Gun range expert witness Albert Rodriguez testified that the County Line Shooting Center, San Marcos, TX, was built in the wrong place and is a “major threat to human life.” Rodriguez is a former Texas Department of Public Safety gun range master and testified that hundreds of bullets have been fired onto neighboring property. Property owners filed a lawsuit to have the range shut down or brought up to safety standards.
In Outdoor Shooting Range Best Practices, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources describes specifications for the shooting range backstop.
A backstop is a device constructed to stop or re-direct bullets fired on a range A backstop is the key component providing range safety and use for people in the area in and beyond a rifle or pistol range. Current NRA and NSSF safety philosophies are predicated toward range self-containment of shot rounds, i.e., “if it’s shot here, keep it here.” A properly constructed backstop at a rifle and/or pistol range are usually constructed out of a core material of compacted soil, rock or crushed cement, covered by rock-free earthen material, up to a recommended height of twenty (20) feet at a 1:1 slope (soil type dependent), with a 4 foot-wide flat top. Backstop width will be dependent upon the numbers of shooting stations the range operator wants installed at the firing line.