Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Shipping container questions

I want to bury one in the back yard and use it for an indoor pistol range. Put a bullet trap in one end along with a vent fan to pull any smoke or dust down range. Buried would make it pretty sound proof and take care of insulating for cold in the winter. Maybe a concrete vestibule where the stairs would come down to it. Maybe section off half of it down the length and use one side for storage..... Maybe......

The side walls are designed for vertical loads only. Your fill dirt will collapse them. Fellow here was going to make a storm shelter, underground bunker, it didn't work.

wouldn't they sweat like hell in hot weather with a air conditioner in them.

Bummer! I'd have to put it in a concrete trough then. Too much expense for what I'd get out of it.

Mine doesn't.

I make 15,000 volt reactive load banks with them and sell them:

Biggest deal would be to corrosion proof them first so it wouldn't rust away. Compacting the dirt in lifts will minimize the lateral force - so long as you are careful when compacting so you don't apply too much force to buckle the sides during the process. Backfilling in lifts would allow you to brace the insides as you come up so that by the time the thing was covered you could remove the braces and have no further lateral force. Sort of like removing forms from concrete.

If you dig the hole just large enough to fit the container in and drop it straight in, there won't be much lateral forces against the sides when back filled. Digging a hole large enough that you could back a dump truck up and unload will collapse the walls before you get started. Undisturbed soil has minimal lateral force. Dig a 2' wide trench in undisturbed soil and it will stay open, depending on the depth, before the weight of the surrounding soil will collapse the trench - but don't get in it without shoring. So, much depends on the soil conditions of the proposed shooting range. Crappy soil demands good backfill material.

Weight per cubic unit is relative mainly to what the material is sitting on regarding solids. A 3000 lb block of concrete puts the weight straight down. A 3000 lb cubic unit of water has more lateral force due to water being fluid so more side load, i.e., hydrostatic pressure. Dirt, not so much lateral as down. Compacted soil/dirt, even less, hence the compaction of backfill material in lifts minimizing lateral force. Just use a good backfill material that can achieve 95% or better compaction and you should be good. The best way would be to use flowable fill in lifts, but you're getting into costs again.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

I made them for ICM, a rental company out of SLC. We drywalled and textured the walls, put in suspended ceilings, wired for lights and receptacles, bulkhead wall with a man door to separate the office from the tool crib/lunch room for the hands, etc.

Miles, We used metal (steel of course) door frames so they could be welded, but if you frame with studs any frame would work. The windows were metal frames and the opening cut just to accept the window, caulked, and screwed to the side, framed the inside with the metal studs and drywall.

Finishing the inside obviously costs more, but makes for a better shop. Right kaywoodie?

A company I worked for back in the 90s modified two of them for Westinghouse. They were to be put on Navy ships to service torpedoes. We cut large doors in the sides and made "docking collars" so you could go from one to the other when they were sitting side by side. We put castors on the corners so they could be rolled around and leveled. We polished the teak or mahogany floors, and put carpeted panels on the walls. Butcher block topped work benches, and a microwave area and sink in one of them. We put a rail for an overhead hoist in the other one. Tool lockers etc. Wired and plumbed of course with a nice epoxy paint on the outside. They were real nice when we got done.

Dang SRM, I should say they were nice.

I put four, forty footers together to make a training room/office for Micron (actually ICM) when they were building the facility south of SLC. The two in the middle were fabbed without sides (ICM had a guy building 'Mobil Minis, and I would finish the insides per customer request), only roof supports, so there was a large room in the center. Leveled, squared, and plumbed, then stitch welded, sealed the seams with 6" strips of fabric with latex sealant, then finished the inside.

I also put two 40 footers about 30 or 40 feet apart (don't recall now) poured a concrete floor and put trusses up and walled the back to make a shop so ICM had a place to service equipment.

A lot can be done with sea cans.

One of the Prepper shows on History channel or A&E or something showed a guy down in Texas who was building a compound out of containers. They wanted to test them to see if they were bullet proof. So they shot the reinforced corner with a 22lr. Yep bullet proof.......

Asides from that stupidity it was a pretty nice compound.

How did you fasten the studs? Bolts, screws or weld them? Never messed with metal studs. miles

What NEMA rating is that enclosure?

Miles,

I never had either just cut out tabs on the end of the studs with aircraft nippers and bent them out and screwed em together with the self threading screws they make for them. Got it all a Lowes.

Self-tapping pan head screws is what the pros use.

Miles I just sent you a butt load of photos by email. Gimme aholler of you need anyting else!

Miles,

We welded the studs to the container and used the self tappers mentioned to screw anything else to the studs, and to screw the studs together for door frames, etc. We used a metal blade to cut the studs in a Skil saw IIRC.

Sir, it will classify as NEMA 3R.

There's a bar in Orange Beach AL called The Gulf that's built out of shipping containers. That's the best use of them I've seen yet!

I had a great flounder sandwich there too.