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The HVAC alone would be very expensive.


I checked, and I could only set a 15 yd. range outside of my house, if I were inclined to.

Luckily, I live in the county, and there's only 3 houses in my subdivision, soon to be 4. There's no houses in the back lots, and the nearest houses are 300 yds. away.

Get a note from the developer (a good friend of my family's) saying I can shot in the corner lot, and I'm GTG.

WildBill wrote:When I was a kid, my dad set up a firing range in the basement of our house. He bought a "Detroit Bullet Trap." It may have been strong enough for shooting .38 Special [lead bullets], but we only shot .22LR. It worked out pretty well. We wouldn't shoot unless the house was empty. This was in the city limits, but at the time there probably weren't any laws against it.

http://aerospace.zibb.com/trademark/det ... p/29273992" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

We had a 50 foot range in our basement, with a Detroit Bullet Trap, and we found out that it would not take a .38SPL, it got a big dent in the bottom steel and it you hit that spot with a .22LR it splattered almost back to the firing line. Before we got the bullet trap we just fired into logs, until my mother shot herself in the chest with a .22LR that bounced off an oak log. It didn't penetrate, but the bruise was amazing. Our house was out in the boonies, but occasionally the nearest neighbor would comment about the loud hammering, which only happened if we had the basement windows open.

Rex B wrote:Years ago I spent some time with a guy that had an auto parts store in downtown Brownwood. After work one evening he asked me if I'd like to do some shooting. "I said "Sure!".
He took me across the alley intot he back door of a very old 2-story masonry building. Then we went downstairs, below street level. There he had a nice handgun range set up. You could not hear shots from outside. He said the local police borrowed it occasionally. As far as i could tell, that was the only reason he owned the building. Probably bought it cheap on a tax foreclosure.

Sounds like Massey Auto Parts? That would have been a long time ago.

I once did some work for a very well known country singer.

In the basement was a bowling alley, a home theater and a shooting range.

Pretty sweet.

sugar land dave wrote:

Rex B wrote:Years ago I spent some time with a guy that had an auto parts store in downtown Brownwood. After work one evening he asked me if I'd like to do some shooting. "I said "Sure!".
He took me across the alley intot he back door of a very old 2-story masonry building. Then we went downstairs, below street level. There he had a nice handgun range set up. You could not hear shots from outside. He said the local police borrowed it occasionally. As far as i could tell, that was the only reason he owned the building. Probably bought it cheap on a tax foreclosure.

Sounds like Massey Auto Parts? That would have been a long time ago.

Sounds right. This was 1993, owners name was Eddie, wife Jeanine?

sjfcontrol wrote:

Texas Size 11 wrote:

sjfcontrol wrote:A 25 yard long range will end up about 100 feet long with bullet trap and shooting booths. That's going to be a heck of a basement!
These guys build and sell "Modular Live-Fire Ranges", including baffling, traps, sound abatement, ventilation, etc.,but you better have a hefty checkbook!
http://www.ais-sim.com/training_product ... krange.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Interesting...what do you think their definition of hefty is? I didn't see any pricing - not that I am running out and dying to buy one, but I would be curious to what a product like this runs.

I can't find my notes from the Shot show, but I seem to remember it was somewhere around $700k for a 2-lane 25-yard modular system. If you're interested, I can probably get you a discount if you buy two...

(Note: if you're really serious, call them. I could be WAY off.)

Oh no way...I am not what you would call rich by any means, just curious to what somebody who is loaded would pay for such luxury. However, it would be one of my first items should I hit the lotto jackpot.

If you won the jackpot you wouldn't have to commute downtown, would you?

You could live on 20 acres in the Hill Country and shoot off your back porch.

I suspect for the cost of building your own range in a suburban area you could afford lifetime membership in a really nice club. Then you would also have access to long-distance rifle ranges, shotgun facilities, etc.

- Jim

seamusTX wrote:If you won the jackpot you wouldn't have to commute downtown, would you?

You could live on 20 acres in the Hill Country and shoot off your back porch.

I suspect for the cost of building your own range in a suburban area you could afford lifetime membership in a really nice club. Then you would also have access to long-distance rifle ranges, shotgun facilities, etc.

- Jim

Yeah, but the "tacti-cool" factor is not nearly the same

When you build your house bury 3 40ft shipping containers end to end in the back yard. Have it listed as a storm shelter. Make sure it is vented properly and fire away.

You could call it a bomb shelter -- or just "The Bunker"!

Club membership is all well and good, but it's hard to beat being able to step out the back door and sight in your hunting rifle.

sjfcontrol wrote:You could call it a bomb shelter -- or just "The Bunker"!

If you called it a "solar energy reservoir" you could probably get a tax credit.

The tacticoolness factor would be lower, but there are at least two other options with variable bankroll requirements...and that can be moved if you ever sell the property. Unfortunately, they aren’t live-fire options, but if I were’t buying my own retirement acreage somewhere in the Hill Country that would have an outdoor range, I think I’d be satisfied with driving to a private club like PSC for live fire.

The most expensive option: Buy and install a good firearms training simulator system. FATS (Meggitt Training) has the largest market share for LEO simulators, and can be setup in nothing more than a large spare bedroom. AIS, the same company that makes the modular live-fire setups mentioned above, also manufactures PRISim, another interactive simulation system.

But if I had the space and the bucks, the one I’d want to investigate would be from VirTra Systems. They offer both military and LEO training modules; in particular, check out the VirTra 180 LE and 300 LE: 180- and 300-degree, wrap-around simulators.

The least expensive would be to have a space dedicated to AirSoft training. You could setup IDPA-style courses of fire, and maybe even create a small AirSoft shoot house where you could have friends over for force-on-force training.

If it were me, I think the money and permits necessary to have a private-residence one- or two-lane 25 yard live-fire range simply wouldn’t be worth it. I’d much rather spend less and have simulation training that could mimic changeable, real-world scenarios...and the kind of practice that I can’t get at a typical live-fire range (try 300-degree surround shooting at your local club). Besides, I’m one of those guys who feel that live-fire should only comprise 20 to 30 percent of your practice, anyway. I’d rather have a big VirTra unit or my own AirSoft shoot house and room to setup AirSoft IDPA CoFs any day.

Skiprr wrote:The tacticoolness factor would be lower, but there are at least two other options with variable bankroll requirements...and that can be moved if you ever sell the property.

This made me think that if you ever tried to sell the property you would have to disclose the range and it could be declared a hazardous waste site because of the lead and you would have to decontaminate it prior to the sale.