I have always had a thought/dream of buying some vacant land and building my own private trap field. Does anyone know how much land (i.e., how many acres) is needed to do this?

I think your biggest considerations should be the noise and the possible repercussions from all of the shot on the ground. The noise will carry farther than the shot. The shot could hamper future sale of the ground.

300 yard shot fall zone (as well as the field) if you have to go to zoning, as that seems to be the standard they are looking for. If not, less then that as long as shot does not land on your neighbors property.

http://www.losttarget.com/s/LeadShot.pdf

Local noise maximums (as well as state).

And, what do you consider private? You start charging and you may find you fall under a different set of local rules in regard to running a range.

Set it up as a non profit and take donations.

40 to 50 acres is a good size. Close to roads? Close to streams or lakes? Shot fall? Close to Federal, state or county property? Good luck! Fred

Samthompson:

I hope everything works out for you. As part of the planning process, I suggest that you talk to your insurance agent to make sure that you fully understand any liability issues that may arise from this venture. The NRA may have an insurance product that may help in thus area.

Ed Ward

In my area as long as your PRIVATE the county can't do a thing. Just make sure all your shot falls in your property and not others. Noise, just make sure your not shooting at midnight if you get what I mean. If you open up to the public then your in trouble. Friends are OK but not the public.

To lessen the amount of land try to buy land with alot of tree's so the tree's stop the shot well short of 300 yards. Buy land with a large hill so your shooting into a hill side again not needing 300 yard drop field. You can also buy a shot curtain to catch the shot.

There are a number of ways to do things.

You might want to go to GoogleMaps and look at the satalite image for a trap range your familiar with and note how far an area they've allowed for shot fall. Then maybe look at the area on the ground if they've mined it recently, you can compare the two to see where the majority of the shot is really falling. Our local trap/skeet range has about 100 yards to a fence, then some horse pasture beyond that. I'm trying to think of some ranges I've seen mined recently, and it seems the area they dig up is really not that far.

I think the NSSA website has some resources available for people starting a range, info on EPA and water run-off, range dimensions, shot fall, etc. You might see what you can find at their website to help find a suitable piece of ground.

One range I shot at years ago had a bit of a recluse who lived in a trailer on the edge of the ranges property. The guys trailer was way across the property, no one shot toward the trailer, in fact all shots were away from the trailer. The guy just didn't like having the range next to him. When the shooting would start, he would come out and start yelling and firing a pistol into the air, making threats. He was so far away you could barely hear him yelling, only because it echoed across the field. Kind of made you think twice about shooting there, which was his true goal, and sure enough the range eventually closed down, I think due to low useage. So, the lesson learned is no matter where you put your range, you might want to be sure the neighbors don't mind the use, no matter how far away they are.

Our compact trap range has three fields and sits fully contained within 13 acres... while the 300 yard shotfall zone is the "standard"... the NRA wont make any recommendation... it is contingent upon your ammunition limitation...

Limit shot size to 7.5 lead and using the Journee Table of maximum shot travel - you'll have 209 yards minimum to retain... go larger and you need more land...

If you add Skeet to a trap field, that adds a another dimension and directions to consider... don't forget about the orientation of the property... preferably face the fields E/NE/N...

Jay

Jay, et.al.,

Shot at trap loads will travel well beyond the 209 yards cited.

Just last month I was walking my dog at the MD Homegrounds and there was tons of shot laying on the ground 300 paces from the front of the traphouse. I stepped it off curious. At 6'4" and with a 38" inseam my paces are pretty long.

Very unscientific, but I was surprised.

Guy B.

I find that very surprising as well, since our range has a 230' fence line and we limited to #7.5 and received a NFR letter from the EPA for the area outside our fence back in the 1990s well before we switched to steel shot... and the letter was granted after significant engineering firm sampling and without remediation...

I might question whether some other reason exists for the shot to be deposited at such a distance contrary to current expectations...

Jay

Go to Issue 19 on page 64 their is an article and a chart about it

I looks like I cant count "too good" above 200.....

Gaby tried to tell me it was closer to 220 yards--smart assed dog.

Guy B.

300 paces is a lot less than 300 yards on unpaved ground

On paved ground or a parade field a soldier who is taking a good stride would cover about 250 yards so maybe subtract 30 percent from that

And counting 300 - how reliable is that

physics probably wins out

my guess is with the large accumulation of shot reported - you were between 135 and 170 yards from the traps

Regards from Iowa

Gene

Even if the computer generated calculations are correct (and my range's 60 years of real world experience says it's not, but for arguments sake...) for 12-24 degree angles... we don't shoot anywhere near those angles...

If we take an average shooter height of 5'10" tall (gentleman) and shoulder the gun at 5'0" and the target at 20 yards is 15 feet... we have a "rise over the run" of 10' over 108' which is an angle of less than 5.3 degrees...

If I apply that calculation to a young person or lady with a height of 5'3" and shouldering height of 4'3" resulting in a rise of 10.7 feet with a run of 108' the resulting angle is only 5.6 degrees...

I think that cuts a helluva lot of distance off any 7.5 regardless of velocity...

Respectfully offered...

Jay