A shooting range serves two critical functions as a training space: ballistic containment and air handling. Both are essential for ensuring safety. While most people wouldn’t consider stepping into a range that neglects ballistic containment, many ranges fail to give adequate attention to air handling—despite the significant risk of lead exposure during target practice and training.

For the occasional shooter, poor air handling might be a minor inconvenience, causing discomfort due to temperature fluctuations or shifting targets due to unpredictable air currents. However, for workers, range operators, and frequent shooters, inadequate air handling can lead to serious health risks, including life-altering lead exposure.

 

What is “Laminar Flow” in a Shooting Range?

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) mandates that to minimize lead exposure at an indoor shooting range, a minimum of 70 to 75 cubic feet of air must flow downrange past the shooter each minute (referred to as +70 CFM of airflow). Ideally, this airflow should be a continuous downrange laminar flow, meaning the air moves smoothly in one direction away from the shooter, without cross currents, eddies, or backflows. Any disruption in this flow can cause lead particulates to be swept back toward the shooter and other occupants.

Achieving this type of airflow may sound simple—just place a large fan behind the shooters—but in reality, it’s complex. An air handling solution that works in one setting might fail with even a minor change in the range’s design.

For example, adding ballistic rubber tile, explains Mike Hansen, a project manager at MILO Live. “In a tactical range with ballistic rubber tile on the sidewalls, instead of a smooth finish, the rubber’s drag coefficient creates small eddies along the walls. These eddies can pass air and particulates up range, causing air and lead to circulate behind the shooter repeatedly, picking up more lead each time.”

Designing an effective air handling system—and ensuring it is installed correctly for reliable operation in the field—requires both attention to detail and skill.

 

Custom Designs that Put Safety First

MILO Live is a leader in designing state-of-the-art shooting ranges and live-fire training systems, with particular expertise in air handling solutions.

“When you look at our ranges,” Hansen notes, “there’s a radial plenum that goes across the upper portion of the back of the range. This has both horizontal and vertical louvers, so we can meticulously adjust the system and get verifiable laminar flow. It’s engineered so that the air has just the right amount of space to settle out behind the shooter. That air effectively then becomes one cube of air moving straight down the range. The shooter is literally standing inside a duct with air moving away from them, taking any hazardous particulate with it. This laminar flow ensures everything happening at the firing line is carried downrange, where it is captured and processed through HEPA filtration. The air leaving our ranges is cleaner than when it entered.”

Lead mitigation and OSHA-compliant air handling are at the core of every MILO Live range design. Each indoor range is equipped with an independent HVAC system featuring downrange laminar flow and HEPA filters to capture all lead particulates. To ensure consistent downstream airflow, MILO Live engineers verify that the 70+ CFM flow is maintained at one foot, three feet, and five feet above the floor in their custom ranges.

“Air balance and air handling are fundamental,” Hansen adds. “In my experience, very few ranges truly meet OSHA requirements.”

Contact us today to discuss your needs, and let us put our expertise to work for you.