Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Reducing Noise on a home rifle range

Finally had some time to shoot out the window of the gun room in my workshop. Shot some .223 and a few rounds out of the smokepole. Got some "feedback" from the wife in the house 100 yards away. It seems two of the resident dogs grabbed rugs and dove under the bed. . God bless the lab who ran out to retrieve whatever fell. .

So, some method of noise reduction is needed. Suppressors not an option, as there are too many rifles to shoot. . A berm would take up a fair bit of space, but could be done. Would it work if it was several feet higher than the window? And how would one deal with the gap between the shooting building and the berm, as it would not be wise to put the berm up against the building. Or maybe a wooden baffle?

I've also heard (on the internet, for what its worth) that shooting through several tires can also reduce noise.

How do you folks keep the wife happy while you are shooting near the homestead? I can't afford the "take the credit card and be gone for several hours" approach.

Thanks in advance for the help!

Earplugs and STFU!!!!

Tires work really WELL,....but one has to watch out for a buildup of unburned powder that WILL eventually flash, and make life exciting (and warm).

I would NOT shoot BP through a tire baffle system,....

Holes in the bottom of the tires and periodic rinsing with H2O would seem to be one way to defeat the unburned powder gremlin.

Lotta' guys talk about putting insulation in the tires,....I never bothered, and found 8 feet of 20" truck tires wired together to really quieten down my shooting.

GTC

I built a muffle box when I lived in upstate NY, it was positioned in the back of the open barn to shoot against a far hillside. I had neighbors on both sides and they never heard anything. You can go fancy with a plywood box lined with fiberglass insulation like I had or just stack tires together.

They're a PITA to move around so are best for positioning and shooting at a stationary point like a target frame, but they do work. Don't know from personal experience how well a set of tires by themselves reduce noise but my muffler would reduce a centerfire rifle or 12 gauge shotgun to a dull "poomph" even standing a few feet to the side.

I saw one done that was about a ten foot long wooden framed tube, window height, with insulation filled baffles. Basically a square tube inside a larger square tube with the baffles in between. At the end he had a mount for his chronograph. Claimed it made most rifles sound like a 22 from the outside. It was in an old article I saw years ago.

About ten auto tires or 16" truck tired wired or fixed together and the noise is almost gone.I doubt very seriously that you will get unburned powder in the tires from shooting a rifle .We have run 40-50 rounds of 50 cal of BP thru them also. No flash

Years ago Rick Jamison showed one he owned. It was a bunch of tires on a trailer frame. It was easy to move around or take some place, and it seemed to do the trick for him. If I were going to build one I'd do a take-off on it. The tires were close to balanced so there was little tongue weight and it was easily moveable a short distance by hand.

Range mounted suppressors are the only option. The gimmick that makes them work and be legal is that there is no necessity to attach the firearm and the suppressor.

As noted shooting through several tires has been known to work. There is a long ago article in Gun Digest - somebody with back issues on disc may chime in.

It's a tradeoff between using tires which may be a more familiar shooting experience with normal sights and such for the distances involved or a more compact muffler system that may block sights and such or maybe a combination for more noise suppression. If it were mine I'd pay attention to parallax and to both unburned powder and other fire hazards.

See e.g. https://www.ar15.com/archive/topic.html?b=6&f=20&t=366753 and a myriad of other discussions on a wide variety of other boards. Apparently there are jurisdictions that define anything to reduce noise, such as an indoor range, as prohibited silencers to which others have responded with a laugh test.

I too am thinking of building one of these contraptions. We just bought 43.5 acres just out of town to build on and hunt as well. I have a neighbor that is going to build as well and our house sites are going to be pretty close to each other due to terrain and utilities. I'm going to have a large shop with a conditioned reloading room built out in it and have thought about doing a nice covered porch on the rear to place a permanent bench. I plan to clear a range and add a berm.

My first thoughts were to take a couple 60gal plastic drums, cut small openings top and bottom, and line them with egg crate bed cushions or fiberglass insulation. Do you guys think the tire approach is a better idea?

Thanks,

loder

Looks to me like the tire deal would be the easiest and I can see those tires mounted on a rack with nice big wheels to roll it out of the way when not in use.

I'd cut a hole in the bottom of each tire and probably a hole in the side to insert a garden hose for the periodical wash down.

DF

Kind of what I'm thinking DF. I can build a rack that will hold the tires for a squeeze fit. The question is how long or how many tires does it take in a series to be most effective?

What is a "range-mounted suppressor?"

Thanks for all the great info. It looks like tires will do the job. One of my hesitations was what to do with 20 tires if they didn't work, as we have to pay $5 or $10 each to get rid of them. The answer is that they "will catch fire from unburnt powder!"

Will drill holes in the bottom for drainage, and bolt or cable them together. They will need to be on some sort of mobile gantry, as I shoot from a bench for load development and benchrest practice, but shoot prone or off a backpack for hunting practice.

Next issue is how to trap the lead. My range will probably encroach on federal property, at least beyond 300 yds. I need to be able to pick up my lead and leave if so ordered, and not get involved in remediating lead. . So far, my idea is to put 2ftX2ftX4ft long treated plywood boxes on legs. Boxes would be filled with sand, and covered with metal roofing to keep them dry. Couple of baffles in front of the box to keep sand in box as it gets shot up. What say ye?

REloader

You are planning what I did! At least there are two great minds at work

My loading room is 20 X 12 and has two shooting positions inside. If you are going to air condition the building you may as well sit inside. Outside shooting position allows practice for other than bench positions. Pm me if interested and I can post pictures. .

I was thinking that same thought.

If I was building one, I'd go my favorite tire store and see if they could collect me a set of 20" used tires, I'm thinking 10-12 or so. I'd get a couple and measure their width stacked side by side. I'd try to make the rack so a dozen or so would just fit.

I'd drill a half inch hole at the bottom and on the side. I'd cut a 2" hole with a saber saw, that way I'd have a drain at the bottom and holes in each tire on the side for a garden hose. To me, that would be the easiest way to flush out powder particles from time to time. Just go from tire to tire with the hose, letting the water drain out the bottom holes.

I'd get some large, industrial caster wheels with locks on at least two. That way you could roll the rig into position and lock one front and one rear wheel.

DF

Upon reading a few posts on the web of people building these. The main reccomendations were to keep the tires tight(no sound leaks) and to place rubber or plywood covers on each end with smaller holes to shoot through. Some even placed rubber/plywood/carpet every other tire to create more baffling. Many also mentioned lining the tires with insulation.

It will be a while before I build the range, so plenty of time to think it out.

forpest,

That does sound nice. I went to a really awesome home range a while back. The guy had a ~15x30 cooled reloading/gun room on the back of a large shop. He had a covered porch across the back with concrete slab and two ranges. One range was ~100yds with about 50 pistol and rimfire gongs, the other was set up to 400yds with rifle gongs. He had a concrete bench for the rifle range. It was the nicest I've ever seen and really got the wheels turning.

If anyone has the plans for a tire buffer, I'd like to see how it was put together, what works and what doesn't.

DF

I'd fill the trap with rubber mulch and go to your local printer and ask him for a couple of old press blankets. They're rubber coated cloth that should hold up well to gunfire. I'd use these to create the "face" of the bullet trap.

Not many details here but it gives some hints about how to set one up.





Here's a more portable possibility. Looks like you could use a 55 gallon drum and line it with eggshell foam. Might not be as good as a longer set of tires but certainly easier to manage.



These mufflers on a Swiss rifle range apparently reduce noise levels to 20 db which is pretty quiet.

Jim:

Thanks! The blue barrels solve the problem shooting prone, and with a ramp, kneeling. Much easier than moving tires.

You could build a table at shooting bench height to shoot prone through the tires.

I have used a couple of different versions of these baffle systems and seen others.

The first was not unlike the blue barrels, but made of two oil drums bolted together and filled with fibre glass loft insultation.

The insulation was wrapped around a chicken wire "former" which ran centrally through the pipes and acted as the shooting port. Intial tests were dissapointing as the metal drums caused what could be termed an echo/drum effect..This was eventually solved by wrapping the external of the drums with old carpet and tarping...

The other systems were all based around tires as already suggested. By far and away the most effective method is too place the tires directly on the ground (or just slightly elevated say on railway sleepers) and then bank soil/sand over the tires. As already noted, drainage holes are needed...

The tires can be joined together using pop rivets or even small bolts and nuts..

One thing I would say that to muffle noise, you are better with dense materials, so lining with sand bags is better than lightweight insulation, but obviously not as practical if any degree of portability is required..

That crossed my mind also...

Bottom drain hole dittos

No side holes

Hang a common rotary lawn sprinkler on the end of a piece of conduit / EMT, and rinse 'till one's heart's content

GTC

To put that into context, during a recent test of sound moderators on full bore rifles using "normal" ammo (ie not sub sonic) the sound reduction measured from 21db to 26db depend on the effectiveness of the mod concerned.

I like that better than what I posted.

DF

I think that would be by 20db, not to 20db. Meaning the 160+ db sound of the shot is reduced to 140+ db, not 20 db total.

Yes, that's correct, I worded that improperly. It reduces noise by some 20db, as explained here in the article accompanying the picture:

Der Schallschutz-tunnel ist technisch einfach, ortsbild-und landschaftsverträglich, verhältnis-mässig kostengünstig und sehr wirk-sam (bis 20 dB[A] Reduktion).

Swiss Shooting Tunnel

My German is a bit rostig, although in my defense the article was written with a heavy Swiss accent.

I know an older gent who uses a large 24"? x 10' corrugated plastic drain pipe lined with carpet. I only saw it used once, but it seemed to work good.

Except for the Swiss example, you guys are suggesting some pretty redneck "solutions"--the stack of used tires that you haven't figured out what to with--come on! What will that reduce? 5db? Maybe. And be a nasty blight on your environment and a maintenance chore you'll put off too long.

Look up anechoic chamber. That is what you're trying to approximate, a chamber which absorbs all sound, except for the large hole in the end. And it does no good to absorb it, if the exterior can easily re-transmit it. So the outside needs to be treated as well.

On yachts, to contain the noise in machinery spaces, we use a special insulation which consists of a sandwich of a heavy layer of foam, to which is bonded a thick plastic septum (originally lead sheet), which is bonded to another layer of foam, which is covered with various treatments, aluminized Mylar being the most popular.

The lead sheet in the early style should give you a clear picture of a material through which sound waves have great difficulty passing. You would hear a dull thud if you rapped it with hammer. Unlike a steel drum. What happens is that sound energy causes the lead sheet to vibrate, and the vibration looses its energy as heat. (seriously) The lead, being supported only by foam, is decoupled from the wall of the machinery space, and so transmits only a tiny portion of the sound and vibration.

Give this a little more thought before creating a large nest for vermin.

I built one of these "redneck solutions" in the late '80s, and it worked damned well.
...not the lone ranger in this regard, either.

GTC

I concur..


I don’t anybody who has gone to the trouble to running tests with a sound meter on a tire set. However, I can say from experience shooting a standard .308win through a tire/soil baffle was noticeably quieter than using a commercial sound moderator on the same rifle.

This was for people on the firing line, but the effect may be different directly down range..

In practice, it enabled the guy who built it to shoot centre fire rifles without spooking his wife’s horses in the next field and also made the shots un noticeable in the main farm house about 50 yards away..

Tires actually work a bit like an anechoic chamber because of the shape of the inside of the tires and the density of the rubber. The mass of the tire is what really helps. I'm sure the thicker and heavier the tires the better they will work. I am looking at a new house and hope to install a shooting lane to at least 100 yds. I'm thinking of a pit with a movable table so I can shoot offhand, seated or prone. Probably a berm on either side around most of the shooting position topped with some railroad ties. With the berm and the tires covered in soil, and maybe a few shrubs, it should not have the redneck look at all.

If a fella sections a set of tires lengthwise he will be looking at something remarkably similar to a suppressor.

I would suggest not using egg crate foam. those foams are incredibly flammable and burn incredibly hot. Fiberglass insulation does not burn at all as far as I know.

Also, if you are on friendly terms with a service station or tire shop you might get the tires from them and get them to agree to take them back if you don't want them anymore. That wouldn't cost them any more than you saved them in the first place.

I set my effort up in a Lime Plant "Boneyard", and had access to a gazillion 10-20 truck tires, and a PILE of heavy industrial mechanisms,.....A "44" Rockwell-Eaton hub served as the turret / pivot,....it's axle planted in compacted Fines.

The "Barrel" was cobbled up on an old articulating conveyor belt carcass. It had both elevation and traverse functions (hand screws) The bench RODE the barrel, ...and was nothing very much more than a tractor seat and a small table top. Properly balanced, the thing was a real success, and quietened down some complaining, newly arrived yuppies in short order,.....if you can't hear it, you can't complain about it.


There are an INFINITE number of ways to build / design one of these, and I'd be more than happy to assist anyone interested in getting one up through their design phase.

Hell,....for considerations based solely on filthy lucre, I'll build you one (you supply the tires.)

The fellow who suggested this was "redneck" doesn't know sound suppression from schitt. .....probably don't know schitt from bean dip, either.

GTC

Up yours.

Hey, don't go all batchitt crazy on us. Some of us rednecks know more'n you might suspect.

We even have local wizards for supply of odd chitt related to this discussion. http://www.soundown.com/

And while I'm at it, life outside SoCal is different, learn to tolerate it. Oh, almost forgot...

The Sound Down insulation used in marine engine rooms does work pretty well, also pretty expensive. I am planning to build a tire baffle on my property, partly because of neighbors fairly close, but mostly to reduce spooking the deer - more worried about bothering the game than the neighbors, some of whom shoot more than I do. Really looking at something to quiet down .44 mags and my .480 Ruger, more than the rifles. I have enough tires "saved", working on how/where to mount them. I do have some left over scrap Sound Down and other insulation I planned to add to the tires, and was thinking of removable end covers, maybe a covering tarp for rain "protection". Around here, those holes some guys suggest cutting for drains would be an invitation to wasps - although I guess the gunfire and powder residue might chase them away?

Since I got a game cam pic yesterday of a buck with emerging antlers that are already huge for my area, I guess I'll shoot hogs with my suppressed .44 until I get the other idea working, although if I don't scare him out of the country altogether he would probably settle down again by fall.

I don't believe gunfire bothers deer vary much. I've had to hold my fire, after shooting several shots, to let browsing deer slowly make their way across my shooting range. We also have called "cease fire" at the public range to let deer pass through.

Years back we shot NRA High Power and Service Rifle matches up on Range 6, Fort Huachuca. Our impact area antelope and deer were a common reason to call a cease fire.



GTC

Up to 0.5 gr powder, a 22 CB Short in a 24" rifle is BB gun quiet with subsonic gas escapement. Above that charge there is one atmosphere above ambient of supersonic gas escapement, and the amplitude of the wave is + 2A peak, and -0 A trough. This is the threshold of cavitation and as loud as air can get. The frequency content of the wave is dependent on the size of the gas ball when it slows to subsonic and propagates a wave. "The frequency rolls off as a single pole below where the ball diameter = 1/4 ~ 1/2 wavelength of sound.", says the nerd.

Pay no attention to the nerd behind the curtain.

Think of it as a 22 saying "bang" and a 50BMG says "boom".
The 22 just has a tweeter, but the 50BMG with more powder and thus a bigger gas ball, has a tweeter AND a woofer.

The low frequency is harder to suppress. It goes around corners. It carries further. All I heard from Mt St Helens 100 miles away was the bass note. The range built suppressors will work better with rounds with fewer grains of powder.

Blue Dot can often get the job done with half as many grains as 4895.

There's your problem right there. Crack the window a little and shoot from inside. Course I could see how that might cause other problems...

Cut the bottom out of a 5 gallon bucket and spray foam on the interior. Mount on a pole so it will be positioned over the muzzle.

Ringworm:

Thanks for the idea! I will be shooting out a window, and will build a "Goodyear silencer." There will be a gap between the tires and the muzzle, and you have nailed the extension tube that will solve that problem.

While rummaging through some estate goods, I found a sound meter, apparently used in industrial situations. I believe the PO used it to test rifle noise. I need to replace batteries and make sure it works. Then, I propose to evaluate the Goodyear silencer by firing at least one rifle 5 times before I install it, and then 5 times after. Will also include noise levels to the side at 50 feet and at 100 yards (the house).

The rifle I have with the biggest bark is probably a .30-06. From shooting benchrest, I know a 6PPC has a sharp bark as well. But is that from being around lots of them at a time? I also have a 30/100 SMc with a brake, and will include that in the test as well. I will probably also include a .22 rimfire in the test because it will be easy. Anything I'm missing?

Of course, results will be shared here. Thanks for all the good info!

'pest