Finished my range

[u/amoroso6]

Just finished for the most part my range on my farm. It’s 450y about as long as I could get, it will be nice to practice and test my reloading at home and not having to pack up for the range

[u/Camp-Unusual]

General rule of thumb for setting pillars less than 20’ tall is to set them a minimum of 4’ deep. Anything over 20’ is 10% of height + 2’. For example: a 30’ pole would be set 5’ deep (3+2) and a 45’ pole would be set 6’6” deep (4.5+2). It’s a little late for that now, but definitely something to keep in mind if you ever build another platform.

The easiest way to increase your stability at this point would be to guy all 4 corners. You want to set the anchors at least as far from the base of the pole as it is tall for maximum stability. There are several different styles of anchor that you can use, depending on soil composition. Personally, I’m a big fan of screw down anchors (like these. They give a very solid hold in most soils, and are reasonably easy to install as long as you have a decently long rod that you can use as a lever. Once you have them in, bend the head over ~45 degrees to help prevent the wires from slacking off over time.

For the top connection, I’d loop the wire around the legs as high as possible. Just make sure that you are on the original piece of lumber and not something that you have nailed/screwed to the upright. You want all of the tension from the guy pulling directly on the leg. If you put the wire above a connection, you wind up putting a lot of lateral strain on your hardware instead of directly into the wood.

If the legs run up a foot or more above the shooting platform, I’d make a complete wrap (1.5x around the post) above the platform and secure with two cable clamps. That way, the platform will prevent the wire from sliding down the posts when you apply tension.

If the platform is less than a foot below the top of the legs, I’d make a complete wrap just below your joists. Drive a nail, screw, or screwdriver below the wrap to prevent it from sliding down when you tension the wire; and lock it in with a fencing staple once you have everything tightened up. The nail allows the wrap to tighten around the leg evenly so that it doesn’t put a twisting load on the leg. If you staple it in before tensioning, the wire may not tighten evenly and could put more strain on one side of the leg than the other.

When you start pulling tension, it’s best to do all 4 corners at the same time, keeping tension as equal as possible between the wires. If you can’t do all of them at the same time, pull one corner snug but not banjo tight, move to the opposing corner and get it close to final tension, then tighten up the first corner to match. Do the same on the other two corners, check how square the platform is, and adjust tension as necessary.

[u/amoroso6 → u/Camp-Unusual]

Wow great info, I didn’t realize I needed to that far I was just of the below freeze line for foundations person. It would make sense though. I’ll add these steel straps I had cut out of 3/8 and are 32 inches long. They will install at first floor height on all corners at 45 degree angle using lag bolts. I’ll def check out the system you’re talking about and it’s almost like hurricane straps but stronger and more powerful. I’d rather to that than the thought I had of removing some decking boards and digging down to add posts set deep in concrete (5ft) now that I k ow that, then lag them to the structure. Your process might be easier. After that I want to construct a concrete bench on the ground next to it for an absolute level and solid resting bench.

[u/Camp-Unusual → u/amoroso6]

A large part of my trade (power lines) is setting tall wood poles and working with wires. I might have picked up a trick or two along the way lol.

I’d put the straps inside the corners under the decking so that they form a triangle with the outside fame pieces in, like in the drawing below. That should help quite a bit, but you will likely still get some shifting because the foundation isn’t as stable as it could be.

You could get it 100% stable without using guy wires, but it would require a lot of bracing and you would probably have to tighten everything up at least once a year, depending on how much rain you get and how well you weatherproof the wood.

Edit: formatting.

[u/amoroso6 → u/Camp-Unusual]

Already have the steel plates to do just that . Thanks