me and my friend are considering a indoor shooting range,for public and private use,?

Hello Eddie!

I hope you are able to pull off this venture ... if so, let me know where it is so I can move to TN!

Over the past 15 years, 2 of the three local ranges that I have frequented due to legal issues. Additionally, the rifle range at the college I attended was shut down because of EPA regulations.

The "really local" indoor range I would frequent (12 lanes) was shut down because of air quality ... cost to meet the EPA regulations was in excess of a quarter million (according to the owner), so he turned the range into a storage facility for his other business. The range on campus was shut down for essentially the same reason at about the same time as the Army ROTC program was shutting down.

The other indoor range, in the town I grew up in, due to the range owner being a considerate guy. He had lockers on site that shooters could rent and leave equipment in ... he did not have access to the contents of the rented lockers, but he was still charged and convicted of a major crime, and the range shut down. Seems the shooter that rented a locker stored an illegally acquired SMG in the locker, and everyone ended up paying the price. Just added this since there is much more than backstops and air quality to keep in mind!

Good luck and good shooting!

Two people to contact that should be able to help you.

First, contact the building and codes department for your city. If your city has 45,000 people, you undoubtedly have on by some name. There should be a building codes person who is familiar with the requirements for ventilating a project like yours. There are also zoning issues that apply, and this department can advise where an indoor range is allowed and where it is not. For example, it may have to be located in an industrial-zoned area, not a commercial-zoned area.

Second, contact a reliable commercial HVAC contractor. They will need to know the size of the range in cubic feet in order to determine the size unit. That's when you can get a cost. Size matters. For safety sake and to plan ahead, get the next larger size.

Eddie,there are many variables when considering ventilation-square footage of the building is very important-what are the sizes of the duct work that will be installed-are you going to use the same system for heat and ventilation-do you want a pressurized system-do want separate zones.I have been in the business and have heard all complaints of undersized systems and not working correctly and most of the problems involved were because of the mis info provided by the owner or contractor resulting in poor performance from the purchased system.So my advice before you go purchase is to consult your contractor and whoever you may purchase the system from.

There are several contractors in the USA who design and build indoor ranges.

There are a few companies that do specializes lead abatement work for shooting ranges....Shooting ranges are subject to OSHA and EPA standard .

And you probably know that powder residue blows up if it's not cleaned up

Last indoor range built near me had a start up cost near $750,000 for 12 lanes

Good move, Eddie, and good luck.