“Range Issue” Returns
To Shooting Industry

Content in the August issue of Shooting Industry will be dedicated exclusively to range operations. Owners and operators will discover articles presenting successful strategies to implement in order to yield profits, satisfy customers and ensure repeat business.

What it’s really like to open a range today? Tim Barker interviews a trio of range operators — Thom Beyer founder/director of Operations at The Range In McKinney; Jared Meeks, co-owner of Alabama Firearms Academy; and Dave Sabo, CEO of Midwest Shooting Centers — to assess the process of going from idea to fruition. One thing to prepare for is bureaucracy, as Meeks counsels, “If you don’t have a good relationship with the city, you’re going to be miserable. They’re going to cause you problems and it’s going to cost you a bunch of money.”

FMG Publications’ Digital Content Editor, Ashley McGee, shares how organizations are getting more youth who live in urban areas involved in the shooting sports. She interviews Brittany French, CEO of Outdoor Mentors, and John Annoni — a teacher of 34 years who started a non-profit where they take urban, disadvantaged youth hunting, fishing, etc. French shares her organization’s efforts to expand the shooting sports in the inner city with the Wichita Clay Dusters.

She lends, “This team was designed to recruit youth from inner-city communities who face big barriers to participating in shooting sports.”

Additional features will highlight the latest technology making waves on the range and ways to bring customers through the doors (including kids’ camps), especially during the slower summer months, from SI contributors Carolee Anita Boyles and Doug VanderWoude, respectively.

August’s column content includes tips from Karen Bulter for ranges to expand their presence to women through ladies’ nights and other events in Arms & The Woman and Massad Ayoob offers ways to sell more flashlights — particularly weapon-mounted and handheld varieties — in Personal Defense Market. Editor Jade Moldae focuses on range management with tips for a smooth check-in process and ways to keep customers engaged while shooting in Industry Link.

In Best Practices, Bryan Stear contends there is “shocking” profitability in paper targets. Most range owners overlook the paper target since it’s a very low-price item compared to ammunition and range time, but Stear’s team has discovered some surprising opportunities hidden in that cheap bull’s-eye — to the tune of $50,000 (or more) for some high-volume operations.

He emphasizes, “That’s $50,000 cash profit, not revenue, and it only took some simple 90-second training videos using a sales technique called ‘anchoring.’”

To pair a marketing message with SI’s popular “Range Issue” this August, contact your rep or advertising@fmghq.com to reserve space before the June 30 deadline.

CLICK HERE for more June 2023 FMG Inside News