Shooting Range Lighting

What is Shooting Range Lighting?

Shooting range lighting refers to the specialized type of lighting used in both indoor and outdoor shooting ranges to ensure optimal visibility, safety, and precision for shooters. Appropriate illumination is essential to clearly see the targets and maintain safety protocols.

What Kind of Lights Are Used for Shooting Ranges?

Indoor shooting ranges will typically use recessed or flush mounted lighting fixtures to minimize the potential that a lighting fixture is hit by a bullet. These fixtures can include canopy lights, LED panel lights, or recessed can lights.

Outdoor shooting ranges use lights that can illuminate a wide area while projecting focused illumination such as LED sports lights or LED flood lights.

Here’s an example of an outdoor shooting range that used our LED sports lights to replace their old outdated metal halide flood lights.

Professional Shooting Range Lighting Design

Here’s an example of a 3D shooting range lighting photometric design constructed by our professional lighting engineers. This example uses LED flood lights to achieve 15-20 foot candles outside a 10 x 80 ft target wall. These lights are 30 feet apart and positioned 26 feet from either end of the building and mounted 10 feet high.

Shooting Range Lighting Requirements

The recommended level of brightness for shooting range lighting can depend on various factors, such as whether the range is used for amateur or professional shooting. It's also important for the lighting to be evenly distributed throughout the range so that there are no dark spots or overly bright areas that could affect visibility. This is typically achieved by strategically positioning multiple light fixtures around the range.

In terms of specifics, while the Illuminating Engineering Society (IES) doesn't provide exact lux levels for shooting ranges, some general guidelines suggest a lighting level of around 500 lux at the firing line and 750 lux on the target area for recreational shooting. Professional or law enforcement training ranges might require higher light levels for improved precision. However, the actual requirements can vary depending on factors like the distance of the targets, the type of firearms used, and the skill level of the shooters.

According to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Range Design Criteria,

“A visually safe facility should be free of excessive glare and major differences in light levels... In the event of a power outage, battery-powered emergency lighting must be provided for emergency exits.” (U.S. Department of Energy, n.d. Range Design Criteria)

Indoor Shooting Range Lighting

For indoor ranges, adequate lighting is crucial to help shooters see their targets clearly, maintain focus, and reduce eye strain. Both the firing line (where the shooters are positioned) and the downrange area (where the targets are) need to be well lit.

The firing line requires uniform illumination with minimal shadows or glare to ensure the shooter can clearly see their weapon and any nearby controls or equipment. Meanwhile, the downrange area needs to be brightly lit to make targets easy to see, even at a distance.

We offer indoor shooting range lights that are protected against dust and use a specialized lens to disperse the light in a way that’s bright without interfering with shooter visibility. These fixtures can include canopy lights, LED panel lights, or recessed can lights depending on the style and setup of your shooting range.

Outdoor Shooting Range Lighting

Outdoor ranges also require careful lighting considerations. Lights should be set up to minimize shadows and glare, which can affect visibility. For outdoor ranges used at night, floodlights or other high-intensity lights are often used to illuminate the range.

The specific needs of a shooting range can depend on various factors, including the size of the range, the distances at which targets are set up, whether the range is used for recreational or professional shooting, and local regulations or standards.

We offer outdoor shooting range lights that are IP66 Rated to withstand any harsh weather condition. These lighting fixtures are also referred to as LED Sports Flood Lights.