Pistol range in home basement

[FROGO207]

I have a couple of friends that had those .22 bullet traps you could set on a bench and fire into in their cellars while growing up. Shooting was 25 to 30 feet with a pistol or revolver usually. The noise was loud but with the houses a fair amount away the neighbors never complained. Back then we just shot a box and left the area to do something else when we ran out of ammo, never worried about the lead in the air. We all survived it and still all have a good time target shooting these days but not together having moved off to other remote areas. One of the guys would get his mom to run him to the store to buy a box of .22 LR. She would wait for him in the car while he (15years old) would go in and buy them. Try that now.

 

[Swampman]

What's a basement?

Seriously, I really don't know much about them, but it seems to me that if you used lead free primers and fully encapsulated bullets the need for ventilation or filtration would be greatly reduced. Prices on lead free primers have dropped a lot since Tula started importing them and Hornady HAP bullets aren't prohibitively expensive. The only other thing you might need is a suppressor, which unfortunately, ain't cheap.

 

[BLACKHAWKNJ]

Having been a mostly indoor shooter I can testify to the importance of proper ventilation.

 

[Randy in Arizona]

The nicest basement setup I have ever seen had a closed circuit TV & camera so that you could see the target as if it was about 30 inches from you. Sweet!
Plus the man made some of the best suppressors on the market. He still does!


397

 

[Vern Humphrey]

Speer sells both plastic cartridge cases and rubber bullets (which are re-usable.) The plastic cases don't offer good support, so I use brass cases with the flash hole drilled out. I shoot at a cardboard box filled with newspaper and "mine" the shredded paper to get my bullets back.

 

[ColdDayInHell]

I shoot CB long's and Super Colibri .22's in my basement with ventilation and 35 feet of room and a great home-made backstop. I train with my MKII and 10/22 and it's a great, safe basement range. People may disagree but the ventilation is sufficient enough for low velocity 22's and I really don't shoot that many.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I open the outside door to my basement and have a fan blowing air out -- that does all I need.

 

[Kynoch]

Vaporized lead compounds everywhere. Yummy.

Solid lead bullets do not "vaporize." A well designed backstop can make the lead easy to harvest for smelting.

Venting is not a big deal. My basement is well sealed from my house. When shooting I turn-on a large exhausting squirrel cage fan ducted to the outside end of the basement on the target end of the basement while opening a small window on the opposite end of the basement. I get a subtle laminar flow through the entire basement, as if it's one large plenum. One can definitely feel the negative pressure when opening the upstairs door. I never calculated the number of air changes per hour with this set-up but it's tremendous. Perhaps 20 changes/hour?

I suppose one could argue this would not work well outside of a mild climate or that the fan sucks up a lot of electricity or that it's not exactly silent. While we only shoot .22's, the noise to the outside is a non-issue.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

The lead in the air at shooting ranges is from the priming compound, not the bullets impacting the backstop.

 

[SharpsDressedMan]

Some of the lead in the air near the shooter can come from the base of a lead bullet being burned off. Not applicable to bullets that have copper on the base of the bullet (totally clad, or jacked HP's, etc).

 

[Lost Sheep]

Speer sells both plastic cartridge cases and rubber bullets (which are re-usable.) The plastic cases don't offer good support, so I use brass cases with the flash hole drilled out. I shoot at a cardboard box filled with newspaper and "mine" the shredded paper to get my bullets back.

I cut up a truck tire's inner tube and hung three layers (the first two cut into 2" strips). The first two "curtains" slowed the plastic bullets. The last curtain kept the bullets inside the cardboard box. None of my plastic bullets were ever deformed by impact and the rubber curtains were none the worse for wear, either.

I recommend it to avoid having to deal with a bunch of shredded paper.

Lost Sheep

 

[Rollis R. Karvellis]

I, use three bankers boxes filled with rubber mulch. It will stop 240 gn .44 mag's @ 10 yard's with out any trouble.

 

[Vern Humphrey]

I cut up a truck tire's inner tube and hung three layers (the first two cut into 2" strips). The first two "curtains" slowed the plastic bullets. The last curtain kept the bullets inside the cardboard box. None of my plastic bullets were ever deformed by impact and the rubber curtains were none the worse for wear, either.

I'll definitely try that -- or something like it, since inner tubes are in short supply around here.