I am looking to improve my backyard range and have an opportunity to get free used tires. Has anyone ever tried doing that? Has it been success full?
What kind of ricochet issues would I have?
I shoot handgun and rifle....currently out to 200 yards.I would not shoot handguns any closer than 30 ft.
Thanks in advance.

for CQB/MOUT from tires filled with dirt/sand. I'd start there.

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Sincerely,

Hobie

I used to stack them about chin high, drive a piece if rebar inside the bead at 3 and 9 o'clock and shovel them full of sand. It will settle in as you shoot the stack and after a hard rain. Top the sand off once or twice and it catch just about anything and last for years.

At distance with a rifle I think you will be OK.

Up close with a pistol . . .

Expect some possible return fire

When I was young and dumb I shot the end of a big old truck tire at 10 feet distance with a 36 cap n ball. The tire returned fire by bouncing the ball back ball parting my hair close to the scalp to make me reach up and feel my head and wonder "dang what was that?".
I didn't realize what happened until the second round bounced off too. Then a light bulb came on above my head and I said to myself "that funny feeling in my hair when I shot the first time was a ricochet!" I didn't shoot at that tire any more that close with a low powered lead ball. Either the ball or the thought of the ball parting my hair probably started making my hair thin on top.

Bob

especially when you think for a mini-second to catch the .38WC tumbling end over end - as it heads for y'r leg, then knowing you can't move leg fast enough to get out the way...and watching the slug bounce off. Can still se the sequence in my memory banks, and i still am glad it wasn't something hotter. slight bruise and lifetime lesson. BTW, it was an oak tree to which I had tacked a target..don't shoot oak trees that are close enough to shoot back.

And, it is a really bad idea to shoot at a brick with a Daisy BB gun.

I've known that for many, many years, and I still remember vividly how I found out...

never have had a bullet come back... but have been bounced by BB's and pellets aplenty.

We've shot all sorts of stuff from as little as maybe 10 yards and never had a problem. However, these tires have been well used and probably pretty well perforated so they may not react like an unshot tire would.

We were out in Wyoming when I was a lad and one gun shop/range had tires from the big mining trucks stacked up maybe 12 feet high. Acted as backstop as well as sidewalls. Lots of rubber that.