The Sand Pit

[Ladobe]

Thought you might seeing like this, especially you gents in the closed-in and over-populated eastern areas.   

I do a lot of long range shooting/hunting mostly for diggers of several kinds, but also our predators can be long shots at times too.   Since the local gun ranges just don't provide long enough ranges to really dial in your rig for them, I decided to make my own range out in the endless miles of open and unpopulated desert.   So this is a poor quality cropped scan of an old panoramic slide of my private target range that I setup out on the desert a few years ago in a small, hidden valley.   Used topo maps to look for possible places with all the right attributes within reasonable driving distances first, then the GPS to go check them.   This first one visited had everything.   It's not pretty, but it is very functional and I've shot quite a few coyotes and fox on stands in the same general area right after setting up a new rifle/pistol load.

It's indescriminantly marked every 100 yards out to 1000, and has gongs at 500, 1800 and 2500 yards (the latter 2 for the 50BMG's).   The gongs lay down in bushes out of sight when not in use.   Works out pretty well with a dirt road running all the way out and that dead ends in the box canyon back right.   So setting/checking targets is pretty easy, and it's very safe as this is the only road into the flat/canyon and there ain't nothing but desert for well over 100 miles behind the ridge.

For reference, the targets in the picture are at 100 yards, and 1000 yards is just in front of the dark brush line at the back of the slowly rising flat.   Long gongs are in clearings at the base of and part way up a ridge on the right.

I take my arbor press and custom hand dies to do load work up right on the portable shooting bench.   Makes it so easy that I seldom load more than 2 to test a load, and that saves a lot of reloading supplies and time.

Have taken a few friends out, but otherwise I've never been disturbed when out there using it... and the kicker, its 20 miles closer to my new house than to the private gun club I belong to.

Again, sorry for the poor quality, but you'll get the idea.

[Bopeye]

That is a SA-WHEAT setup there Ladobe. 

Will you let me bring my 10 gauge out there to sight it in......

[FinsnFur]

I decided to make my own range out in the endless miles of open and unpopulated desert.   

... this is the only road into the flat/canyon and there ain't nothing but desert for well over 100 miles behind the ridge.

I take my arbor press and custom hand dies to do load work up right on the portable shooting bench.   Makes it so easy that I seldom load more than 2 to test a load, and that saves a lot of reloading supplies and time.

Have taken a few friends out, but otherwise I've never been disturbed when out there using it...

That just aint right  I want one I want one.

[KySongDog]

Very nice setup.

I've never fired a 50 BMG but hear they are a hoot!   

Semp

[Bob D]

That is a fine looking set up and shooting range. Want to share some of your knowledge about your favorite loads for 22-250 and 243?

[Ladobe]

Thanks guys.   No doubt we are pretty spoiled rotten with so much open public land out west to shoot and hunt on freely.     

Bopeye - NP if you think there is enough room to sight in a 10er there.    Will 2500 yards be far enough for your slugs?       

Jimbo - Lots and lots of houses for sale around here buddy, and it really is a great place to live.   While much of the east is very beautiful, I just can't imagine being so heemed in all of the time.   PD's have been shot at something like 3200 yards out here.   Can you imagine even seeing let alone shooting an eastern chuck at 1000?   

Semp - What's most impressive about the 50's my buddies have is how accruate they actually are, even at 2500 yards.

Bob D -  Sure, just drop me a PM with the particulars on what your intended game is, how far you can expect shots, etc and I'll let you know what components worked for me in like situations.

[Hawks Feather]

Where I live I can usually hit a house with a 1000 yard shot - sometimes more that one.  I do have one question.  Do you think those "ills" will work as an effective bullet trap?

Jerry

[nailbender]

  Now I am seriously jelous! Prairie dogs got me into rifles and long range accuracy.  Rifles with nothing to do in Iowa brought me to predator hunting. Funny how things work out sometimes.   Wouldn't have it any other way!

[Ladobe]

Jerry -

A solid yes to your question - main reason why I picked the spot in the first place.   The "flat" (starting from the wash at the 100 yard line you can see in the picture) is mostly deep soft sand with countless scattered small dunes (don't ask how many times I've had to dig my truck out), and almost no rocks.   So with the rising land most bullets are just stopped by the sand dunes.   I only shoot frangible bullets myself, but if any did ricochet, the hills would certainly catch them "if they got that far".   And as I said, there is nothing behind the hills but desert scrub for well over 100 miles anyway - and very few dirt roads.   BTW, the hills directly behind the targets are probably 4-5000 yards from the firing line, and are plenty high to catch any bullets even if they did get that far.

The 50's get shot at a closer ridge just off the right of the picture, and it has very large sandy areas where the gongs are set up.   So again, doubt any would ever get over that ridge either, across the box canyon, over the next ridge and to the 100 miles of desert behind.

I think unless folks could spend some time exploring the back country in the arid west they just can't imagine how vast and lonely much of it really is.   Not hard at all to drive dirt roads/2 tracks all day long and never see or hear another vehicle or person, nor see a house or even livestock.     

L.

[FinsnFur]

I can relate to it and I was only there for a few days.

imagine how vast and lonely much of it really is  is a pretty good way to describe it. MIle after mile after mile of absolutely nothing but.....well, nothing 

And you can for the most part do what ever you want on it.

[Bopeye]

I sometimes miss all that nothing in Wyoming and places.
I can't be in the woods around here at all without hearing or seeing someone.........and usually it's fairly quick when I do.........

[slagmaker]

Man to shoot a 50BMG whenever you want. I am jelous! I have sho ta 50 twice and I have both empty shell casings polisihed and engraved with the date up on my shelf so I can always remember my first time with the ultimate varmit rifle.

[Jimmie in Ky]

Now that just ain't fair. The best I can do for a range on my own property is a hundred yards. The best I can get by driving to one I know of is a thousand yards. We need some mor ehills around here  Jimmie

[Ladobe]

And you can for the most part do what ever you want on it.

That is pretty much a true statement with only a very few laws or regulations you have to think about (as if they could enforce them anyway with only one ranger per 1000's of square miles).   Works against the grain sometimes when antiquities get vandalized, etc because no one see's/hears it being done.   But it is nice to wander along and know that you can shoot/hunt/camp/fish almost anyplace you find that looks promising, and not have to worry about tresspass or shooting any personal property/livestock or Farmer John.