Range Rental Guns...

[50calshooter]

Edited, your right I'm not selling the PS90, but I will be selling Tavor and XCR so at least people can try it before they buy it....

[Canuck223]

Edited, your right I'm not selling the PS90, but I will be selling Tavor and XCR so at least people can try it before they buy it....

Bingo. Same with the pistols. Every show needs a gimmick, so having a few in the rental pool they can't find elsewhere is cool. Still, the ability to try before you buy is a huge selling point.

I don't know if our smaller market allows for it, but I'd ask the distributors if they have a range rental program like in the US. A discount for stocking dealers who both keep there product in stock and rent the guns so the public can try them.

[romurra]

Add novelty for range guns -- a 91/30 sniper 'like in the movie'? a thompson? a short barreled shotgun (12.5")? a collection of "Bond guns" (as used by James Bond in __fill in the blank__? a garand (just for the ping of it)?. Sometimes a range rental is all about the novelty, and your listed guns are pretty vanilla (no offence). For newbies and experienced shooters alike, sometimes it's just fun to shoot stuff that's just off the chart of normal availability or even personal desirability for a lark. You could even get some movie posters etc for the displays, or add some costumes (a helmet or jacket or two) for people to get pictures of themselves looking like a movie poster with the guns as a souvenir. Great for social events/parties at the range.

Also get more 22s for new shooters, add a tacticool M4 look 22, a 10/22, a 22 wheel gun, a 22 bolt, maybe a 'cool looking' 22 target pistol. In the same vein, add 20G shotguns -- great for new/young/smaller shooters to try a shotgun out. Also try to stock any reduced recoil ammo you can get for larger calibers like .308/3006, even downloaded 9 and 45 for the same crowd.

[JustBen]

I think you have the rifles and handguns pretty well covered. However, you do need to add to the shotgun list.

I think you need a budget autoloader. Mossberg 930 or Rem 11-87 sort of thing.

And then a good double barrel. I'm thinking that one of those IGA coach guns would be good to have.

Of course, the best thing to do would be to rotate some guns through the rental roster. Imagine "March Milsurp Madness" or "Autoloadertober" as potential events for the store.

[50calshooter]

Great feedback guys!

[50calshooter]

Add novelty for range guns -- a 91/30 sniper 'like in the movie'? a thompson? a short barreled shotgun (12.5")? a collection of "Bond guns" (as used by James Bond in __fill in the blank__? a garand (just for the ping of it)?. Sometimes a range rental is all about the novelty, and your listed guns are pretty vanilla (no offence). For newbies and experienced shooters alike, sometimes it's just fun to shoot stuff that's just off the chart of normal availability or even personal desirability for a lark. You could even get some movie posters etc for the displays, or add some costumes (a helmet or jacket or two) for people to get pictures of themselves looking like a movie poster with the guns as a souvenir. Great for social events/parties at the range.

Also get more 22s for new shooters, add a tacticool M4 look 22, a 10/22, a 22 wheel gun, a 22 bolt, maybe a 'cool looking' 22 target pistol. In the same vein, add 20G shotguns -- great for new/young/smaller shooters to try a shotgun out. Also try to stock any reduced recoil ammo you can get for larger calibers like .308/3006, even downloaded 9 and 45 for the same crowd.

I get what your saying, problem is I don't personally have prohib status and until the range actually opens I wont know for sure if they will allow the range to buy and sell prohib, you just never know what the CFO is thinking...

IMO most new shooters, especially the younger crowd but even the middle aged segment will get excited about shooting an AR-15 or a Tavor, seems like anything black and semi-auto will excite the masses... I guess we'll see. I've added back a few more to the rifle list, thinking about it some more, I think the more rifles I have to choose from the longer it will prolong the life of the these guns....

[Haywire1]

I'd add an SKS, and maybe a mare's leg as well, the SKS is known, not everyone has shot em, and the mare's legs are popular as well, i'd use a henry in .22 for a range gun, cheaper then the 357/44/45LC versions, and the Henry is the most accurate.

[CSC]

Here are some planning considerations:

Ammo: there is no use having range guns and not having ammo to feed them. 5.7 ammo is too hard to find to seriously consider using in a range gun. It is sometimes hard enough just getting 308 Win in sufficient quantity.

Repairs: range guns get run hard and put away wet. They will constantly need to be cleaned, inspected and repaired. The best guns to run are current production guns with a reputation for reliability and good parts supply. Next best are military designs which usually have lots of parts floating around.

[Canuck223]

Repairs: range guns get run hard and put away wet. They will constantly need to be cleaned, inspected and repaired. The best guns to run are current production guns with a reputation for reliability and good parts supply. Next best are military designs which usually have lots of parts floating around.

As an aside, it will pay to make damned sure that you have a staff member who is directly responsible for cleaning and maintaining the rental pool. Broken or constantly jamming guns will discourage sales and tie up staff. I know at a commercial gun range and retail operation, you wind up wearing many hats, and have to multi-task. This is one task I'd set time aside for every morning. It would help if the staff member actually knows how to disassemble and reassemble the guns.

Way back when, I had a new shooter on the line for a supervised shoot. He'd done his club safety course and had progessed up from the .22lr. He was firing the .45 for the first time. Well he would have if he could have inserted the mag.

We took the gun off the range to the cleaning bench for a look see. The range owners son had cleaned the Colt 1991. (Remember those?) The good news is most of the parts were in nearly the right order... He'd installed the series 80 levers wrong with the tip of one poking into the magwell. The hammer pin was where the mainspring pin should be, and vice-versa.

[lone-wolf]

pistol calibre carbine of some sort.
cz858