Here is part one of a three part article that appeared first in the Jan/Feb 2012. #215 issue of the Fouling Shot, written by CBA President John Alexander.
Shortly after arriving in Maine we moved into a large old farmhouse on fifty acres of woods and bog. I soon had backstops at fifty and one hundred yards from the back of the barn and a shooting bench in a shed attached to the barn. As was customary on old Maine farms, the barn was connected to the house by a large wood shed with the privy as a side room off the shed(this common arrangement may have had something todo with the winters). This allowed me to walk to my rifle range without even venturing outside, although snow-shoeing to change the targets in the winter was a nui-sance. For twenty years I happily blazed away when the spirit moved me with no more bother than hauling the rifle and ammunition to the barn.
A side benefit of my shooting activities was modification of the local snowmobile routes. When we first moved in, the teenage snowmobile riders had felt free to run across the lawn under the house windows at mid-night and in 1972 snowmobiles were really loud. The local kids may have thought that these new outsiders in town with their ancient VW instead of a proper pickup truck were probably out of place city folks and wouldnt make a fuss. They might even have thought that they were effete college professors at the local university. However, when word got around that an unusual amount of small arms fire seemed to be coming from the vicinity which could indicate that the folks living there might not be as docile, or even as sane, as originally assumed, the local teenagers found other places to roar around with-out the matter ever being discussed.
A wood burning stove kept the shooting shed warm in the winter making it quite luxurious. A lot of lead was recycled from the backstops over the twenty years, but all good things come to an end. At the end of twenty years our kids were off on their own and the old, drafty, and high maintenance house was much bigger and much more trouble than we needed. We decided to build a new, smaller, and more efficient house five miles down the road on the banks of the Stillwater River in a semi-rural area closer to town. Unfortunately shooting was banned in the area.
However, I had been spoiled by having an at home range for twenty years and was reluctant to give up the convenience. After much measuring, we were able to site the house on the sloping lot so an underground shooting tunnel could be constructed from the basement to a target shed fifty yards away. Our lot was six acresin a worked out and abandoned gravel pit so the soil wasa clean sandy gravel, no good for a garden, or even a lawn, but perfect for construction. I planed to install an 18-inch diameter corrugated polyethylene pipe from the basement to a sunken shed that would hold a target frame and something to catch bullets. The builder and others were dubious, but I thought a civil engineer should be able to design and build such a contraption that would work.
If successful, this minor addition to the house con-struction cost would allow me to do a lot of shooting with-out the thrash of packing up everything and hauling it toan outdoor range. Because my reloading equipment would be set up only a few steps from the shooting bench, I could also reload at the range when useful without portable reloading equipment. An additional benefit would be comfort. Although northern Maine has almost perfect weather, this set up offered the prospect of shooting in 60-degree comfort during the rare inclement day.
A hole of the appropriate size shape and height above the basement floor was cast into the basement wall. The subcontractor who installed the leach field dug the trench for the pipe and the hole for the target shed while he was here. The pipe was laid in the trench, coupled together, aligned, and carefully backfilled.
Shortly after arriving in Maine we moved into a large old farmhouse on fifty acres of woods and bog. I soon had backstops at fifty and one hundred yards from the back of the barn and a shooting bench in a shed attached to the barn. As was customary on old Maine farms, the barn was connected to the house by a large wood shed with the privy as a side room off the shed(this common arrangement may have had something todo with the winters). This allowed me to walk to my rifle range without even venturing outside, although snow-shoeing to change the targets in the winter was a nui-sance. For twenty years I happily blazed away when the spirit moved me with no more bother than hauling the rifle and ammunition to the barn.
A side benefit of my shooting activities was modification of the local snowmobile routes. When we first moved in, the teenage snowmobile riders had felt free to run across the lawn under the house windows at mid-night and in 1972 snowmobiles were really loud. The local kids may have thought that these new outsiders in town with their ancient VW instead of a proper pickup truck were probably out of place city folks and wouldnt make a fuss. They might even have thought that they were effete college professors at the local university. However, when word got around that an unusual amount of small arms fire seemed to be coming from the vicinity which could indicate that the folks living there might not be as docile, or even as sane, as originally assumed, the local teenagers found other places to roar around with-out the matter ever being discussed.
A wood burning stove kept the shooting shed warm in the winter making it quite luxurious. A lot of lead was recycled from the backstops over the twenty years, but all good things come to an end. At the end of twenty years our kids were off on their own and the old, drafty, and high maintenance house was much bigger and much more trouble than we needed. We decided to build a new, smaller, and more efficient house five miles down the road on the banks of the Stillwater River in a semi-rural area closer to town. Unfortunately shooting was banned in the area.
However, I had been spoiled by having an at home range for twenty years and was reluctant to give up the convenience. After much measuring, we were able to site the house on the sloping lot so an underground shooting tunnel could be constructed from the basement to a target shed fifty yards away. Our lot was six acresin a worked out and abandoned gravel pit so the soil wasa clean sandy gravel, no good for a garden, or even a lawn, but perfect for construction. I planed to install an 18-inch diameter corrugated polyethylene pipe from the basement to a sunken shed that would hold a target frame and something to catch bullets. The builder and others were dubious, but I thought a civil engineer should be able to design and build such a contraption that would work.
If successful, this minor addition to the house con-struction cost would allow me to do a lot of shooting with-out the thrash of packing up everything and hauling it toan outdoor range. Because my reloading equipment would be set up only a few steps from the shooting bench, I could also reload at the range when useful without portable reloading equipment. An additional benefit would be comfort. Although northern Maine has almost perfect weather, this set up offered the prospect of shooting in 60-degree comfort during the rare inclement day.
A hole of the appropriate size shape and height above the basement floor was cast into the basement wall. The subcontractor who installed the leach field dug the trench for the pipe and the hole for the target shed while he was here. The pipe was laid in the trench, coupled together, aligned, and carefully backfilled.
The shed is four feet by four feet square and of conventional wooden construction with 2 by 4 studs, and half-inch plywood, all pressure treated. After the shed was in place at the end of the pipe with the bottom four feet below the ground surface, the outside was covered with a thick polyethylene sheet as a moisture barrier before backfilling. This is the same approach used for wooden house foundations in some areas, including northern Maine, so I was confident that it would last longer than I would. There was no floor. The roof was hinged to provide access to the target. A cable from the house to the shed was buried in the trench outside of the pipe to provide power to light the target and run a fan to exhaust powder fumes from the tunnel and shack.
A shooting bench was built in the basement at the opening for the tunnel. The slope of the lot prevented constructing the tunnel perpendicular to the wall so the bench is for left-handed shooters only. Fortunately, I shoot left handed.
A shooting bench was built in the basement at the opening for the tunnel. The slope of the lot prevented constructing the tunnel perpendicular to the wall so the bench is for left-handed shooters only. Fortunately, I shoot left handed.
Tunnel under construction. House in background and target shed in lower left.
Completed shooting shed. Note louvered opening for exhaust fan. The shed end of the tunnel needed a target frame and something to stop the bullets and prevent them from shredding the back of the shed. The target frame was easily constructed. To catch the bullets I planned to use several layers of the abundant 1.5-inch thick wood scraps left over from the house construction. I thought I could simply replace them as they were shot up. As a backup to prevent bullets from getting to the back wall of the shed as the 2 by 10 scraps were used up, I installed a one quarter inch thick steel plate against the back wall.
I installed a cheap eight-inch diameter ducted fan high in the back wall of the shed to exhaust fumes through a louvered opening to the outside. A low cost adjustable light with a reflector provide light directly on the target.
I installed a cheap eight-inch diameter ducted fan high in the back wall of the shed to exhaust fumes through a louvered opening to the outside. A low cost adjustable light with a reflector provide light directly on the target.
Cost of the materials, labor, and machine time to construct the tunnel, shed and bench was less than$1,000 in 1992 or about the cost of two new rifles at the time. Even $1,000 would have looked like an extrava-gant luxury to a depression baby such as myself if it hadnt been done in conjunction with building the house. When looked at as a feature of the house that added less than one percent any guilty feelings were successfully rationalized away. In parts two and three I will discuss the operation and maintenance of the tunnel.
Opening in basement wall and shooting bench attached to wall.