Bullet Trap

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GA Guest

Bullet Trap

Post by GA Guest »

All right sports fans, stand by cause here it comes! I have just acquired an 18,800 square foot building for an Indoor Air Rifle, Air Pistol and Smallbore Range. At present, we have space for 50 (4’) firing points. It’s our intention to use 10 of these firing points for dual use, 10-meter paper air targets, and 50’ smallbore use. If we see that there is interest, we could even make up to 8 lanes 50-meter smallbore. The current idea is that if we use the 50 meter area for Bench rest or Rimfire Sporter, etc… we need to use the profits to run our junior programs. Now for the Question;

I need to have a .22 bullet trap system that takes up no more than 3 feet from the wall. Does not allow any lead dust to get into the air, and is not very expensive to build. Who has an Idea? It could be worth a months worth of entry fees. I know we’ll have to deal with some lead from the primers, but we can manage that, I just don’t want lead bullets slamming into steel.



Thanks,



Roy McClain

(678) 772-8185 cell

Tours every Thursday and Friday from 5pm – 8 pm


Roy McClain
Spalding County Shooting Sports
4H Project S.A.F.E. Coach / Volunteer
(678) 772-8185 cell / (770) 412-6604 home

"If your plan is for one year, plant rice.
If your plan is for ten years, plant trees.
If your plan is for one hundred years,
educate children." -- Confucius
Spencer C
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 6:24 am
Location: Australia
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Re: Bullet Trap

Post by Spencer C »

GA Guest wrote:... I know we’ll have to deal with some lead from the primers, but we can manage that, I just don’t want lead bullets slamming into steel.
Lead in primers? I know the mercury has been replaced (some years ago), but is there lead now?

S
Guest

Post by Guest »

I think lead styphenate (excuse spelling) might be used.

Tim S

Exeter UK
Jim B
Posts: 58
Joined: Sun Mar 07, 2004 11:24 am
Location: Chittenango, NY

Post by Jim B »

Have you contacted the NRA Range Development people? I'm sure that they will be able to answer most of your questions, and make sure your range is up to all safety standards. Check out their Weeb site at http://www.nrahq.org/shootingrange/development.asp.

Good luck, and don't let the anti-gunners get you down!

Jim
t8monto

Range

Post by t8monto »

Go to NSSF site, members services, programs, NASR, scroll down to suppliers.
Spencer C
Posts: 198
Joined: Thu Mar 04, 2004 6:24 am
Location: Australia
Contact:

Post by Spencer C »

Anonymous wrote:I think lead styphenate (excuse spelling) might be used.

Tim S

Exeter UK
Arghh! Something else to worry about

S
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GOVTMODEL
Posts: 649
Joined: Mon Mar 01, 2004 11:14 am
Location: Rhode Island, USA

Post by GOVTMODEL »

Most of the airborne lead at indoor ranges comes from the lead styphnate in priming compounds. Don't think that smallbore rifles won't spew out lots of this stuff.

To meet code you'll need to have a minimum of 50 feet per minute air flow though the shooting ports. Consult a Professional Engineer. This is no place to scrimp or go cheap.
TomN

Post by TomN »

My home club is in a similar situation, only we are trying to renovate an older (1960s-era) range. We need to inprove our backstop and air handling. We have contacted the folks at NRA range operations, and while they have been unfailing nice, they have been too busy to give much advice - especially since our budget is far too small to upgrade the range to commercial standards.

We don't know what we will eventually do, but two things seem clear. First, the backstop must be safe and allow for reprocessing of the spent bullets. Second, .22 rifles don't generate that much airborne lead at the firing line (due primarily to the normally slow rate of fire in smallbore shooting) so the air handling system doesn't have to move the volume of air required in a range where handguns are fired.

So, if any club out there has found themselves in a similar situation, please post your solutions. Quite often a "real world" experience tops a theoretical solution.
R.E. Smalley
Posts: 59
Joined: Mon Mar 08, 2004 3:24 pm
Location: Beloit, OH

ventilaton

Post by R.E. Smalley »

It is my dream to do exactly what you have done.

I shot at a small club in Ohio that had a novel approach (it works for them). The targets are outside and there is a door at every shooting point. You open the upper half of the door and hold the muzzle/gun outside when shooting. Neat idea, and it works for what they are doing.

In addition to whatever you are doing, I would try to find a shooter who is an ACGIH certified industrial hygenist. (ACGIH - American Conference Of Governmental Industrial Hygenists, I think). I have worked with them when trying to handle problems with ventilating fumes from electroplating, anodizing and pickling operations.

I think the key is to get away from area (room) ventilation, if that is possible. If it is not, then use a push-pull type system that brings in air from behind the shooters and pulls it toward the targets.

If you have tall ceilings, you may want to put a partition across the top of the room at the firing line and have dividers between the firing points to force the air flow across the firing points.

Goff's curtain walls are a great way to do this (they used to have a web site). You should check them out. I installed them around a silver plating line with 25 foot long tanks and it worked great, plus you can open and close them and there is a clear section in the center you can see through.

You are near Atlanta?

Good Luck,
Ed
Smalley
mark anderson

backstop material info

Post by mark anderson »

The above post gave a good web site to check out. www.rangeinfo.org
This site is a division NSSF and has all kinds on info on building/upgrading a range. It also has many links to companies that build ranges.

The space and requirements, no metal smash plate, you ask for basically limits you to a product which is a 1 ft square blocks of a rubber like compound which traps the bullets. You assemble the blocks into a wall for your backstop. There is a club in my area (Dayton Ohio) that has a range like this and they shoot ISPIC (high power center fire pistols) there. They do limit all ammo to jacketed only. Maintenance is to weight the block and replace when at it’s weight limit. Check out the following web sites for more info. http://www.supertrap.com/Main.htm http://www.range-systems.com/bullettraps.cfm


good luck

Mark
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