how to make a shooting backstop

Question
I just bought a smith & wesson sigma 40 cal., but i live so far from any range. is there any way i could build a SAFE effective gun range at my home. i live on 40 acres do i need more space.  

Answer
Provided there are no restrictions from shooting there, you have more than enough room for a pistol range. I recommend that you simply have a berm so that you know exactly where the bullets will be contained. This can be as extravagant or as simply as you'd like.

Extravagant would be finding a hillside and having a bay excavated from from out of it. Simple would be mounting up a pile of dirt of say 15 ft high. Generally you need 2x the area of dirt as the height for stability of the berm, so a 15' berm would need 30' width, and could be made as long as you'd like.

The trick is to know where you're projectiles are ending up.

If you get steel targets, make sure you get one's that are designed to deflect the bullet fragments downward so that, again, you know where the projectiles (fragments) are ending up.

Sounds like you have all you need. Good luck with it.