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I remember reading an article in Guns & Ammo years ago where a friend of the author tried building an underground range off his basement. The design was well thought out and would have been very safe. Well he got signed off by the county for his building permits, but his neighbors got wind of it and got the laws changed where discharging a firearm was illegal even for what he wanted to do. This occurred right as construction was finished so he was stuck with basically a tunnel coming off his house and was out thousands of dollars. Thats always a risk with an undertaking like this.
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There was a guy that had one that lived next to my wife's home-place.
It was made of cement culvert pipe and accessed by a hatch in the wall of his basement that his bench was up against. It was 50 yards long and had a skylights at around 25 yards and one the end to illuminate the target. He used what looked to me like a aquarium light set-up so he could also shoot at night. It also had a cage fan that pulled out the smoke at about 1/4 of it's length as well as sort of a range hood affair where his rifle rest was. The guy was big into .22 match rifles and as far as I know .22 is all he shot in it. When he passed and the house went up for sale i tried getting it but with the land (some zoned commercial) it was well beyond my means at the time. |
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A neighbor of mine put in a new driveway and put a 25 yard shooting range under his driveway. Well, kinda to the side of it. I was wondering how feasible it would be to have a trench dug in my back yard, say 30 yards. I'd bury a 2-4 foot corrugated irrigation pipe, or maybe a little larger if I could find one. There are construction projects all over here and I suspect I could source a 25 M corrugated steel pipe pretty easily. I passed on a 6' diameter one for free a couple years ago. Then at each end I dig a small room, one to hold targets, and the other to shoot from. Both accessible via an insulated door at the top. a vent fan pulls air out the top on the target end so any combustion gases and fumes travel down range and out the other end. Feasible or retarded? View Quote |
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When I win the lottery, I plan on building a 1300 yard underground range for rifles and a 4 bay 50yard ug range for pistol. I've already got it designed in my head along with the house Ed View Quote Check the bullet drop at 1300 yards, you will need a large diameter pipe |
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You can't bury shipping containers. 16' x 7' corrugated pipe around $2400 delivered. http://liveincontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/54.jpg The container sides and top are not designed to support the load of the fill dirt. |
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LaRue thread:
http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_2_219/177561_Containers_set_____8___27_update____LaRue_25_yard_Underground_Range_.html And more ideas: |
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We had one in the house I grew up in. Never really used it, it was freaking loud. IIRC it was corrugated 24" tube. Had a pulley system for the targets which someone had shot the hell out of and a light which was, of course, shot out. I never wanted to use it bad enough to crawl down it and fix it. Dad would occasional use it just for function checking guns he was working on.
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We had one in the house I grew up in. Never really used it, it was freaking loud. IIRC it was corrugated 24" tube. Had a pulley system for the targets which someone had shot the hell out of and a light which was, of course, shot out. I never wanted to use it bad enough to crawl down it and fix it. Dad would occasional use it just for function checking guns he was working on. View Quote That's why it's better to have a smooth pipe so you can use a auto dolly. |
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At the bulb. That's why it's better to have a smooth pipe so you can use a auto dolly. View Quote |
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Feasibility depends largely on resources...You'll need at least a 6' dia. culvert pipe however long you want the range to be and the earth moving equipment to dig the big ass trench to bury the pipe. Then pouring what amounts to a small basement at both the shooting bench and target ends, drainage, lighting, ventilation, etc. Once you have all that accomplished you'd just have to worry about upkeep on the whole thing and earthquakes . View Quote |
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First place I lived in Kommiefornia, the landlord had a bomb shelter he had dug out of the sandstone of the hillside (he was an older guy, so he was around for the Cold War, and Sandy Eggo was ground zero ). Since the nuke war never happened, he used it as a shooting range, which I was free to use as well. Talk about a fringe benefit! John was a happy camper...
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We had one in the house I grew up in. Never really used it, it was freaking loud. IIRC it was corrugated 24" tube. Had a pulley system for the targets which someone had shot the hell out of and a light which was, of course, shot out. I never wanted to use it bad enough to crawl down it and fix it. Dad would occasional use it just for function checking guns he was working on. View Quote |
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Feasibility depends largely on resources...You'll need at least a 6' dia. culvert pipe however long you want the range to be and the earth moving equipment to dig the big ass trench to bury the pipe. Then pouring what amounts to a small basement at both the shooting bench and target ends, drainage, lighting, ventilation, etc. Once you have all that accomplished you'd just have to worry about upkeep on the whole thing and earthquakes . View Quote You would need a decent size basement type room for your shooting area, or partition off a section of your existing basement. For the pit at the end of the tube what types of calibers you want to shoot would partly determine the size of the pit needed and the backstop. For rimfire or pistol, a simple 45 degree smash plate and collection tray would work. If you want to shoot rifle, you would want a more complicated deflection plate system, or a sand or other medium pile in the back, either way it will require a larger pit. for a pistol caliber setup, the pit could be as small as ~a foot larger than diameter of the pipe in width and depth (+whatever depth to make it back up to grade), and maybe 2 ft longer in length. It could easily be made out of block or poured. You may be able to find a precast vault that would work. Depending on your local soil and the drainage, you may not even need to do a floor. If drainage isn't ideal you may need to pour a floor and sump. |
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We used to come home from the bar, tape 3 phone books (when phone books were big) together and shoot the 22LR down the hall. We had a split level home so it was a blast to shoot, have a drink and shoot some more..... Just printed the targets and taped them to the books. Never had a round miss the targets or go anywhere close to through the books. But with a wife now, she isn't keen on my potentially shooting her stuff in the closet behind. View Quote |
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Federal cartridge in anoka mn has two test ranges, underground. They are 2' culvert pipes. 100 yards long. At 100 yards, there isn't that much trajectory. They use a motorized pully to run targets. There is a track on the bottom for a light. Only the target needs to be illuminated for the scope to see it. It's pretty slick. And easy to do. Put in a 6 inch pvc stand pipe at the target end with a powered fan to suck out the fumes. Put an air intake in your shooting area. Power up the vent fan, positive pressure In our shooting room and all will be well. Angle a one inch plate at the end of your pipe to drop into a 4 foot catch box. I doubt if you could fill it up. View Quote |
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my kids are older, I'm snipped and already retarded. It's probably not an issue. I'm hoping the venting system pulls it down the pipe somewhat. I should also add: I'm trying to do this on the cheap. If I could do this for a few grand, I will probably do it, but much more than that and I'll just drive to the hills. I know an excavator that'll cut me a huge deal on it, I can probably scrounge the pipe, but don't know about the rooms at each end. Not sure if pouring concrete or building from cinderblock would be smarter. I would use a bobcat to backfill and reseed the lawn myself over the top. I'll also have to replace a bunch of sprinkler pipe. View Quote my guess: Just materials for the 2 basement ends will run 5-7k total project if you had to pay somebody to do it would be pushing 50k |
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Find someone who makes tornado shelters or storm sewer junctions. Should be pretty easy if you have a backhoe. If you can get a storm shelter cert, you might qualify for FEMA funds.
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Pay attention to trajectory. There is an underground range here that is mostly unused past 100 yards because it is too short. Include a means for cleaning unburned gunpowder out of the tube. This argues against corrugated tubes. I have been in the Lapua range in Phoenix. It is constructed from concrete pipe that is 8 feet diameter, or close, above grade. View Quote The guys who swept up the indoor range where I used to work would routinely set all the dust on fire to burn it off. Not a smart move though, considering that ordinary primers are made of a lead compound, so burning off the powder released a lot of lead vapor too. |
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My uncle built one way back in the day at his house.
He buried a line of concrete pipes about 50 yards out into the yard, one end opening in the basement. The other end he built a box where you could put targets, along with lots and lots of flattened rubber tires and other backing. Over that were two cellar doors that opened. The basement room he soundproofed and sealed up. Used to use it a lot for his fancy hunting handguns. |
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We used to come home from the bar, tape 3 phone books (when phone books were big) together and shoot the 22LR down the hall. We had a split level home so it was a blast to shoot, have a drink and shoot some more..... Just printed the targets and taped them to the books. Never had a round miss the targets or go anywhere close to through the books. But with a wife now, she isn't keen on my potentially shooting her stuff in the closet behind. View Quote |
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A friend of mine in Springfield MO has a 10 yard pistol range in his basement. He lined the walls with acoustic panels to help with noise. It was still the loudest place I've ever been shooting and anything over 9mm would shake the house, dust would fly everywhere.
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If seriously considering I would think about a few things:
-Serious French drain with Lots of strong sump pumps. So if one fails, theres already redundancy built in without having to tear shit up. Like... I'm talking a sump pump every 6 feet. Cheap insurance. -smooth wall -strong inline duct fans on both ends and one in the middle-Ish. Stronger fan at the target end for a vacuum.effect. you want that powder and lead getting pulied away from the firing line. -recessed LED lighting. Protected from Spall, and less having to go into the nasty end to change bulbs. -as big a friggin space as possible. -some noise mitigation architecture. Consult an audio engineer. -consult local soil expert -sized large enough to access all portions. Here's a price estimator for different specs of precast reinforced concrete. http://www.ncp-inc.com/price1.html Here's what those specs mean: http://www.rinkerpipe.com/TechnicalInfo/ConcretePipeSpecifications.aspx ASTM- C76 reinforced underground pipe in 30" is about $55 per linear foot. Not bad... but it's 500 lbs per linear foot. 60" pipe is about $200 per linear foot and weighs 1500lbs per linear foot Here's a concrete block calculator: http://www.cemexusa.com/ProductsServices/BlockCalculator.aspx A 6'x6'x100' concrete hallway (not counting ceiling) would take about 2100 cinder blocks, plus fill and reinforcement and sand etc. That's if you use block for.the floor as well (maybe not my first choice.... but feasible). Don't forget that drainage system and lots of pumps, gravel, etc. You might be able to have a gravel floor over the French drain and pump array, and just pour footers for the walls..... hell, we might be onto something with that. Or maybe pavers, even. A skinny 30" x 30" x100' cinder block tunnel (not counting ceiling) would take about 800 blocks. That includes the block floor, if doing such a thing. But if you're going to build this thing, might as well make it big enough to not be a literal shithole. IMO. Cinder blocks are something you could do a good amount of the labor on. Concrete pipe sections are likely not. That might be a good or bad thing, depending... All that work to only be able to shoot off a bench thru a claustrophobic tube likely doesn't have enough payoff for me... an actual tunnel that you can stand and shoot from field positions within is what I'd want to take advantage of at the end of such a massive project. You aren't a company test-firing guns, you want fun. |
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It's been done before so why not. You have to clean out any unburned powder every now and then. Make sure you can legally discharge a firearm where you live. You can use a pulley system to run your targets downrange. View Quote Supposedly what happened was something like this: They had an underground range that ran under the factory. Over time, unburnt powder built up, as well as target chaff. Somewhow the unburnt powder was ignited, causing a fire, which destroyed the exhaust fans, which then caused the fire to get sucked back towards the ballistics lab - the room with the shooting benches. I think the target room was also near the powder magazine, and fire worked its way through old cracks in the concrete until it hit the powder in the magazine - which then leveled half the factory. Building something like that under your HOUSE sounds like an accident waiting to happen. |
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I think I mentioned earlier that ours was loud. I can't emphasize enough how loud that damn thing was. First time Dad used it was either the 30-06 or the .338, it wasn't pleasant to be anywhere in that house, let alone the small room in the basement I'm surprised we he didn't get a nose bleed or something. He still seemed pretty stunned by it when I got down there to make sure he was okay. I was afraid he had blown his rifle up or something.
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A guy did that here in St Paul a while back and got in some trouble for it, not sure if it was a zoning thing or permit or shooting in he city limits. Anyway I think they investigated him and dragged his name through the mud because he ran a gun store that sold WWII merchandise and there was some flags with swastikas and stuff also a park nearby where people would play basketball and smash 40 oz. bottles all over the place.
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Most cities have an ordinance about discharging firearms (and some consider pellet guns firearms). I guess indoor ranges get waivers or something.
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Local gun store has an indoor two bay rifle range, even with good plugs and ear muffs it is stupid loud. Huge echo and reverberation adds to the noise.
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Feasible I suppose.
Expensive definitely. No way your going to get approval to do it. Would have to lie and say your doing some kind of drainage project or something. EPA will shit all over you. |
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There was a guy that had one that lived next to my wife's home-place. It was made of cement culvert pipe and accessed by a hatch in the wall of his basement that his bench was up against. It was 50 yards long and had a skylights at around 25 yards and one the end to illuminate the target. He used what looked to me like a aquarium light set-up so he could also shoot at night. It also had a cage fan that pulled out the smoke at about 1/4 of it's length as well as sort of a range hood affair where his rifle rest was. The guy was big into .22 match rifles and as far as I know .22 is all he shot in it. When he passed and the house went up for sale i tried getting it but with the land (some zoned commercial) it was well beyond my means at the time. View Quote |
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Sounds fun!!! Check the bullet drop at 1300 yards, you will need a large diameter pipe View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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When I win the lottery, I plan on building a 1300 yard underground range for rifles and a 4 bay 50yard ug range for pistol. I've already got it designed in my head along with the house Ed Check the bullet drop at 1300 yards, you will need a large diameter pipe |
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I believe you can bury them, but you have to add sone sort of support structure foe the sides and top. In this pic, I assume concrete walls are going to be poured around the sides. The container sides and top are not designed to support the load of the fill dirt. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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You can't bury shipping containers. 16' x 7' corrugated pipe around $2400 delivered. http://liveincontainer.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/54.jpg The container sides and top are not designed to support the load of the fill dirt. |
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I don't think I need a six foot pipe, I visited the sako factory in Finland once and their underground test range had tubes in the two foot diameter range if I remember correctly. They were very very small. Very cool 100m range.they were test test firing machine guns at the time View Quote |
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I can't fathom why anyone would do this with the exception of companies testing guns.
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If you don't think this thing through you will end up with an underground water storage tank. View Quote Then it turned into a lake. It flooded and got Sooo swampy. So we caved the roof in, I dug some more and hooked it to the irrigation canal, and I turned it into a tiny sucker fishery. That was a lot of fun too. I didn't do a lot of fishing, but I exploded a metric ton of suckers with fireworks that next summer...... |
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When I was about 10-14 I had a friend whose dad would let us do that in the friends' ~10x12 bedroom. Pointed at an interior wall adjoining his little brothers' room. Unsupervised. And not just 22lr.... View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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We used to come home from the bar, tape 3 phone books (when phone books were big) together and shoot the 22LR down the hall. We had a split level home so it was a blast to shoot, have a drink and shoot some more..... Just printed the targets and taped them to the books. Never had a round miss the targets or go anywhere close to through the books. But with a wife now, she isn't keen on my potentially shooting her stuff in the closet behind. That place was perfect as the left end was buried into a hill, no close neighbors and a forest adjacent to the back yard. |
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I can't fathom why anyone would do this with the exception of companies testing guns. View Quote I'd want 100 yards though. Noise mitigation wouldn't be impossible. Accoustic tiles and shoot through tires would help. |
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The way I understand it is that the roof can't support the weight of the earth, only the walls are structural. Maybe that's why the roof of the one in your pic is beefed up and overlaps the walls. View Quote |
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my guess: Just materials for the 2 basement ends will run 5-7k total project if you had to pay somebody to do it would be pushing 50k View Quote I found 31" culvert for 600 already. enough to do 30 yards. I think he'll go cheaper. I need a trench probably 8 feet deep and 30 yards long. Not sure how much that'll cost but I'm also considering just renting a backhoe. I've driven backhoe's before and while I'm not the fastest, I can dig a trench. I also have a buddy that's an excavator that would probably do it for a few hundred bucks and a case of beer. That leaves the rooms. I am only going to shoot rimfire and handguns, no need for high power rifles. That means no room on the target end. I'll sink a 4' tube vertically, put a ladder in place to climb down and work on the targets. That's probably a couple hundred bucks for a tube like that. I could also just buy one of the many concrete culverts for sale on my local classified adds. The the shoot room.... Not sure how to solve this, but i was thinking that I'd build a small room, I mean tiny, maybe 8' wide, 6-8 feet front to back and maybe 7' high? I'd build it from cinderblock filled with cement. the other option here is to lay the pipe straight away from the house, and come right into my office through the window well. I would literally open the window and shoot out the window into the tunnel. I can sound cap the Window well with a window well cover with sound proofing on it, and then I have a built in office and place to shoot from. The tube would include a moveable baffle that would basically slide into my window whenever I shoot. I'd make it out of a 50 gallon drum, mount it around the outside of the culvert pipe, and slide it back and forth with industrial rollers. This avoids the whole "shoot room" thing altogether, and avoids punching a hole in the basement wall. it also makes the lead/particulate problem very low as most of that will be in the drum, and I can replace the drum when necessary, or use a foam lining that I can remove and discard when necessary. I will take some pictures and show what I mean. |
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I think that's what happened to Nosler. Can't find the exact article where they figured out what happened, but this describes the fire: http://www.bendbulletin.com/news/1416145-151/nosler-explosion-still-a-mystery Supposedly what happened was something like this: They had an underground range that ran under the factory. Over time, unburnt powder built up, as well as target chaff. Somewhow the unburnt powder was ignited, causing a fire, which destroyed the exhaust fans, which then caused the fire to get sucked back towards the ballistics lab - the room with the shooting benches. I think the target room was also near the powder magazine, and fire worked its way through old cracks in the concrete until it hit the powder in the magazine - which then leveled half the factory. Building something like that under your HOUSE sounds like an accident waiting to happen. View Quote View All Quotes View All Quotes Quoted:
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It's been done before so why not. You have to clean out any unburned powder every now and then. Make sure you can legally discharge a firearm where you live. You can use a pulley system to run your targets downrange. Supposedly what happened was something like this: They had an underground range that ran under the factory. Over time, unburnt powder built up, as well as target chaff. Somewhow the unburnt powder was ignited, causing a fire, which destroyed the exhaust fans, which then caused the fire to get sucked back towards the ballistics lab - the room with the shooting benches. I think the target room was also near the powder magazine, and fire worked its way through old cracks in the concrete until it hit the powder in the magazine - which then leveled half the factory. Building something like that under your HOUSE sounds like an accident waiting to happen. |
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