I have been participating in several bates in GD however, this is NOT one of those. I am a frequent target shooter and mostly we use our neighbors gun range on his property. We all live on acreage and his range is in the middle of 65 acres. W have a 20’ high dirt backstop with dirt walls on each side. Over the years there had been tens of thousands of rounds fired into that mound. I just started thinking about all that lead in the ground, it probably isn’t a good thing. Now i never asked my neighbor if any precautions have been taken to prevent lead seepage into the ground, but I’m wondering if i ever put one on my property, how would you be environmentally friendly and protect the soil and underground water from lead seepage? Would something as simple as plastic sheeting
below the soil do it? How do professional gun ranges deal with this problem?
There is no barrier at any range a i shoot at and nothing at my private range,
The bigger ranges have a reclamation contractor come in and reclaim the lead out of the backstops and off the ground at a trap/Skeet range. Some clubs sell their reclaimed shot to club members for reloading and other lead uses.
There is still a trap club where the clay targets are thrown at a lake and all the fallout shot ends up in the lake. Divers go down and reclaim shot there.
And there are more ducks on that lake than on the rice bed lake my hunting shack is located on.
I have a shooting range on my property. It probably has at least 50,000 rounds in the backstop.
I’m not worried about lead. The only thing that concerns me is any cost/red tape I may have to incur if I sell the place. If I ever do sell the place, I will tear down the backstop and eliminate any evidence of a shooting range, well in advance.
It sounds like the risk of lead contamination migrating from an earth backstop may depend on your local soil conditions and groundwater level. For a small shooting range on your own property, you might be okay, unless you have a very high water table, or the shooting range itself drains to a body of water.
Crafter Man, if you do sell your property, you should bury the backstop material somewhere, and in any case inform the new owners about it, especially if they have children. Adults can tolerate a certain amount of lead without ill effects, but even very small amounts can inhibit brain development in children.
We have enough dumb people already, we don’t need any more.
I shoot lead-free ammo now whenever I can. It is expensive, though.
It was my understanding that only lead vapor is potentially harmful to the environment, and little chunks of metallic lead are relatively harmless.
I base this on discussions about the use of leaded gasoline in private aviation. Even the “100 Low Lead” grade of avgas contains 5 times as much lead as the old “regular leaded” gasoline cars used to use. (The 100 not-low-lead variety contains even more.)
Yet 100 Low Lead avgas isn’t considered a threat to air quality. Why? Because according to what I read, by the time the lead in the plane’s exhaust falls to the ground, it has precipitated into particulate form (tiny granules) and is no longer a vapor.
If the tiny granules that descend to the ground aren’t considered harmful to the environment, then big granules (like bullets) shouldn’t be either.
I don’t suppose you have a cite for this, because it simply isn’t true. Lead dust in lead-contaminated soil can be inhaled if you are working in it, and it can contaminate your clothes, home, etc. and later be ingested. It can also get into your body through cuts and scrapes on your hands.
It is true that metallic lead is not absorbed very readily by ingestion, but lead left exposed to the elements can decompose and form lead compounds (especially, as noted in the linked PDF, in certain types of soil) that are more readily absorbed. And metallic lead is absorbed very well by inhalation.
Lead is very common and at low levels of exposure it does not produce obvious symptoms. This leads people to erroneously conclude it is harmless. I mean, if you were 10% dumber, how would you notice? This is why we have so many people going around today saying “Aww hell, lead isn’t bad, I’ve been working with it all my life and I’m just fine, and my kids too!” Yeah, fine, it isn’t going to kill you. It will just subtly and insidiously affect your memory, logic, and reasoning.
Lead shot is absolutely a hazard from an environmental perspective. In fact, I’ve cleaned up dozens of shooting ranges for lead contamination. The primary issue with lead is that it’s amphoteric - it has a higher solubility at lower pH levels. So - acid rain does a great job of putting some of that lead into solution and migrating it to the groundwater or surface water. Treatment often involves removing the bullets themselves through physical means or binding the lead chemically with something like Tri-Sodium Phosphate to reduce its solubility.
Also - others have noted that metallic lead isn’t much of an issue. However, at shooting ranges, the impact tends to break apart the bullet and create a lot of fine lead powder / dust in addition to the bullets themselves.
Weif I were to build my own range on my property what can be done to minimize the risk. The biggest I would think is that everyone here is on well water. We don’t drink it, opting instead for bottled , but we cook with it, bathe in it and wash our clothes in it. I’m not really obsessed about it, but if you’re going to do something why not try and do it correctly?