something to do with that dusty old basement

[icebones]

how about a personal indoor shootin range?

allright, first off im 17, and enlisted in the USAF

i was looking at a small house in central kentucky.

its not too big, about a 40x60 brick one story house with a garage and a basement. about 20 acres of land

i was thinking how hard would it be to convert half of that basement into a mini indoor shooting range?

i wasnt going to shoot anything bigger than .22 handguns in this

the entire range will be about 6' wide and as long as the basement, totally enclosed with concrete blocks, a filter chamber, and a door.

i drew up a plan for a bullet trap that consisted of a 1/2'' plywood sheet to attach targets, then about 2' of fire wood stacked in alternate directions, then a layer of sandbags to catch anything that makes it past the wood. and a 1/4'' steel plate to keep any stubborn .22 from pock marking the wall behind it. this way, if any bullet would hit the steel, the fragments would be stopped from splashing back by the sandbags and wood.

also i had an idea of using industrial box fans, steel duct work and about 2 or 3 HEPA furnace filters (the kind that are flat, and square they go in most central air units) to filter out any harmful lead dust and smoke.

the fans will be blowing air against my back, downrange, to another fan at the bullet trap end that will force the air through the filters and back into the room.

also maybe something like a 1/8'' steel plate along the ceiling to keep any arrogant rounds from going through the 1st floor.

good, bad idea or no? any thoughts? suggestions?

 

[alemonkey]

I would think a snail trap or steel plate at a 45 degree angle, with a lot of sand at the bottom to catch the bullets, would be a much better backstop than firewood.

 

[highorder]

they make bullet traps for .22's, but the big concern is airborne lead. You will need adequate ventilation.

 

[icebones]

thats what those two industrial fans and HEPA filters are for.

like alemonkey said: about the steel plate at a 45 angle

i wonder is a steel plate at a 45 degree angle with a 6'' deep resivor of water under it would help cut down on airborne lead.

it seems to me that water would work better than sand...

i just went with firewood because i have acess to about 45 truckloads of wood...

also i can get steel plates at work for free, so no problem there

 

[Aaron Baker]

Lots of questions that don't relate specifically to your question: are you stationed in Kentucky? Why are you looking to buy a house in Kentucky? If you're in the USAF, isn't there a chance that you'll be moving around a bit? If so, is building an indoor range a good idea?

Also, being that we're talking about 20 acres in Kentucky, what's wrong with shooting off of your back porch? It'd be a hell of a lot cheaper. I imagine the nearly nonexistent neighbors wouldn't care.

I don't know... it sounds like you're on the right track if you're deadset on doing this, but something just doesn't add up about 17, in the Air Force and buying a house in Kentucky. Nothing about that situation screams "I need an indoor range."

Also, how are you getting your hands on handguns, even .22 caliber ones?

Aaron

 

[Jim March]

What I like about the water bucket thing is, easy lead recovery .

Stuff's expensive...

 

[Kind of Blued]

Mr. Baker makes some good points.

 

[chris in va]

Bad idea. Sound travels further than your basement. Lead in the air. Negligent discharges. Ricochets.

If you still must shoot indoors, just get a pellet gun.

BTW I was in the AF, 92-96. Do *not* buy a house, even an apartment. Chances are you will be stationed somewhere else suddenly. You'll notice a bulletin board at the shopette full of 'for sale...cheap' stuff. There's a reason for that.

I waited 3 years before getting my off base apartment, when I found out I would be spending all 4 years at one base.

Also, don't get a credit card. Trust me. Use the GI bill and get some college going. Don't buy a bunch of expensive crap like TV's, stereos, car loans etc.

 

[Essex County]

Chris in Va..............

Speaks words of Wisdom. When I was an Airman I once had sixteen days to clear base and redeploy. I also had a wife and two kids at the time. Talk about turmoil.....Essex

 

[Tommygunn]

Hey, two words: AIR SOFT! ;-)

 

[AndrewGWU]

Buy a good quality pellet gun and it will be cheap and much safer fun.

 

[par0thead151]

lead contamination is a serious issue when shooting in your own home.
a hepa filter will not get even the majority of the lead put into the air via primers and bullets hitting other bullets in the trap.
buy a BB or airsoft. you also will have a destroyed basement due to ricochets, and the nice floors above the basement will now have holes in them

 

[hso]

Why filter the air when you can just exhaust it from the basement outside?

Don't bring firewood (and bugs and termites) into your home to use as a backstop. Sand works very well as a bullet trap and can be sifted and shoveled out when you have to move.

As has been said, if you have 20 acres you should have plenty of land to shoot on. If it's as flat as a billiard table, set up a berm. That sure sounds less expensive than armoring the range so that the house isn't damaged.

 

[waterhouse]

I had a .22 range set up in the basement when I was in high school. The basement was built into a hill and 3/4 of it had windows or doors for ventilation, which is important and you seem to already have thought about.

I shot subsonic rounds almost exclusively, and we were on less than 2 acres . . . no complaints from the neighbors, even with over a thousand rounds a week.

Anyhow, the basement .22 range is very doable. Whether it makes any sense given your current situation: possibly moving often, having some outdoor land, etc . . . the other posters who have served in the Air Force will have a much better idea on that.

ETA: In 3 years of shooting any many, many thousands of rounds, I never once put a hole in a wall or a floor or anything else.

 

[bogie]

What part of central kentucky? I grew up in Harrodsburg.

Check www.savagearms.com and look at their bullet traps.

 

[icebones]

im stationed in lackland texas, but i am GOING to live in good ol kentuck, nuff said...

after i compete my a-school i can come back home for 4 years and go through college, so no problem there. i am a munitions specialist, and there is very little chance i will be deployed anywhere but lackland.

i have several airsoft and bb guns, but it just aint the same as "real" guns... also this range is for those days its raining, cold, or dark and i cant shoot off the porch...or for the times when im home-alone and i get bored at 3am in the morning...

also, my girlfriend, soon-to-be-wife, is a paramedic and a registered nurse, and she needs a place to stay anyway...

i have a lot of good family and very close friends that wouldnt care to check on the place from time to time.

that house has a wood burning stove, so wood is gonna be in the basement anyway.

by the way, bogie, i live just south of harrodsburg, in lincoln county
always good to meet a fellow kentuckian...

 

[icebones]

also, amen on the credit card...

i payed for everything i buy with checks or cash, up front.

kinda funny when i bought my truck and handed the dude $2800 in cash...


also, i will turn 18 in a few months anyway...

you can enlist in the military under 18, if your legal gaurdians sign off on it, and how many other 17 year old guys you know are thinking about buying a house, and have a government job, and not simply killing brain cells and partying after high school?

i know buying a house sounds farfetched because of my age, but i already have a nice chunck of change in the bank from raising cattle, tobacco, hay and corn. also my enlistment bonus is coming in a few weeks...

also, most of the public indoor ranges have air systems simmilar to my setup, i just didnt want to pump air out of the house because of heating/cooling costs. any gunsmoke and lead particles from the primer will be blow away from me by the air system, remember, this system blows the air from the firing line towards the backstop, so any smoke will be drawn away from the shooter.

might open up a custom gunsmith shop after my 6 years are up in the basement too

 

[icebones]

checked out a website about indoor ranges, i got an idea... instead of using air filters, i could use one of those vacuums that uses water to filter air to contain lead dust from firing.

just a thought...