I'm in a rural part of Appalachia which has a huge gun culture, but almost no ranges to go and shoot at.
Me and a buddy of mine want to solve this issue for our local community and make a bit of money on it also. Anyone in the business who can help point me in the right direction?
Had a backyard setup I can't use anymore due to neighbors complaining too much
Go get a cannon and give them something to complain about.
Why would anyone pay to shoot at a range when there's so much land, private and public, that people probably already shoot on?
>rural
>Appalachia
Dude...
Plus yall just dying on fentanyl n meth n getting cucked by your women.
>accelerate, sell fentanyl
You live in a rural area. That means there aren't many people around to spend money at a recreational business like a shooting range.
You live in rural Appalachia, which means everyone around you is poor. So they don't have any money to spend anyway.
Plus, idk your area, but as points out, I would assume there's a shitload of national forest land or people mostly just shoot on land owned by friends or relatives (if they can afford to shoot).
The reason there are no ranges in your area is because the local economy won't support one, not because nobody's thought about it.
Yet people have enough money for hunting gear and fishing boats, everyone owns at least a couple guns here. We are very poor yes but there's still a market for these things and plenty of upper middle classers that live here!
Western KYfag who longs for the hills. What small WV towns would you recommend for someone who owns an online business and just needs a quiet sleepy place to do work?
Never been to West Virginia, Pineville in East KY is a nice enough little town that's closer to actual civilization than most places here
Depends on what you're looking for.
Huntington is kind of a dead town. I lived out Wayne for awhile. If you want to be rural Wayne isn't bad, but theres nothing there. They have fiber now though, if I remember right.
Charelston has cleaned up a lot. It's actually a very nice city now. The surrounding towns arne't bad either. Like St Albans or Taeys Valley. Just stay away from Logan. Its in the middle of no where and theres nothing there. A failed city. Quite sad, really.
Beckley and its surrounding towns are very nice these days. Its grown up a lot. I haven't been in a while but I heard good things. Be warned, though, it's in the middle of BFE. Once you're there, you're there.
Elkins is basically a resort area and is smack dab in the middle of the mountain ranges. Its again, in the middle of nowhere but if you want to get away, Elkins is it. Don't know what the internet is like though.
Harpers Ferry is a beautiful town but it's a tourist trap now since you're right next to DC. Don't know about the surrounding towns, but probably couldn't be that bad.
Welch and that entire area of southwest WV is hot garbage. Probably stay away from there.
I can go on, but those are probably what you wanna look for.
>Yet people have enough money for hunting gear and fishing boats, everyone owns at least a couple guns here.
Yes I know, it's the white man's version of being hood rich. All poor areas have people with very expensive consumer products and drug addictions.
>We are very poor yes but there's still a market for these things and plenty of upper middle classers that live here!
I would assume those upper middle class people have places to shoot on land that they own.
Again, best thing to do is to do some market research. Go beyond just what you are observing, talk to people who shoot. Find out where they shoot, and most importantly how much and how often they shoot. Find out if they're satisfied with what they have or if they want something better, if they'd be willing to pay for something better, how much they *think* they would be willing to pay, etc. Get an idea of how many upper middle class people your area actually has, how much and where they shoot, how many of them shoot, etc.
In my experience most gun owners, rich or poor, shoot at most like 1-3x per year, and maybe 2 boxes at a time. Might be slightly more or slightly less where you are. You need to get a feel for whether the consumption habits of the people around you are going to support this endeavor.
A lot of the hobbyists here drive 3 hours to an indoor range in London
I should thank God more often for not making me British.
Anon, there are tourist-destination shooting ranges in Las Vegas because it's already a site for international travel and tourism and is next to a very anti-gun state, so there is a large volume of visitors who are curious about things like machine guns and will spare an hour or two to check it out. I imagine there are similar ones in Dallas and Atlanta, for similar reasons.
Tourists are not coming to bumfuck Kentucky to check out Jimbob's shooting range.
Now, I live in central North Carolina. It sucks here. I cannot emphasize enough that everything East of Winston-Salem and West of New Bern is an absolute, irredeemable shit hole. Unfortunately, all of the jobs are here except for the ones in Asheville but fuck Asheville.
Now, because this region of the state is so gay, there is literally nowhere to shoot. Every city has 3 dogshit indoor shooting ranges that are like $25/hr and blow ass and are full of retards. There are exactly 3 shooting ranges in central NC that allow you to do the kind of shooting that people actually want to do- move around, change positions, shoot from the prone, draw from a holster, transitions, multiple targets, etc. I drive an hour (used to be an hour and a half) one way to get to these ranges and pay several hundred dollars each year for membership, and other people come from as far afield as Maryland.
If i lived in Appalachia, where I could get to shootable national forest land in a similar time frame, I would not bother with this bullshit, not even a little bit.
My point is, this is going to come down to what your area is like economically and in terms of shooting access, and what you are competing with. But never assume that people think your shit doesn't stink, and never underestimate the stinginess and laziness of the consumer
By tourism I really just mean people from surrounding counties that also don't have a local range.
>everything East of Winston-Salem and West of New Bern
I got that joke. Former resident myself. I feel your pain. I've got a Fayettenam Theater patch around here somewhere ...
Idk shit about ranges as a business but I think it's cool you're thinking about it. Agree with other anons that poor hicks will continue to blast signs off the highway, but if there really is a middle class market of shooters w/ disposable income, then I say go for it. Especially if nearest range is rly 3 hours away.
People are paying range for convenience but there's also potential for a club/socializing aspect to grow. Plenty of gay fudds clubs around but it doesn't have to be. I doubt you'll ever get rich off it and "success" for an outdoor range is probably more likely to be a decent living than a cash cow. Still, there's room for growth in ranges where you can branch out into different things, add skeet shooting, more inventory, events, etc.
No idea about building a range or what land you've looked at, but I imagine if you know a buddy with heavy equipment, have an in on some cheap & accessible land, it'll be a lot cheaper. As with anything, start smaller than you can dream. Only invest a little more than you can afford to lose. Don't bank your life on it.
Only "Training" I have is a Hunter's safety certificaticate and my Conceal Carry Permit
convenience and socializing. Not everyone has land they can shoot on here, believe it or not a lot of people live in towns here.
I live in a town in Appalachia, it's called driving 5 minutes to the fucking woods
That's owned by someone that doesn't want you there
What are you going to do about it? Still not paying your range fee
Nah, some Karen inherited all the land near me and hates guns, last owner was cool
Form a club first, then once the club is established you form a trust, and from that trust you build an official range.
Set up a really simple “range” that is basically a fenced in field with no staff and people pay a monthly fee to have the key code or something. That’s probably the way to get in with the lowest overhead. Be sure to have good insurance
My recommendation, anon, is that you reach out to the owner of a shooting range in a similar area in your state, but far enough away that their customer base isn't the same people as your area. See if they'll talk to you about the economics of running a range around there, the challenges they face etc.
Making an actual range requires alot of bureaucratic bullshit.
Honestly think the county would get behind it, they love touristy outdoors stuff, they promoted a Zipline park here
A gun range isn't a tourist attraction you fucking retard
It is if there aren't any in a hundred miles anon :^)
Walmart is a tourist destination for naggers in chiraq
I don't think you understand what a tourist is
You're right, I'm so poor I've never been on a vacation in my life or seen the ocean
there is a shooting range that is starting construction in letcher county KY. will have many ranges. trap/clay/skeet and shooting match support. IIRC they are also putting another lake in for fishing. they plan to spend several million on the facility.
county tourism board is also putting in a resort and lodge at the summit of pine mountain (2nd tallest in the state). The county also recently got federal funds to construct a airport with a 5,000 foot runway, not to mention a bunch of new and improved hiking trails and public hunting oppritunites. all of this is going on reclaimed mine land.
Well shit that's not far, but fuck driving over pine mountain lol
You live in rural Appalachia, do what the rest of us do, go up your holler and shoot. The hill is the backstop. You do have a holler Anon, right?
lived in that area for a while, bless your heart for trying to fix the dirth of ranges.
Having been adjacent the retail firearms industry, ill tell you this: gun ranges come in two flavors and two flavors only. One is "rod and gun club" which is a hobby farm run by people without income worries and supported by the community at large. Masons, Elks, aldermen, retired cops, YMCA, clay shooting sports, duck hunters, these are the dudes in the club, and its for fun, and will usually break even every year- seen a few close down because their members aged out and their kids didn't give a fuck.
the other is attached to a gun store and used SOLELY to drive sales and services revenue of which services is the only way to make a buck now. lessons, CCW, hosting gay shit like 3 gun and other events, gunsmithing, customs, etc. Sales and FFL transfers are almost loss leaders to get people in the door for the other stuff, and the range is to keep them coming back.
If you want to make a business out it you need to be in a population center of some kind.
if you want to make a gun club that pays for itself, start real small and build up as you get members and they donate time/money/materials. either way do the math first cus starting a small business with a rosy outlook on your ideas is a surefire way to get broke