It’s All Fun & Games

When Rex Gore opened his Ohio shop some 20 years ago, he was given a bit of advice regarding the idea of using his range for shooting leagues. Don’t do it, he was told. All you’ll do is draw in the crusty old guys who aren’t interested in spending money.

To say he ended up ignoring the warning is something of an understatement.

“In the old days, that was probably true,” said Gore, president of Black Wing Shooting Center in Delaware, Ohio. “But we have a lot of new shooters in the market. They want to do something besides shooting at a piece of paper with a bull’s-eye target.”

“We have a lot of new shooters in the market. They want to do something besides shooting at a piece of paper with a bull’s-eye target.”

Rex Gore, president Black Wing Shooting Center Delaware, Ohio

A glance at Black Wing’s website reveals a wide variety of range games and leagues, from sporting clays to bowling pins and IDPA-style defensive shooting.

“We typically have a league going every week of every month,” Gore noted. Each of them ends with a banquet, prizes and trophies.

In a typical year, that is. COVID forced the cancellation of all leagues last year. Black Wing is starting them up again with restrictions loosening and vaccinations on the rise. Gore’s eager to get back to the shop’s original game plan, which was to create an entertainment venue.

“I wanted to build a facility people would consider a destination — a place you could spend a few hours or even a day,” he added.

Make Your Range(s) Count

You might be thinking it’s easier if you have three indoor ranges (including an interactive range with live-fire video games) to go along with skeet, trap and sporting clays ranges outside. But you don’t need a world-class facility to make range games work for you.

Jessica Ulrich is co-owner of Marksman Indoor Range in Waterloo, Neb., where they’re always looking for creative uses for their 11 shooting lanes. They offer a mix of bull’s-eye-style competitions along with steel leagues, bowling pin matches and every other month, a USPSA boot camp run by a third party.

She’s perhaps most proud of a bowling pin innovation aimed at countering the ammo shortage. They cut the heads off bowling pins and use those for .22 shoots at 10 yards.

“It’s extremely fun and it’s casual,” Ulrich reported. “There’s no money on the line, but when you leave your face hurts from laughing so much.”

The winners get bragging rights (not a minor thing in a small town) and their name on a gold pin displayed in the shop. And each month’s winner gets to compete in an annual tournament of champions.

“We’ve had to get very strategic about how we bring people to the range,” Ulrich revealed.

Shooting “Guilt-Free”

Pushing the need for creativity, of course, is the continuing ammo shortage. This has put a damper on attendance for some of the games normally offered at Marksman. It just makes anything using .22s more appealing to some shooters.

“We found people don’t want to shoot recreational things with the ammo they’ve got. They don’t know when they’ll be able to replenish their stash,” Ulrich acknowledged. But with the rimfire rounds (which she can still get her hands on), “You can shoot guilt-free,” she advised.

Gore in Ohio worries how the tight ammo market will affect attempts to restart their pistol, rifle and even shotgun leagues.

“It’s really rough right now because of the ammunition side of the business,” he observed. “We’ve been working for the past year to find pistol and rifle ammo. Now we’re fighting to get shotshells.”

Even as prices are pushed higher, both ranges point to all the first-time buyers who joined the ranks of gun owners in the past year. Lacking a history with the sport, they aren’t as disturbed by rising prices.

“They aren’t as sensitive as the older customers,” Gore added. “They don’t know any better. If a box of ammo costs $34, then it costs $34.”.

Keeping First-Time Shooters

Still, availability of ammo remains one of the keys to tapping into that market. It’s a question rattling through the minds of every gun-store owner in the nation: How do you get those new buyers to buy again?

“It doesn’t do anyone any good if they buy a gun and stick it in their closet and never do anything with it,” Gore said. “It doesn’t help anyone except the gun manufacturers.”

He sees the surge of 2020 and 2021 as substantially different from others in recent history. The buying sprees following Sandy Hook at the end of 2012 and similar events had a tendency to be driven by existing customers. But it’s been well documented the industry has millions of new gun owners over the past year or so, and with so many ranges temporarily closed by COVID restrictions, it means there are lot of people out there with guns — and no training.

Now with its ranges fully functional again, Black Wing has been reaching out to those newer customers in hopes of drawing them back for training. The range games can be an element of this — giving people another reason to come back to the store, where they can spend money on range time and accessories.

We want to introduce them to this whole other world where these tools can be used for games and therapy. The fear subsides and it becomes fun. And then they want to come back.”

Jessica Ulrich, co-owner Marksman Indoor Range Waterloo, Neb.

“People will come and they’ll pay a fair price for it. They’re used to paying for entertainment,” Gore stated. “We don’t do it as a loss leader. We do it to make money. We’ll run a financial report at the conclusion of each league. Did we make money? If not, what do we need to change?”

At Marksman in Nebraska, they’ve seen a marked increase in the number of people signing up for introductory classes. Before everything went off the rails, they would run the class (with a half-dozen people) once a month. These days, they have a class almost every day.

And it’s not unusual for graduates to come out the other side looking for something fun to do with their guns. It’s particularly true for women, who are often more interested in the recreational — as opposed to self-defense — aspects of firearm ownership, Ulrich said.

“They come out of the classes asking what else they can do, what else they can learn,” she added.

Having those range games on the calendar provides an easy answer in those situations.

“What’s important to us is people are educated and comfortable,” she asserted. “We want to introduce them to this whole other world where these tools can be used for games and therapy. The fear subsides and it becomes fun. And then they want to come back.”

While everyone is experiencing the same frustrations, Marksman in Nebraska has come up with its own plan for dealing with tightened social media restrictions.

It’s true you can’t promote guns or accessories, but as Ulrich confirmed, “We can promote the feelings and successes of the people who come to the store.”

Through social media posts, they hammer home the idea people who come to the range are having a great time. They’ll post photos of excited people at the range — images of a grandfather and his granddaughter learning to shoot for the first time and people exchanging high-fives after a match.

“You can capture a feeling and the fun of this,” Ulrich concluded.

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