Webinar: How Much Does A Commercial Shooting Range Cost?
For our webinar in July we decided to cover information on how much you can expect to pay for a commercial shooting range and through discussing all of the variables that are involved, we came up with a base line number. Here are the main highlights of the conversation we had in July and the answer to the long-standing question, how much does a commercial shooting range cost?
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Getting Your Commercial Shooting Range Started
Starting a commercial shooting range is a big investment, and something that shouldn’t be taken lightly. I’d like to begin by laying out three main reasons commercial shooting ranges fail, with the goal of helping anyone out there, progress their business plan in the right direction. Then we can get to the fun stuff and talk about all of the possible customization of your potential range. These examples are in no way trying to steer anyone away from the commercial shooting range business, but to educate them with the best knowledge so they have the ability to succeed.
Common Troubles
- One of the reasons people have trouble making it in the commercial shooting range business, is they make too many decisions based on passion. Being passionate about your business is key to making it succeed, but you also need to hang on to your business sense. Be sure to base company decisions on what’s going to make the business run better and be more profitable. The revenue aspect of your business always needs to come first, the hobby aspect can follow.
- The next issue owners run into is, putting money towards aspects of their range that don’t give them the return value they’re looking for. Spending money to have a beautifully designed range with fun extras isn’t a bad idea, However, you will want to make sure to reserve money for other things such as: marketing, and land improvements you may need to make, or even general maintenance. The goal is to develop revenue streams so the range starts paying for itself and starts turning a profit. Having the nicest range in the world is almost irrelevant if you can’t reach the people to let them know about your great facility.
- The last thing to recognize is the possibility of having legal issues. In neighborhood surroundings, you may face challenges with noise ordinances, and other legal issues that will tie up the hands of your business. This isn’t something that should make you abandon your goals and dreams but having knowledge about it and being prepared for it is key in setting up your business to prosper.
Now knowing some issues you may run into we can get to the question. How much does a commercial shooting range cost?
The “Needs” of A Commercial Shooting Range
For every commercial shooting range, there are three main components that you have to have for either safety concerns or just general common-sense items.
- The first component is the granular rubber trap. This is the component at the end of the range that stops rounds and traps the bullet shrapnel.
- Second, you need safety ceiling. This is what keeps everyone in the surrounding area safe in the event of an accidental discharge, when the bullet travels up towards the ceiling.
- The last component that’s required is a proper HVAC system. The HVAC system keeps the air quality good throughout the range by pushing any lead or smoke partials down range, away from the shooters. For a more in-depth description of each of these items and what they do please refer to our other blogs and webinars where we discuss the components of a shooting range.
Making your dollars have legs
The first point to bring up outside of the basic components of a range is dollars versus the value, I’ll give you an example to better understand.
Purchasing a shooting range is like buying a car. On any model car, let’s say a Ford pickup, you have the ability to add all the bells and whistles, from heated seats to in vehicle Wi-Fi. However, you could buy this same Ford pickup with crank windows and a cassette player. That’s the beauty of the day and age we live in! You have the ability to customize your vehicle based on the things you value. For instance, someone in California has little need for heated seats so, this extra carries little to no value to them. For myself being in Minnesota, heated seats are nearly a necessity. There’s nothing better than waking up on a brisk winter morning and knowing my seat is going to be warm for me on my ride to work.
While were not in the car business, we can create a perfect parallel to it. When you start creating plans for a commercial shooting range, our first step is determining what your revenue drivers are going to be. From there, we give you options for your range that are applicable to your goals. This is why it so hard to throw out a “retail” price for a commercial shooting range. Everyone’s goals are different.
Finding Your Commercial Shooting Range Market
Let’s say you want to start a range catered towards a high-end customer base. A place where people pay for membership. It would be important, in this case, to have a nice lounge for the members to relax in after shooting some rounds, and you may want to include custom stone work behind the shooting bays, with beautiful oak gun racks. These are enhanced features that these specific costumers are looking for and desire.
If your primary source of revenue was going to be coming from families and you wanted to include fun spinning targets, or pop up targets.
Or maybe you want to rent out your range to local law enforcement. If this was your goal, you might want to consider putting in 270 degrees of ballistic rubber on the side walls, and low light settings throughout the range so they have the ability to practice advanced training techniques.
These are just a few possibilities of range setups, the list goes on and on but you’ll notice that for each possible revenue driver the correct equipment is matched. If you were catering towards a family crowd there would be no need to install those nice oak gun racks, because it doesn’t match your market. You would get less value out of it than the money you put in. This is key to making a range succeed, but it also makes it hard to give one price that fits all.
Installation
Along with this, Range Systems has three different options for installation of our ranges. We allow you to buy only supplies and don’t provide a contractor, we provide the supplies with an onsite manger to help all the plans go smoothly, or we do full installs where we have our contractors turn every nut and bolt for you. All of these options affect the price of a range the same way adding extras does.
With an understanding of the different variables that can change the cost of a range, we can final answer the question, how much does a commercial shooting rang cost.
The moment you’ve all been waiting for!
For a very basic, 10 lane range, with a granular rubber trap, safety ceiling, and a ventilation package. You can expect the price tag to be around $350,000, or approximately $35,000 per lane. This price does not reflect the installation costs. An installation of this type of range can add 25% more to the current price, with the cost possibly going to 30% more if there’s and issues with access to the range.
Additional Information
So, there you have it! $350,000 for a basic range. If you have any more questions about this topic or anything you have read within this post, I recommend you check out our other blog posts and/or the webinar section on our site.
Both areas answer many questions about ranges, from components to possibilities within one of our ranges.
You can also sign up to receive notifications for our upcoming webinars which is an extraordinary place to gather information. You can also talk with one of our range specialists for further information if needed. Fill out a contact form on our “Contact Us” section or find links to send direct emails to one of our specialists.
Thanks for reading and we’ll see you on the range!
