How-To question on shooting?

[bortle]

Hi all, for my first post I have a shooting question. I want to shoot in the woods behind my house. I own the property and safety is not the problem. Noise is. I have nice neighbors and I want to be considerate. Nobody wants to hear 500 rounds of 30-06 while they're watching TV. Is there a way to build and shoot out of a small building that will isolate the noise? Something 10'x10' or so.
Preferable as cheap as possible. Not poured concrete.

[Brown-Bear]

Wow. Good question. I would guess you bulid it out of plywood. Then fill the frames of the walls with solid foam insulation. Just make sure you got some serious hearing protection. You're gonna rocked from inside that structure.

Dave

[PisnNapalm]

What about shooting a smaller caliber rifle? .22lr perhaps?

I highly doubt there will an effective "cheap" solution to your problem. I would suggest looking into suppressors. http://forums.gunbroker.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=311998

The 10'x10' enclosure still has to have an opening for you to shoot through. Most of the noise is going to be fired out of that opening. Unless you want to shoot through a long "tube" of baffles and sound insulating material, I don't see how much quieter a simple "shack" is going to help.

[adymond]

Having grown up in the boonies we used to shoot shotguns regularly on my parent's land and we never had a problem. I think basic consideration is the key though. Maybe head down for shorter sessions where you won't be burning through 500 rounds. Do it in the middle of the afternoon when they will most likely be busy. Shooting at breakfast, lunch or dinner could be disturbing since most folks will take a break from working to eat, but if they are busy an hour or so of crack crack crack might not be so bothersome. Also if you have enough land to make safety a non-issue I don't know how much noise they will have to deal with.

[General Geoff]

A couple of quality suppressors would be much cheaper than a structure. Just have to make sure your local CLEO will sign off on them.

[RandomTask]

A suppressed .22lr is definitely the way to go. Another member here demonstrated his setup. It was so quiet, you could hear the firing pin strike the cartridge and hear the impact of the bullet 100yds away. My pellet gun was about 10 times louder.

[bloomautomatic]

A suppressor would be a solution, but w/ a supersonic round you would still have some noise, and you'd have to have one for each gun.

You can build a fixed noise suppressor out of tires. As long as it's not attached to the gun and it's not portable, it's legal. Won't make it whisper quiet, but it will help to keep the noise down. This would work with any gun.



(image borrowed from here - http://shootersforum.com/showthread.htm?t=23982 )

Vince

[Poonie]

I wouldn't go through all that. If its legal to fire guns on your property, then as long as you are considerate, and make safety a priority, then there shouldn't be any problem.

I put shooting guns into the same category as running lawn mowers, tractors, chain saws, weedwhackers, with regards to neighbors. Granted these items are less noisy, but their noise is sustained for much longer periods of time and is generally in closer proximity to neighbors, so its relative. Its all about timing. Just as most neighborly individuals wouldn't dream of firing up the tractor at 5:30 am to cut grass, most wouldn't cut loose with their favorite deer rifle for practice at that time either. Be considerate and shoot at the appropriate times and you should have no problems. If you do have issues, then its most likely the snooty neighbor who is just trying to control the situation. In that case I would cut loose at 5:30 just to be a dick.

My father has a neighbor who was very inconsiderate in this regard and would cut his grass at the crack of dawn with no care about who he might be waking up at such an early hour, etc. This went on for some time until my dad had enough. One weekend morning, he got up early, went outside, took the muffler off his chainsaw and fired it up and proceeded to run it full tilt until it ran out of gas. His neighbor came outside and complained. Dad simply said "now how do you like it", and went inside. His neighbor got the message and didn't cut his grass before 8:00 am thereafter. Just relating....

[glock27owner]

I have nice neighbors and I want to be considerate. .

try asking them first. see what would be a good time for them. you'll find out how nice they really are

[Mabuz]

try asking them first. see what would be a good time for them. you'll find out how nice they really are

This was going to be my suggestion as well.