Opinions needed

[Silverboolit]

I will retire in 4 years and have been thinking about what to do after working. I am tossing around the idea of an airgun shop. Sales, repairs, pcp tank charging, indoor range and some interesting matches to keep the interest up.

My concerns are: Is there a market for this type of shop/service? Would there be enough demand to support this, with all of the online/discount sellers.

I live in a city of about one million with a large military base.

Any input would be welcome, good and bad.

Thanks

[shoot-n-lead]

I am retiring in 5mos and have been entertaining the thoughts about what to do, for a good while now...still not real clear.

Good luck.

[HARRYMPOPE]

A fellow I know with a long term air gun business(20 plus years) in a large metro area has a had a hard time competing with online sellers.If it worked out it would be great but id be nervous.

[6bg6ga]

Just get your FFL open a gun shop and have a steady income. Can never have too many gun shops.

[GARD72977]

I would love to have a local place to shoot 10M rifle and pistol competitions

[melloairman]

Take a look at the success of paint ball shops in your area and what they are doing . There is a large cross over from one sport to the other . And the on line stores can hurt you . But a good attitude and personnel one on one service can keep the money local as well . Marvin

[Silverboolit]

Neighbor and I were discussing this and he brought up the idea of incorporation of reloading supplies along with the air guns. Not a bad idea, How thinks the group?

[Multigunner]

repairs, pcp tank charging, indoor range

There yah go, online stores can't offer that. Even sending an airgun in for repairs can be a major hassle and as like as not even if they did the repair properly UPS or Fedex would bust the gun up in transit.

Also I would greatly prefer to at least shoulder a rifle to check fit, balance and sight picture before laying out the long green.

If you added an airsoft department as well you'd have a near cradle to grave client base.

A archery dept would round it out pretty good.

I suspect operating costs and insurance would be cheap compared to a gunshop dealing with firearms, and the place would be far less attractive to burglars or rioters.

[Smoke4320]

as a person in that business right now ..paintball, firearms and airguns ( 15 years now) I would say stay away .. the taxes/insurances and regulations you will face will eat up much of any income and with the business /economy outlook for the next few years it does not look good at all..

with all the lead dust regulations now and the future liabilities I would not even consider an indoor range .. A range was just fined $415,000 for lead dust contamination .. He will never get his investment back

[Silverboolit]

Thanks..I appreciate all of the feedback. Looks like I will be knitting gun cases in my 'golden' years!LOL

[MT Chambers]

I do believe that airgun use is on the increase, both spring powered or PCP, bottom end or top end dollars, it would be a good idea to advertise on the airgun sites.

[W.R.Buchanan]

SilverBoolit: If you really like Airguns why not hook up with your local gun club and volunteer to get some Air Gun matches going with them. They already have a range and there is probably a place where you could set up a 10 meter range which really only requires some target stands which you could make and I personally use a folding lawn chair as my firing station for several types of shooting. A piece of canvas hanging over a rope stretched between two poles will work as a backstop if you need one at all. Could be indoors or outdoors.

Once you got a few guys interested you could have a weekly shoot and get together and hob nob just like all the other shooting matches the club has now. You keep scores and every year someone gets a little placard to commemorate their victory over the rest of the crowd.

It becomes more about the personal relationships than money that way.

That way you get all the enjoyment of shooting with none of the liability or backside financial issues that go along with a shop that has to pay it's way.

Just a thought?

Randy

[Silverboolit]

Excellent idea that I had not thought of. May be the start of something interesting.

[Pakprotector]

there is a serious shortage of good parts makers. hot-rod/modification parts is the only way I would do it. that is still a bit of change for tooling/machinery.
cheers,
Douglas