# Indoor range memberships - Bad idea because of lead poisoning?



## zoom996 (Dec 7, 2016)

I bought a membership to a local indoor range for a year at $300. It's convenient to where I live versus the outdoor range which is 30 minutes away and daytime only. 

I'm realizing that I leave the range coughing after being in there for 1-2 hours. This happens every time I leave over the past 3 days. 

I looked up info on lead poisoning because now I'm worried about my health if I go to the range every day. I read that I am in danger and need to stop going to the indoor range.

Now though I've already purchased the membership today and don't know what the policy is if I want a refund. 

What is your experience with indoor ranges?


----------



## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

There are indoor ranges and indoor ranges (did that make sense? ;-) ). Some with poor, non-modern ventilation make me so congested and teary eyed when I leave, I don't want to go back. Others, with great ventilation, leave me as healthy feeling when I leave as when I got there. I'm not sure it's lead poisoning so much as general smoke, soot and powder residue. I think lead poisoning would take longer, though I'm certainly not and expert on toxicology. 

Some of my favorite ranges and ones where I've chosen membership have something I like along with modern ventilation. They have large air conditioned from outside air blowers for each lane coming out of the ceiling where you can direct a large tube to within a foot or so from your head. It keeps you cool on summer days as well as blows outside air directly over you. I don't know what they call this system, but I like it. One particularly dirty range I use to frequent installed a sort of fake version where they just pumped dirty, unfiltered inside range air through similar tubes per each lane. It didn't help. That smoke and soot can't be good for you.


----------



## hillman (Jul 27, 2014)

Your cough is not in reaction to the lead most likely, but to other atmospheric contaminants (powder smoke etc.). If your range doesn't ban unjacketed lead bullets, the lead exposure comes from 'open base' jacketed bullets. Unless you are hypersensitive, none of that polution will make you cough. Could evenually kill you, but won't make you cough until other dramatic symptoms appear. You could wear a breathing mask, of the type that blocks aerosols like spray paint. Maybe write NRA on them with a magic marker, to confuse critics.


----------



## denner (Jun 3, 2011)

One way to determine if you have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead is to have your blood tested.


----------



## zoom996 (Dec 7, 2016)

They ban unjacketed lead bullets at this range. 

They don't have these modern tubes at each lane to direct clean air to my head though. I wish they did. That's a great idea. 

My cough is similar to the one I had when I was briefly a cigarette smoker. That cough is why I quit smoking. I don't want my lungs to turn black. 

I will look stupid in one of those masks. I wish there was an alternative.


----------



## DJ Niner (Oct 3, 2006)

It also might be a lack-of-humidity thing. Most indoor ranges draw air from outside to circulate through the range, and if the outside air is very dry (as air often is during the winter months), then heating it and pumping it into the range makes it even LOWER in humidity (relative humidity is relative to the temperature). This will dry out your nose/mouth/throat/lungs pretty quickly, especially if your body is used to breathing very moist air (like I fondly recall from my days living along the MS Gulf Coast).

Take a bottle of water in with you (if they allow drinks into the range; some ranges do not), and sip from it regularly. If you can't take water into the range with you, then when you wash your hands as you're leaving (you DO wash your hands before leaving, right?), splash a little water on your face and into your nose/nasal area to rehydrate everything (just a little; don't almost drown in the sink, it's embarrassing).

As denner said, above, you can get a blood test for lead, but unless the range is in very poor condition, occasional use will usually not significantly elevate your blood lead levels. It's the people who work there, and are exposed to the airborne contaminants every day, that are the ones who usually have to worry about elevated lead levels.


----------



## Craigh (Jul 29, 2016)

zoom996 said:


> I will look stupid in one of those masks. I wish there was an alternative.


Why would you look stupid wearing a breathing mask? And, if you did, why would you care what someone else thought about it? I've often worn them in a dirty range and I think there are two or three in my range bag right now. To be perfectly honest about it, I never have even given a thought to how I might look or be perceived when I wear it. The only thing which I like to be noticed is my marksmanship or to not be noticed when I have a lack of it. Other than that, I wouldn't care if someone thought I was wearing a pink tutu under my jeans. 

That reminds me of a story I think I've told. A few months ago after leaving rehab, I was having a hard time charging some of my tighter magazines, especially the last few rounds. My arthritic fingers just wouldn't obey. I left the firing line and went into the store part and asked about an Uplula loader I'd read about and was pointed to a location. Two employees were standing there and the gal apologized that the universal model I wanted was sold out except in pink. Before I could say I didn't care and ring me up, the salesman beside her offered me a 20% discount (if I remember correctly) if I bought a pink one. I chuckled under my breath and said, "well, I suppose so, Ring me up." Another customer next to me said heck no and that he'd go to another store and get a green or black one. Anything but pink. You see. I don't care. I guess that's what happens as you get older. It's also why some of us older guys will sometimes go out to mow the lawn wearing shorts, black socks and deck shoes all together, to the horror of my granddaughter. LOL

Not me, but:


----------



## SteamboatWillie (Jan 24, 2013)

denner said:


> One way to determine if you have been exposed to unsafe levels of lead is to have your blood tested.


Not a bad idea for anyone who shoots indoors regularly.

Even more so for anyone who casts lead bullets. I get tested every few years (I generally shoot every week) and although my lead levels are slightly elevated they are still within the normal range.


----------



## CW (Mar 20, 2015)

Hydration, air systems - perhaps you can suggest these to the range owners. 

Other than that, you could stop by Army-Navy and get a gasmask and MOPP gear.
Bring a CZ Scorpion or an MP5 clone and you will look the COOLEST on the range.


----------



## zoom996 (Dec 7, 2016)

You guys are right. I need to own the idea of wearing a mask as a good and healthy thing and look at others as stupid for not wearing one.


----------



## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

Never been a fan of public indoor ranges for many reasons. I know a guy who knows a guy that has a very nice house with his own indoor handgun range. I was told that it has 4 lanes and they are 45 yds. long with a state-of-the-art air purification system. 

Some public indoor ranges are run much better than others are. Trick is to find those that are. 

I keep telling my guy to ask his guy for an invite some time. :smt033


----------



## Haas (Jun 24, 2009)

How can you tell if your favorite range has a good enough ventilation system? What should one look for? I mean, even if they have a ventilation system, is it sufficient? How can you know?


----------



## pic (Nov 14, 2009)

I wear a north 7700 half face, good fit, and keep two different types of filters available.

the simple particulate filter will only filter particles , fumes are not filtered with a particulate filter. There is a combination filter ,that will filter both lead and dust. Check out eBay.

Ill wear a mask when fertilizing the lawn, lol. Neighbors are probably wondering what kind of fertilizer requires a respirator mask,lol.

People at the range will start to wonder, why is he wearing a mask ? Any newcomers , possibly looking to join the range might take notice. 
If everyone started wearing respirators .Either the owner of the range would ban respirators or improve the ventilation system,lol.


----------



## paratrooper (Feb 1, 2012)

Haas said:


> How can you tell if your favorite range has a good enough ventilation system? What should one look for? I mean, even if they have a ventilation system, is it sufficient? How can you know?


If nothing else, ask!

Talk to the owners about it. Ask them to explain it to you and how it works. Also ask how old of a system it is. Good indoor ranges update their system(s) from time to time to stay current.


----------



## BackyardCowboy (Aug 27, 2014)

The few indoor ranges I've been to had ventilation systems that have air movement going from the shooting stalls down past the targets and 'out'. Keeps the air moving away from you with the lead/gunpowder fumes.
Would not want to be in one with the air movement from behind the targets towards the shooting stalls. It would be bringing all that residue up for you to breath before it goes out of the area.


----------



## NLAlston (Nov 15, 2011)

I haven't joined a range, yet, but have been desiring to do so for quite some time.

Not far from me (20, or so, minutes away) there is a 24hr operation gun range. You're issued a card which would afford you access, at any time of the day, or night. The only thing, is that it had been given to my attention that the air filtration system was seriously under par. The cost of joining was somewhere between $250 - $300 per year, which (to me) was too bad. But the associated health costs wouldn't have been worth it. Now, it was a couple of years ago, that I had been so informed, which is to say that the conditions, there, may have undergone vast improvements. I only wish that I knew of someone, who is a member there, and who could share with me their feelings on the concerned filtration matter. But I, unfortunately, do not know of anyone who could share such info.

I really desire/need range time, and may look into (when the weather breaks) an outside range, to join.


----------



## zoom996 (Dec 7, 2016)

It turns out that the local range I refer to here in this thread was having it's ventilation motor malfunction due to a faulty drive belt. The ventilation system is of the high quality kind where each stall as a 12" tube above each shooter blowing clean air down onto the shooter and away from them so it's top notch now that it's working. The system was turn off for a few days due to the motor problem. That is what caused my coughing. 

I still wear the mask when I go in there though. I don't want a repeat of the coughing and risk making myself sick.


----------

