Handgun shooting area at home?

We just used pliers,,,

Probably not the safest way,,,
And I'm certainly am not advocating it,,, ;)
But we probably went through 10 bricks without mishap.

Aarond

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Wax bullets or hot glue bullets in your centerfire arm work well, too. Speer makes plastic bullets (which are reusable as long as you can find them; just don't miss your bullet trap).

For wax bullets, you use regular brass, with the flash hole reamed out so the primer does not back out of the primer pocket. Or you can ream out the whole primer pocket to use a shotgun primer. Speer plastic bullets use Speer plastic cases in which you can press primers with just finger pressure. (Put the primer on a hard surface and push the case down on it.)

Ventilation is a good idea and noise mitigation would be a good idea, too.

I prefer air guns.

Most jurisdictions which outlaw discharge of firearms refer to firearms. Air-powered or CO2 powered may not violate anything, especially inside your own home.

Airsoft replicas of real guns do not have the selection of real guns, but can give almost realistic "draw and fire" practice if there is a model that matches your own gun(s). Jury is out on their actual accuracy, so analyzing your groups may not yield any help.

Good Luck

Lost Sheep
 
Sure: "it seemed like a good idea, at the time."

When the local paper runs the after-action article on this, readers wil wonder
" What was that guy thinking?"
 
You could set up an air pistol shooting area that would be a way safer thing to try. A sheet of 1/2 inch plywood should more than be enough if you use a pellet trap. I had one in the back yard when I lived in a semi rural are a few years ago. It was not very expensive, and took a lot of hits. The neighbors used to come over to shoot the air guns quite a bit too. If lead is a worry for you, then you can use PBA ammo. Shooting 10m air pistol is good practice for bulls eye shooting.
 
Legal in your town ?
Insurance cover it ?
You must have good ventilation !
I know of a few places where a fairly small backstop was used , 4'x4'. in a basement where the comment was 'can't possibly miss that big a backstop' .Later look at the wall around the backstop !:o

Stick to pellet guns !
 
I've shot a 22 in the garage with a homemade backstop. It had a concrete block wall behind it. I used Remington Subsonics. They were fairly quiet. If the neighbors heard, they didn't say anything.

If I were in the second floor of a wood house, I'd make more preparations than that. And I'd probably stick with Colibris.
 
Depending on where you live don't forget to check the county laws.

Personally though I wouldn't be shooting in my house unless I had to, legal or not.
 
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Saw this today. Reminded me of this thread.
 
Obviously many people here have not shot in their own property.

Aside from checking your local laws, I would say you would be fine setting this up if you set the proper backstop and make sure it is solid. 22lr is not very loud; I've shot both pistol and rifle 22's and they are not that loud.

For example, I shoot outdoors at a friend's backyard that is in a neighborhood. His neighbors are about at least 75yards away. We set up our targets with backstops(concrete, steel, and dirt) properly. Yes the local county LEO's have approved it and said it is ok to shoot in your own property as long as you don't go past your property line. I also brought along my roomate who is an Orange county sherriff to shoot with me :eek: . He did not have a problem with it, he actually had a good time.

YMMV, just make sure you know what you are doing. If not, then maybe its not reasonable depending on your local laws and how you set it up.
 
Don't pull .22 bullets and substitute was.

A .22 is a heeled bullet. The bullet is the same diameter as the outside of the case. If you put a wax bullet inside the case, it will be undersized & the gases from the primer will blow past the base and melt it.
You end up with a pretty messy and inaccurate load.

What you do is:

Place a large cake pan on the top of the range and fill it half full of water.
Place a smaller pan inside it.
(You making a double bolier. The burner heats the water, and the hot water heats the inner pan where the was is.)
Never melt parrafin was directly on a burner. Sooner or later it will flash on you and catch fire.

Place your parrfin wax in the inner pan.
Take empty unprimed shells of whatever caliber you wish to shoot - .38, .44. .45acp, 9mm - whatever.
Determine how much melted wax will fill the empty case 1/2 full.
I take a pencil and an empty case, hold the case against the side of the pan and draw a line that's about half way up the case body.
Melt that much wax in the inner pan and remove it from the outer pan.

Invert your empty unprimed cases in the wax & set the pan aside to cool.

When the wax has hardened, you simply remove the cases and put a primer in them.
Regular primers will work fine for short (~ 25 feet) distances, magnum primers will work for about half again to twice that distance.

Obviously, the ammo won't operate a semi auto action & with no bullet to guide on a feed ramp, they may not feed well.
Be sure in that case to heed all warnings about running a slide closed on a chambered round. It's not recommended on a 1911.

It's also highy recommended to enlarge the flash hole in the primer pocket.
W/out a powder charge to force the case back against the recoil shield of a revolver, the flash from the primer will often back the primer out of the pocket & tie up the revolver's action.

If you also reload, it's important to mark these cases somehow so they don't get mixed in with the regular brass.

& yes ---before anyone thinks/or asks it - a very small charge of smokless

(Never to exceed 1/3 of the starting load listed in the loading data for that caliber w/the lightest bullet weight.)

can be trickled into the case through the enlarged flash hole prior to priming the case.
I used a medium fast powder (Unique) instead of a fast power (Bullseye).
Fast powders like Bullseye don't have enough bulk.
It's just too hard to get a small load of Bullseye. A lot of the starting loads are only 3.5 to 4 grains.

Sadly - the bliss ninnys have taken over my city & the laws now read that I can't launch any projectile over any part of any propety within the city limits.
It's now illegal to even shoot a BB gun in the basement (not that anyone would know - but still...).

These are small pistols that shoot lead BB's,,,
The charge is a cap designed for cap and ball revolvers.
Wow - that takes me way back.....
When I was a kid (1960's), all the outdoor magazines use to have an ad in the back pages for,,,IIRC, a Western Haig pistol.
It was a pot metal single shot that used a piece of birdshot & regual cap gun caps.
The price of the thing was $3.00 plus shipping.
We never managed to scrape together enough money among us to buy one & pay for the shipping & also buy a money order....

That & they had some silly requirment that you had to be 21... ;)
 
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After my lead levels got high I quit shooting at indoor ranges, no way I would have one inside my house.

I do however have a "shooting area" out back. I didn't have the equipment to move dirt so I made my trap out of steel.

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Off-topic. Please forgive

Hal said:
Sadly - the bliss ninnys have taken over my city & the laws now read that I can't launch any projectile over any part of any propety within the city limits.
It's now illegal to even shoot a BB gun in the basement (not that anyone would know - but still...).
I have to vent.

Does that include if you launch a green pea through a paper straw?

You have my sympathies.

Lost Sheep.
 
Lost Sheep,
My guess would be - yes.
The law reads any projectile.

I suppose that by the letter of the law, launching a spit wad w/a rubber band, or even launching a rubber band by itself would be breaking the law.

It's sad that such stupid laws ever get on the books.
 
shot it in the back

Gun store had an indoor range to test fire guns from time to time.

While an employee was enjoying a tuna sandwich in the break room another employee decided now was a good enough time as any to test fire a H&K 91. Common wall..not so common backstop. Bad news.

Why is it that the creeps of the world dodge bullets left and right, and the good guys get one between the running lights from 150 yards fired by a stolen Raven 25acp from a recently paroled for good behavior-honor roll student- non violent career-early released criminal.
 
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