For most of this year (2006), I have been planning and trying to get a small field range built in my back yard. I live in a standard residential neighborhood of North Seattle, WA, so there were a lot of considerations to be dealt with before I felt comfortable actually doing it. One is local regulations... there are some questions you don't want to ask. I know you cannot discharge a firearm in the city and that's what I'm hanging my hat on. The obvious corallary to that is safety. I didn't want any reasonable person to look at my yard and scream that i was endangering anyone. (The unreasonable you can't deal with anyway.) If anyone ever objects, the whole thing will obviously have to come down. Even if I could fight for it and win (unlikely) it isn't worth neighbor troubles.
Anyway, all that said up front, I finally went ahead and did it. Here are the first pictures and comments on how I went about it and what went into the various decisions. Hopefully, it will help someone else.
I took and posted more pictures than were probably necessary, but what the heck, I'm proud of the whole thing. Is it perfect? No! I can already see some changes I would like to gradually make, and I will discuss those, as well as some of the design considerations, after the pictures. It will probably be helpful to know that my yard is basically 60' x 120', with a house in the middle toward the front, and a 10' x 14' shed to one side in the back. All arrows shown are from my first round of the course, for which I certainly did not push the distances... 10 to 15 yards. I'll work out tothe longer shots gradually.
Target #1 This one is a tough shot in the afternoon... sun in your eyes and shooting into shade. Distance is anything up to 25 yards. My favorite spot to shoot it from is just by the kitchen side door, about 15 yards. Any longer than that and I'm standing in the front yard shooting in plain view. I do shoot at my indoor target from plain view in the driveway, but everyone can plainly see I am shooting into the garage and no one has gotten concerned about it. Note that this is a "blind corner", which means you have to be sure no one is in the back yard who could walk into your shot. Fortunately, there is no access from that side.
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Target #1 Again Here you can get an idea of the shade under the tree. the target is hung on brackets on the front surface of the shed. The brackets are mounted on an extra sheet of 5/8" exterior plywood sheet, 4' x 4'. any bag misses or pass throughs should hit the extra thickness of plywood and not damage the shed wall. |
Target #1 Again Showing the plywood sheathing added to the shed wall. Note: You recover this arrow on your way to shoot the next target.
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Target #2 OK... after shooting Target #1, you cross through the tree shade into the back yard proper, moving to your right, and look to your left at the far corner of the yard, where you see Target #2. currently a standing bear. (Ignore the turkey hanging on the side of the shed to the left... it comes into the picture later as Target #6.) This bear target is shootable to 25 yards. The backstop is two 4' x 6' sheets of 5/8" sheathing (see 'Comments' below... this had to be thickened), framed and braced behind so the whole "wall" is quite rigid. I have two targets that I really intend to shoot from 20, 25, and 30 yards, and these two got this big "billboard backing" treatment... wide enough to protect from misses going beyond to the fence and high enough that any reasonably careful shooting should not go over. Note: This arrow is not recovered at this point.
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Target #2 Again Here you can get a better feel for the big backstop I provided for this shot.
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Target #2 Again This shot does a good job of showing the brackets the bags are hung on. In the case of these two "big board" targets, I ;ater added cross bracing on top of the brackets to make them more rigid and raised the brackets up 9" on the two big boards) as these bags seemed to hang a bit low, and I don't see myself shooting over the board at 6'. |
Target #3 After shooting #3, you step over to the right maybe 10 to 15 feet and shoot this one, which is a big vertical elk bag. At this pint, you are on the opposite side of the house from Target #1, but still looking to the end of the back yard. This target's kill zone is particularly low, and again, I will eventually raised the brackets 9". He is a pretty safe shot, since my rear neighbor's shed is behind the board. This shot can be take from as far as 30 yards, standing down the far side of the house. I suspect that unless I'm warmed up and feeling "on" that day, I will usually go from 20 - 25 yards.
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Target #3 Again The board is a hair above ground, and I will need to put a bottom board against it or pile up dirt so any low shots don't slither under into the neighbor's yard. It would be very hard to recover them without taking the board down so that you could reach a couple of sticks through the fence, so I can't let that happen. You can see how low the elk's kill zone is, and that's another reason I raised this one a hair. |
Target #4 After shooitng the elk, you walk up to him and recover that arrow. You are then standing in the opposite back corner of the yard from Target #2, the bear. Looking along the fence, in the shade under a big spruce tree, you can see a pair of plastic target backstops, on which is mounted half of one of those four target small game bag fronts... the rabbit and the quail.
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Target #4 Again You get two shots here, at 10 yards. You walk up and recover these arrows, then circle out around the tree and back into the far corner where the bear (Target #2) is, recovering that arrow. |
Target #5 Once you have recovered your arrow from the bear (Target #2), you are in the back corner, right next to the bear. If you then look forward, toward the house, you are facing the back of the shed, on which another 4' x 4' piece of sheathing has been mounted, and you see Target #5, the other half of the small game bag, made into a full size bag, with the ground hog and crow showing. You get two shots here at 10 yards.
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This shot is in here purely because I tried shooting at each bag as I filled and hung them. That wasn't in the actual shooting order. As it happened, this target was the first one hung and shot. That perfect shot on the crow was the first shot I took on my new range. The groundhog was the second. Looks like a good omen to me! On this bag, I found that the groundhog was close to the curved edge and some arrows passed through. I also wanted to experiment with a larger potential impact area, so I tried making a 4' square bag. Results below: Target #5 Improved
Here, the new bag covers virtually the whole reinforced impact area on the wall, and also gives me space to comfortably shoot all four images on the small game target. I started with a piece of burlap 4' wide x 9' long. To that, I sewed two commercial burlap animal target faces... one for small game and one for wild turkey. These are roughly 36" x 40". Then I folded it, leaving one target on each side, and stitched a hem at the top, then sewed extra wide velcro to the two top edges, then stitched up the sides, creating a huge bag 48" x 54". Then added two hanging straps at the corners. Finally, stuffed it with an incredible amount of crumpled up commercial grade plastic sheeting that I got from a boat yard. They use it to build a barrier around boats that are up on cradles so they can spray paint the bottoms. this works well, and I will be making at least one more, as I want to have a bigger bag for the longest range shot, and have a real target on the back for practice. |
Target #6 OK, after recovering those two arrows, you go across the yard kind of catty-corner so that you are back in front of the elk target, but a closer to it than the shooting point. 15 yards away, on the side of the shed, is a turkey.
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Target #6 Again This is just to show that once again, the shed has been protected with the sheathing. |
Target #5 Again
You should have figured out from my comments that this whole thing was only finished today... about an hour and a half ago, actually. The six target stops presently provide 8 individual shots. I am going to expand that to a "normal" course pattern that includes two extra shots... one on the bear (Target #2) and one on the elK (Target #3). These two shots will be shooter's option, but must be from a different distance from the first shot they take on each target, and must be from a different position, probably kneeling for most folks. though sitting or lieing could be possibilities. I haven't decided yet, but i will probably also work it that they have to be after another target, i.e., you can't shoot the bear, then immediately shoot him again from five yards closer. More likely, you would shoot something like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, then come back across the yard toward 6 and stop and shoot 2 again, then 3 again, from different distances and different shooting positions, before finishing with six. This would give a ten shot "course".
Comments
Here are some random thoughts that might help someone else...
Target bags are great, and relatively cheap. You can build your own with better quality burlap by buying the burlap from Jo Ann's when they have coupon sales. I got 8 yards for $1.50 a yard! I needed it because I had purchased burlap target faces rather than bags, and for this appllication, I needed bags. I spend an afternoon sewing backs onto the faces and installing grommets in the corners for hanging. I really, really want a raccoon for one target, and I plan to paint my own on the burlap. If you take this approach, bag targets can be cheap!
For filler for the bags, I tried three approaches... first I filled with scrap upholstery foam from my wife's shop. This is wonderful... easy to stuff, fills the bag out well and gives easy arrow pull out. However, I suspect is will not do well when the rains start. I fear the foam will hold water and induce mold growth. It may also make the bags too heavy. Right now, only one bag is still foam filled, kind of as a test. Second I got a good supply of the very heavy shrink wrap plastic that is used when small boats are shipped. Works OK, but is heavy and hard to get real good covereage of the filler in the bag. Third I went to a boat yard and gathered some of the lighter gauge plastic they hang around the boats when they spray paint them. This has paint on it, but do I care?. This is a real good approach, and any construction project might see some similar product being thrown away. Generally, if you just ask they're glad to have you take it, and somewhat intriqued by what you're doing with it. Warning... it takes far more plastic to fill a bag than you think it will, if you really fill it well, with the corners and sides nicely packed.
Finally, if I get rich, I'd love to replace the bags with 4' square all weather compressed hay or plastic back stops. That's not in the cards soon, though. They run about $100 each.
The bags are hung on the brackets with nylon line, and can be slipped off and stored in the shed. I was going to use plasticised metal bicycle hooks, but they didn't stick out far enough and I was concerned about the possibility of a ricochet if an arrow hit the bracket.
Speaking of richochets, I originally wanted foam 3D animals, but after attending a few shoots, I realized that a strike on the back or the curve of a chest or rump can ricochet and head off anywhere... high, low or wide.
Also, keep rocks out from in front of the targets, in case of a low shot... could damage an arrow or, again, ricochet.
My brackets are OK, but they proved to have a bit more wobble side-to-side than I like, and I will added horizontal brace to them.
I have made two other changes since "finishing"... I got really lucky in the plastics scrounging department. Hit a boat yard on the day before their dumpster got emptied and brought home a van load of mediu mil stuff. Stuffed all my bags about twice as tight as they were because I was getting pass throughs at the edges of the bags (I know, I'm not supposed to hit the edges). I also found that while the 5/8" sheathing was fully adequate where I had put it against the sides of the shed, it was not adequate on the big backstops where it was framed but not backed. I had an arrow penetrate... didn't pass through, but was a bear to get back out. I added an additional layer of 3/4" sheathing on top of the 5/8"... not it truly stops any arrow.
I have learned that I can buy better quality burlap than the commercial bag targets use. (Jo Ann's Fabrics, nationwide chain, wait for coupons and buy it for $2 a yard, 48" wide). I used this burlap to sew all my flat single side burlap targets into bags. Now I am planning to make my own bags and make them a full 48" square. I can either paint my own animals on them or sew single side commercial targets on.
I tried one bag with wide Velcro on the top. I'm fortunate to have access to this free through my wife's business. It works really great. You can stuff the bag real tight and the Velcro holds it closed. When you want to restuff just pull the Velcro apart... no sewing involved.
Worries about Visitor
Obviously, this course is a fun thing, and will be more so with a guest or friend. That raises some worries. I am going to have to be flat out blunt about everyone starting from short distances until I truly am confident of their ability to keep the arrows on the targets. This may be embarassing when most archers are going to better shots than I am, but these aren't their neighbors! I'll also have to insist on some equipment standards... i.e. no real heavy bows (to me, over 60# is heavy... 45 - 50# is better). These bags are not free hanging like those on most club ranges, because there is nowhere for a through shot to fall. It's going to hit the backstop. That's what the backstop is there for, but at the same time, I don't want to see them get chewed to pieces by 80# bows. Of course, most guys who shoot in those upper ranges are (or should be) good enough that messing around on a little course like this isn't what they're after anyway.
My second visitor worry is re the neighbors. Obviously, I don't want more than one or maybe two other folks shooting with me here. A group draws attention. Also, one of my safety rules is that if the neighbors are out in their yards, I shoot down in the driveway into the garage. No sense in being a worrisome and/or "in your face" type presence. My neighbor on one side is a lovely 95 year old who wouldn't give a darn and never uses her back yard. Only time there is anyone in it is yard men. On the other side is a reclusive deaf man who does get out and mow his backyard, but otherwise isn't around it much. Behind they have teenage kids and a huge trampoline... if the kids are out, no shooting. The off corner rear neighbors I never see, and are, I hope a minimal worry.
Sept. 16... Had my first "Official Visitor" today... Lyn Edmondson, a visiting Canadian sailor, contacted me by email after seeing comments about this little range. We had a great day shooting both this range and the club range north of here. A couple of people shooting this range together is really great. The shots are just challenging enough to promote a little competition.
OK... that about covers it. If all this is of interest or is useful, I'm real pleased. Let me know if you found it so, or if you have questions. You can pop me an email at: