How tall of a berm?

[adamsredlines]

Say you had some property out of city limits and wanted to build a berm sufficient for "anything" reasonable...how tall should it be?
Assuming you'd have steels for close stuff like pistols and what not, but target stands for shooting 100-150 yards back.

 

[adamsredlines]

DOE Range Design Criteria says ranges over 100 yards long should have a berm 26ft tall that is at least 10 feet "thick" at the top.

"For open ranges, the top elevation of the earth impact berm should be 26 feet above the range surface for ranges 100 yards long or longer and 16 feet above the range surface for ranges 50 yards long or less..."

"The preferred slope of the impact berm face is 1 to 1 or steeper. The steeper the slope, the more likely the berm is to absorb projectiles. The top should be 10 feet wide..."


I'm guessing thats pretty overbuilt for a personal use range!
https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2013/05/f1/Range_Design_Criteria.pdf

 

[HoLeChit]

I have a copy of the NRA range building manual on my google drive. I haven’t read it yet, but I’m willing to bet it would give you some good reading on the subject. It’s under the “range stuff” section. Chootin - Google Drive

 

[adamsredlines]

From your manual...

 

[diggler1833]

Really depends on how much land and natural objects are behind your target berms.

My 100 yard target berm is all of 4' tall and 4' deep (6' wide). Ive yet to miss it, but the downside to such a small berm is that after ~100 rounds or so you'll want to fill in the crater with some more dirt. I also run steel directly behind it out to 300, and shoot from a rested position out of my shop. No berms for the steel.

What allows me to do this is that even behind my 300 yard spot is another 500 yards of my land that is all heavily wooded. That is enough of a natural boundary to stop anything...but I also don't have a house in line with my range for nearly two miles. My 100 yard berm essentially just allows me to shoot without having to worry about MY cattle wandering around in the background.

IF, my land ended just behind my 300 yard range, I'd darn sure have a huge berm. Yeah, they're expensive to build...but not nearly as costly as the lawsuit would be for an errant bullet.

In your case, I'd determine "sufficient" as what you feel comfortable with that will prevent you from standing before a judge because you added an extra ventilation hole to a neighbor's house.

 

[Catt57]

It all depends on the terrain...

For the place in Bristow there is no berm.
However, All around the range and for about a mile behind it is all heavily wooded.
Also, the way it is setup, the entire range set is set back into the woods on a slight downhill slant in a shallow gully with it leveling out just beyond the end of the range. I can see where the projectiles have been hitting the ground just beyond the range. They are hitting the ground at least 100 yds within my side of the property line. The property just behind is vacant and all heavy forest for almost a mile. As for the sides, the one side that is closest to the property line (Right side) has a rise of about 15 ft above the range by the time you get to the line and lots and lots of trees, and the other side is at least 300 yards of very thick forest to the closest building.

The shooting bench is on the edge of the woods and the start of the range is in a clearing about 50 yards wide x 50 yards deep.

 

[AKguy1985]

My berm is probably 7ft tall and 15-20ft long and 6ft thick atleast.

 

[bubbaturbo]

My berm is probably 7ft tall and 15-20ft long and 6ft thick atleast.

Nice.