Shooting Range Near a Well

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bullzeye8

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I just moved into a new house and as it is right along side a mountain with nothing but trees above me I plan on having a shooting range here. I am trying to plan out the location and I could either do it in my front yard (ideal) where I could probably get 50-75 yards or my back yard where I could do 15-20 yards so mostly pistol and maybe some .22 rifle. So the front yard seems like the obvious choice but my one concern is I would be shooting in the ground less than 10 yards from the well head. I know I have seen you want to be careful about spraying some pesticides and stuff too close to a well so I wasn't sure if sending a bunch of lead into the ground right by the well would be the greatest idea. The well is like 180 feet deep though and has a liner for a good bit down so I imagine for a metal like lead it would probably get filtered out pretty quickly and wouldn't be an issue but I am not sure.

Does anyone know of any guidelines as far as how far from a well you should shoot or if lead at the surface could get into the water supply even with that deep a well?
 
I grew up on well and septic. Currently live on well and septic. When we bought our current home, it came with a land plot that showed the location of the well with a 100' radius around it. No drain fields or other septic in that zone. By contrast, my childhood home and neighborhood has wells and septic less than 75 feet apart. (Those wells and septic date to the late 1940s.) I say this to give you some idea of the separation required between ground contaminants and well water sources.

Could you possibly reverse your range such that you shoot from the well toward some other area? Another option is switch to all non toxic (copper solid) projectiles. Rather expensive though. Bottom line: I wouldn't be depositing lead near my well. Is it possible the ground will filter it out? Perhaps. Will one person shooting recreationally create enough lead deposits to matter? Who knows? The EPA set the maximum PEL (permissible exposure level) of lead in water sources at zero. That should tell you something.
 
Construct a bullet trap. Reclaim* the lead. Worth $1 a pound or more. No lead problems.

Surface runoff may be most of your problem, if it can reach stream, lake or other body of water. Your volume of lead deposits will be nothing like a gun club. The well is safe at 180 feet down, Imo. Non-issue is my guess.

Noise is the biggest problem for new shooting ranges. Old ranges are grandfathered in, in some state laws. (Pa.) Non-issue.

Lead contamination comes mostly from water pipes, faucets, water fixtures. Lead based solders from years ago.
 
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Have a similar situation here the soil is very porous and summer is monsoon season I got with the EPA and their book on ground contaminates lists several options for soil. It has been 15 years since we set a range up but I believe it was dolomite we employed to encapsulate the lead fragments from leaching into the ground. What happens is the lead rendered inert and can be retrieved by scraping the first 3 inches of soil and disposed of. This will require replacing the soil and the dolomite it is advisable to put down an inch of clay first as this is a secondary barrier to the leaching process this is very effective when you are shooting steel as most lead projectiles will shave lead on contact with steel.
 
If your surface casing is installed to 40+ feet in depth, and it was full length grouted (preferably with bentonite chips or slurry), and it is in a low hydraulic conductivity formation (i.e. not sand) then I would not be terribly concerned about lead leaching to groundwater.
Still best practice to keep the range away from the well head.
 
I sure wouldn't want to run even the slightest risk of contamination. Not to mention the possibility of hitting something involved with the well itself.
 
A coworker got on an Army project to study shooting ranges. They found that depending on soil conditions in the berms, they would find bullets, jackets, or cores in old deposits. And sometimes nothing of any great age.

I would chicken out and put up a bullet trap.
A friend and I were looking at one for her pasture but a new range opened up nearby so that project was dropped.
 
Build a trap using a 3-sided enclosure filled with sand to trap the bullets. Lead does not migrate in the soil. It encapsulates in place and generally stays within 3" of the ground surface unless disturbed. Our club was sued for supposed lead contamination in the ground water. We have a small stream that runs parallel to the range. We have the water in the stream tested four times a year at various locations including right next to the backstop. No lead has ever been found in the water to date. The biggest problem (here in New England) is surface lead that gets oxidized and the acid rain in the area can cause the lead oxide to get into the soil. We screen the back stop sand every couple of years to recover the lead to sell back to the club members. I don't think you will have a problem with lead in your well.
 
It wouldn’t bother me at all, I may tell my doc to check lead every few years. Which I keep saying I’m gonna do anyway but never remember….. wonder if that’s a side affect of to much lead.
 
Steel Horse Rider said:
I would be more concerned with errant shots or ricochets damaging the well head or any controls that may be present.
Click to expand...

Exactly. A ricochet could pierce the casing, allowing surface contamination into the well. Or it could damage the electrical lines for the pump - unless you're lucky enough to have an artesian well (no pump needed).
 
I don't recommend it but when I was a kid, I chewed the lead "pipe" in the Clue game because it felt neat to smash the lead with my teeth. I'll soon be 75. Don't know if I'm normal. Can I blame baldness on lead poisoning?
 
Find an old front end loader bucket and set it up on the ground so ricochets are directed into the ground in front. Scoop off top 6", make a concrete sided sand box and fill it with sand. Or add a bottom to make a "concrete tub", either way it would be easy to mine
 
frogfurr said:
When you move far out in the country you pretty guaranteed you will be drinking well water.
Click to expand...
Yep, and the summer before last, the other name I gave our 40-year-old well was “money pit.” It crapped out just as I was all set to buy myself a new .257 Weatherby rifle. Instead, I ended up putting the price of a half-dozen or so new .257 Weatherby rifles down our well. :mad:
Oh, WELL! At least we have good water (and plenty of it) again, and I didn’t really need a new big game rifle anyway. The truth is, a .257 Weatherby rifle would have just been kind of a “whim” purchase for me, and I’d have probably traded it for something else by now. ;)
 
IMO nothing to worry about. But I’d still make up a bullet trap just to be on the safe side and to make my life easier, later on.
 
Ok thanks for all the feedback, seems like it definitely is something I should consider. I at a minimum will shoot in the back yard, a good distance away from the well and maybe look into building a bullet trap as well just to be safe. Definitely wouldn't want to contaminate my drinking water.
 
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