Double-Decker Indoor Range with World’s Biggest Bullet Trap

Lotus Gunworks of Jensen Beach, FL, has built a vast “double-decker” indoor shooting range featuring a two-story-high steel funnel bullet trap. Nicknamed the Lotus 8/11 for the number of steel panels used to create it (eight panels on the bottom slope and 11 panels on the top slope), this version of Action Target’s Total Containment Trap is the first of its kind. “No one has ever seen a range like this before*,” Lotus Gunworks’ Director of Operations Robbie Abell said. “We’re truly making industry history.” The official range Grand Opening is slated for next weekend, April 19-21 2013.

Why build a two-story gun range? Abell came up with the concept when it became clear that the new Lotus building in Jensen Beach was not wide enough for two side-by-side ranges AND a gun store. Necessity was the mother of invention… Lotus wanted at least two ranges, so the only option was to make a double-decker range where both levels shot into the same bullet trap.

The double-decker range required clever engineering. Bullet-trap maker Action Target “Super-Sized” its Total Containment Trap, scaling up the system from 8 feet high to a whopping 19 feet high. Then steel cross beams were fitted to support a Mancom Touch ‘N’ Go target retriever system.

Indoor ranges require ventilation to remove potentially hazardous dust and lead particles. The sheer size of the double-decker range presented a unique challenge, but Carey’s Small Arms Range Ventilation installed a system that can completely replace all the range air every 80 seconds. The old air is drawn out, and replaced with fresh filtered and refrigerated air. “The air flow in the upper level was the best I have seen on any range, and the airflow on the bottom was also very good,” said Carey’s technician Mark Hanson.

Dutch Double-Decker Range
While the Lotus Range may have the first two-story bullet trap, it’s not really the first-ever double-decker indoor shooting range. Other twin-level “double-decker” ranges exist, they just don’t have the giant bullet trap. Check out Schietsportvereniging (SSV) Katwijk, a great twin-level range in Holland featuring electronic targets with displays at each shooting station (on both levels):