Lead free indoor handgun range?

Balance said:
I have very good connections to a large state of the art all service steel manufacturing plant. PM me if you need steel/steel maufacturing.
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Will do, Thanks. You have armor plate steel? Looks like the commercial traps are using AR500.

We're still a few months off starting renovation due to waiting to relocate my business to our new location. Should be about 5 months till construction starts, the building is mostly warehouse with an office so the entire interior needs to be re designed.
 
Slavex said:
the wet trap is a massive pain in the ass, fine for large government agencies or well funded private clubs that can afford it. The Action design has a separate vacuum system on the trap to pull out the dust generated by the bullets hitting the plate. Much simpler, and easier to work with, and cheaper too.
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Thanks good to know. I was thinking the wet looked fairly simple. The action design looks fairly similar to their dry system, with the dry system with such a large opening that spans the entire width it must take huge CFM to achieve sufficient vacume accross its width. But servicing HVAC would be simpler in a sense that there are more contractors out there. The wet system seemed pretty simple though and I've been working with sprayers for pesticides for most of my life and maintenance was as simple as replacing a nossel or a pump usually. I could see initial cost being higher though, would need to do a cost analysis on the cost of operation. Should take much less electricity to spray vs HVAC and in Ontario we have insane hydro rates.
 
Ganderite said:
I advised them when they were planning that their plans would not work. They insisted that cheap was good.

Six months after they opened the Range Officer was in the hospital with severe lead poisoning.

I advised two other ranges to use the Savage Snail wet trap. They went with rubber, because it was cheaper. I warned them of the fire hazard. Both ranges burned down when the rubber caught fire. (I know of two other ranges in USA that burned, too.)

Advising gov't agencies is difficult because the procurement budget source is different than the operating budget source. The buyer does not care that the range will be impossible to operate.
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Rubber seems cheaper but look at how they clean it! It's an insane process involving specialized equipment, can see companies in the states that go range to range doing it but don't think that exsists here. It also looks very hazardous they need to seal the whole area from the rest of the building ect before vacume separating the rubber from lead. Can see YouTube videos of them doing it, looks like a nightmare.

Better off investing in the best trap money can buy, in the long run it will be cheaper and safer.

The range your talking about they don't limit the rounds to jacketed or plated only? At the very minimum I would want no exposed lead for indoor use, compared to the primer that's where the majority comes from.
 
guess_kto said:
PS. No steel targets, so bullets go into filler, then into backstop and stay there. Shoot paper, be happy, don't get wet... LOL :)
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Yes. Paper 100%

Depending on how much money we have after construction we are going to use digital projection targets that can provide moving targets, games, lane vs lane dueling targets ect. There are several mfg supplying ready made range systems and ranges also using custom systems.

Best I seen was Nexus in Arizona but theirs is a custom system.

There is also openfireHD and a few others.

All project onto paper that works as the screen for each lane and can also be used with conventional paper targets so if we ran short on funds to implement initially it's something we can upgrade using the existing overhead rail retrival system.
 
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Ian Robertson said:
I belong to a club that has an indoor range that they have decided will be lead free. I have never shot on it and any time I have been there (non snow/winter) shooting outdoors it has never been in use. The backstop is the venetian blind type. Bullets can be lead but must be encapsulated, this will prevent lead vapour from firing but they are still allowed to smash into the back stop and they are not concerned with this. 22 is not allowed for the reasons already stated above. Lead free primers are impossible to find in Canada although I did give up looking about 8 months ago. Primers actually contain an infinitesimal amount of lead, enough to be ignored in most situations, as per www.ssusa.org/media/1533525/1014_ssusa_archive.pdf very interesting info. Lead free is fine but everything should be kept in perspective, deal with the facts and not the hearsay. Sounds to me that decent air handling at the line with encapsulated bullets and regular primers with a wet trap is the most obvious way to go. Loaders can do powder coat or buy plated.

Forgot to mention, every few years I get tested for lead when doing normal blood work. In at least Ontario it's free with a req from your doctor. Never had a problem.
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Good to know thanks! They don't allow plated .22 ammo? Or is the concern with their trap following impact?
 
Galt said:
Gyms have showers and lockers and lounge facilities. Most clubs charging 600 per year have a toilet and a sink.
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I guess it depends where you live and the establishment, a club range is different since they are not for profit organizations. Space around Toronto is a pretty penny.
 
wet systems have a lot of down time due to the grunge they collect, and they do use a lot of power, enough that the HVAC on the Action system is about the same. But compared to the actual costs the main HVAC will be costing you, either of the other two would be pennies.

Shooting steel inside the range can be done, shrouded in areas that need it, or attached to the backstop with magnets so that fragments end up at the base of the trap for clean up. Not a big deal at all.
 
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