Sound proofing a bench rest

[Donkey]

Hello everyone

I have built a 250Y bench rest on the hobby farm but I have neighbours and a school to consider. I have enclosed the muzzle blast area with wool and egg cartons including 2 15deg. forward facing baffles so the rifle shoots between a 2 inch slot but it is still very loud. A suppressor would fix the noise issue but I can't compete with it on so it pointless me doing any ammo testing with it on. I was thinking of shooting through a muffler but worried about the effect this might have on the bullet flight. (Is there a ground effect for supper sonic projectiles?) I need to get the noise levels down to that of a 30 cal suppressed. Has any one managed to achieve this or better from a bench rest hut? If so can you please tell me what you did.


Many thanks
Jason

 

[Donkey]

That's epic ppc!
Have you got a photo?

I have a few questions:

I guess you were sighting through the suppressor? How was noise to the rear? How did you get 10ft inside it stick that stuff on? How thick did you apply it? If you did it again would you use the same sound proofing material and would you still make it 20ft long?

 

[Rustystud]

I bought my house and acerage 30 years ago. No immediate neighbors then.
In 1997 our state legislature passed the Range protection Act.
Public and private ranges 3 years or older can not be closed because of noise, Due to urban sprawl. The 94 house development behind me took 3 years to complete. I put up with beep beep beep and the noise of heavy equipment. I put up with burning and the soot all over my cars, trucks, and house. The folks were told I shoot and shoot a lot. They also were told they could not do anything about it. My range has burms and nothing leaves my property. I don't shoot before sun-up or after dark. I don't shoot on sundays before 12:00 noon. If my neighbor says they are having company I will try to curtail my shooting for those hours. Otherwise they moved to the country and have to live with the country rules.
There half millon dollar and up homes have made my property taxes go 28,000 percent over the last 30 years.

To hell with them.
Nat lambeth

 

[Tozguy]

One of the ranges I shoot at uses the culvert style muffler at each bench. They are approx. 2ft outside diameter and are 4'' thick. They are 8 ft long and the muzzle has to be at least 16'' into the muffler for it to work as designed. The core is made with of worn out papermakers felt (we have a friendly paper plant in the region). It is held in place by a heavy 1/4' steel mesh. The felt gets fuzzy from the shock wave of magnum calibers. Plus, it makes reading wind flags really tricky. I would be surprised if the shock wave is upsetting the bullet before it leaves the muffler. I can provide pictures of it eventually if you like. Sound still bounces all over the place but the set up passed the decibel limit at our nearest neighbour.
If I had my own farm I'd have a look at making a tunnel out of hay or straw bales to shoot through. Cover it with a tarp and it should last.

 

[SS427]

The range I shoot at has barrels at each bench to shoot through. They are as PPC described: two 55 gallon drums welded together. Inside is what looks like a bunch of tightly woven fencing with some sort of stuff sprayed on it. Looks like spray foam, but could be anything. It isn't solid though. Lots of space in the fencing to act as baffling.

Our benches are set up so you can shot outside the barrels if you like. I've done it both ways and never noticed any accuracy difference. I have scuffed up the end of my rifle barrels on the inside the 55 gallon drums, so do something to prevent that if you can.

They muffle the sound really good. A 30-06 is reduced to a manageable sound level. Seems to remove the crack part away from the sound, if you know what I mean.

If you live in an area with yellowjackets, keep a can of wasp spray close by. If they set up camp inside and you fire a round off, they get rather pissed.

 

[TonyR]

I wanted to do some cream-of-wheat fire-forming in my car-port so I bought a section of that cardboard cement form at Home depot and slipped a roll of insulation into it. I fire-formed about 100 284 Shehane cases and my neighbor about 100 feet away asked me what I was doing with my nail-gun. Just a sort of thump that could have been anything. When I do it again, I'm going to uses a roll of old carpet instead of the insulation.

 

[DEC]

I recall seeing a video of a gun range in Switzerland. It appeared that the folks were shooting through a two and a half to three foot diameter tube of acoustic looking material. These tubes appeared to be maybe five or six feet long.

I just had the thought of using acoustical tile, that is used in suspended ceilings, attached to some sort of frame if front of the bench.

Interesting topic. I foresee "noise issues" becoming more and more relevant to those of us who like to shoot. I have heard of housing develepments which have sprung up in rural areas putting pressure on farmers to limit field work to certain hours of the day. I find this type of thing outrageous!

 

[rbertalotto]

There half millon dollar and up homes have made my property taxes go 28,000 percent over the last 30 years.

To hell with them.
Nat lambeth

"Hey, Lets move out to the country for all the country life offers............................and change everything!!!!!!!!"

I agree 100 percent with you Nate!

 

[1000yardstare]

My club has been generously given 4 ft diam concrete culverts, standard 3 ft lengths. Three will be joined in front of each bench to create a 9 foot tube resting on gravel beds to prevent rolling. The muzzles are a foot inside the culverts.

Another club in the area that is surrounded by houses has been using this system for a number of years with good success.

As Otter said the "crack" is suppressed, more of a "whump".

Our Provincial Firearms Officer defines this system as a baffled range.

I sometimes think the biggest contributor to range noise is the roof of a covered firing point. It seems to focus the noise forward. Rifle fire on an open Army range is more of a "whump" not too far behind the firing line.

 

[RonRouse]

Nat, I like the way you think.

 

[spclark]

Their half millon dollar and up homes have made my property taxes go 28,000 percent over the last 30 years.

To hell with them.

I wonder how many of those McMansions are "under water" mortgage-wise now? Sitting vacant, and/or in foreclosure?

I bought a place well west of the sprawl in 1977. Nice, private 300-yard rifle & pistol range a mile from it that gave up after many, many years from complaints by the new neighbors between me and the range starting in about 1990. Wasn't as much a noise issue as a couple of suspicious holes in new siding / roofing.

(I didn't rediscover my interest in shooting until 2000, the year they CLOSED :'( so it's at least an hour each way to get to an outdoor range now.)

'Course nobody considered the impact the activities of the inhabitants of the public subsidized apartment complex just to the south of the range itself. Frequent visits continue from the Sheriff to this day for "shots fired."

 

[Donkey]

Thank you for all the great advice.

I had a chat with the school principle today and she just asked to be informed. I still want it to be as quiet as possible. I found a 20ft length of 6" pipe that I will wrap in something sound difusing. It should be just enough to be able to site through as well. From what I gather a supersonic bullet will be pulled towards a surface by ground effect and then stay there. I don't know the range at which this effect occours. Dose any one know?

 

[jhord]

I use chicken wire/light fencing. I rolled a section into a 1' diameter tube. Then I wrapped that in some scrap carpet, with the shag facing inside. I wrapped the carpet with a bunch of pink insulation. Then I wrapped all that with another layer of chicken wire. It is 4' long and works pretty well, the sound that escapes is a "whomp!" sound. DOT NOT use pink insulation without something to keep it in place. I use the carpet, but I suppose window screen material might also work. If you line your muffler with the insulation you will just get a huge cloud of fiberglass... trust me on that. ;D I have seen no ill effect on accuracy at all. I think I am also going to try constructing a muffler out of OSB lined with carpet, basically a 2' square x 8' long box. I live in the country but try to be considerate, my neighbors are great.

 

[bozo699]

I bought my house and acerage 30 years ago. No immediate neighbors then.
In 1997 our state legislature passed the Range protection Act.
Public and private ranges 3 years or older can not be closed because of noise, Due to urban sprawl. The 94 house development behind me took 3 years to complete. I put up with beep beep beep and the noise of heavy equipment. I put up with burning and the soot all over my cars, trucks, and house. The folks were told I shoot and shoot a lot. They also were told they could not do anything about it. My range has burms and nothing leaves my property. I don't shoot before sun-up or after dark. I don't shoot on sundays before 12:00 noon. If my neighbor says they are having company I will try to curtail my shooting for those hours. Otherwise they moved to the country and have to live with the country rules.
There half millon dollar and up homes have made my property taxes go 28,000 percent over the last 30 years.

To hell with them.
Nat lambeth

I absolutely agree with Nate, My family bought this piece of property in 1929, from 1929 until about 1990 we were the only house for about 3.5 mile along the river, then my neighbor across the river died, his widow sold off lots that had never been lived on, there were only two cabins until about 2005, now there are about 10 cabins on the property, my family has shot on this property since the twenties and I have shot day and night, mostly @ night since the seventies. Last fall during deer season I was sighting in my cousins .308 @ 7:20 am and one of my hippie neighbors called the wife and said ( could you please tell Wayne that it is very disheartening to get woke up all the time by gun fire ), sob,sob,boo,hoo. So my wife called me on our intercom system and told me what he said, Huh!! I said Well I won't tell you that I personally set his alarm clock for him (50 bmg) every morning when there was just barley enough light to see I sent a 750 grain a-max into a huge rimrock 863 yards down range day after day after day I bet he wished he had never made that whinny phone call I know that wasn't very Christian of me but, But I can't stand them red diaper doper babies, sitting over in there smoking dope, then not getting up until noon and they want me to cater to there Liberal whims Like Hell I Will. Donkey, your situation is different and I commend you for trying to keep the peace with your neighbors, the culvert idea just might work, I hope it does so you can continue to use your property you pay a over abundance of taxes on!!
Wayne.

 

[StevenDzupin]

For what it's worth.
A sandwich of old truck tires bolted together and hung up using a beam on double A frames works great.

Just use a hole saw to cut a drain hole in the bottom of the
tires.

Cheap and VERY efective.

A note of caution,if you shoot a lot,powder slivers will accumulate in any of these devices and must be cleaned out
occasionally.

Flash fires can and have occured even in indoor ranges with
poor housekeeping,like Noslers Fiasco of late.


Regards,

Steve

 

[bozo699]

For what it's worth.
A sandwich of old truck tires bolted together and hung up using a beam on double A frames works great.

Just use a hole saw to cut a drain hole in the bottom of the
tires.

Cheap and VERY efective.

A note of caution,if you shoot a lot,powder slivers will accumulate in any of these devices and must be cleaned out
occasionally.

Flash fires can and have occured even in indoor ranges with
poor housekeeping,like Noslers Fiasco of late.


Regards,

Steve

Steve,
Good point, I don't think I would have ever thought of that and some others probably wouldn't have either, Thank for pointing it out.
Wayne.

 

[Tozguy]

I know this thread is not about the politics of gunshot noise but a few comments here have struck a note with me. Our home range was closed because of noise complaints from the neighbours. As one of the founders of the handgun part of the establishment it was very hard to take. Sure, we were there first but we don’t make the law and the law changes. It was a lesson however.
As shooters, even if we have grown accustomed to (maybe even enjoy) the noise we make, that path leads eventually to taking on the whole world. Shooters rights will go down the drain if we don’t make allies out of our ‘enemies’.
Personally, I sympathise with people who don’t like a regular dose of ‘gun crack’. It is the shooting I want to protect, not our right to disturb the neighbours. If someone complained to me about my shooting, I ask them to send a letter to our elected representatives demanding that the use of suppressors be allowed.
In the meantime, I hope we will all do our part to protect shooting, continue to be creative and take care of the noise problem before someone else does it for us.

 

[spclark]

Personally, I sympathise with people who don’t like a regular dose of ‘gun crack’. (snip) If someone complained to me about my shooting, I ask them to send a letter to our elected representatives demanding that the use of suppressors be allowed.

You wouldn't be living in Illinois now would you?

I'm in complete agreement with you on the noise thing.

 

[bozo699]

Personally, I sympathise with people who don’t like a regular dose of ‘gun crack’. (snip) If someone complained to me about my shooting, I ask them to send a letter to our elected representatives demanding that the use of suppressors be allowed.

You wouldn't be living in Illinois now would you?

I'm in complete agreement with you on the noise thing.

I don't sympathize with them @ ALL if I was worried about radiation poisoning I wouldn't move or build by a nuclear reactor, then complain about it! I wouldn't move or build by a airport then bellyache about the noise, I And I certainly wouldn't purchase or build around a gun range and complain about
GUN FIRE!!!! I as a land owner am not responsible for posting my land YOUR responsible for knowing where you are! Take some responsibility in your life, when looking for a place to buy or build on go out and exactly do that, LOOK!! talk to some existing people if there are any check things out. Its your responsibility to decide if you want to build by my shooting range, not my responsibility to change my shooting habits for you!! I understand the op's position and commend him for trying. But for me and a couple of the other posters we moved to the country to do as we please, don't move out beside us and then try to change our rituals!! stay in the city if you don't like our country ways!!
Wayne.

 

[chestsprings]

+1 with Bozo699

15 ys. ago. I moved into an area. There were 7 homes here. Now 72. as mentioned before, the "city slickers" move to the country because it's so nice. then as soon as they get here, they want to change it to what they left. That's BS.

a new neighbor moved in about 12 yrs. ago. stopped me one day, & said do you hear all that gunfire. sounded to me about 1/2 mile away in a wooded section. he had called the sheriff, & a deputy was on the way.


I told him this is the country, & you have to realize this is part of country living. he got a little defensive of that, & said the gunfire noise was alarming.

I told him, "the only shot you have to worry about is the one you didn't hear." he didn't think that was funny, & very seldom speaks to me. I really don't give a dam, as I'm not changing my life style to suit some city slicker.

the baffle system in the culver pipe seems like the way to go.