I live in super liberal King County Washington. I haven't been shooting in awhile and am really itching to shoot.

My house has a "crawlspace" that's 6' tall, mostly drywalled, lit and has concrete slab.

Does anybody know if it'd be legal to target shoot .22lr down there? I do have neighbors but I'm not sure if they'd be able to hear or not. I believe it would be safe, what do you all think?

Might work. Easier, safer, and still really good practice can be had with a high quality air pistol.

I think you’d want to have good ventilation in your crawlspace if you plan to do much shooting in it.

I know snohomish county has a shoot/no shoot map online. I'd bet that if you are in unincorporated you might be ok. Personally I wouldn't do it unless you had a separate ventilation system for the area.

How do you get in this crawl space? Is it completely underground?

Ask 45Cal, I think he went to work with a pickaxe and made his own basement range or something.

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Ask 45Cal, I think he went to work with a pickaxe and made his own basement range or something.

Well according to his sons that is not the entire story.

Do you own the house?

If so, I think you can do any damn thing you want. Now if you harm your neighbors doing it, that is your liability. But if you do it safely then go for it. (just my opinion)

Besides height... how long is the space?
And yes, ventilation should be important.

I had a friend who ran a shop in Florida, very little traffic through it and when the shop was empty he would target practice with his Ruger MKII with a suppressor on it.

Unless a significant ventilation system was installed, you're going to be inhaling lead dust. As it's a fairly confined space, you're going to cause yourself significant damage. A simple exhaust fan will not cut it.

Actually, in thinking about this... I would be more concerned with the resale value of the house depending on where you live... This in my opinion could be more of a concern... if someone notes that you've been shooting in the crawlspace for any extended period of time and they want to check for lead contamination....

But as with most things in life it just depends...

Yeah ventilation is definitely a concern.

Are there air pistols that would provide a training benefit?

I'd have probably a 40-50 foot length of space to work with.

quote:

Originally posted by Jimg1960:
How do you get in this crawl space? Is it completely underground?

There's a 2/3's height door to it from the back of the house. It's very comfortable, heat and AC, very good lighting, outlets everywhere. It's split into two rectangular sections, the front has a very nice concrete slab epoxied with workbenches all around it. One workbench has a beautiful aluminum top inlaid on it. There's also a wine cellar and I recently mounted a 42" TV. Oh and it's drywalled all the way around.

The back section is a little rougher, less light, plywood floor, more storage but has a perfect area for working on firearms.

I can tell you “unoffically” but with some authority, it is technically illegal (WA Administrative code 332-52-145)

On top of that, if you are within an incorporated city, it is probably a violation of local ordinance as well.

Of course, as with most laws if you don’t get caught you don’t charged.


My biggest concern would be about the lead as well and not do it regardless.

Air gun in yard or crawl space instead

I have an indoor range and use only non-toxic ammo to avoid the lead issue. Even so, you need some pretty good exhaust fans to get the smoke out. I have two 1200CFM air exchangers. There is no 22LR with NT priming.

quote:

Originally posted by detroit192:

quote:

Originally posted by RHINOWSO:
Ask 45Cal, I think he went to work with a pickaxe and made his own basement range or something.

Well according to his sons that is not the entire story.

Wait a dang minute,8 and 10 year old can't swing a pick.
Works well with two squirrel cage blowers,one mounted on outside access door and one above blast area.
Been using it for over thirty years and well over a hundred people have used it including
L E and even the sheriff.
That how I ended up with five gallons of brass in lots of calibers

Long ago, I did it, but not with .22LR. I used a revolver and wax bullets. Just a primer and paraffin wax. Worked great. But be careful when I say, "just a primer", because they have more power than you'd think.

If you have a revolver, then Let me know if you want to try it, and I can tell you how to make the wax bullets which requires a way to pop out the old primer, place a new primer, and a pan with gulf wax.

The nice thing with the wax bullets is the backstop in the crawl space can be just some tin flashing nailed to some plywood. For the .22LR, the backstop becomes more complicated.

get a bullet trap. and use lead free ammo. They make frangible lead free ammo for that purpose. a lot of indoor ranges that do not have hi tech ventilation systems use that ammo