Poor indoor range ventilation

Crappy ventilation is the number one reason I never shoot indoor.

If your range doesn't have ventilation from the back blowing away the excess powder smoke, leave. You could tell the owner, but he'll just likely get mad because if people complain to the city, he'll get shut down.

If he could afford to refit the place with a good ventilation system, he would have by now.
 
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Shooting indoors is so gross compared to outdoors. Ill do it if I need to but I don't enjoy it.

Whenever I shoot. I take off what clothes I can outside. Then head right for the shower.
 
That indoor range is asking for trouble. They have become a magnet for OSHA.


Lead poisoning is no fun: i've had it and badly. My lead poisoning was related to the burning of massive quantities of small arms ammunition. The modern treatment is chelation therapy.

i self treated with daily 500 mg tablets of ascorbic acid. My lead poisoning was gone when i was tested about 45-60 days later. In the 30s and 40s the military treated workers with lead poisoning using ascorbic acid.

http://www.seanet.com/~alexs/ascorbate/193x/holmes-hn-etal_j_lab_clin_med-1939-v23-n11-p1119.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21783619
 
Yikes, that didnt sound fun....sorry that happened

I am all over this topic now. No more lead exposure for this guy. I love to shoot but will put my health first and only shoot outdoors when possible
 
Yikes, that didnt sound fun....sorry that happened
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After Desert Storm i destroyed all the unserviceable US Army ammunition in Saudi; some 15,000-19,000 tons of it. This included a few hundred million rounds of small arms ammo that we burned. Dumb me cleaned out some burn pits without wearing proper protective gear.

Truth be known it nearly killed me.

burningammo.jpg
 
I shot at the ROTC armory range at lunch time many times.

Later in life I found at a range officers coures__

never eat while shooting--we went to the range for lunch many times.
Always wash hands after shooting and before eating--see above.
Range should have hand washing place close-COLD water.. see above.
Change clothes after practicing/shooting--we went to afternoon classes and to work after.

Ventilation-range had some windows that we would never open in 'winter months'-shooting or not.

Periodically the sand was sifted and the lead recycled. Dust abounded as the DRY sand was poured thru screens. Dust masks were worn for that project mostly for the dust-lead was never a consideration.

How did we survive. Maybe that is why we are like we are. I meet w/ at least one other shooter from those days and he seems 'normal'. Kinda radical on election day but otherwise??
 
A half-face respirator with the P100 pancake filters (like this one) will provide adequate protection against exposure to airborne lead contamination in poorly ventilated (which is to say, just about all) indoor ranges.

I was shooting in three different indoor bullseye leagues a number of years ago, and my serum lead got up to 31 mcg/dl - as compared with a recommended "safe" level of less than 10. I started wearing a respirator but made no other changes to what I was doing, and my level came down to the low 'teens in a year and was down to 7.9 mcg/dl a year after that. The respirator was a PITA to wear at first, but now I don't even think about it and would no more consider not wearing it than I would consider not wearing my standard eye and ear protection.

Obviously, all the other recommendations about washing hands and clothing, etc., make sense as well, but the primary exposure pathway is inhalation and the respirator takes care of that.
 
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