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

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.