The structure is in the corners.  Matson uses some "containers" that don't even have sides or tops, just ends that fold up/down.

I think it would be cheaper to build a slab on grade structure with poured  concrete walls.  And then use typical roof tusses....or better yet attic roof trusses.  The bottom chord of attic trusses is usually deeper, like a 2X8, so you can hang steel plate from so a bullet doesn't get accidentally shot through the roof.

The backstop can be a 45* angled piece of 1/2" AR500.  I think there is actually a special  rubber mat used at some indoor ranges, which catches all the bullet fragments once the bullet hits the steel backstop.

You can rent 9 foot tall Symons concrete forms.

Symons can also be stacked one on top of each other like this:



There is this neat interlocking wedge system which cinches all the forms to each other and to the form ties:



So once you are done with the forms....the concrete walls are cured....and you strip the forms off the walls, you put the forms back on the trailer, and the rental place comes out again and pulls the trailer away.

The wall thickness is up to you, based on how long of a wall tie you go with.

In the picture above, that is the rusty metal tab sticking out between the two forms.

If you go with a 9 foot Symons form, or stack a one foot wide form on top of an 8 footer, you can always use a laser level  and grade nails  to mark where the level pour should go.  Versus just pouring to the top of the forms and striking it off with a trowel, and then dropping in anchor bolts.

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Around here, a buried shipping container would pop right up out of the ground during the rainy season.

I shot an AR in something like that back before the awb sunsetted, plain jane muzzle.  So fucking loud that I quit after 4-5 rounds.  Felt like my fillings were going to fall out.

I used to use the tunnel at Bass Pro in Grapevine, TX.  It was 100yards underneath the store.  Honestly, it was pretty shitty to shoot there.  I'd never spend the money necessary on that.

Ive shot there and the Sportsman shooting center across the street, both have 3 of so foot tunnels that run 100 yards. I hate it. loud as shit with the SBR and comped 223 I was trying to sight in. Like rattle your face off loud.

my buddy had one in his basement in a city in PA. it was dug into the dirt, and you would stand like 10 feet back and shoot into the dirt. He would always crank the radio and some milling machines, but damn it was still loud.

If I was going to build one it would be for 22s and air guns. Maybe pistols if I could build baffles into the first part of the tube and make it like a giant can. Would still shoot suppressed, too.

I vote try it. if you swing by dallas i'll lend you a rifle to shoot in the underground tube. it's so bad I bet it changes your mind on the whole thing.

I'm thinking that a 40 or 50 yard tunnel system will fit in our back yard.  Build the firing room off the basement underneath the sun room and cover it with a patio.  The tunnel would be a simple cut and cover affair.  I can get 6ft concrete culvert pipe from a local manufacturer.  The target room would be a simple affair with the ventilation tower above ground.

The problem would be having to dig down far enough to get the tunnels below the freeze line.  I'd have to put the floor of the firing room several feet lower than the existing basement.  And I'd have to put in French drains to keep the tunnels and target room dry.

But we are looking at doing major earthmoving in the back yard to level it and build a greenhouse for her.  A few thousand more to build a year round firing range underneath that greenhouse for me might be negotiable with her.

I thought pretty seriously about it with my greenhouse build, but the hillside goes the wrong way.

If I can figure out how to build a shop in the other corner of my yard next year the hill goes the right way and it would be really easy to install a 50yd range.

Pretty sure the Barnes Bullet factory on I-15 near Nephi, Utah has a very long buried range behind their building. You can kind of see it from the freeway.

I've shot in the 100 yard underground tube here in Utah at TNT guns in Murray, it's loud has hell

that being said, I'm planning on mostly shooting suppressed .22 if I built this, and maybe handguns, not really long guns like rifles.  I am close enough to the mountains to do that when necessary.

this

of course you can...but the 1/2 dozen I've seen buried, the side walls collapse in a few years.. but you go right ahead.

I sell railroad tankcars to be custom cut and used as culverts.

Recently I got the idea to use them as an underground gun range.  The tankcars I come across are between 9ft and 10ft in diameter.  I talked to my sub-contractors, and they said it would be easy to install, ventilate, illuminate, and clean.  Basically a trech would need to be digged out, a foot deeper and wider than the the tankcars.  At the bottom of the trench, a few steel piers would be installed to prevent rotation.  Then add some gravel and sand to keep them level.  Roll as many tankcars as you need to make the length of range you want, and each segment woud be welded together on the inside. Cut a few holes in the to and put some pipe in the holes.  Bury the cars with the pipes upwards and cap them with roof vents.

Another plus is tankcars can absolutely hold up to being buried.  They can withstand loads of over 50,000lbs after buried.

True, interesting fact. Not sure if this is top secret but Tiger woods mom lives down the street from me and he built her a range. Her property is about 7 landscaped acres, it looks like a golf club with its own manned gate house. On one corner, there is a nice building that could be anything. It's a 2 lane pistol rifle  range. It has landscape all around it and it blends in really well. He bought the 5 acre lots all around it as well.

Tiger is a gun guy, hell one night around Halloween, I had Alan Jackson and Tiger on either side of me at Lotus.Gunworks.. Tiger had some Glocks and a DD AR..Jackson had a pile of Ed Brown 1911s..he was shooting.

That looks more like an Atlas square shelter.

I have a friend who built a 50 yard range/tunnel with a cinder block building on both ends....its only used for rim fire benchrest ammo testing...it is very hard to shoot in the tunnel at times dues to mirage etc...