Sound Barriers for Home/Public ranges?

DustyGmt

DustyGmt

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Green Mountains
Is that a thing? Does anybody have any information on the best way to construct a home range outdoors and muffle the report outside the general vicinity. I'm setting up an 80-100 shooting lane that will hopefully be about 10'-15 wide but I was just wondering if a small pole structure at the bench or station where you'd typically be shooting from could be constructed in such a way as to disguise the report and make it less of a bother in terms of sound for surrounding properties.

I know the cheapest and most effective solution to muffle the sound is to put a muffler on your gun, but until that specific device is a regular OTC item, I will not be participating or financially propping up that particular scam/agency. Just curious what clever solutions you guys may have come up with to dampen the sound.
 
If you build it so you’re basically shooting from within a walled shed out the door, it will reduce the sound of gunfire to those outside the shed, but not eliminate it. (Source: I’ve tried this at my range.) it’s still gunfire, and if you have neighbors within a few hundred yards, they will probably notice it. You’ll also have to deal with increased noise within the structure.

Difficult to accurately predict how well it will work given the large number of variables, but it will probably have some positive effect. Not remotely as effective as an actual suppressor though.
 
Trees no. Several home ranges out here. Mine is older than Travis Kelce. Closest neighbors are 1/4 away , another is 3/4 and we've compared.
 
Edaw468 said:
If you build it so you’re basically shooting from within a walled shed out the door, it will reduce the sound of gunfire to those outside the shed, but not eliminate it. (Source: I’ve tried this at my range.) it’s still gunfire, and if you have neighbors within a few hundred yards, they will probably notice it. You’ll also have to deal with increased noise within the structure.

Difficult to accurately predict how well it will work given the large number of variables, but it will probably have some positive effect. Not remotely as effective as an actual suppressor though.
Click to expand...
Probably not. I shoot from my hay barn and it's ears on all around
 
I have been pondering this a lot myself so I can be a reasonably good neighbor. I am thinking some hay bales around the shooting position. Won't be magic, but should help some without making it louder to the shooter. I think I may also plant evergreens around for when the leaves are off the other trees. One could put a shed at the shooting position and line it with sound deadening material with the bales outside for a ways, but then I am sort of married to that location, and I'm not sure it would make that huge of a difference given the hassle/cost to the shooter.

It is a balancing act. I'll do what I can but not going to spend $3k for a shed and hay I have to replace often if it doesn't make a huge difference to the neighbors. Have to settle into my new place and see if they are bothered by it or not. If not, I'll do a little but not a lot.

I don't ever see the ideal solution becoming OTC.
 
At the NC wildlife ranges they have what looks like ridgid duct with baffels in them and the ends are sort of closed . They seem to keep the sound down and look portable. Hope this helps lost...
 
Setting up a row of old tires, sidewall-to-sidewall so they make a sort of tube in front of the shooting bench and then shooting with the end of the barrel inside them when the shot is fired is supposed to reduce the report considerably.

www.youtube.com

Gun silencer prototype made of tires

Using 5.56 ammo for this demonstrationWk 180-C rifleNot much difference in sound because of the camera but we can stand beside it without ear protection.
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
Talk with them to see if there are times when it would be less intrusive Are they both on the same side of the bullet's trajectory? (Don't forget the shock wave of supersonic bullets.) In that case it might be reasonable to build a wooden fence on that side to redirect the sound. If not, then double that. or at least put one up on the side of the closer neighbor. Don't forget the value of communications plus the value of offering to let them shoot at your place.

Unless pre-agreed upon, I would avoid shooting at gongs.

Or Tannerite.

Terry, 230RN
 
Similar to @JohnKSa's idea linked above.

Get a 55 gallon plastic drum attached to the shooting bench. Ends cut minimally to allow for sights, shoot with muzzle inside the drum; extra points if one lines the inside curve of the drum with glued on egg foam. One can get the type of drum that has the spring clasp on the top end that can be removed allowing access to glue egg foam on the inside.

I haven't done one but it's on my list to do so as I imagine it would work remarkably, like a large suppressor with lots of space for expanding gasses to get trapped and diffused.
 
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DustyGmt said:
Is that a thing? Does anybody have any information on the best way to construct a home range outdoors and muffle the report outside the general vicinity. I'm setting up an 80-100 shooting lane that will hopefully be about 10'-15 wide but I was just wondering if a small pole structure at the bench or station where you'd typically be shooting from could be constructed in such a way as to disguise the report and make it less of a bother in terms of sound for surrounding properties.

I know the cheapest and most effective solution to muffle the sound is to put a muffler on your gun, but until that specific device is a regular OTC item, I will not be participating or financially propping up that particular scam/agency. Just curious what clever solutions you guys may have come up with to dampen the sound.
Click to expand...
Use non NFA silencers.
Something non-portable and doesn't attach to the gun, such as a stack of old tires sitting horizontally.
Old tires are free, available everywhere and assemble quickly using little to no hardware, rope, ect.
 
Anything to disrupt the sound waves as they emanate outward 360 degrees from your firearm should help redirect/muffle noises. Plywood panel walls with egg crate foam, trees/thick hedges, etc. will all work to limit the noises to outside ears.

It wont eliminate them, though.

When (if?) I am ever able to escape my suburban hell here I would love to use a short (20’) shipping container to be a shooting shack. I’d open the doors to shoot outwards, line the inside with angled panels/sound foam, mount permanent bench and lighting inside, etc.

I think this would help to limit sound to anyone on their place and give me an element-resistant shooting area.

Stay safe.
 
The DNR built a pretty nice range where I used to live and it had covered benches with a baffled section in the roof in front of the benches. Also dirt berms all around. Pretty elaborate setup. The thing I didn’t like was shooting from inside a structure your peripheral vision is blocked and I always worried about someone walking into the line of fire. Without a range master I could easily see that happening. Not conducive to good shooting with that in the back of your mind
 
55 gallon plastic drum with muzzle inserted into the end, muzzle port right next to side so scope can see over drum.
 
Riomouse911 said:
Anything to disrupt the sound waves as they emanate outward 360 degrees from your firearm should help redirect/muffle noises. Plywood panel walls with egg crate foam, trees/thick hedges, etc. will all work to limit the noises to outside ears.

It wont eliminate them, though.

When (if?) I am ever able to escape my suburban hell here I would love to use a short (20’) shipping container to be a shooting shack. I’d open the doors to shoot outwards, line the inside with angled panels/sound foam, mount permanent bench and lighting inside, etc.

I think this would help to limit sound to anyone on their place and give me an element-resistant shooting area.

Stay safe.
Click to expand...
At our place of business we have purchased many 20’ shipping containers for on the job tool cribs. You can even buy 1 trippers that are like new for not a lot of money considering. Many times they are available with doors on both ends where you can setup and shoot through. The muzzle blast would still be contained greatly and your peripheral vision maintained. Just a thought.
 
JohnKSa said:
Setting up a row of old tires, sidewall-to-sidewall so they make a sort of tube in front of the shooting bench and then shooting with the end of the barrel inside them when the shot is fired is supposed to reduce the report considerably.

I've seen this at a range in Tucson AZ. Didn't get to see it in action tho. My guess is that each tire acts as a baffle just like in a suppressor. Barrel inside...nore tires the less noise.
Click to expand...
 
45/30-06OKIE said:
Having lots of trees will help. Is this in a wooded area?
Click to expand...
Yes it's very heavily wooded, but there are three (3) gun friendly neighbors and one hostile neighbor, Karen lives about 200yards away but there is a road and very thick stand of pines and maples between us. She thinks the only reasonable people shoot once a year to sight in for November hunt. The concept of target practice is completely foreign to her and she sent a lil bird to inform me that I can shoot all I want when she leaves for Florida where she winters. I sent my own message back, and it was loud.

I definitely don't go out of my way to be a prick, which is why I'd like to do everything I can to make my semi frequent shooting a lil more bearable but only because I'm a nice guy. The problem is I don't really do a ton of high volume shooting but when the rich neighbors on the other side of us fly in on their heli-pad from jersey, they like to set off alot of tannerite and bumpfire, etc.... unfortunately that all gets attributed to me because nobody can really tell who is shooting and they just assume it is me..
 
Yeah I was thinking maybe a lean to like structure at my shooting site might mitigate some of the sound. Tell me if this sounds silly but I was thinking that I was going to use a bunch of junk tires for a backstop in a recent backstop building thread I created but after having been told that they wouldn't really make an ideal bullet stop, I thought cutting the tires and screwing recycled tire shingle like strips and screwing them to ply wood to make up the rear and side portions of the structure absorb sound, possibly.

Maybe they wouldn't do that at all, but I know demolition/rock blasting crews use recycled tires to
A: Direct/Contain blast
B: Contain Sound

We have alot of rocky ledge around here and they blast alot of it to make the roads safer and when they prep the blast site they lay down a bunch of recycled tires daisy chained together to absorb the blast. I'm not a demo guy, but I'm wondering if a healthy supply of tires lining a lean to or shed would absorb the report.

Definitely not super practical, not even certain I care to go through the trouble of constructing such a thing, just wondering if it could work like that. Like absorbing sound instead of impact/explosion.
 
Cheaper still is to make a 4x4 welded wire fencing tunnel and wrap with several layers of used carpet the installer would have to throw away. Fuzzy side in. Shooting through the tube tube should reduce report significantly.
 
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BTW, I used the canvas barrier approach on a field project as barriers for a metal shredder chewing up steel drums to get the noise down to earplugs safe levels.
 
DustyGmt said:
Yes it's very heavily wooded, but there are three (3) gun friendly neighbors and one hostile neighbor, Karen lives about 200yards away but there is a road and very thick stand of pines and maples between us. She thinks the only reasonable people shoot once a year to sight in for November hunt. The concept of target practice is completely foreign to her and she sent a lil bird to inform me that I can shoot all I want when she leaves for Florida where she winters. I sent my own message back, and it was loud.

I definitely don't go out of my way to be a prick, which is why I'd like to do everything I can to make my semi frequent shooting a lil more bearable but only because I'm a nice guy. The problem is I don't really do a ton of high volume shooting but when the rich neighbors on the other side of us fly in on their heli-pad from jersey, they like to set off alot of tannerite and bumpfire, etc.... unfortunately that all gets attributed to me because nobody can really tell who is shooting and they just assume it is me..
Click to expand...
Walk over to her house when they’re shooting and say howdy. Kinda hard to pin it on you when you’re standing right there.

Stay safe.
 
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DustyGmt said:
Yeah I was thinking maybe a lean to like structure at my shooting site might mitigate some of the sound. Tell me if this sounds silly but I was thinking that I was going to use a bunch of junk tires for a backstop in a recent backstop building thread I created but after having been told that they wouldn't really make an ideal bullet stop, I thought cutting the tires and screwing recycled tire shingle like strips and screwing them to ply wood to make up the rear and side portions of the structure absorb sound, possibly.

Maybe they wouldn't do that at all, but I know demolition/rock blasting crews use recycled tires to
A: Direct/Contain blast
B: Contain Sound

We have alot of rocky ledge around here and they blast alot of it to make the roads safer and when they prep the blast site they lay down a bunch of recycled tires daisy chained together to absorb the blast. I'm not a demo guy, but I'm wondering if a healthy supply of tires lining a lean to or shed would absorb the report.

Definitely not super practical, not even certain I care to go through the trouble of constructing such a thing, just wondering if it could work like that. Like absorbing sound instead of impact/explosion.
Click to expand...
Tires certainly would redirect the sound waves, maybe even mitigate some waves as they trap those that get caught inside and reverberate around the hollow space. Unlike sheets of soft rubber soundproofing, eggcrate foam, etc. they won’t absorb as much sound because they’re really hard and the sidewalls/tread are pretty flat surfaces. (Which is a prime reason why they would be good at bouncing bullets all over if used as a backstop.)

Tires, IMHO, would be more work and headache than a portable wall of plywood or a steel cable line with old carpet clipped to it placed between you and Karen. (Plus disposing of old tires is a hassle that runs into $$, which is why tire shops would love to give them to you.)

Stay safe.
 
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