Ok, let me start out by saying "I do not like indoor ranges". Please remember that as you read my review...
I decided on Sunday to check this new place out since it was their "Grand Opening" weekend. My initial impression when I pulled into their lot was "Wow, this place certainly looks clean and tidy." Excited my car and grabbed my range bag out of the back seat. When I walked through the front door three people greeted me! Have to admit, I had that "Am I royalty?" moment. Below is Robert and Linda Sillery (I am in the middle) who greeted me and made me feel like I was a family member just in time for supper. Just have to say they are a wonderful couple and certainly made a great first impression.
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Robert took me on a tour of the place and showed me their pistol and rifle ranges. Pistol goes out to 25 feet and rifle out to 75 feet. You can actually view the pistol range through a viewing window. Remember earlier I said that I do not like indoor ranges. They have 12 total shooting bays. Yes, you guessed it! Six for pistol and six for rifle. I was impressed with how clean things were. Helps that the place is brand new, right? Now I like outdoor ranges because indoor ones have always messed with my nose and sinuses. In the past I could almost feel a headache coming on in the first 30 seconds so it was no wonder that I took a quick look at each before coming back out into the main showroom. After standing in the showroom for a few minutes just waiting for my sinuses to start acting up, I was surprised that nothing was happening. Folks, I was actually more stunned than surprised. With timing that was perfect Robert started to explain how their "State of the Art" air handling system takes out 99.9% of the particles in the air. He went on to tell me that it is a system that had to be brought in on THREE semi trucks and used true HEPA filtration. I think he said something about better air here than at your local hospital. Dag nappit, I was gonna have to try their range out! Maybe I could shoot indoors after all?
This is when they introduced me to Kip Lohmiller. For those of you who have heard rumors of a former Green Beret working at Indy Arms, this is him. Now I have always heard there is no such thing as a "former" Green Beret. Once a Green Beret, always a Green Beret! Thank you Kip for your service!
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Kip took me out to the range area and reviewed all of the range rules with me and made sure that I understood them. I give Kip credit for being such a patient man. I read pretty slow at my age. He then reviewed some of the more important aspects of range safety with me just to make sure I understood. I was assigned lane number 3 and introduced to the Range Safety Officer, Zach. I had to give Zach a double take! "Hey wait a minute, I know you" I said. Zach looked me over and said "Oh yeah, you were in one of my reloading classes at Xxx Xxxx! (edited) Now here I was shooting at an indoor range and the RO just happened to be one of the best pistol shooters I have ever met. Oh, that is just great! First time here and I have to shoot in front of this guy! Zach very patiently went over how their Electronic Target Retrieval system works. Demonstrated it a couple of times for me to make sure I had it. Hey, this old fart got it pretty quickly so I am guessing anyone else out there should have zero issues. With that done I gave my lane the ole once over. Nice bench that is covered and seemed padded. Don't need to put anything down to lay my pistols on, awesome! Below was a pretty generous shelf for storing your range bag and maybe even an extra couple if you were so inclined. Somebody put some thought into this... So out comes the M9 that I have fallen in love with shooting. First six shots are about five inches low. Now I know I am doing something wrong and doing it consistently. Keep in mind, I have shot all of my life starting at 8 years old and I know I have developed some kind of bad habit. It's now or never so I removed the clip, un-chambered the round and laid the gun on the bench. When I turned around Zach was right behind me. I could tell by the look on his face that he was waiting for me to act. "Ok Zach, what am I doing wrong?" He smiled, stepped forward and told me that I was anticipating my shots. "Crap! One of the worst habits you can develop and I had." He also suggested that I make a change in my grip and worked with me to put my left palm more on the side grip rather than the base as I had been doing. Not comfortable but he is the expert so let's try it his way. He also said to use the pad of my finger on the trigger (Do that already) and slowly pull the trigger back until the gun goes off. So I reload the gun, grip it as I was instructed and slowly start the trigger pull and BAM the gun goes off and there is a hole on the right side of the X. You can see my first six low shots and my follow up four after Zach gave me 45 seconds of his attention.
It was so much nicer being able to retrieve and send out your target when YOU wanted to rather than waiting for a cease fire. This indoor range thing just might be for me after all. Come to think of it after being on it for about an hour I realized that my sinuses were just fine. No headache what-so-ever! I did get to keep my brass as long as it did not go in front of the firing line so that was another plus. In fact Zach made a point of sweeping it into an easy to pick up pile for me. He seemed to be constantly sweeping brass. Guess they want to make sure that you don't step on it and slip and fall. (Some good management at this place) Another thing that struck me was the fact that I was not getting hit by flying brass from the guy next to me. Last time I was at Camp (u know where), I made it a game of catching the brass the guy next tom me was firing. Also, there was no blast hitting me either. I think I like this! Dang, I was becoming an indoor range convert
Lets talk about their retail counter as it really needs to be discovered. I am not really going to talk about pricing too much only to say, they have some good deals, some ok deals, and some not so good deals. Pretty much what you would expect. I did see several people purchase handguns and then take them out to the range and fire them for the first time. Yup, some folks with big smiles walked out to the range and even bigger smiles when they walked back in. A very nice guy by the name of Nathan Hughes is their "Retail Manager" or I think that is his title. They have arranged their counter by caliber which I really like. I know some folks like seeing firearms arranged by brand but personally I like the way Indy Arms did it. They had a great selection and carry brands such as CZ, Beretta, Barrett (YES!), Sig and your normal well thought out selection. Ok, I can't remember all of them so you are going to just have to go and check it out for yourself. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Heck they even have Desert Eagles! Like most, handguns in the counters and rifles on the walls behind them. They also carry a small selection of scopes. I think I saw Nikon, Leupold, Trijicon, and Vortex in the case.
You are not going to see the ammo selection that say, a Gander or Cabela's has but for a one shop operation, they didn't do bad at all. Prices are where you would expect them to be. Accessories are pretty abundant and the stock is laid out well. Aisles are wide enough to pass folks in without bumping elbows which tells me that some thought went into it.
I got to meet Rick Cass who is the owner and first impression was, here was a guy who put his heart and sole into this place and was determined to make his customers have a great experience. His young son Cadence, went a long way to make that happen..
Certainly a young man who is destined to make his father proud. I hope he is there when you visit and if not, try and come back when he is.
Now I do want to point out that I only mentioned the staff members that I interacted with. There were a few other staff members that I did not get to speak with but I did observe their interaction with other customers. "I gotta tell ya!" as Lee Iaccoca used to say, I did not observe a weak link in the chain! And lastly, I was so impressed that I signed up for their annual Pistol Membership. I had zero intention of doing that when I went in there but sometimes you know when you have found your new shooting "home".
Lastly, Zach is on the left and Rick is on the right!
I decided on Sunday to check this new place out since it was their "Grand Opening" weekend. My initial impression when I pulled into their lot was "Wow, this place certainly looks clean and tidy." Excited my car and grabbed my range bag out of the back seat. When I walked through the front door three people greeted me! Have to admit, I had that "Am I royalty?" moment. Below is Robert and Linda Sillery (I am in the middle) who greeted me and made me feel like I was a family member just in time for supper. Just have to say they are a wonderful couple and certainly made a great first impression.
View attachment 41417
Robert took me on a tour of the place and showed me their pistol and rifle ranges. Pistol goes out to 25 feet and rifle out to 75 feet. You can actually view the pistol range through a viewing window. Remember earlier I said that I do not like indoor ranges. They have 12 total shooting bays. Yes, you guessed it! Six for pistol and six for rifle. I was impressed with how clean things were. Helps that the place is brand new, right? Now I like outdoor ranges because indoor ones have always messed with my nose and sinuses. In the past I could almost feel a headache coming on in the first 30 seconds so it was no wonder that I took a quick look at each before coming back out into the main showroom. After standing in the showroom for a few minutes just waiting for my sinuses to start acting up, I was surprised that nothing was happening. Folks, I was actually more stunned than surprised. With timing that was perfect Robert started to explain how their "State of the Art" air handling system takes out 99.9% of the particles in the air. He went on to tell me that it is a system that had to be brought in on THREE semi trucks and used true HEPA filtration. I think he said something about better air here than at your local hospital. Dag nappit, I was gonna have to try their range out! Maybe I could shoot indoors after all?
This is when they introduced me to Kip Lohmiller. For those of you who have heard rumors of a former Green Beret working at Indy Arms, this is him. Now I have always heard there is no such thing as a "former" Green Beret. Once a Green Beret, always a Green Beret! Thank you Kip for your service!
View attachment 41418
Kip took me out to the range area and reviewed all of the range rules with me and made sure that I understood them. I give Kip credit for being such a patient man. I read pretty slow at my age. He then reviewed some of the more important aspects of range safety with me just to make sure I understood. I was assigned lane number 3 and introduced to the Range Safety Officer, Zach. I had to give Zach a double take! "Hey wait a minute, I know you" I said. Zach looked me over and said "Oh yeah, you were in one of my reloading classes at Xxx Xxxx! (edited) Now here I was shooting at an indoor range and the RO just happened to be one of the best pistol shooters I have ever met. Oh, that is just great! First time here and I have to shoot in front of this guy! Zach very patiently went over how their Electronic Target Retrieval system works. Demonstrated it a couple of times for me to make sure I had it. Hey, this old fart got it pretty quickly so I am guessing anyone else out there should have zero issues. With that done I gave my lane the ole once over. Nice bench that is covered and seemed padded. Don't need to put anything down to lay my pistols on, awesome! Below was a pretty generous shelf for storing your range bag and maybe even an extra couple if you were so inclined. Somebody put some thought into this... So out comes the M9 that I have fallen in love with shooting. First six shots are about five inches low. Now I know I am doing something wrong and doing it consistently. Keep in mind, I have shot all of my life starting at 8 years old and I know I have developed some kind of bad habit. It's now or never so I removed the clip, un-chambered the round and laid the gun on the bench. When I turned around Zach was right behind me. I could tell by the look on his face that he was waiting for me to act. "Ok Zach, what am I doing wrong?" He smiled, stepped forward and told me that I was anticipating my shots. "Crap! One of the worst habits you can develop and I had." He also suggested that I make a change in my grip and worked with me to put my left palm more on the side grip rather than the base as I had been doing. Not comfortable but he is the expert so let's try it his way. He also said to use the pad of my finger on the trigger (Do that already) and slowly pull the trigger back until the gun goes off. So I reload the gun, grip it as I was instructed and slowly start the trigger pull and BAM the gun goes off and there is a hole on the right side of the X. You can see my first six low shots and my follow up four after Zach gave me 45 seconds of his attention.
It was so much nicer being able to retrieve and send out your target when YOU wanted to rather than waiting for a cease fire. This indoor range thing just might be for me after all. Come to think of it after being on it for about an hour I realized that my sinuses were just fine. No headache what-so-ever! I did get to keep my brass as long as it did not go in front of the firing line so that was another plus. In fact Zach made a point of sweeping it into an easy to pick up pile for me. He seemed to be constantly sweeping brass. Guess they want to make sure that you don't step on it and slip and fall. (Some good management at this place) Another thing that struck me was the fact that I was not getting hit by flying brass from the guy next to me. Last time I was at Camp (u know where), I made it a game of catching the brass the guy next tom me was firing. Also, there was no blast hitting me either. I think I like this! Dang, I was becoming an indoor range convert
Lets talk about their retail counter as it really needs to be discovered. I am not really going to talk about pricing too much only to say, they have some good deals, some ok deals, and some not so good deals. Pretty much what you would expect. I did see several people purchase handguns and then take them out to the range and fire them for the first time. Yup, some folks with big smiles walked out to the range and even bigger smiles when they walked back in. A very nice guy by the name of Nathan Hughes is their "Retail Manager" or I think that is his title. They have arranged their counter by caliber which I really like. I know some folks like seeing firearms arranged by brand but personally I like the way Indy Arms did it. They had a great selection and carry brands such as CZ, Beretta, Barrett (YES!), Sig and your normal well thought out selection. Ok, I can't remember all of them so you are going to just have to go and check it out for yourself. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Heck they even have Desert Eagles! Like most, handguns in the counters and rifles on the walls behind them. They also carry a small selection of scopes. I think I saw Nikon, Leupold, Trijicon, and Vortex in the case.
You are not going to see the ammo selection that say, a Gander or Cabela's has but for a one shop operation, they didn't do bad at all. Prices are where you would expect them to be. Accessories are pretty abundant and the stock is laid out well. Aisles are wide enough to pass folks in without bumping elbows which tells me that some thought went into it.
I got to meet Rick Cass who is the owner and first impression was, here was a guy who put his heart and sole into this place and was determined to make his customers have a great experience. His young son Cadence, went a long way to make that happen..
Certainly a young man who is destined to make his father proud. I hope he is there when you visit and if not, try and come back when he is.Now I do want to point out that I only mentioned the staff members that I interacted with. There were a few other staff members that I did not get to speak with but I did observe their interaction with other customers. "I gotta tell ya!" as Lee Iaccoca used to say, I did not observe a weak link in the chain! And lastly, I was so impressed that I signed up for their annual Pistol Membership. I had zero intention of doing that when I went in there but sometimes you know when you have found your new shooting "home".
Lastly, Zach is on the left and Rick is on the right!
