Build A Better Backstop!

Tim Finley’s here to make your back garden airgunning safer

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The whole COVID-19 isolation thing got me thinking about how easy it is to set up a safe plinking range in your own back garden. A backstop 450mm high/wide is ideal for most back gardens where ranges are never more than 10-15 yards away and back in the day, the 1980s, my father made a back-stop against the back wall of our old house. That is a very smart move because if you live in a built-up area and you shoot back toward your own house, there is less chance of any projectiles leaving your boundary, and any neighbors will be less inclined to be nervous or even complain if they can see you are shooting toward your own property.

MINIMAL COST

I knocked together a back garden backstop for my own garden using some 450mm square paving slabs that I had leftover from laying my patio. Wooden stakes to hold the structure together were off-cuts from the decking I’d built and I had a bag of fine play-area sand leftover from filling rifle sand bag rests for my full-bore bench rest shooting. So, the whole thing cost me nothing to make.

IMPROVISATION