I have been appointed assistant range guy at my sportsman's club and would like to hear relatively inexpensive suggestions to improve our range. Note: the range is sloped downhill which is problematic for 7 yard eye level shooting since there is basically only a thin metal back stop at that elevation.

I had dreams of swinger targets but have since talked myself out of those.

I'm no expert in this but I think you need a much taller berm of dirt for your backstop.

I don't know what your budget is but I would start by hiring a guy with a bulldozer and/or front end loader and haul in a whole lot of fill to build up the berm and level your range. Railroad ties properly anchored can provide a retaining wall to hold the fill so you can level off your range. I own a private range and belong to a couple clubs. Our number one concern is to keep stray rounds and ricochets from getting out of the range.

Not to be a wet blanket but, I think you are looking at the project triangle here. Some fundamental mistakes were made when this was first created that make almost anything a poor compromise and safety should come first.
If this range has a liability insurance policy, they better hope nobody comes out to do an inspection.
Before the money was spent on the concrete and buildings, a couple of hours with a bulldozer could have reshaped most of the problems but I can't see any that hits all the buttons, Safe, Good, Cheap.

That pavilion has to be off limits as well.

Bob

Thanks for the comments. We do have a few folks in the club with equipment so making the berm taller might be a possibility in the future.

The pavilion to the left of the range is the trap range which is not used when someone is at the pistol range and vice versa.

I’d check with the NRA, they used to offer a CD that had lots of range info, berm sizes by caliber and lots of other stuff:
https://rangeservices.nra.org/programs/clubs/

safety / berm issues notwithstanding --

better target variety at 'mid range' ie 15-25 yards, some larger steel targets for that would be nice

steel is nice because you don't need the 'back and forth' to ascertain hits on targets

i like that the shooters 'tables' are movable

am i invited ??

--------------------------------------------

IMHO that range looks exceedingly unsafe from just about any angle. It depends entirely on shooters not making any mistakes.

What's on the other side of that tree line and how deep is it? Is there anything to keep people from the entire zone in which rounds clearing that insufficient side barrier and backstop might land? The left is obviously unsafe, rules/procedures be damned, but what is to the right?

ISTM you need to raise the protective barrier on the left, possibly place another on the right, raise the backstop significantly, and place elevation limiters on the shooting positions. If you rely on elevation limiters then you have to limit minimum height from which shooters can shoot, to prevent them from defeating the limiters' purpose by shooting from too low a position.

Beyond the tree line are fields, I am not really sure how many feet of trees there are until the fields.. 300 yards maybe. To the right is a wooded area with warning signs to not enter the area. Having a rope between signs would be desirable at a minimum.