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Indoor Home range


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Best advice is don't build one in your home. Are you willing to risk your life or your family's lives if you build the backstop incorrectly? I can understand the draw of having a home range, but the liabilities outweight the rewards in my opinion.

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my range will be under the level od the road. About 7 mt under. If the backstop fails, (all the wall are in reinforced concrete), the dirt will make the rest.The door will be at the back of the shooter.

As u can understand my family safety is first.

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Alex- Between the lead exposure risks and the risks of errant shots and shrapnel going whatever direction, I would recommend keeping you gun club membership. If your insurance company ever finds out you have one, your premiums will skyrocket. Do you have kids? They will get in there somehow and try to shoot without you around. You willing to take a risk like that?

Not saying this stuff will happen, but people with big eyes rarely see details.

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I'd see ventilation as your biggest challenge and expense with an indoor home range. Without proper ventilation you probably wouldn't want to use it much (need to take into consideration direction of air flow and placement of exhaust and return flow ducts, all adequately sized). Knew a home gunsmithing friend who would function fire his works-in-process into a sand filled barrel (canted like a loading/unloading station) and only a few rounds would fill his decent sized shop with enough fumes to drive you out. I used to have 24/7 access to a 25 yard deep x 30 yard wide indoor range and if you didn't start the blowers before shooting the air would become noxious at the spot you were shooting within a mag or two. It was best to start the blowers 10 minutes before shooting to get the river of air flowing downrange to the exhaust vents, once the air was flowing it was like standing in a breeze and very comfortable.

BTW - for the backstop at the indoor range I mentioned we used scrapped plates from a warship (about 1 inch thick, don't know the alloy number) that were set up at a 45 degree minimum angle into sand pits. Mining the lead out was as easy as cleaning a litter box. The supporting structure was just welded up structural (ASTM A36) beams and channels. It would take all pistol calibers, but not rifle as it would crater the plate steel and throw the jackets back at you.

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I have contacted regupol for ballistic blocks(Gum block). They take the lead bullets without breaking the lead.. I was just evaluating other way and tryin to understand all the things I have to consider.

I have to travel 110 km to arrive to shooting club. I shoot under rain or sun. I like this sport, and I like competition.

but I spent too much time to arrive to the range that for shooting..

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For the first 12 years of my life, my dad had a "range" in the basement. It was pretty cool. He had his shop on one end with reloading equipment and such. A game room in the middle and a very nice bullet trap above the TV console at the end. NO, we never fired real stuff. We used primers and plastic bullets. Mostly 38 special and 45. The 38s were the most fun. Six shots with the 38 and the 45 being manually operated.

A LOT of safety rules applied. This arrangement taught me a lot about firearms, reloading and other things. PRICELESS

Years have passed and dad too. I still break out my 686, 60, 15-3, and plastic bullets with 3 targets in a borrowed garage. BTW - Dell PC boxes with old t-shirts make great plastic bullet catchers.

I have some other great stories about bullet traps, CB 22s, and fireplaces. But I degrees.

You have my sentiment and I share your dream. I would proceed with maximum caution and modife your expectations. Cover 100% what covers your families best regard. Once the lawyers are involved...........

RT

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Alex, I had a range in my basement in 1957/1958 in

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan - used it for .22 rimfire only.

That was a lot of fun.

I tried one in an out building fifteen years ago - again,

only for .22.

I don't like to shoot cf indoors - but for .22, a real blast.

I used 1/4" steel at a 45 degree angle, with a sand trap below

the plate - worked very well - we didn't know re: lead in '57 :surprise:

Hope it works out well for you - where in Italy are you?

:cheers:

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Once my lead levels got too high I quit shooting at indoor ranges except for sanctioned matches, would never put one in/under my house.

Catching bullets is easy, its the rest of the stuff that is the problem.

Edited by jmorris
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hello everybody.

I am building my house and I want to make an indoor range.

This will be 18 mt long 5 mt width and 7 mt high(is under floor level)

have to choose how to make the backstop. I asked for regurpol blocks , steel backstop..

can u help me ?

Alex,

Your biggest problem will be your air circulation. Depending on regulations you might need to turn over the complete volume of air in your range every 60 to 90 seconds. Your range in volume is 630cubic meters, and that is a lot of air to move and the cost would be very high. You would probably need a forced ventilation system to move this amount of air,

You should first consult a HVAC Company that is conversant with your local regulations and from there work out the design costs. Then you will need work out how many times you will be using the range per week, and hours each session as this will determine your maintenance / electricity costs.

This to me is more important than trying to work out what berm construction I require.

Cheers ....

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I got into this a while back when we were trying to get the club to spring the bucks for an indoor range. Here in the US the EPA and NIOSH have standards that have to be adhered to for any public indoor range. Ranges had to have a negative pressure in them and all air has to go through an air wash system. You may not have to go that far but their standards for exhausted air may be a guideline for you. Contact the NRA for suggested building plans.

The compressed blocks of rubber were pretty expensive and had to be replaced once in a while. The indoor ranges that I have seen had a backstop [made of AR 500 steel] where the top slanted away from the bottom. The bullets hit the backstop and slid up and into a centrifuge where they spun around until they lost their velocity. Then slide back down the backstop into a pit where they can be cleaned up later. Also consider slanting the floor toward the pit so the range can be hosed down once in a while. This cleans up the lead that fell on the floor and stuck to the walls.

Edited by Ray_Z
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Till now I have find that the less expensive is th rubber blocks.

But I am evaluating other solution.

This indoor range would have windows, at the top of the wall, in the long side of 18 mt.

The problem is:

lead

to eliminate this, I can use rubber or ventilation.

Now I have to look for the best price..

and after To make a choice.

I would like to have a shooting range at 30 min of car.. but when u have to drive for 1h and 20 min..

it's hard to be competitive.. and motivate.. if u change the load of the ammo, u have to go just to test .

I am looking for opening a shooting range too.. ehehe.. but it's hard.

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Till now I have find that the less expensive is th rubber blocks.

But I am evaluating other solution.

This indoor range would have windows, at the top of the wall, in the long side of 18 mt.

This would be interesting just imagine shooting and you see someone watching through the window downrange of you. No approved indoor range I have been in has been allowed windows forward of the firing line in any direction. Most ranges are built for zero escape of rounds.

The problem is:

lead

to eliminate this, I can use rubber or ventilation.

Now I have to look for the best price..

and after To make a choice.

Its not just the projectiles, its also the lead used in the primer, its all the associated fumes from ignition of a cartridge, its the particles you dont see that cause the problems.

You will still need to have a very adequate ventilation system. As many have said already in this thread and there are other threads on the effects of high levels of lead in your blood, indoor shooting bad for the health unless precautions are taken.

Health and Safety wise you cant afford to take shortcuts for indoor ranges.

Cheers ....

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in the netherlands, we shoot 95% of the matches on indoor ranges, most people also train on indoor ranges, good ventilation is the key, there are only 2 or 3 people wich have had lead poision in the past 10 years, and 2 of them where rimfire shooters (rimfire is far more poisonous, than centerfire with fmj / tmj bullets) the other one was shooting 9mm with lead bullets, on an indoor range without proper ventilation.

the most backstops here, are just a pile of sand wich is replaced every few years and sift every 1 or 2 years, there is almost nothing that is able to penetrate 1m of sand, also steel backstops are used, and in the modular bullet traps we use a steel backstop, with rubber on top of that, and over that we put a wooden plate where we attach the targets to.

with the steel backstop you have far more maintenance, than with backstop made from sand, on a steel backstop you have to eliminate the ricochets with rubber mats or something similar, with sand you don't have to worry about that.

here a picture from the range where i practice.

IMG_1011.jpg

Edited by bassochist
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Airsoft will get you perhaps 90% of what you need to do off the range. No lead. No ventilation issues except for the smell and the precaution of not using propane around open flame. No backstop issues. Clean up with a vacuum. No need for muffs (I would still using eye protection). You could even shoot outdoors without worrying about your neighbors except for your reputation as a gun nut. Many, many, many thousands of Euros saved not building a special purpose facility that, if built, still wouldn't let you do at home what the airsoft would, like running and gunning, shooting reactives, and shooting through a wide field of fire.

Just saying....

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