Well men, I finally finished my shooting lane, bench/table. Some of you may recall me asking for tips along the way and many thanks for the great recommendations and ideas. I spent the spring and summer setting it up and ended up making a 200 yard range (including 200, 150, 100 and 50 yard targets), concrete shooting table with stools, and also wired for night shooting.
Here's a flyover video:
In case anyone is interested, here's some pics I took along the way:
I didn't have any plans to go by so I rendered it up in Sketchup.
We began with clearing trees for the alley, and installing a 12' high railroad tie backstop ("switch ties" are the longer/taller ones), reinforced with about 50 cu yards of fill.
I ordered the steel targets from Mark at Shooting7 Targets https://shootingtargets7.com (PS the guy is a veteran who is super dedicated to helping others). 3/8" AR500 is the way to go, even for .22LR. The sizes are 1", 2", 4", 8", and 12". Then the last target at 200 has an additional 16" and five 6" gongs.
I made the stools from countertop concrete mix with a little dye coloring, and poured into 16" cake pans with some stainless anchor bolts set which allowed me to easily bolt the cast aluminum legs bought online at Bear Creek. I wet polished them down to a 2,000 grit and used a nice bull nose edge to round the sides.
For the table, I used " melamine board for the form and guessed at the dimensions from some online searching. The thickness was the width of a 1x4 so this made for a very solid, thick table. Again, I used the Quikrete countertop mix which is a little denser and also includes superplasticizer in the mix which keeps the mix more liquid without having to use as much water. I also added dye which made me nervous as it looked like poop but thankfully it brightened up when it dried. I stuck some perforated angle iron for the upcoming legs to later be added. By the way, I waxed the melamine board prior to the pour to make the deforming easier.
The table took about four and a half, 80lb sacks of concrete. Yes, the table is heavy and took a mini-skid and three of us to position it.
For the legs, I went to Brookshire and bought three Cantera stone columns from R&W Stone. I could have poured my own using a Sonotube but I wanted to match our existing patio which is also made of Cantera. Since they didn't have the exact size I wanted (10" diameter, hollow, 33" tall), I had to order them and wait a few weeks.
I used the leftover concrete to fill the hollow columns, but first inserted rebar with a welded disc to prevent concrete from pushing out the bottom. Even though the angle iron stubs fit nicely into the wet concrete inside the column legs, I used PL Premium Max (like liquid nails) to secure the table into the legs.
I did have a few pin holes in the concrete table (despite vibrating after the pour) so I decided to make a slurry made of Portland and stain and fill in the tiny holes after sanding down the table before and after. Then applied a seal.
The end result is a very heavy table and stools that feel solid. Since I have a WiFi mesh over the range and electrical outlets along the lane, I plan on installing smart switches and flood lights that point to the targets, making it easy to light each target up for night shoots.
Overall, it is a nice setup so far. The tunnel effect eliminates almost all wind, especially at night. I've been regularly hitting the 2" target at 200 yards with my CZ454 .22LR and occasionally even hitting the 1" at 200 yards.
And for those who are interested, yes it is outside city limits and not in the ETJ and greater than 10 acres.
I hope you guys like it and I'd be glad to go over more detail for those interested.
Here's a flyover video:
In case anyone is interested, here's some pics I took along the way:
I didn't have any plans to go by so I rendered it up in Sketchup.
We began with clearing trees for the alley, and installing a 12' high railroad tie backstop ("switch ties" are the longer/taller ones), reinforced with about 50 cu yards of fill.
I ordered the steel targets from Mark at Shooting7 Targets https://shootingtargets7.com (PS the guy is a veteran who is super dedicated to helping others). 3/8" AR500 is the way to go, even for .22LR. The sizes are 1", 2", 4", 8", and 12". Then the last target at 200 has an additional 16" and five 6" gongs.
I made the stools from countertop concrete mix with a little dye coloring, and poured into 16" cake pans with some stainless anchor bolts set which allowed me to easily bolt the cast aluminum legs bought online at Bear Creek. I wet polished them down to a 2,000 grit and used a nice bull nose edge to round the sides.
For the table, I used " melamine board for the form and guessed at the dimensions from some online searching. The thickness was the width of a 1x4 so this made for a very solid, thick table. Again, I used the Quikrete countertop mix which is a little denser and also includes superplasticizer in the mix which keeps the mix more liquid without having to use as much water. I also added dye which made me nervous as it looked like poop but thankfully it brightened up when it dried. I stuck some perforated angle iron for the upcoming legs to later be added. By the way, I waxed the melamine board prior to the pour to make the deforming easier.
The table took about four and a half, 80lb sacks of concrete. Yes, the table is heavy and took a mini-skid and three of us to position it.
For the legs, I went to Brookshire and bought three Cantera stone columns from R&W Stone. I could have poured my own using a Sonotube but I wanted to match our existing patio which is also made of Cantera. Since they didn't have the exact size I wanted (10" diameter, hollow, 33" tall), I had to order them and wait a few weeks.
I used the leftover concrete to fill the hollow columns, but first inserted rebar with a welded disc to prevent concrete from pushing out the bottom. Even though the angle iron stubs fit nicely into the wet concrete inside the column legs, I used PL Premium Max (like liquid nails) to secure the table into the legs.
I did have a few pin holes in the concrete table (despite vibrating after the pour) so I decided to make a slurry made of Portland and stain and fill in the tiny holes after sanding down the table before and after. Then applied a seal.
The end result is a very heavy table and stools that feel solid. Since I have a WiFi mesh over the range and electrical outlets along the lane, I plan on installing smart switches and flood lights that point to the targets, making it easy to light each target up for night shoots.
Overall, it is a nice setup so far. The tunnel effect eliminates almost all wind, especially at night. I've been regularly hitting the 2" target at 200 yards with my CZ454 .22LR and occasionally even hitting the 1" at 200 yards.
And for those who are interested, yes it is outside city limits and not in the ETJ and greater than 10 acres.
I hope you guys like it and I'd be glad to go over more detail for those interested.
