Survival and Emergency Preparedness

Not sure where to put this but this looks as good a place as any.

I posted a photo of the range at my cabin on the old forum. In that I've been doing some improvements/modifications I thought I would bring you all up to date. I know no one really cares but I have to tell someone.

This is my range after adding all the steel targets...The ones on the right are rimfire pistols or rifles only, the rest are for centerfire handguns or rimfires.



Just spent 5 days, clearing brush, cutting wood and working on the range. I dug out 6 feet of the bank to expand the range. Only took me 4 hours by hand with pick and shovel.

I just bought a plate rack (fall down metal plates) from a guy on the other side of the state which my son picked up for me. It may go there or I might put it somewhere else and hang some more steel targets in that space.





I could shoot out to 25 yards just outside the cabin door but I wanted to shoot out to 50 yards. There was kind of a road I cut into the woods to go back to the ridge about 10 years ago. I had to carve out a space next to the road but the ground was so uneven that I really had no place to set up. I finally decided to build a level shooting platform using 4x4s and 2x4s.

Partially done...


And looking the other way toward the targets...The road isn't used very much and was covered with saplings and knee high ferns which had to be cleared. Legs are 4x4s sunk into the ground. The frame and decking is 2x4s



I had never done much shooting at 50 yards. Most sighting in of rifles are done at 25 or 100 yards. Once set up with a table and chair I spent one whole day just shooting my 22s at 50 and reaffirming the sights on some AR I brought up. It's a bit more challenging at 50 than at 25 but lots of fun.

That platform worked so well that I wanted one back on the food plot. I took some of my metal silhouettes out to the field on the back 40. It's about 140 yards from end to end. I have target stands at one end and bare ground at the other. I paced back an additional 10 yards in to the woods and decided to build another platform there so I could shoot at 150 yards. If 150 is good, 200 is better. I cleared a narrow pathway in the woods to the right of the 150 yards line and put up a target stand.

In the photo below the wide red circle is the 150 yard targets, the smaller one up and to the right is the 200 yard silhouette. It's actually at the base of a small hill. I tested some AR15s and my Keltec SU16 on it. After shooting at 200 yards the 150 yard targets seemed pretty easy. I was actually impressed with the SU16. I had a fixed 4x scope on it and could hit the silhouette every time once I zeroed it in.



Again, the legs are 4x4s sunk into the ground, I used 1.5x6s for the decking this time.

Big thumbs up! I’d love to have enough property somewhere to set up a range, fire pit and maybe a small cabin. How many acres do you have up there? I’d probably have to get up into northern Florida to find something affordable.

David wrote: ↑Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:57 pm Big thumbs up! I’d love to have enough property somewhere to set up a range, fire pit and maybe a small cabin. How many acres do you have up there? I’d probably have to get up into northern Florida to find something affordable.

I have 52 acres. I bought 12 and then the 40 in the back became available so I got together with my dad and brothers and bought it. That was in 1994. They only wanted to hunt on it a couple days a year and didn't want to spend money on a cabin or any improvement. I bought them out about 5 years ago which is when I started improving it by putting in food plots, having the lumber cut etc. We break ground on a house in July on the north 12 acres. Hopefully it will be done sometime in September. With my dad gone I can spend more time up there and when my mom passes (she's 93) we'll move up there full time.

Nice improvements. You're getting really well setup there.
I was hoping to find a place I could shoot when we were house shopping last fall, but we ended up with about an acre with neighbors too close. I could safely shoot, especially suppressed, but it would technically be against the rules.

Been kind of a dream of mine forever. To be able to walk out of the house and have a place to hunt and shoot whenever I want. I just wish I had bought out my brothers sooner or bought the land outright which frankly wasn't economically feasible at the time. My brothers still come up and hunt every year which is always fun.

My 5 year plan when I retired 10 years ago was to build a year round home and eventually move up there. My dad's stroke 4 years ago pushed that plan back 5 years but we are full speed ahead now.

I have some hunting blinds to build and the ever present pile of trees to cut. That pile of trees will take me a lifetime to get cut. I've been going up 4-5 days a week since mid March. I was spending the whole time cutting and clearing but that got monotonous. Now I try to spend half the time on other projects.

BTW, it started with just the silhouettes and round metal plates. I then added the orange rimfire knock down targets.



Then the 7 metal bowling pins...



Then I dug out the bank to make it bigger...



And added 3 more bowling pins and 6 tombstone plates and a target stand for paper targets.



It will be over 20 feet wide with the new addition and will take a box (50) of bullets to shoot the whole thing every time.

Set up my new (to me) plate rack. I wish I had more plates on it but it is very fun. While it will take any centerfire, I went through about 500 rounds of 22s playing with it. It has a lever with a long cord to reset it. I bought it used from a guy who made it. It is very well made and was very reasonably priced.



After shooting it for awhile I moved it back and lowered it a bit so it lines up with the other targets. It was so hot (90s) that I could only shoot for awhile before I had to cool off.

We were up meeting with the builder on Friday. We break ground this week for the new house.

Nice range! It's great to have your own place to shoot.
I usually shoot 8" steel plates on the handgun range but my wife wants to shoot her Glock 19 to practice self-defense shooting so I'm going to order 2 or 3 full size IDPA type plates.