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Anyone here own or have built an indoor gun range

Runningquarters

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 1, 2020
Member Number
1747
Messages
112
Loc
Palmer tx
Just like the title says. Trying to find somebody to give me some insights in to building a sizable indoor shooting range for our 4H kids. We have the land and are looking for some guidance. Costs and tips on types of construction. I'm looking into the grants available. Mostly pistol and rimfire rifles.
Thanks for any guidance you guys can give me.
 
The nra has resources for designing your own range. My club has an indoor range. The backstop is railroad ties. Pistol and rimfire use only.
 
The last club I was a member of had little shacks (quite nice actually) that one could shoot from. They had man 'o war style doors to open and shoot out from benches. The only part that was indoor was the comfortable part.
 
I have some experience with upgrading an existing range. The most EXPENSIVE part is the ventilation and filtering. Especially if youre building for kids. I would seriously consider a covered outdoor range.
 
Stuck said:
I have some experience with upgrading an existing range. The most EXPENSIVE part is the ventilation and filtering. Especially if youre building for kids. I would seriously consider a covered outdoor range.
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Ventilation and lead abatement will drive the cost through the roof. I’d agree with a covered outdoor range, with fans and heaters if necessary. The only reason for an indoor range IMO is if you’re in town.
 
250k will get you a 54' semi trailer 3 lane range.

I recommend a snail bullet trap over shredded tire sand or water.
 
Many years ago I saw one in a magazine built under the guys back yard using several lengths of culvert and he shoot from inside his basement
 
Thank you all for your input. I knew it was going to be costly, it is going next to our shotgun club"s fields but it will be by a road, just at the edge of town. That was one of the reasons for being indoor. The culvert thing sounds possible though. Your saying that jogged my memory about someplace I think in Europe doing that for sound control. HUUUGE suppressor. I have gone to the NRA website and started looking at designs. Oh and the HVAC system may cost as much as the building I'm finding in some cases. Thanks again guys.
 
Runningquarters said:
Thank you all for your input. I knew it was going to be costly, it is going next to our shotgun club"s fields but it will be by a road, just at the edge of town. That was one of the reasons for being indoor. The culvert thing sounds possible though. Your saying that jogged my memory about someplace I think in Europe doing that for sound control. HUUUGE suppressor. I have gone to the NRA website and started looking at designs. Oh and the HVAC system may cost as much as the building I'm finding in some cases. Thanks again guys.
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You'll be in it for an easy million, just for the air exchange and target retrieval system
 
I don't see the big deal with the ventilation, just get you a direct fired roof mount furnace and run it with the burners going when its cold and run just the fan when it is warm out
mount it behind the firing line so that everything blows downrange and outside
you say next to a shotgun range, doubt you'll have any concerns with needing to filter/muffle the exhaust air like you would when in a city, because anyone that has any concern about the lead can just look at the tons and tons of lead shot laying around from the shotgun side
 
The big deal is lead and EPA. Our Scoutmaster owns a store, range, and bullet manufacturing and he would let the boys suit up and we would do all the lead retrieval out of the sand until a new Mom found out what little Johnny had to do to earn his Idaho trip and turned him in. Lots of fines, lead testing for everybody, and shut him down for a while. We made $10k cash like 2x a year doing this.
 
The filters alone are a few thousand when the pressure readings say to change them, no squirrel fans, only turbines. Even an outdoor metal traps have a system to collect the dust. Law at one in nj says the range can't "emit lead" into the air.
 
I used to shoot with commercial HVAC guys and one day one of them got to talking about the job they did in an indoor range. He said despite them filtering the air the lead numbers were way too high and he refused to shoot indoor anywhere after that. FWIW

We used to shoot in an old NG armory in HS and they too shut it down for lead contamination. I don't know if it was airborne there or not, but they just shut it down and that was the end of that. We found an outdoor range until they took the .22 program away.
 
Thatg9659 said:
The filters alone are a few thousand when the pressure readings say to change them, no squirrel fans, only turbines. Even an outdoor metal traps have a system to collect the dust. Law at one in nj says the range can't "emit lead" into the air.
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why am I not surprised that government gets involved and suddenly it matters if the lead comes outta a ventilation duct or a shotgun barrel
Pony_Driver said:
I used to shoot with commercial HVAC guys and one day one of them got to talking about the job they did in an indoor range. He said despite them filtering the air the lead numbers were way too high and he refused to shoot indoor anywhere after that. FWIW

We used to shoot in an old NG armory in HS and they too shut it down for lead contamination. I don't know if it was airborne there or not, but they just shut it down and that was the end of that. We found an outdoor range until they took the .22 program away.
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well like 100% of the airborne lead back at the firing line is from the lead in the primers
'swhy you need the airflow downrange

bullets make a lot of dust in the trap when they get mashed up but it's all gonna fall out of the air real quick, lot of the dust you see on the floor downrange is unburnt powder
 
[486] said:
why am I not surprised that government gets involved and suddenly it matters if the lead comes outta a ventilation duct or a shotgun barrel

well like 100% of the airborne lead back at the firing line is from the lead in the primers
'swhy you need the airflow downrange

bullets make a lot of dust in the trap when they get mashed up but it's all gonna fall out of the air real quick, lot of the dust you see on the floor downrange is unburnt powder
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Lol have you ever dealt with .gov minions? They make up standards which in most cases are damn near impossible to meet and expect you to follow them to the letter. It’s absolutely absurd. I would want no part of a public indoor gun range. Like stated before it will require a million dollar + ventilation system.

If this was in some heavily populated ca county I’m sure the outside air that would be used to ventilate the space doesn’t even meet their standards and would need to be filtered first.
 
Runningquarters said:
Thank you all for your input. I knew it was going to be costly, it is going next to our shotgun club"s fields but it will be by a road, just at the edge of town. That was one of the reasons for being indoor. The culvert thing sounds possible though. Your saying that jogged my memory about someplace I think in Europe doing that for sound control. HUUUGE suppressor. I have gone to the NRA website and started looking at designs. Oh and the HVAC system may cost as much as the building I'm finding in some cases. Thanks again guys.
Click to expand...

HVAC is a recurring cost. Not only do you have to have a system adequately sized and ducted to do a certain number of air exchanges per hour, you have to change filters. Filters aren't cheap and because they're contaminated with possible lead dust they are now hazardous waste.

Outdoors with overhead baffles and tall berms. It's far more cost effective. Tall berms will direct sound up instead of out. Keeps people from sitting on the road and watching. And no HVAC needed. Baffles are under the assumption that you're in an area that can't have bullets landing outside the berms.


I wired the HVAC in one range. Owner said it was $300k for the HVAC, $85k for ar-500 baffles, backstop, and wall plating, and he found a contract service to change filters for $1500/month. He already owned the building.

He did it only because he started carrying cans, and everyone wanted to try them first. For $100/month you can get an indoor membership, buy all your ammo there, and visit your can. Most expensive ammo in town for a some reason.
 
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