Tunnel Range

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David Schmidbauer

Retired Screen Name
I just have to vent somewhere about our "New Public Range" that has recently been built about 6 miles from the house.

Great Idea.. Public Range... bad execuation (IMO).

100 yard range with the impact are in the side of a hill. Berms on the left & Right.

Now build a berm at the firing line and through it put 3' round, approx 15' long concete culvert tubes. These are your firing lanes. Not get me wrong... I understand the reasoning but please!.

Points in fact

1 - Shooting through the tubes means you HAVE to fire from the bench. If you kneel your are too shot, if you stand you are to tall to make it through the tube to see your target. And anyway the RO (who should really be called a attendent since he has NO training what so ever) probably wouldn't let you kneel/stand as you would be behind the others that are at the bench. So you can not practice "field" posistions.

2 - Shooting through the tubes amplifies the blast of your firearm. SO, you say, your wearing hearing protection. Well, I usually shoot my suppressed AR without hearing protection as the loudest noise is the sonic crack of the bullet. Even with the suppressor on the tubes amplify the report to almost the point of needing hearing protection. If it does this to a suppressed weapon you can imagine what it does to a non suppressed full caliber hunting rifle.

3 - Forget about pistol shooting unless you want to bench rest shoot. Yeah Yeah, you could practice your upper body style posistion (i.e. mod-weaver) But what about, oh, lets say... your presentaion coming from concealment. NOPE... can't do it. And don't even think about multipul targets... you "might" be able to get two side by side and still see them through the tunnels.

I have to say this is the worst range set-up I've ever seen. If I need to do some bench work (sighting in a scope or working up a load) I'll head there. For all else I'll stick to by back pasture.

------------------
Schmit, GySgt, USMC(Ret)
NRA Life, Lodge 1201-UOSSS
"Si vis Pacem Para Bellum"
 
L

Loud1

New member
Schmit,
They should have the Concrete pipe go all the way to the target (Covered with at least 4 feet of sand) so no projectiles could possibly escape the range.<G>. Sounds like the Insurance Co. is running the range.

We have a condo community being built next to our range and in order to get financing they had to bring the noise level of our range down to a certain level.
They offered to spend close to a million to build new outdoor ranges. Our board of Dir. jumped at the money so we'll see what kind of design they come up with.
Lou
 
M

Mal H

Staff
This sounds like a bad solution to a real problem. You can talk to some folks here in No. VA about strays getting away from the DC Police range.

A little math applied to the problem says that a ricochet from the concrete pipes, and there will be some, can go well over 100 ft. high at the end of the range. Is the hill at that end at least this high? And what will they say when folks are picking concrete and lead fragments out of their face when someone hits the near end of the pipe?
 
H

HankL

New member
Gunny, This is sad, very sad but it is what happens when suburbia comes to the range. No round can leave the range as it should never have done anyway. I'm a member of a private shooting club with our range being located in a floodway. This is sometimes a problem in the spring but at least no subdivisions will be built around us. We still have a problem with complaints from tresspassers in our leased fall zone beyond our 300 yard burm and have had to resort to having full time range officers, wing burms. etc. because some of the membership will do things as to occasionally hit the hardpan instead of the berm.
The membership is pretty large and the annual fee is fairly small and to keep it that way only the really stupid members are put on notice and only a real knuckleheads will get run off.
Clubs are funny things, I guess thats why my
hunting club has few members and is fairly expensive. We have 12 members and the only rule is that if you endanger the land or another hunter you will find it hard to swim the Mississippi river. So far it seems to work. It's a small group and it works just fine.
Regards to all, Hank
 
C

Cheapo

New member
Try lining the first 10 feet of the tunnels with Sonex acoustical panels to moderate the reverberations. Use the outdoor/paintable stuff so it can be hosed off monthly to remove powder residue.

They should have used the 6- or 7-foot tall rectangular concrete tubes. Plus, the surface facing the shooters should be fully lined with 2x6s on the flat to absorb stray rounds and contain the bullet/impact splatter.

I understand the idea and have wrestled with the execution myself. In the interim, get some platforms made for kneeling/sitting & prone practice. Maybe even dig a 3x3 foot pit to the appropriate depth (with a hinged cover so it's never lost or improperly replaced!) for standing and pistol shooting. These things have been done before for basement culvert ranges.

[This message has been edited by Cheapo (edited August 18, 1999).]
 
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