Backstop for .308 - railway ties

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hutten

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I plan to build a backstop out of railway ties for some long range work with a .308. Railway ties are about 6" high, 9" wide, 8' long. How many of these stacked together would safely stop a .308? If I stacked them 3 deep, would that be enough?

hutten
 
Something to consider is the front stack of ties will get shot away fairly quickly, so four rows might be better. You should alternate the ties so that the seams of subsequent rows do not line up. I think it would be easier to build a box out of ties and fill it with sand. A plywood target board could be nailed onto the front of the box and could be easily replaced as required.
 
My original plan was to build a 3 sided box, fill the middle with dirt. The problem is, I have no efficient way of getting the dirt to where I want it to be, which is the far end of a field. I want to keep the costs down as much as possible.

Boomer said:
I think it would be easier to build a box out of ties and fill it with sand. A plywood target board could be nailed onto the front of the box and could be easily replaced as required.
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The easiest thing would be to get a dump truck in there when the ground is hard and dump some earth and put a target frame in front of it, but you say you cannot get dirt to it?
I just use old pallets I find and lay them against dirt piles, staple targets and good to go. When the pallets get too shot up I make kindling out of them. ;)

The ties will get shot out quickly, so you'll need to replace them when it happens. More costly to me IMO.
 
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Boomer said:
Something to consider is the front stack of ties will get shot away fairly quickly, so four rows might be better. You should alternate the ties so that the seams of subsequent rows do not line up. I think it would be easier to build a box out of ties and fill it with sand. A plywood target board could be nailed onto the front of the box and could be easily replaced as required.
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Best bet would be a sandwich of plywood lined and sand filled boxes. As the forward sections get punched out and collapse, they can be rebuilt without loosing the whole backstop.
 
hutten said:
I plan to build a backstop out of railway ties for some long range work with a .308. Railway ties are about 6" high, 9" wide, 8' long. How many of these stacked together would safely stop a .308? If I stacked them 3 deep, would that be enough?

hutten
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No. You can shoot through a surprising amount of wood with a centerfire rifle.

I don't know about the .308 win, but I saw a carcano bullet recovered from a log shot lengthwise in one of those "who shot JFK" documentaries, and it was a found a number of feet down the length of it, located by x-ray.
 
hutten said:
The problem is, I have no efficient way of getting the dirt to where I want it to be, which is the far end of a field. I want to keep the costs down as much as possible.
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You can use a wheelbarrow, might take some time but the shooting afterwards would just be twice as good.
 
If you put them so that you are shooting at the end, not the side of the tie, they will stop a lot more and last a lot longer. I think they are about 1' square, 9 of them will give you a 9' by 9' target holder. As mentioned, a piece of plywood on the front will be better to hang your targets on to.

Scott
 
m39a2 said:
If you put them so that you are shooting at the end, not the side of the tie, they will stop a lot more and last a lot longer. I think they are about 1' square, 9 of them will give you a 9' by 9' target holder. As mentioned, a piece of plywood on the front will be better to hang your targets on to.

Scott
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Correction - 81 will give you 9' by 9', which is 81 square feet. 9 will give you a 9 square feet target surface ;). However, that is still a viable option. I have almost an inexhaustible supply available - a railway was pulled out near my place and the ties were stacked up in a huge pile.
 
x2 on sandbags, its long to fill 'em up but its worth it, im pretty sure you could find some in a mil. surplus store or you could use pretty much anuthing that would hold sand/dirt hek! you're in a field right? so im pretty much theres ennough dirt around :)
 
FWIW South African 7.62x51 FMJ (147g bullet iirc?) will penetrate 3 railway ties widthwise and still blow a pretty big hole in wet dirt/mud

that was an eye opener coming from shooting varmint bullets let me tell you....
 
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