Warehouse/range

P

palading

Guest
Has the idea of establishing an indoor bench range to be used for matches been considered?

There are MANY abandoned or empty warehouse type buildings almost everywhere (many priced quite reasonably) and some have enough indoor space for a 100 yard or more range. I'd think such would make a nice place to hold matches (no wind factor). Many have manufacturing space also so a benchrest supplier could obtain such and use it to manufacture or distribute as well.

Comments?
 
Exactly,:eek:

In fact I used to work in the Detroit area and there are tons of empty old auto factories, any number of which are large enough to hold a 100, 200, 300 yard match with room for the wailing wall, loading areas even camping areas all under the same roof!

Perhaps there are even some old printing facilities in other parts of the country closed now, that have lost business oversees???

If we keep spending our money oversees, we're likely to have new range space everywhere?

Paul
 
There are several rimfire ranges indoors today. Many are old chicken houses.

But going from the 50 yard rimfire to a 100/200 centerfire is another story.

Two issues; if you could find and read the old Precision Shooting article about the Houston Warehouse and Virgil Kings learnings will give some of the tribulations of an indoor range.

Secondly, IMO, shooting in the outdoors and all the complications of wind, etc., are part of the game.

But, I'll bet "if you build it they will come".
 
Well.....

palading said:
Has the idea of establishing an indoor bench range to be used for matches been considered?

There are MANY abandoned or empty warehouse type buildings almost everywhere (many priced quite reasonably) and some have enough indoor space for a 100 yard or more range. I'd think such would make a nice place to hold matches (no wind factor). Many have manufacturing space also so a benchrest supplier could obtain such and use it to manufacture or distribute as well.

Comments?
Click to expand...

Hmmm....an indoor range. Quite appealing. No wind, fairly steady temp conditions, controlled humidity to some extent, and last but not least...no condition reading talent required. Just load'm up and pull the trigger. The one with the one in a hundred hummmer barrel wins.

Wonderful...count me out.

virg
 
virg said:
Hmmm....an indoor range. Quite appealing. No wind, fairly steady temp conditions, controlled humidity to some extent, and last but not least...no condition reading talent required. Just load'm up and pull the trigger. The one with the one in a hundred hummmer barrel wins.

Wonderful...count me out.

virg
Click to expand...

I see your point - and it IS a viable one. Maybe we'd open the side windows in the building to let the breeze blow across :D

Rain would never shut down a match!

And alas no one ever went varmint hunting in a warehouse! :eek:
 
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virg said:
Hmmm....an indoor range. Quite appealing. No wind, fairly steady temp conditions, controlled humidity to some extent, and last but not least...no condition reading talent required. Just load'm up and pull the trigger. The one with the one in a hundred hummmer barrel wins.

Wonderful...count me out.

virg
Click to expand...

i love people with open minds
 
Indoor Benchrest

Well, they have separate records for indoor and outdoor Track and Field. I guess that is what Benchrest could do.

Or just combine those indoor records with those set out at Vasilia.:D (just kidding, guys).

Seriously, there are multitudes of old warehouse facilities scattered all over inner Houston, that is the problem, they are in the city limits of Houston. I can't even begin to think how many polititians would have to be bought off, or how many palms would have to be greased, in order to let one be used for Rifle Competition.

Outside Houston, there is a phenominol facility that sits outside of Baytown, it's the old abandon US Steel facility that was shut down in the mid '70's. Several companies rent space in those huge buildings to store just about everything amaginable. I was in there about ten years ago to look at a very large Lathe that Harris Machine was storing. I thought then, "you could shoot 300 yards in here.

I never thought about it, but it might be worth while to see who actually controles the property, and see what they say.

But of course, I am a realist. Shooting in a dead still enviroment has little to do with shooting out in the real world. The originol Houston Warehouse Shoots proved this, if anything else........jackie
 
Warehouse

But I would still love to see what the latest and greatest equipment/bullets could accomplish in a warehouse. It is still hard for me to grasp how Virgil was capable of shooting 0.025 aggs as the article states. I have never seen reported aggs like that from the tunnels.

However, I don't own or can't afford the best of the best equipment to ever shoot in an equipment rules type environment. Just have to hope the wind can level the playing field a little with my gear.

Tim
 
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Tim

Would it also be hard to grasp that after it was all said and done, he never won a single plaque in a Registered Benchrest Match.

Also, non of the targets from the warehouse survived. .........jackie
 
shooting in a no wind/almost no wind conditions would allow you to see what your rifle could do...see whats wrong/right with your tecnique. see where those ag wrecking flyers come from.

allow you to tune and see what happens , not guess what happened.
i never said , never ever again shoot outdoors.

race engines are fine tuned on dyno's indoors in controlled enviroment..then put to the test in the "real world" outdoors.
 
Mike

There are some indoor ranges.
Gene Beggs has one in Midland.
There is as I have heard one in Austin.
BassPro shop has a 100yd in Dallas.

These are just 3 that I know of in the state of Texas.
I am sure for tuning and learning purposes these will be great.
I am hoping to go see Gene in the future.
 
Hornady Test Tunnel

Hornady sometime back in the 70's built a 200 yd test tunnel covered it up probably built a block building at one end wonder if they still use it. When I was a BR sproat back in the 1970's I would go down and spend an afternoon with Martin Hull at Sierra bullets when they were in So Cal. Watched him shoot the 100 yd tunnel with his Sierra Rail gun. Learned some, Martin always complained about the mirage coming off the light bulbs in the underground Range.

Stephen Perry
Angeles BR
 
I am quite sure one would find

all the same problems indoors that they find at ranges when there is no noticable air moving; the Vortex Turbulance and all the other gremlins that go with still air.

Perhaps a better situation would be to run exhaust fans at a constant rate. Of course, As I recall hearing, there is another set of conditions that come along with that.

I know there are RF matches held in a big Poultry Barm down South somewhere on a regular basis, perhaps they can give us some insight.
 
One thing you need are a strong fan(s) to remove the lead dust...a strong backstop w/ a bullet trap...next is noise..a warehouse w/ all hard surfaces would be a sound chamber...a chicken house w/ wood construction & dirt floors would porbably liveable....a chicken house in the country..would'nt worry about a use permit..a warehouse in some industrial district is a whole another game...
 
Indoor range

Would it also be hard to grasp that after it was all said and done, he never won a single plaque in a Registered Benchrest Match.

Also, non of the targets from the warehouse survived. .........jackie

Interesting !!!!!

There is much fog and mythical obscurity about the whole Huston warehouse story. Is it fact or is it fable ?.

1. Never has an aggregate of .0025 been reported from a tunnel as far as I know. Why should that be different from the Wharehouse ?
2. Never has any prove been produced about the whole thing, and only a handful of shooters were invited to participate and then only under a full moon.
3. No targets have survived from this episode to prove or support the story.
4. No one I know would not frame in and treasure an aggregate of .0025


I am not stating anything, just wondering like Jackie.

Bergur
 
The Warehouse...

.25shooter said:
Would it also be hard to grasp that after it was all said and done, he never won a single plaque in a Registered Benchrest Match.

Also, non of the targets from the warehouse survived. .........jackie

Interesting !!!!!

There is much fog and mythical obscurity about the whole Huston warehouse story. Is it fact or is it fable ?.

1. Never has an aggregate of .0025 been reported from a tunnel as far as I know. Why should that be different from the Wharehouse ?
2. Never has any prove been produced about the whole thing, and only a handful of shooters were invited to participate and then only under a full moon.
3. No targets have survived from this episode to prove or support the story.
4. No one I know would not frame in and treasure an aggregate of .0025


I am not stating anything, just wondering like Jackie.

Bergur
Click to expand...

The so-called warehouse experiment was fact. From my conversation with one of the participants who is a well known benchrest shooter, the whole project was a very controlled experimental exercise to see how they could improve their rifles and what counted most as far as accuracy was concerned. Many of the shooters that participated let Virgil do the shooting because of his machine like skill in bench technique. Many bedding and reloading problems were discovered and resolved, especially neck turning techniques.

Virgil was very careful in selecting those whom he let participate because of the danger of outside interference if the word got out regards using the warehouse as a shooting range in the middle of the night. There was no effort to save targets, as once the problem with a rifle was identified and fixed, that's all that counted. There were no "contests" involved.

It is true that Virgil became frustrated with his performance in actual outdoor range matches and gave it up as a lost cause and lost interest. He then pocketed the keys to the warehouse and closed out the project.

This was an endeavor by a very few individuals to answer some of the accuracy questions they thought important. However; like many little known and mainly undocumented projects in the shooting world, the legend has over blown the facts. By the end of the project, most of the individuals had answered the questions they had and modified their rifles and reloading techniques accordingly.

Nope; I was not involved. I was just getting into benchrest at the time and was fortunate to know a few of these folks, and I listened very carefully what was said by those who were. A great article is available on this forum regards this subject and is accurate.

virg
 
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An indoor centerfire range would be great for troubleshooting equipment problems but it would be no fun to compete in for benchrest. It would be like bowling with a 5 foot diameter bowling ball....hard to miss.
 
There juuuuuust might be enough..............

problems of a different sort to keep everyone interested.........I heard of some gathering in the South, that shot groups over a river, or stream.....just HEARD of it from an old-timer. He said there were "problems"( No, not the cops either.) that were encountered in grouping that weren't manifested when shooting over dry ground. I guess there would be enough quirks to keep some interested, I know I would like to try to get a handle on some questions I have. I don't think it would be as easy as we may believe. :)
 
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