The Nexus Difference Part 3: Shooter Safety

In this segment of The Nexus Difference, let's continue to take a closer look at what makes Nexus one of the safest ranges in existence.  In the previous article, we described how we are utilizing a million dollar military grade ventilation system to ensure the health of our patrons as well as our employees by decreasing dangerous lead and airborne toxin exposure. 

The most important way to ensure safety is to emphasize shooter education.  Shooters who are knowledgeable on fundamental etiquette and range rules are vital for everyone's safety.  We will discuss this aspect of safety in a future segment.  For this article, we will describe some of the innovative features built into the physical range itself.

The first safety system in place is the stall walls separating adjacent shooters.  Amazingly, if you read some of the range safety rules posted at other ranges, they state explicitly that their stall walls are NOT bulletproof.  Our stall walls are constructed of ballistic steel UL rated to the appropriate level of protection.  You can shoot without worrying about the safety standards of the person in the stall next to you.

The next feature that makes Nexus Shooting safer than most ranges is the actual physical walls of the range.  Most ranges have a single layer of bare or painted concrete block (often times hollow), or even worse just a couple of sheets of drywall.  Clearly, this would be ineffective at preventing penetrating rounds, ricochets or shrapnel.

As can be seen in the diagram below, at Nexus Shooting the walls between each range have ELEVEN layers of protection, each with a specific purpose.  The first layer is a two inch thick layer of sound insulation.  This helps to protect your hearing by decreasing the reverberation and noise of gunfire.  Personal hearing protection is still required; however, this sound insulation is a beneficial adjunct. 

The next few layers include plywood, a rubber membrane, crushed rock, and ballistic steel.  These multiple layers are specifically designed to contain errant shots.  The bullet penetrates the plywood, rubber, and crushed rock, and smashes against the ballistic steel.  This prevents penetration into the adjacent rooms.  But, the shrapnel from the smashing bullet and ricocheting of the bullet itself can be almost just as dangerous as the primary penetration of the bullet.  This is where the other layers come into play.  The energy of the shrapnel is dissipated and the fragments are contained by the crushed rock and plywood layers.  The middle layer is solid 4000 PSI concrete.  Then, on the other side of the concrete, the same layers are repeated (steel, rock, rubber, plywood, and sound insulation), thus DOUBLING the protection between ranges. 

Every wall between our separate ranges is protected in this manner.  This allows for safe tactical training all the way up and down range.  Lining all of the walls with these multiple layers of protection is expensive, but at Nexus Shooting, your safety is our highest priority!