Range berm rebuild

[spitballer]

The local public range where I do a lot of my shooting has recently shut down the rifle portion of the range in order to rebuild the crumbling berm behind the targets. Those of you in the Central FL area may know which range I'm talking about: this would be the Tenoroc range N. of Lakeland. As I understand it, it's been determined that the berm needs to first be "excavated" and then rebuilt. The project is being handled by the State of Florida, which now runs the range after taking it over from Polk County last year. Given the glacial pace of many state projects it would not surprise me if this rifle range were down for a while.

I've stopped by the range from time to time to check on it, but as the state is handling the rebuild, most of the range personnel that I've spoken with seem to be genuinely clueless as to the status of the project.

Obviously I can't expect anyone to know about this specific project, but does anyone know in general what is involved with rebuilding a berm at a rifle range these days? For example, I assume that the "excavating" involves removing the lead deposits before the makeover. Does this necessitate involvement by the EPA? Are there other major hurdles involved?

 

[oneounceload]

They took their time building the new covered sporting station stands, and with typical government aplomb built them to withstand hurricanes and nuclear blasts.......but they sure are nice. Should be fine. There is also another Polk county range not too far from it - at least it shows that on Google Earth

 

[Schwing]

I don't know if the EPA is required to become directly involved but it will, most certainly include some kind of language centered around "Lead remediation".

My local range, rather than having man-made berms, sits against the foothills of the Wasatch mountains. I know that they have never done any digging or re-designing since the range opened decades ago for this very reason. Once you start digging and the term "Remediation" comes up, range costs go up and some even get shut down.

 

[jmorris]

The only rebuild I ever witnessed involved dirt moving equipment and a new pond behind them.

They didn't destroy the existing berm, just made it taller and wider.

Removing dirt would have involved lead abatemen and a lot more cost.

 

[1SOW]

jmorris, Here in Texas, I witnessed the "mining of lead" from a 30 yard pistol range . I know the owner, and he makes money from this operation. This tall berm is "stepped" from top to bottom. The "dirt" is replaced sans klead and the berm looks like new when completed. They took about four days to complete the process. This is done each "X" number years, restoring the berm much improved each time.

Eyeball guess at size: 40 yards wide and 35-45'+/- tall. Mining lead is a lucrative business.

 

[jmorris]

I am also from TX. Backwoods traps sold that range that had sporting clays and pistol ranges off of 380. Sold off when the city caught up with them, I have to wonder what the costs involved were.

 

[spitballer]

jmorris, Here in Texas, I witnessed the "mining of lead" from a 30 yard pistol range . I know the owner, and he makes money from this operation...

1SOW - This occurred to me also. I even considered offering my services with my metal detector but the state would probably take a dim view of a bunch of local yahoos crawling over the site with picks. Nevertheless there's probably a considerable deposit at this location.

oneounceload - the nearby saddle creek range you're referring to is naturally swamped with shooters who normally go to Tenoroc, esp on weekends. Tenoroc is actually a pretty good operation when it's up and running; there used to be a pro shop there that sold reloading supplies, run by a really super guy who can nowadays be found at the 'Ultimate Arms' gun shop on Combee Rd. Despite Tenoroc's current troubles with the rifle range there is still the pistol range and "bustin clays" competition for scattergunners.

 

[oneounceload]

Yep - have shot several of their registered sporting tournaments

 

[Kynoch]

My home club had its public rifle/pistol range mined for lead a few years back. The "miner" used specialized equipment and literally mined tons of lead. Semi trucks worth. The miner and the club split the profits. The club's portion came to a little over $30K.

 

[Jim Watson]

I am in a small club that gets very occasional use of the local PD range.
We and the department have to log our round count.
Reportedly when some magic number of bullets is in the berms, they will have to be "rebuilt" at considerable expense.

 

[jtischauser]

I too have heard that mining the lead from berms usually covers more than the cost to rebuild it.