The Original Rooster
Mayor of Spring Hill
I'm starting to think that there's never a point in your life where you're more than a 30 second walk away from coffee!
Food plot and future sawtooth sites look great though!
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500 yard rifle range + farm improvement project
- Thread starter Jim Boyd
- Start date
Food plot and future sawtooth sites look great though!
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Target area, needed just a title more distance - will need some clean up.Sawtooth areas and a rough road.
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
I'm starting to think that there's never a point in your life where you're more than a 30 second walk away from coffee!
Food plot and future sawtooth sites look great though!
Coffee generally only lasts til noon, Mr. Mayor.
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Can’t see it from here but the shooting house will be on the other end of this lane.
We will need to lop some limbs but it is gonna work.
We will need to lop some limbs but it is gonna work.
slow motion
Senior Member
Good job Jim. Think youve got that machine figured out. Gonna greatly increase your ability to WATCH deer. Just gotta shoot one occasionally. 
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Good job Jim. Think youve got that machine figured out. Gonna greatly increase your ability to WATCH deer. Just gotta shoot one occasionally.
That hurts my feelings.
What's this end backstop look like? Y'all got a mess of felled trees stacked up or ?
ChidJ
Senior Member
Not trying to hijack but I noticed a few people asked about operating costs on the mulchers. Attached is a picture of mine.
The way I figure it out is you've got the cost per hour (I calculate based on a 3k hour lifespan. I will hopefully get more than that but I use that number to be conservative. They only warranty to 2500 last I checked).
Then there is wear parts, the biggest being teeth. There are two kinds of teeth. The "knife" style teeth I have, I count on them living for 40 hours. per side (they are reversible). They could live a good bit longer but that's what I figure on. The "carbide" teeth last a lot longer and I bank on those lasting about 200 hours. They mulch a little slower and final product is a little more coarse. What I used just depends on the job. My machine has 30 teeth. A new set is about 1800 bucks. You can get the chinese ones cheaper but the steel isn't the same.
Then there's diesel. If I run the machine for a full 8 hours, its about 35 gallons. I count on using a tube of grease per day. May not use it all but also might.
That's mostly it. Oil changes, new tracks, hydraulic fluid, DEF, that all happens at infrequent intervals
@Jim Boyd You've got a good friend leaving you the keys. I don't know if I could let my friends borrow mine. I'd be worried all day they'd roll it over or vacuum up a dog or who knows what
The way I figure it out is you've got the cost per hour (I calculate based on a 3k hour lifespan. I will hopefully get more than that but I use that number to be conservative. They only warranty to 2500 last I checked).
Then there is wear parts, the biggest being teeth. There are two kinds of teeth. The "knife" style teeth I have, I count on them living for 40 hours. per side (they are reversible). They could live a good bit longer but that's what I figure on. The "carbide" teeth last a lot longer and I bank on those lasting about 200 hours. They mulch a little slower and final product is a little more coarse. What I used just depends on the job. My machine has 30 teeth. A new set is about 1800 bucks. You can get the chinese ones cheaper but the steel isn't the same.
Then there's diesel. If I run the machine for a full 8 hours, its about 35 gallons. I count on using a tube of grease per day. May not use it all but also might.
That's mostly it. Oil changes, new tracks, hydraulic fluid, DEF, that all happens at infrequent intervals
@Jim Boyd You've got a good friend leaving you the keys. I don't know if I could let my friends borrow mine. I'd be worried all day they'd roll it over or vacuum up a dog or who knows what
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Jim Boyd
Senior Member
I have two ideas.
Felled trees we don’t have……
First idea is simply use the FEL and pile up a 6’ dirt backstop. That will require occasional refresh but that is not a problem. This is what we did on our previous 200 yard range.
Second idea is to auger 4 holes and drop sections of telephone poles in them and use 2x8’s front and back - and fill with dirt between the boards - maybe 24” of dirt.
Second option is harder but sounds better.
Open to all suggestions!
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
Darn fine machine !!! @ChidJ
I would be VERY convinced that machine willl well exceed 2500 hours. But short of commercial work, getting to 2500 will be a while.
Not sure what you call his teeth, they are almost square and can be sharpened and then can be reversed.
I do see some wear on them already and the machine is just over 100 hours.
Yes, I was stunned when he said “ have at it”….
I am done now and he is coming to get it this morning - I put a real good cleaning on it last evening.
Once retired - I will likely ask him if I can just rent it for a week next summer and pay by machine hours or some other arrangement.
These machines are bad news. I could wash out a dead deer or dog (had to drag a dead deer out of edge of our yard this weekend) but I would be more fearful of finding a fence section or an old box spring.
There is a really old box spring laying in heavy woods at our place and if you wound that thing in there, it would be tough.
Looks like it has been there for decades - just makes ya wonder what babies were made on it - and when …..
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Jim Boyd
Senior Member
After cleaning….
ChidJ
Senior Member
Clean as a whistle. You are right about finding “artifacts” in the woods. Wire isn’t so bad because I can just cut it with the disk grinder. Worse things is rubber stuff like old tires, especially the heavy duty ones that have all the wire reinforcement. Can be a pain to get them unstuck.
Rocks is what will do those knife teeth in. Technically, most of the manufacturers state they aren’t meant for ground contact but most folks do it anyways and just accept the consequence of faster wear. The one you’ve got has a different tooth design to the knives I run but same concept. They have teeth that are specifically for busting up rocks, though.
Rocks is what will do those knife teeth in. Technically, most of the manufacturers state they aren’t meant for ground contact but most folks do it anyways and just accept the consequence of faster wear. The one you’ve got has a different tooth design to the knives I run but same concept. They have teeth that are specifically for busting up rocks, though.
If you can swing it hard to beat a dirt berm. If you have the dirt and clay berm them up! At one friend's we just cut into a hill for the backstop. At ours we cut into a hill and used the dirt to build a second backstop connected, so we have a "L-shaped" backstop. Long range and short range.
Philnlucky
Senior Member
Nice work. I know you'll enjoy it!
BluewaterFever
Senior Member
Looking good Mr Jim. The fruits of your labor will bring countless hours of enjoyment.
No dust ver settles on that man for sure.
No dust ver settles on that man for sure.
Jim Boyd
Senior Member
I don’t have much clay but can make a berm.
The hill, I don’t have either.
May make some staggered smaller berms at 1, 2 and 300 etc.
Jester896
Senior Clown
my buddy's has landscape material across it to keep the dirt more together/compacted so it doesn't scatter the dirt when it gets strikes. I have seen old tires stacked on top of the dirt/cloth too.
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