underground range

[200Apples]

Posted yesterday:

2 years later we bought 5 acres with an outdoor range at back of property. Grading the range this weekend a putting new berm in.

Good deal. Glad it's workin' out for you guys.

[Like2fly]

I'd do a little more research on the engineering and permitting side.

2AZone has a really good point about the top collapsing. Conex boxes are designed to support a large vertical load, but only on their structural members. They're not designed to support a vertical load distributed on the roof.

Second point is the danger of ricochet from the angular corrugated steel. Enclosed ranges are designed so that angular fire will be redirected downrange.

Don't forget ventilation and permitting. You need to breathe while shooting and there are a lot of dangerous substances emitted while shooting.

Permitting can be a pain, but its easier than having to disassemble your range (or pay the county contracted vendors to do it) when the nice code-compliance folks find out about it. A few years ago, the city of L.A. started using satellite imagery to identify folks doing unpermitted building. L.A. County can't be too far behind.

[SharedShots]

And everyone will know the underground range is there. You trust your friend who trusts their friend and before you know it 10,000 fers know its there too. Yeah, your friends are trustworthy cause they know the secret handshake, the circle of trust and all that.

A underground range doesn't exempt anyone from the laws or ordinances about where and when you can shoot so the fines, fees and lawsuits will pile up quick.

Underground bunkers, underground prepper hideouts and gaves all have one thing in common - decomp.

[Kerplow]

[Rivers]

Look at box culverts from a precast concrete company like Jensenprecast.com. It won't be cheap but it will be safe and offer a lot of options, like width for shooting lanes, etc. Absolutely don't neglect to properly engineer the ventilation system.

[kustomkat1950]

I WONDER IF YOU CAN BUY CONCRETE PIPE THAT IS OUT OF SPEC FROM PLANT THAT CASTs IT. Corrugated galvanized pipe might work as well

Buy it big enough to skate it!!!!!

[sigstroker]

Wait till you see the prices for box culverts.


It would be interesting to see someone with the cash to do it right. Positive air pressure to keep everything venting down range.

And something you can't do on an above ground range, active noise cancelling. Since you are looking at noise coming out of a pipe active noise cancelling is a real possibility. With a big enough set of speakers you could hit the noise with an inverted wave and cancel it out.

A 100 yard indoor range that didn't require ear protection would be an interesting thing.

Sent from my Pixel 4 XL using Tapatalk

Not sure I want to be in a closed box with that kind of thing going on.

I don't need that service where I am because there isn't any unimproved property. Too damn many people moved here the last 30 years. My old shooting spots are now occupied by living rooms.

[Someday]

This:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQK337J2Ajk

[jtv3062]

Dig a hole to put in a box for the shooter to stand and shoot from.

Dig a trench and place a corrugated steel tube/tubes for bullet path.

Either:

Dig a hole at other end and put in a box for target.

Or

Put a track in the tube to move targets back and forth.

That is what they do around here.

This is what I would do