kanada kidd
Regular
- Location
- edmonton
Several people have asked about ammo prices and why they can't buy ammo from Walmart and bring it to Wild West.
It must be almost 25 years now since I bought The Firing Line downtown Edmonton. It was a shooting range that catered to competitors and more advanced target shooters. It was really a small market compared to what we have today.
I thought it might be a good idea to start renting guns to new people but everyone I mentioned it to, thought it was a bad idea. They said I would kill my own gun sales if I ever tried it. (Keep in mind there were very few commercial ranges and nobody did rentals.
Long story short, I went ahead, it seemed to work well so the next step was to get into a high profile location where I could reach more people. I thought everyone would want to shoot guns if they had the chance.
Once we got into WEM, we sold memberships the same as downtown. There are only 14 positions at WW so it did get busy. Shooters would buy a membership for a few hundred bucks, then buy a brick of 22 from from a discount store and spend the whole afternoon in a shooting booth. This wasn't going to work.
There are different systems but we chose the most simple. We split up the shooting cost between range passes and ammo. Ammo for the range is at a premium but we do not charge extra for the gun (except a few select guns that are high maintenance)
We honored all the memberships that we sold but once they expired, the members would have to buy the ammo from us. We do discount it for different membership levels.
For those who buy ammo to take out, we have some of the best prices in the country. We do buy a large volume of both factory and remanufactured ammo so prices are usually very competitive.
Some ranges will charge for gun rental, some charge for eye and ear protection. There's no right or wrong way, it just costs money to shoot.
Sorry for the long explanation, and here is a much quicker one.
If you go out to a nightclub, you usually have to pay a cover at the door. Once you pay your cover, you can go in, but it does not mean you can bring your own bottle from the liquor store. Nope, instead you have to pay 5 - 10 times the actual cost of the liquor.
Hope that clears things up for any of you that had questions. Good shooting and see you on the erases somewhere!
Ken Kupsch
It must be almost 25 years now since I bought The Firing Line downtown Edmonton. It was a shooting range that catered to competitors and more advanced target shooters. It was really a small market compared to what we have today.
I thought it might be a good idea to start renting guns to new people but everyone I mentioned it to, thought it was a bad idea. They said I would kill my own gun sales if I ever tried it. (Keep in mind there were very few commercial ranges and nobody did rentals.
Long story short, I went ahead, it seemed to work well so the next step was to get into a high profile location where I could reach more people. I thought everyone would want to shoot guns if they had the chance.
Once we got into WEM, we sold memberships the same as downtown. There are only 14 positions at WW so it did get busy. Shooters would buy a membership for a few hundred bucks, then buy a brick of 22 from from a discount store and spend the whole afternoon in a shooting booth. This wasn't going to work.
There are different systems but we chose the most simple. We split up the shooting cost between range passes and ammo. Ammo for the range is at a premium but we do not charge extra for the gun (except a few select guns that are high maintenance)
We honored all the memberships that we sold but once they expired, the members would have to buy the ammo from us. We do discount it for different membership levels.
For those who buy ammo to take out, we have some of the best prices in the country. We do buy a large volume of both factory and remanufactured ammo so prices are usually very competitive.
Some ranges will charge for gun rental, some charge for eye and ear protection. There's no right or wrong way, it just costs money to shoot.
Sorry for the long explanation, and here is a much quicker one.
If you go out to a nightclub, you usually have to pay a cover at the door. Once you pay your cover, you can go in, but it does not mean you can bring your own bottle from the liquor store. Nope, instead you have to pay 5 - 10 times the actual cost of the liquor.
Hope that clears things up for any of you that had questions. Good shooting and see you on the erases somewhere!
Ken Kupsch
