1,000 Yard 50BMG Range... Gauging Interest... Anyone Like The Idea?

[bogey1]

I was just thinking about 50cals last night

[Hawk]

-Start up costs are going to be at least $100-200K without any buildings.
-Excavation and basic construction is going to take a year or more and if you don't do it your self with your own equipment I can't even fathom the costs.
-Just the maintanence of such a place would be a full time job.
-Your going to need to hire staff.
-Not sure what liability Insurance costs these days. You'd want at least $1M in coverage.
-Winter time use is going to drop off to almost nothing, so you better sell mostly yearly memberships.
-Even at $250 per member and you managed to sell 1K memberships, that's only $250K a year.
That may sound like a lot of money, but the taxes, employee cost, and maintenance of the club is going to eat all of that up.

[WCMG]

I'm probably one of the few people that have built a commercial outdoor range in the past two years on this forum, so here's a little insight:

1: Before buying property to build a range, get a pre-approval letter from local/township/borough/county government agencies. There are no state or federal requirements for outdoor ranges.

2: No matter how long of distance you make it, members will want it longer, so go big as possible.

3: No matter how many different ranges you have, members will want more.

4: No matter how much you charge, it will probably be to much for most people.

5: Like any business, obviously research costs to bulid, but more importantly, research recurring costs which did surprise me in what we have to spend each month on target replacements, target holder repair, and general maintenance.

6: Once you build a range, lead contamination will greatly decrease the value of the land for eternity unless you spent astronomical amount to remove a lot of topsoil.

[WCMG]

-Start up costs are going to be at least $100-200K without any buildings.

We spent over $50k just for our 4 parking lots.

-Excavation and basic construction is going to take a year or more and if you don't do it your self with your own equipment I can't even fathom the costs.

Took us a year, but we have 5 areas of shooting.

-Just the maintanence of such a place would be a full time job.

This part really surprised us, fugured a few hours a week... hahaha, that was our biggest surprise besides the costs of parking lots.

-Your going to need to hire staff.

Snowflakes abound.. hard to find good people.

-Not sure what liability Insurance costs these days. You'd want at least $1M in coverage.

We carry a 2 million dollar policy with Lloyd's of London. Because we don't anyone under 16 years, we got a $6k discount.

-Winter time use is going to drop off to almost nothing, so you better sell mostly yearly memberships.

Winter time is our dead time. One shooter a weekend is a surprise.

-Even at $250 per member and you managed to sell 1K memberships, that's only $250K a year.

Yup, that's the reality.

That may sound like a lot of money, but the taxes, employee cost, and maintenance of the club is going to eat all of that up.

Yup