Soundproofing A Shooting Or Firing Range

by: Robert W. Orther

Many cities and municipalities are looking for state of the art soundproofing products and procedures for soundproofing a public, private, or and even home shooting ranges. The soundproofing materials used must be impervious to smoke and gunpowder residue and must be resilient (able to take a round without disintegrating) and easy to clean. Some folks feel that convoluted foam mat (bedding or egg crate foam) will work in such applications. This is a completely wrong assumption because convoluted foam is an open celled foam and has no soundproofing qualities whatsoever.

So how do you get both absorption and sound blocking from one product, that is impervious to moisture and will stand up the rigors of a live firing range? Many large cities have contacted me desperately looking for just such a material and believe it or not we have exactly what they are looking for. It's the closed cell vinyl nitrile America mat and it has been used in many different ranges throughout the country. It is extremely flame retardant and only absorbs water into the first 6% to 8% of the mat. We have found through real life experience that this absorbed moisture dissipates rapidly and never causes mold, mildew, or deterioration. America mat is both a blocker and absorber that is extremely resilient and versatile in the shooting environment. The mat comes in thick nesses of ¼" all the way up to 2" thick, but we have found that in most instances the ½" America mat does the job. This foam mat would be adhered directly to the walls and ceiling of the range tunnel and in some cases it would even be adhered to the floor. This will provide complete coverage thus forcing the sound to be absorbed into the mat and with no way out it dissipates rapidly. Major shooting ranges have used this foam mat even on outdoor ranges where the material is exposed to the elements. Now we really don't recommend direct exposure of this material to the elements (especially in the snow), but the feedback we have received in such applications has been favorable indeed. This material has been used in the cities of Boston, New York, Oceanside California, and Kansas City and all the feedback was positive. The thicker the foam, the better the results, but for a basic handgun range, the ½" America mat should be sufficient. There are many other applications for America mat, but one of the most popular is for shooting ranges. It is a phenomenal product.

There is now a new product that is also used extensively in firing ranges and police training facilities. This new product is called Silent panel. I will talk more about Silent panels in my next article. Thanks for reading and learning about soundproofing a firing range. For more information about this and other soundproofing project go to my blog at: http://massloadedvinyl.blogspot.com