How much room is needed for trap/skeet?

[trinitrotoluene85]

I have been kicking around the idea of buying a home for the past year or so. I really enjoy shooting trap and skeet, and could see just doing it by myself if I had the proper setup. To my knowledge, there are no ranges within a decent drive time (say 15-20 minutes) that have trap/skeet ranges open 5-7 days a week.

So... If I were going to consider having a trap/skeet area on my property, how much room would I need? Remembering that in skeet you're shooting in nearly a 180 degree arc, I imagine this would be quite a bit of room required to do so safely. eHow has instructions on building your own trap and skeet range (here) in which they say you need at least 40 yards of clear space. Is that really all that's needed?

 

[fastwally]

Just guessing here from experience I would say 150 yrds with no waterway or creek the shot could land in.

 

[Mr.JAG]

40 yards of clear space is more than likely referring to the amount of space you need just for the setup. I.E. Trap house, front line, room for clay to fly.

It is in no way the amount of space required for SAFETY.

 

[ElsiePeaRN]

I am trying to find the link, and if I find it, I'll edit the post and PM you, but I remember reading something online that said you need to have 300 yds in all directions of fire to be sure your shot doesn't go beyond your field.

 

[sharkey]

Here is a layout with the danger zone included: Trap Field Layout with Shotfall Danger Zone

 

[trinitrotoluene85]

I shoot trap on a nearly weekly basis (not near often enough as far as I'm concerned, but one can only afford so much). I couldn't imagine that 40 yards was enough room for anything. 300 yards seems much more accurate.

A = pi * r^2
A = 3.14 * 300yds * 300yds
A = 282,600 sq yds
divide by 2 and you end up with approx 141,300 square yards of required space for a skeet range (with the nearly 180 degree shooting angle being 1/2 a circle)... That's almost 30 acres of space for one skeet range if you were going to have the whole range including shotfall danger zone on your property.

Does this sound right?

 

[Westside]

I shoot trap on a nearly weekly basis (not near often enough as far as I'm concerned, but one can only afford so much). I couldn't imagine that 40 yards was enough room for anything. 300 yards seems much more accurate.

A = pi * r^2
A = 3.14 * 300yds * 300yds
A = 282,600 sq yds
divide by 2 and you end up with approx 141,300 square yards of required space for a skeet range (with the nearly 180 degree shooting angle being 1/2 a circle)... That's almost 30 acres of space for one skeet range if you were going to have the whole range including shotfall danger zone on your property.



Does this sound right?

if you don't plan on building a brim or hill for a backstop, yes. You could build a large berm like MCF&G has and then you could get away with a 100yard long range that is around 50 yards wide.

 

[indykid]

We had a clay thrower on our back porch. The broke pieces of clay usually landed about 200 feet from the thrower +/- a few yards. We had about 500 yards of open field behind the house so I know there was no problem with where the shot came down. The back yard was about 50 yards wide.

We had the thrower mounted on a rotating platform to allow us to get the different angles of flight. We also adjusted where we stood so that our shot always landed in the open area behind our house.

I hated moving from there, but the move was for school reasons and it proved to be the right thing.

Good luck with your finding a nice place with a good open back yard. There are many to be found in this wide open state of ours!

 

[sharkey]

if you don't plan on building a brim or hill for a backstop, yes. You could build a large berm like MCF&G has and then you could get away with a 100yard long range that is around 50 yards wide.

That berm is only 80 yards from the trap house. I thought the shot would be flying over the berms, since you are shooting up.

There is a bit of empty space behind the berm, before you get to 465 or 136.

 

[pdg45acp]

Figure at least 300 yards for shotfall.

Most neighbors won't care if they have some lead shot on their property but it could give an anti-gun nut something to work with if he chose to.