Gary's dinged me the last fews times he's gone shooting with Jerry as I've been unable to attend due to "home improvement" projects. I felt I needed to justify my absence by demonstrating that it was at least somewhat airgun-related.

We just finished excavating a pad for a future structure which will, among other things, serve as my home-turf shooting shed. Between the excavation and construction of the wall, it took me and a friend about two full days to complete.



About 30 railroad ties and 20 tons of #57 gravel make up this retaining wall. Lucky for us, we had Kent-type machinery available to move everything around. Overkill? Probably. But as you can see, the ground is fairly sloped, and I didn't want to take any chances. The gravel still needs to nbe raked out a bit more, but our over-engineering seems to have paid off . . . when I checked the wall after our recent heavy rain, the only thing that washed through it were the shavings from where we bored holes into the ties for the rebar.



It's a nice-sized area . . . about 22' square, which will allow room for a decent-sized shed as well as plenty of room for access. Some of those railroad ties are pretty old . . . they're rounded and you can see the chisel marks from when they were hand-carved.



The site falls away into the woods and towards the creek. Can't shoot this way, though . . . houses etc. on the other side. Sure is pretty though when everything's green!



I'll be able to shoot uphill this way . . . probably 25-30 yards to the clump of trees in right-center. Trap and backer required, of course.



I can get more distance this way, but it will also require a trap and backer. Probably 50 yards (at least) straight over the green ground cloth and under the house's deck. Again, this is for smallbore only.

So while I can't shoot out of the house (Jerry), at least I'll be able to shoot outside of it, rain or shine!

-- Jim



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/31/2009 09:14PM by Jim.

Whad'ya mean you can't shoot from the house? I can see windows clear as day! Yeesh!

Get the big shed, it's amazing how fast they fill up! I'm looking forward to seeing the shooting set-up!

Looks great. Nice job.

What? Shoot uphill ... over the wall? Hey ... aren't you gonna shoot the UPS man, and anyone coming up your driveway? Beep, beep ... Don't shoot!!!

What's wrong with shooting down into that gully? That's what I'd always pictured.

Yeah ... build a big ole shed. Two story too - for storage (or hiding). heheh.

Gary

Thanks guys.

Heheh, the poor UPS guy is already traumatized because there's always stuff in the parking area. First, firewood . . . then gravel, tree limbs and railroad ties lately . . . next it's gonna be mulch. I keep telling him he's got it too easy and I'm gonna put some orange cones out there too.

Shooting downhill towards the stream is an option, especially once everything grows in, but that's in the general direction of our neighbors, and I doubt they want rifles aimed towards their place. A big driver for having the shed is the privacy it affords when having a little target practice.

Still working up what kind of structure to build and how big / how much. If you go over 120 square feet you've gotta get permits etc. and perhaps a variance, which also means your property taxes inevitably go up. But, it might be worth it, and I only wanna do this once . . .

-- Jim

Make the ground floor 120 sq. ft. Cantilever the second story. Free footage - you'll fill it up.

Gary

Jim,

Just make a pad and buy a trailer, set it up like Gary's.

No permits, no hassles and portable.

Jim, you gonna put wheels on that shed? Gary's got wheels on his.......

Good job so far!
As everyone says, get a shed twice the size you think you will need!

Space (sq ft) times time (mins) divided by wife(boss) = full shed of junk 1 day after construction.

This equation has been bourne out by many fine minds and years of proof!!!!!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/01/2009 09:32AM by Pablouk.

Pablouk is correct.

Get twice the shed you think you need, tell the Mrs. it is 1/4 the size you get.

Or get the wife her own shed.

just get two sheds . see , one mans shed is half full , one mans shed is half empty ,,,,, every one else , just needs two sheds.
nice start , looks good.