Range Construction

[Paul B]

I'm in the process of researching a book on range construction for the action shooting sports, primarily IPSC. The focus is on the safety aspects first with amenities also addressed.

I've actually visited more than 100 ranges across the country and investigated the scenes of numerous "bullet escapes." Most of the "escapes were due to poor range construction, although a few were just your plain old garden variety AD in the air. Some examples I have seen and the fixes needed are:

1. The death at the Dallas pistol club is one of the statistically insignificant times in which an injury occurred and irange construction may have played a part. An IPSC stage was being shot into a backstop with a building right behind the backstop. Unfortunately, the top of the building was above the top of the berm. An AD over the berm went into the eave of the building and ricocheted into a person in the building. The fix is pretty obvious. Berm either a lot higher or building in a different place or both.

2. At a club with some of the highest backstops I've see (at least 50 feet high) a bullet got out and landed in the yard of a property owner about 500 yards behind the backstop (no injuries). The cause was traced to a low IPSC target during a match. It was right down to the ground and the rounds passing through it were ricocheting off the rocks at a pretty high angel to get over the hill. The fix is to reset the target so that the bullets would impact the berm or create a small backstop behind the target to contain the bullets.

3. A club which had not been continuously maintaining their backstops (25 feet high) was starting to get reports of bullets coming down about 500 yards downrange (no injuries). A close examination of the range indicated that the berms had slumped enough at the base to have actually formed a sort of "ski-jump" if a low shot hit the right place. The fix was to introduce a pit at the base of the berm so that it extended further down and low shot would still hit at worst a 45 degree angle berm. 90 degrees at the base would have been better but harder to maintain.

I've got more of these but would rather hear if anyone else has had this experience and what was done to correct or prevent the problem.

[Matt Ulberg]

Interesting post, and I look forward to responses. As a Civil Engineer, I am also interested in the theories and practices of range construction,and would be interested in your printed resources you are using as sources, if any.

I have not had much luck finding printed information on range design, layout and material specifications, so I have created my own opinions on material and design from my limited experiences. I like our range in Missoula, MT as it has a large timbered mountain behind the berm, so the potential of bullet escape in the down-range direction has no significant consequence.

Keep us posted on your book.

Matt

[Run n Gun]

PaulB,

I’d be VERY interested to see any hard data that you may have accumulated on this subject! A few of us are in the slow process of convincing our BOD to let us become USPSA affiliated and we have a place where (with some berm work) we could put 4 bays.

The questions as to berm construction are many and hard data is hard to come by. The obvious answer is bigger is better but how big is big enough to be safe. If our little group can’t find the answers how are we ever going to sell the ultra-conservative BOD on the idea?

Any light you could shine on the subject would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks in advance,

Ed

[lynn jones]

paulb,

the nra has berm constrution details, but you've probably already know that.

lynn jones

[old shooter]

Paul,

Good work. One thing that I had always wanted to know. How far will a ricochet really travel. 500 yards seems like a long way after the bullet flight is disrupted. What distance behing the berm are you finding to be the minimum considered safe. Also, how does a ricochet from flat ground compare with one glancing from a 45 deg. berm. Inquiring minds want to know.

Mike

[Paul B]

Thanks for the input and keep it coming. I don't have any statistics, but a lot of anecdotal incidents. I don't hink anyone is compiling the numbers here. Whenever I visit a new club for a match and there is some talk of a bullet getting out of the range I try to find out what actually happened. Some of the things I've found out are pretty common;

Heavier bullets ricochet better than light ones.

Range maintenance is everything. Keeping a berm as close to verticle is essential to stopping most ricochets. If you leave them alone they slump into a great "ski-jump."

The area behind a backstop should be at least 600 yards free of habitation. Unless there are other significant range modifications.

Low targets are very bad unless there are supplementry berms.

Steel by itself does not creat ricochets, but you have to watch the angles

There are some things you can do to truly minimize the escape of bullets but they require some real constuction such as lips at the top of berms to catch bullets skittering along the berm and out. Intermediate low verticle backstops will stop low shots skittering along the ground and up over the berm.

While the army doesn't like sand on ranges, this must be for rifle as I have never heard of a pistol ricochet on a sand bay (berm and surface). Anyone else?

I have read the NRA range construction material and unfortunately it really is set up for stand and shoot rather than action type shooting. It is a great start though.

[texasag93]

I have seen people hammer Pepper Poppers with double and triple taps. After the popper has begun to fall it creates a ramp of sorts and bullets leave the bay rather quickly. I have seen them hit the top of berms or just plain go over them. Any time we have steel in a stage and you are in the next bay over you can hear the bullets(or fragments of them) whizzing over the berms. It can be nerve racking. TXAG

[THS]

Hmmm.

I do this, Range certification, for the Marine Corps as part of my primary duties. In fact, I teach it too. I'll tell you the riccochet pattern is complex, and the safety distances we use and require would make most civilian ranges I've been on unusable. I'll post diagrams if I can.

We take a full week to teach surface danger zones, and that enables the person to check safety zones for a huge amount of weapons and scenario's.

The small arms like we use in IPSC, with movement boxes, and multiple engagement options would take at least 2 days.

I'll post some data from my office on riccochet distances based on impact media. All the data I have is based on high dollar research, but covers military calibers and projectiles only.

Be carefull what you ask: you wont like my answers!

Tom

[Run n Gun]

THS,

Bring it on! I definitely have a “need to know” situation and would be far more comfortable basing my recommendations on facts.

Thanks to you and Paul,

Ed

[Guest Larry Cazes]

Paul, I can attest to the complexity of predicting ricochets on a typical range setup for IPSC style matches. Over the last year I have helped to run quite a few action pistol matches at a local outdoor range here in northern california. We used a mix of paper silhouettes and steel. We frequently had complaints from the range next door over bullets and bullet fragments from our matches showing up on their target line maybe 100 yards past our back berm. A lot of the ricochets were isolated to using multiple poppers, one in front of the other, just as was suggested in a previous post and the rest were believed to have been caused by low hits on the ground in front of poppers and bowling pins. I too would appreciate any resources or findings in this area.

Larry

[shred]

While not riccochet-related, I'd be interested to hear anything about noise-abatement around ranges-- the effectiveness of walls, vegitation, trees, etc, around the berms.

[gm iprod]

We have a bullet escape problem at one of the clubs I shoot at.

We resorted to using mainly falling forward plates (they are a hightmare as you wait on them and they fall real slow) for IPSC.

We had to cover the falling plate racks on the NRA Action Pistol Range. All other static targets for bullseye and Action Pistol are set close to the berm to reduce ricochet.

We are also using 44Gal (200litre / 55US Gal) plastic drums full of chipped up tyres. The back and side berms are also covered in a thick layer of the tyre chips. We have tested the chips with real big guns and nothing escapes if everybody plays their part. No stupid low target unless there is a couple of drums behind it. Wherever possible all target have a clear path behind them to the berm or drums are placed strategically. The drums also make excellent vision barriers, hard cover and walls. They can be handled by trolley or edge rolled. Lifting them for a high wall is a little difficult but two average people can manage it no problem. They seem to last well and most companies that use them for product are real glad to see the back of them.

Std steel drums can be used but they are not as good or as long lasting as the plastic ones.

[THS]

I cant find the line drawings to post now, but I'll try to describe this.

We use 2 shapes of Surface Danger Zone in the military today.

The first is a simple cone shape, with the center of the firing point going through the center of the target out to distance "X", which changes per ammunition type used. From that center line we go 5 degrees left and righ as a dispersion area, and then another 5 degrees from that line in a hazzard area, and then add 100 meters outside that as a buffer. For 9mm ball, 124 gr NATO type, the distance "X" is 1900 meters! Yes, 1900! What you end up when drawing this is a cone that is 1900 meters from top to tip, and about 600 meters at the widest. On a 50 target wide range we would draw the 2 outermost targets and then box off the inside.

That number, 1900 meters, is a known max possible distance and is based on the max distance the round could go if launched at the correct angle, high elevation, high heat, following winds, etc. We use that number no matter where the range is, but there is also NO deviation from it unless there is a mitigator like a mountain range. Berms don't work, as you cant build one high renough to stop bullets fired ar a 44 degree angle!

The other type is called the batwing shape SDZ. It has the same basic cone shape, but from the firing point there are wings that go out hundreds of meters left and right for about 800 meters from the gun. Then they come back to the cone shape. The size of the wings in both width and depth is tied to the impact media, as an example a sand range like 29 Palms CA has horrible characteristics, as sand spits projectiles out with too much velocity and retained energy. We are talking relatively low angle riccochet here, not shots directly into sloped berms of 35 or so degrees. Rock free topsoil like a farmers field is one of the best at reducing riccochet, especially if there is vegitation present and moisture in the ground.

COOL. I'm sitting here looking at the "Classic" Target, and it looks just like the batwings we use! The side angles are nearly the same! If your interested in a visual, take a classic and cut it from thre top straight to the bottom. Then angle them with 10 degrees between them. The angle in the middle extends the full 1900 meters, about twice the length of the cut section.

If you are really interested do a google search for MCO 3570. If you can find a PDF file you might be able to look at all the stuff, or perhaps USMC.Mil might have a link, publications I think.

PM or EMail if you want need more, or I'll take up bandwidth here.....

FYI. THe max distance for 5.56mm id 3500 meters. 7.62 (308 Win) is 6200Meters!

Tom

[Patrick Sweeney]

Note: a ricochet 230 lead rn .45 230 will travel 500 yards. Picked it up myself.

[gm iprod]

And around 12,000M for 50BMG M2. Just for the useless information file.

Pat, got the books you reccommended for my father, they are bloody awesome, good job well done. Many thanks.

[George D]

Note: a ricochet 230 lead rn .45 230 will travel 500 yards. Picked it up myself.

Pat,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I was one that thought a ricochet would be reduced in velocity and tumbling and therefore reduced in range. 500 yds is a lot more than I would have guessed.

Thanks to all for the input on a subject on which we all need to be informed.

[Patrick Sweeney]

The bullet only showed slight smearing on one side, and had obviously skidded out on a sandy slope. More mangled bullets wouldnot travel as far. The questions are, how far/how mangled, and what is the maximum undeformed distance?

the only safe solutions/answers are: more safety distance, and "eyebrows", solid fences upslope on the impact berm from the targets.

[kevin c]

Our range is stacked: public 25 yard line behind (uprange of) the IPSC range, with two of our bays behind it, one behind the other, and other bays behind the club's rifle ranges. The berm behind the 25 yd line is about 12 feet high, and the main berm behind the IPSC bays is 20 ft plus. None the less, we hear riccochets from the public range going over all the time. The berms have been carefully built up, and we actually have railroad ties held up by steel I beams as 10 ft vertical side walls (the beams are covered with planking) so we haven't had any real problems in a long time.