Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Underground shooting range

Years ago an acquaintance built a 50 yard underground shooting range similar to what you are proposing. He excavated a trench, then installed 45 gallon drums, welded them together and cut an opening in the concrete cellar wall. Access to the targets was via an opening at the end of the garden.
Inside the cellar he had a mattress laying on the floor (for prone shooting) and at the end of the tube a piece of plywood with a hole to stick the muzzle through.
When a shot was fired the plywood cover would back about 6" into the cellar at the shooting end. Definitely noisy!
When his wife was home and upstairs watching TV he always gave her fair warning by hollering out "fire in the Hole" just before shooting.
Why she never threw the lot of out I never understood. Fun times!

Good for you Big sky. Waaaay too much fun! (making and owning and using). Please share progress reports and finished pics.

By the way if you berm that sucker with at least 48inches of good solid soil and it will double as a fallout shelter too.

Have you thought about running water into it? What kind of electricity are you routing to it?

StubbleDuck, yes this is a fun project and it is gonna pay off with YEARS of great fun and convienience.

I'm not sure what you mean about the water? I will not be plumbing it as a fallout shelter if that is what you mean. If you mean water getting into via seepage or ground water, that won't happen either. It will sit high on a hill in a virtual gravel pit...very dry with good drainage.

I am going to run power to it to supply both a light at the target end as well as a vent.

Todd

Very cool, I know a guy that has a 100 yard range in his basement. IIRC the pipe is only 2' dia, and he has a 'rabbit' on a wooden track that he pulls the target back and forth on.

Did you look into HDPE pipe? Its about half the price, you could have had a 50 yard range. Might have absorbed the sound better?

What I really wanted was 4'x6' concrete box culvert. At $385.00 per foot it became VERY clear VERY fast that this was not the way I was going to go!!

I came upon these 36" culverts at a concrete company here in Montana that supplies highway projects. The 10 lengths that I got were considered "culls" because there is some damage to the tongue end of the pipes. The manager of the yard gave them to me just to get rid of them!! I couldn't believe my good fortune! Talk about saving a bunch of money.

Todd

Nice snag! That stuff goes for about $100/lf.

Just being paranoid here, but the vent fan at each end also provides an easy entrance for bad guys - right into your vault. Perhaps some heavy rebar welded across the entrance in a 3-inch grid?

Other than that, envy blooms here as well.

Running water ..... as in tap water.

I understand that may not be a concern. And if the closest source was quite a ways away, cost could indeed be substantial.

But ground seepage looked highly unlikely from your pics.

BambiStew, dang nice snag!! I almost fell off my stool when the guy said he would give it to me for free. He even spent the better part of an hour loading it on the semi I hired. I would say I got pretty lucky!

RockyRaab, that is exactly what I was planning, tightly gridded, 3/4 inch rebar in the vent hole, although the vent will not be near big enough to get into.

I actually thought about making an "escape route" through the tunnel, and having a man-sized exit at the target end with some kind of latching mechanism that could only be operated from inside. Then I was going to build a tool shed or somthing over it. I think I will steer away from that direction though...

Todd

Why not still build your "escape route?" But leave it buried from the outside?

T'was me, I'd do exactly that but also have a shovel and fireman's ax or crowbar or whatever else I needed to pound through a piece of culvert or whatever served as the "hatch," unless you would actually use a hatch.

Leave yourself the option of that alternative way out in other words. What if someday you somehow lock yourself in? How would you get out?

There is soundproofing material available to line the culvert pipe with. Might be worth looking into.

This is a really good idea and one I have thought about a lot. Having worked at a range, I have some comments: Lead poisoning is a REAL issue. It's not the bullets, but rather the priming compounds. A thick angled steel plate will deflect ANYTHING down. You need to make a catch basin of some sort to catch the bullets and then you can lie on a creeper or furniture dolly and scoot down to clean them out when they get to be too many.

I would put the light and fan at the end of the tunnel. Have a stack coming up that is baffled and put the fan on it with a switch in the vault. If you line the pipes with anything to deaden sound it will become lead contaminated eventually. Make sure it's something you can replace or clean. You have to be careful not to infiltrate your house with the lead contamination.

We had to be tested every year- I think it was an OSHA requirement but in any case, you get the picture.

I too am build a vault but no shooting tunnel and a lot smaller door than your's. I found a door that is 80x30- takes up less of my vault space and much cheaper than what Liberty quoted me.

Dennis

WesJ, I was just thinking egg crate foam rubber. What did you have in mind? Where would I be able to research it a little?

dennisinaz, I know that OSHA makes a big deal out of the health issues. Besides venting at both ends, and creating a positive pressure situation so air flows into the tunnel and towards the target, what else could/should I do?

The Liberty door truely is expensive, but it is not much bigger than what you are using. The "clear" opening is actually 80x32, while the rough is 82x40. I mis-stated that it was a 48" opening earlier, but its only 40.

I have a VERY nice Liberty Presidential Model. It is the 50 cubic foot model and is beautiful!! I worked a trade out with a local Liberty dealer. I REALLY hate to get rid of the Presidential, but I couldn't believe how much the vault door is. The Presidential is their top of the line model, and the vault is quite a bit more money!!

Todd

I was quoted about $3200 or so for a Liberty vault door. I am going to get one from the guy in CA that sells them on Ebay. I think they run about $1500 or so for a 30x80. A really nice one with the Imron paint job is about $2200. I just couldn't see paying the Liberty price when they won't warranty them. Ft. Knox and Private Security Products will give you a full lifetime warranty on their doors. Liberty told me no warranty on vault DOORS- only the gunsafes.

I would try styrofoam baffles arranged and an angle to break of the sound. It would be easy to throw a coat of paint over and cheap enough to throw away when needed.

I think if you have some positive airflow down the tunnel it would be enough. I would not wear my shoes back into the house after being in that vault for fear of tracking lead everywhere.

Just my 2 cents

Todd
Any quarries in your neck of the woods? Old conveyor belts make great back stops and should help with noice.
If your air flow moves from the shooting position to the impact zone should help with the fumes and ejecta.
A pie in the sky suggestion. If your pipe sloops towards the inpact zone and there's drainage out of the impact box you could hose the pipe down and wash the ejecta out.
Putting a heavy plastic curtain across the shooter's end of the pipe will limit pollution and noice. Something similar to what warehouses have to keep cold in or out.
I'd bet that 10 feet of egg crate foam at the shooters end of the pipe would work and still be easy to remove and install.

Jim

Didn't read through all the posts, so apologize if this has been mentioned. I'd give Karl a call at Kampfeld Custom. He has an underground rifle range (100 yards if I'm not mistaken). He has access to the target area from outdoors IIRC. Very nice set-up for working loads, etc. Can't even hear it upstairs I'm told. If I were gonna build one for handgun shooting, I think I'd just go all the way so I could do both.

Good luck.

As short as yours is going to be, you might consider having just a little slope, maybe 1/4"/foot and then you could wash it out. dig a little well at the target end and fill with gravel as a dry well. You wouldn't need to wash it down very often, but it would hurt once a year or so. You might even use carpet scraps over styro and then just pitch the carpet in a dumpster once a year.

If you really want to quit it down, you can make a giant suppressor out of a 55 gal drum and put a 6" perforated pipe through the middle and fill the drum with something to deaden the sound. Maybe lathe turnings or something like that. This would really help with noise.

More pictures coming soon...

Todd

Those blocks are too cool, 25 yards may have you working to keep them straight, 100 could be a nightmare.

I am putting up a high wall building about 40' by 50' that will be on enough of a grade that there will be about a 7' foundation at the back. I thought I'd dig a room under the front and run the tunnel out the back. I figure it will be easier to pour concrete walls than use pipe.

For the time being I made a big silencer tube to set up with a bench that I shoot through, with the siding and deck work I do the nailers make more noise than this does.

A few more pictures...progress has been slowed just a bit, trying to wrap up the detached garage/men's crisis center. It will actually be more like a nice living room that you can park a car in when finished. It also has a fun bath room and a loft, so it could be used as a "mother in law" suite if need be.





I'll be gone with work for six weeks starting on the 13th. I'm gonna miss all of the progress on the house. Bad timing, but what do you do?

More to follow, but it could be awhile...

Todd