Indoor Shooting Range Construction?

[Guest jos2f]

Hey guys, not sure the best place to ask but I might as well start here.

What do most indoor shooting ranges use as backdrop to catch/stop the bullets? I've heard various things, but with all of them it seems like they would have to be replaced in time.

If someone could enlighten me, I'd appreciate it

[Guest bemills86]

Check this site out.....

Savage Range Systems

[Guest jos2f]

Ah this is quite interesting, makes sense to me. Seems costly if you get a conveyer involved and the wet fluid system

[Guest jwp]

There are a variety of materials that can be used, the most common are pellitized rubber and steel plating. Other materials include sand and even foam rubber.

[Guest jos2f]

JWP, prior to reading the Savage shooting system, I had heard about the rubber and the sand. My thinking with those was, surely in due time the sand will leak out on the floor or the rubber will do the same, thus needing replacement. Is this correct?

[Guest jwp]

Usually the sand and rubber is backed by steel and bolstered by a trough system where the media is held.

You will experience some loss of sand when you sift it to retrieve the spent lead, but sand is cheap.

The bottom line is that a range is a money pit no matter what sort of backstop you use. It's a way to draw customers into the store to buy accessories and such.

[Guest jos2f]

See, that surprises me. I would have thought that a range would be a steady source of income by itself with only a large up-front expense. There goes my get-rich-quick scheme

[Guest jwp]

See, that surprises me. I would have thought that a range would be a steady source of income by itself with only a large up-front expense. There goes my get-rich-quick scheme

Nope. Why do you think most "new" ranges use previously owned range systems? Because the majority of ranges hit the wall in a fast and furious manner.

Think about this, we have a range. The latest estimate we have to "remodel" it, which includes nothing more than a new backstop and lead retrieval system is $250k. That's not cheap and gives a painfully slow return of investment.

[Guest jos2f]

The latest estimate we have to "remodel" it, which includes nothing more than a new backstop and lead retrieval system is $250k. That's not cheap and gives a painfully slow return of investment.

250k holy crap, the ROI is definitely not favorable on that. Maybe you should just get some dead farm animals and string them up, let them absorb the bullets

[TGO David]

Nope. Why do you think most "new" ranges use previously owned range systems? Because the majority of ranges hit the wall in a fast and furious manner.

Think about this, we have a range. The latest estimate we have to "remodel" it, which includes nothing more than a new backstop and lead retrieval system is $250k. That's not cheap and gives a painfully slow return of investment.

By lead retrieval system, it sounds as though this is an active process that reclaims the lead without a lot of manual labor. How frequently are you having to sift through the media and reclaim the lead now? And are you doing that yourselves or do you have to get an environmental group to come in and do it?

I've always been curious how this stuff works.

[Guest jos2f]

That Savage system looked like some conveyer belt that would carry the lead to some common collection point I imagine. What other methods of retrieval exist, jwp?

Also would be interested if you can deal with the lead yourself or if you have to pay some third party to dispose of it

[Guest RangeDS]

Having just recently constructed a new 15,000 sq. ft. indoor shooting range I can shed light on the options and offer guidance.

In my experience steel and rubber traps are most common.

The shredded rubber traps may include tires but none that were steel belted. It's pure rubber. There is no conveyor option with rubber. The rubber must be separated / sifted from the led. There's a vacuum process that is available that can separate the two by pulling the rubber and leaving the heavier round. Yes, you need protection when harvesting. Frequency depends upon the # of rounds. The range I constructed has +240,000 rounds in it from 3 months of use. No sign of needing to harvest yet. Yes, the rubber traps can be designed to received .50 BMG

Steel is "cleaner". The rubber tends to migrate down the slope. Steel traps can include an auger system or catch buckets. Benefits to both.

We researched "wet" traps and didn't like them - the claims that they reduce airborne lead we could not get comfortable with...thats more appropriately addressed in how the air moves through the range.

I have photos of the rubber trap we installed and a steel trap that we toured at Duke Energy's security facility (impressive).

Range Development Services

[TGO David]

This thread is 3 years old.