.

 

Any tips or favorites? 

 

 

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Dirt,  it's what we have at home, some grass.  I can tell you the worst in larger crused rock. Kinda like stage 20 at the Ntionlas this year.  You can bust your can faster than any other surface. Ideal Pea gravel or grass. To me anyway, good luck! 

 

Edited by a matt
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38 minutes ago, a matt said:

Won't the limestone turn hard as concrete over time? Just wondering with it crushing from running and the addition of rain.

 

Yeah it will get pretty hard. But loose, deep gravel sucks and can be dangerous to run on. Grass is slick in general. Dirt turns to mud. 

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I can understand some of your thinking but (lol) grass is generaly not all that slick unless it's wet from dew, sprinklers or rain. Even then as long as you wear shoes with good grip (Salmons $120.00 or nike land sharks $35.00)  you have much less of a chance slipping on grass i feel as you may on hardened limestone with pebbles much like marbles. I also agree if we add rain to dirt it turns to mud and if it rains that much at your range try adding grass seed, it will grow quickly.  Get a good pair of shoes shipped to your house with good tread and the slipping will be much less likely to happen.  I have seen first hand what limestone can do to you when you fall on it and I have also fallen on grass. Grass is far and away better to fall on in my opinion. Im only wanting to share what i use to cover my personal range and my experiences with most every outdoor range surface that I have shot on. We have crush n run on a nearby range and I just shot the Nationals with limestone, big rocks and grass covering most of the dirt. Last weekend we shot SC state and it was sandy like beach sand. Sand is ok we just had to clean our mags after every stage we shot. The crush n run is ok it just depends on the size of the stone, we have small pea size at the Area 6 match its ok. I feel with larger the rocks you have greater chance of falling. Without question grass is thr softest of all the range serfsces. Thats why I like grass and will be adding seed to our range very soon plus it's cheap too.  Maybe treat it like buying a custom gun and tyr as many as you can then decide on what you like, cause its your range after all. Good luck.  

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Thanks for the good input gentlemen.  The other factor that I a failed to mention is brass recovery.  I reload and have found it tough to pick up quickly in grass and large rocks.  That said, the benefits of grass might trump that consideration.  I've got to make sure i get my drainage right.  Surface won't matter if turns into a pond when it rains.

 

 

 

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In our area we have what is called "half/minus". It is tiny stone mixed with stone dust. Probably similar to crushed limestone with fines. Very smooth when is settles. Hard, but not like concrete. Not slippery when wet and brass is easy. Use it on my range. Very happy with it. Also, don't have to mow it or use roundup on it every month like grass! Have been to matches where they put tarps down for brass recovery. Not very handy, IMO. BTW my range is flat from the "shooting house" to the 50 yd berm, but drops about a foot from side to side ( about 25 yd) for drainage. Nice. 

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If you have the $$ a product called regupol is pretty good. It is a manufactured ballistic range surface made from recycled tires. 

 

It comes in the shape of pavers so you just grade the surface then lay them with sand. 

 

Grippy wet or dry. Very low maintenance. Safe (no ricochets) and slightly forgiving if you tumble. 

 

There is us dealers but here's the German page: 

 

https://www.berleburger.com/en/products/sports-flooring-special-flooring-indoor-facilites/regupol-shooting-ranges/ 

 

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