I am about to embark on a Firearms coach and Instructor Journey. Does anyone have any experience making a building safe for indoor shooting? I have a 40’x100’ shop that I am planning to use.
More specifically, I’m looking for specifics on air ventilation and back stop material. Also sound proofing. As of now I’m focusing on pistol only, 45 and below.
Any information you could pass on would be appreciated.
-Landon
Greetings and welcome to you, Landon7! Thank you for joining the community and I hope that you enjoy your time online with us. I also wish you much success in your endeavor!
The NRA has a ton of information about building ranges. I’d start there.
If you are going commercial you’ll find that the cost is almost prohibitive if you ever want to make a profit. Two of the most important issues are environmental. You need to provide access for a commercial outfit to remove the lead from your backstop/traps. NOT, something you want to do yourself or by hand.
Air, that’s where the big money usually goes and what normally breaks the business case. You need to ventilate the building BUT you’re probably NOT going to be allowed to send the polluted air directly outside, it needs to be filtered. The last range I worked with the cost of air purification and circulation exceeded the cost of building the indoor range.
Welcome to the community! Great project!
I searched in another forum I used to visit but only found info on outdoor ranges members built in their spacious backyards.
A friend of mine built his using earth filled tires as the backstop material. It’s worked pretty well so far. His range is 10 years old. No holes in the walls yet.
Walls outside, tires, inside of walls so of there was a pass through it would be obvious from an outside inspection.
He got tires from dump and from tire stores.
@Landon7 Welcome to the community!
I’m trying to find the article or forum thread.
I’m afraid tires are high risk for ricochets.
The following link is about an indoor range fire. This was a very large building, with a gun shop and range for both hand guns and long guns. They were also licensed for a large selection of full auto firearms, which drew interest for special events. It was a nice facility and they had just completed some major upgrades. A new air handling system was installed and they added some new material to the back stop (shredded rubber tires).
Step 1. Check the zoning (use, operating hours, parking, access, etc.) for your proposed site.
Step 2. Check with the fire department and your insurance agent.
Good luck.
Now that is good information. Thank you.
You are most welcome. Been doing this for a while. Best of luck and ping me if you have any other questions or follow ups to these. I’ll help as best as I can.
A proper commercial indoor range is $$$$$.
So seriously, work up a business plan and seek financing, maybe the NRA can help, maybe not.
Which city are you located?
Around here range space is so restricted that law enforcement agencies, local, state and federal routinely schedule time at what few private ranges still operate. Perhaps your local coppers can provide an additional income stream for your proposed enterprise.