Ceol Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 (edited) There is a neglected shooting range near me that is going to be renovated in the next year or so. The folks running it have access to a lot of money for the work, and want their end product to be well set up for as many shooting disciplines as possible, including IPSC/3-gun. I'm the closest thing to an IPSC guy in the area (I've been shooting it regularly for only about 6 months, and am the proud holder of a D classification ), so they asked me if I would come up with an idea of what a really good IPSC range would look like. I've not done any match or stage designing, and the club I shoot with uses a pretty small area out in the woods as a rather makeshift range - so I don't really know what elements make a top-notch practical shooting range. If some of you more experienced folks could share some ideas, I would really appreciate it. Some background on the area...the terrain is rather "badlands-like" - the hills form natural shooting lanes and berms, including one or two lanes several hundred yards deep. There is plenty of room for a half dozen or more separate lanes (I think it will be possible to have one set aside specifically for a shoot-house). Thanks! Edited November 9, 2005 by Ceol Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidball Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 Three sided bays and lots of them. Double Tap Ranch has photos of their building project that might be helpful . . . http://doubletapranch.com/ipsc_home_page.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeeper Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 THe problem with many ranges (including double tap) is that they arent deep enough or wide enough. If you make it too shallow or narrow then you can only run quick close stages. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceol Posted November 9, 2005 Author Share Posted November 9, 2005 THe problem with many ranges (including double tap) is that they arent deep enough or wide enough. If you make it too shallow or narrow then you can only run quick close stages. What dimensions would be ideal? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidball Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 (edited) I agree with Jeeper . . . my first post should have read "Three sided bays (the bigger the better) and lots of them." You can do almost anything you want if a bay has 30 yards by 30 yards of usable space. For many ranges, even one of these may be a luxury, so we build what we can. The NRA has a manual for developing ranges. It costs about $50. If I recall correctly it recommends side berms of a minimum 10 ft in height and a back berm of 18 - 20 ft. The USPSA Club Program Manual recommends side berms of at least 8 - 10 ft. and a back berm of at least 12 - 15 ft. You can download this manual from the members area of the USPSA site. Edited November 9, 2005 by davidball Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shred Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 25 yards x 50 yards deep makes a nice big IPSC pistol bay. But, you need high berms in order to shoot close targets from down low-- maybe put in a few small bays for classifiers and that sort of thing. 15x25 yards is a good size for 'medium' bays, and 10x15 works for small ones. I think irregular bays using the natural hills would be cool too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 I would give the flip side of that... Not all the bays need to be big and wide. Often, I would like to have a couple of smaller bays in exchange for one larger one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeeper Posted November 9, 2005 Share Posted November 9, 2005 I would give the flip side of that...Not all the bays need to be big and wide. Often, I would like to have a couple of smaller bays in exchange for one larger one. I agree, you need a mix of sizes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceol Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 Awesome - thanks, guys! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 IMO, all bays should be at least 25 yards wide, 40-50 is better on average. A couple of narrower ones can be useful, but not a lot. Depth is where most fall short all the time. 50 yards minimum depth and make some 75 - 100. For doing real 3gun, you would want at least two bays 50+ wide and real deep. At the minimum, one at 300 deep and one at 200 deep if you really wanna' do 3 gun right. More bays at even longer distances if possible if you want rifle shooters to inhabit your range regularly. The two hunnert could be used as a reduced course High Power Rifle bay with the addition of a target pit and a berm to protect it so 3 gun wouldn't hurt the High Power hardware. If you can build a six hunnert' that would be perfect for full distance High Power and Metallic Silhouette competition. All bay walls have to be thick and high enough to take full power rifle rounds and slugs in the side walls. Parking space near the stages is nice. Real toilets are a real luxury. AC power at the stages is handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scorch Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 (edited) Hey Thanks for the Shout out David, At the Double Tap Ranch we built 6 Bays ( out of 14) that are about 115-120 feet deep and about 45-65 feet wide, Deeper and Wider for 3 gun would be a plus and a variety is good. We have all sizes but the Minimum is 32 feet deep standing inside the side berm slope. So you can always have steel on any bay you want. We are in the Process of putting in a 150 yd rifle range and we use the Back of the Back Berms for three gun out to 250 yards. ( but this is a Very limited Public Range IE: only IPSC shooters are memebrs, so we can control who and where folks are on the range) Real Wide bays that are about 20 yds deep is good for lateral stages and is something we are also going to put in, that we don't have right now (Bay count should be around 18 when done). We run the Lateral stages at an angle in the Larger Bays. The Double Tap Ranch was built just for Pistol, we have two other clubs in the area one that is a rifle club and one that is a shotgun club and the both looked down on pistol shooters. Any question please PM me. I ran the dozer on this project for over 200 hours Robert Edited November 11, 2005 by scorch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceol Posted November 11, 2005 Author Share Posted November 11, 2005 Actually, they're planning to put in a full 1000 yard area for the precision rifle folks. Plus a large parking area, lines to city water and sewer, a 250-person classroom building, and a fulltime on-site caretaker. I'm sure there'll be power to the area, but I hadn't thought about extending it to the shooting bays - that would come in handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Clay1 Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Robert, just read the article in the current Front Sight on Double Tap. Sounds like a very nice facility to have. I think that most of us have had experiences with certain clubs that if you didn't shoot what they shot you were somehow less than. Too bad, because another shooter should be your friend by default. Rick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flexmoney Posted November 11, 2005 Share Posted November 11, 2005 Ceol, Did you state what area you were from? I might have missed it. Another thing to consider is the size of the berms. I have seen them built without much thought. Not enough footage is allotted to them. So, to get the height needed, they end up with a steep slope to them...which breaks down easy, especially when we are shooting into all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Moneypenny Posted November 16, 2005 Share Posted November 16, 2005 Flex as usual making excellent points, Erosion and erosion control are 2 things you have to seriously look at with mountains as your back drop, soo much work can be un-done by a little hard rain! I didn't see where you were from either. looks like it could be a fun range to visit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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