Henry Rifle Forums

If y'all remember, about three months ago, I started on the berm for the range by purchasing 48 railroad ties. I was really happy, until I tripped, fell backwards, and tried to break my fall by extending my left arm. I didn't really break my fall all that well, but I did a good job of breaking my left wrist in two places, and doing severe nerve damage to my left hand. My Wife was really worried. She said, "Get up, Dumba$$."


The wrist is pretty much healed. The hand? Not so much. Still can't make a fist, and put pressure on the fingers or thumb the wrong way and pain shoots up my arm to the shoulder. But, I am tired of sitting in the house and counting the pattern in the wallpaper. Especially since the walls are painted. So, I fired up the tractor and put the horse in the stall, and attacked the dirt pile left from installing the new tornado shelter.


The goal was to move the dirt from it's current location behind the shelter to an area ON the range, about 20 to 30 feet in front of the prospective location of the wall formed by the railroad ties when they are placed to form the C shaped holding structure for the dirt berm. Once that is built, the dirt will be moved into place inside the C and additional dirt will be added forming a nice protective berm for my 100 yard range. A few hours work, driving buckets of dirt to the new location, and ...


If you look OVER the dirt pile, you can look UP range and see the range house about 90 yards away. With the 100 degree plus heat, I thought carefully about this location and laid out my range in a shaded location. It's a good 20 to 30 degrees cooler in the shade here. I am NOT shooting competition here, and the targets can be placed in lighted patches if need be.

The post move pic shows the greatly reduced pile. I would have moved the last of the dirt into the final couple buckets with a shovel in my younger days, or even before the fall. ONE handed old gimps don't do shovels. I will make a later attempt to scrape and collect a bucket or two more, then spread the rest across the yard. The fall rains will do the rest.


The pallet forks should allow us to start on the berm wall in the near future. I hope to use the pallet forks to drive rebar spikes thru the RR Ties as anchors. Wish me luck.

great to hear you are on the way back .... looks like you are undertaking one heck of a project .... looking forward to following your progress

Good to hear you are able to get started. Just don’t pull another dumb ass stunt.
Looking forward to seeing your progress on the range.

RetiredSeabee wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 27, 2021 7:25 am

Good to hear you are able to get started. Just don’t pull another dumb ass stunt.
Looking forward to seeing your progress on the range.

What, no gymnastics off the tractor when exiting. I thought a backflip. I was good on the trampoline in high school gym. That was just fifty years and 150 pounds ago.

Oh, wait. Good advice.

That looks like a very impressive range in the making. If I were closer, I'd be glad to give you a hand.

I'm lucky enough to have a neighbor who will help when I'm ready. We went over the other night and helped them transfer some cows from their east pasture to their west. Funny, my utv makes a nice cutting horse.

Nice berm. Sounds like you may have had a touch of cabin fever after your layup. I am heeding caution and trying to be careful.

BM your range is taking shape nicely! Looks like you have a good collection of materials and be careful as that is some heavy work with those ties.
Where did you find that large supple of railroad ties? There is a hardware store in the county that sells them here but they are expensive.

BM, range work is looking good. Just take care of that wrist/hand problem. Do like your whole set-up.

I wishing all the luck you need. Great to have a neighbor that will assist you. I also have a great neighbor who watches our house when we are gone for the winter.

fortyshooter wrote: ↑

Mon Sep 27, 2021 5:15 pm

BM your range is taking shape nicely! Looks like you have a good collection of materials and be careful as that is some heavy work with those ties.
Where did you find that large supple of railroad ties? There is a hardware store in the county that sells them here but they are expensive.

I bought them directly from the rr at 1/3 of the cost of the regular sources. Watch the sidings in your area, and if you see them start stacking them on a siding, ask one of the workers for a contact number.

I got a good price, they loaded my trailer at the rr siding, I pulled them off with the tractor.

I talked to railroad rep and they said in recent years they have a contract with a company to pick them up. Then that company sells them to other retail outlets. So a well used tie is about 14 bucks each now unless it has since gone up. Back in 1980 I got several of them for free while they were removing the old ones.

I got lucky. Out here, I bought grade 2 directly from the rr, at the siding for 1/3 the price of the box stores by buying three 16 tie banded blocks.

(48 total ) It took about two months, I had to wait until they were actually on site: sorting and banding. Saved about $500 to $600.

They replaced a long stretch of ties here awhile back. Brand new ties were left right on the shoulder of the road for quite a while. I'm sure some of them disappeared late at night.

Railroad ties make great corner and gate fence posts, they do require a bigger hole than a treated round post and I like them to be 3 ft. deep. You can attach stretched field fence or hang a good sized gate on them without braceing posts. I have a couple that have been in the ground many years and are still very solid while I've had treated round posts rot in less than 10 years. It's harder to dig out a broken post than digging the original hole.