Shooting Range Business Plan
There is one thing about financing a shooting range that almost no startup guide mentions, and it changes your timeline and your budget before you have bought a single baffle. SBA names indoor and outdoor shooting ranges in its list of Environmentally Sensitive Industries, and the consequence is specific: your lender's environmental investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". Every other borrower under $250,000 may start with a cheap questionnaire. You cannot. And a Phase I on a range is looking for exactly the thing a range produces, which is lead.
Verify every requirement with the named agency and your lender before committing capital. Firearms licensing is federal, state and local at once, and the local layer is where most ranges actually get stopped. Construction and equipment costs are site-specific and we have not surveyed them.
Why is a shooting range harder to finance than it looks?
On paper a range is a straightforward recreation business: a building, some lanes, a retail counter. Lenders do not see it that way, and the reason is in SBA's own rulebook rather than in anyone's risk appetite.
SOP 50 10 8.1 carries Appendix 6: NAICS Codes of Environmentally Sensitive Industries. On it, under NAICS 713990, sits this entry:
OTHER RECREATIONAL INDUSTRIES (indoor and outdoor shooting ranges only)
Note the parenthesis. SBA did not list recreation generally. It carved out shooting ranges specifically, indoor as well as outdoor, and put them beside oil and gas extraction, mining and heavy civil engineering.
What does being on that list actually cost you?
It removes the cheap route. For an ordinary property, the SOP allows a graduated approach: "If the loan amount is up to and including $250,000, the Environmental Investigation may begin with an Environmental Questionnaire."
For a range, that option is gone. The SOP is explicit that where the business is an "environmentally sensitive industry identified in Appendix 6, the Environmental Investigation must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan".
The standard is named too: an AAI compliant Phase I ESA conducted by an Environmental Professional in accordance with "the most recently adopted standard for a Phase I ESA established by ASTM International, currently ASTM E1527-21".
And the Phase I is not the end of it. The SOP sets out what happens next:
If the Environmental Professional conducting the Phase I ESA concludes that further investigation is warranted (typically a Phase II), and the SBA Lender still wants to make the loan, the SBA Lender must proceed as recommended by the Environmental Professional.
On a range, a Phase I is looking for lead in the backstop, the berm and the soil, which is the one contaminant a range reliably produces. On an existing range you are buying, that risk is already in the ground and it belongs to whoever owns it next. Budget for the Phase I as a certainty, and treat a Phase II as a live possibility rather than a tail risk.
None of this makes a range unfinanceable. It makes the timeline longer and the diligence budget bigger than the generic guides suggest, and a plan that shows you already know this reads very differently to a credit committee.
Is a shooting range profitable?
The economics turn on whether you are a range with a shop or a shop with a range.
Lane time alone is a difficult business. Lanes are capital-intensive, capacity is fixed, and demand is concentrated into evenings and weekends. The ranges that work usually earn across four lines at once: lane hire, retail (firearms, ammunition, accessories), training and certification courses, and memberships. Memberships matter disproportionately because they convert lumpy walk-in revenue into something a lender can underwrite.
We have not surveyed range revenues and will not publish a figure we have not measured. What we will say is that a plan built on lane hire alone, with retail and training as afterthoughts, is the version that gets declined.
What licenses does a shooting range need?
Three layers, and they do not arrive in a convenient order.
- Federal. A Federal Firearms License from ATF is required to engage in the business of dealing in firearms. A range that only rents firearms for on-premises use and sells ammunition sits differently from one with a retail gun counter, and the license type follows what you actually do. Confirm your category directly with ATF rather than from an article, including this one, because the answer depends on specifics we cannot see.
- State. Dealer licensing, range-specific statutes and design standards vary widely and some states regulate ranges directly.
- Local. Zoning, noise ordinances and conditional use permits. This is where ranges most often die, and it usually happens in a public hearing rather than in a regulator's office. Resolve the zoning question before you option the site.
We are not publishing federal license fee figures here, because we have not been able to verify current ones from a primary source and a wrong number in a plan is worse than no number. Take them from ATF directly.
How much does it cost to start a shooting range?
We have not surveyed range construction and will not present someone else's range as though we had. What is worth knowing is which variables actually move the number, because published figures average them together and become useless:
- Indoor or outdoor. Entirely different projects. An indoor range is a ventilation and ballistic containment problem wrapped in a building shell.
- Ventilation is the single largest indoor line item and it is a life-safety system, not an amenity. Airborne lead is an occupational exposure question, so this is not somewhere to value-engineer.
- Baffles, backstops and traps scale with lane count and with the calibres you intend to permit. Rifle-rated is a different build from pistol-only.
- Lane count drives nearly everything downstream, including parking, restrooms and staffing.
- Retail inventory is working capital, and firearms inventory is expensive working capital.
- Environmental diligence and any remediation, per the section above. On an acquisition this can be the largest single surprise.
Build the figure from your own quotes and keep it in the shape of SBA's project cost definition, because that is the shape the credit memorandum has to be written in.
How do you fund a shooting range?
SBA 7(a) and 504 are both routinely used. Two rules decide how much cash you personally produce.
First, if the business is new, the SOP's start-up test applies, and it is about the business rather than about you:
SBA considers a business to be a "start-up" for the purpose of determining equity injection requirements if it has been in operation (i.e., generating revenue from intended operations) for 1 year or less.
A start-up needs an equity injection of at least 10 percent of total project costs, and the base is wider than most people assume: "all costs required to become operational, regardless of the source of funds, except for lines of credit and 504 loans". Ventilation financed on a vendor line still counts.
Second, on a 504 project the property classification matters. A shooting range is not named in the SOP's Limited or Special Purpose Property list, which runs from amusement parks to wineries and includes golf courses, marinas and sports arenas. But the SOP says that list "is not intended to be all-inclusive", and it requires your CDC to "address whether the Project Property is Limited or Special Purpose in their credit memorandum and include an explanation of their conclusion". A purpose-built ballistic structure is a plausible candidate for that reasoning, and the answer moves your contribution from 10% to 15%, or to 20% if you are also a new business.
You can work your own figure out with our free SBA equity requirement calculator, which uses the same table.
What must your shooting range business plan contain?
- The zoning position, first. Site control, the use classification, and whether a hearing is required. Everything else is speculative until this is settled.
- The environmental plan. That you know a Phase I is mandatory regardless of loan size, who is doing it, when, and what happens if it escalates. Showing this unprompted is the strongest signal in the whole document.
- Revenue modeled by line, with memberships separated out, and monthly rather than annual.
- Lead management and ventilation as an operating cost and a compliance obligation, not a one-off capital item.
- A project cost schedule covering all costs required to become operational, with the equity injection identified and its source documented.
- Insurance, which is its own underwriting exercise for ranges and should not be a placeholder line.
We write SBA business plans and financial models for exactly this kind of filing, including the project cost build-up and the monthly cash flow a credit memorandum is written from. Fees are fixed and published, and we never charge a percentage of anything you borrow or raise.
Frequently asked questions
Does SBA treat shooting ranges differently from other businesses?
Yes, environmentally. SOP 50 10 8.1 lists "OTHER RECREATIONAL INDUSTRIES (indoor and outdoor shooting ranges only)" under NAICS 713990 in Appendix 6, its schedule of Environmentally Sensitive Industries.
Do I need a Phase I environmental assessment for a shooting range loan?
Yes. For an industry in Appendix 6 the SOP requires that the Environmental Investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". The ordinary allowance to start with an Environmental Questionnaire on loans up to $250,000 does not apply to you.
What happens if the Phase I finds lead?
The SOP says that if the Environmental Professional concludes further investigation is warranted, typically a Phase II, and the lender still wants to make the loan, the lender must proceed as the Environmental Professional recommends. Plan for the possibility rather than hoping.
Is a shooting range a special purpose property for SBA?
It is not named in the Limited or Special Purpose Property list. But the SOP states the list is not all-inclusive and requires the CDC to reach and record a conclusion either way, so ask yours before you budget a 10% contribution.
Do I need an FFL to run a shooting range?
It depends on what you do. Dealing in firearms requires a Federal Firearms License from ATF; a range that only rents for on-premises use and sells ammunition is a different case from one with a retail gun counter. Confirm your category with ATF directly.
What stops most shooting ranges?
Local zoning and noise, usually at a public hearing rather than with a regulator. Settle it before you option a site.
This page summarizes what SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 says as at 4 October 2026. It is general information, not lending, legal, environmental or firearms regulatory advice, and it is not a commitment to lend. Firearms licensing is federal, state and local, and requirements differ and change. Confirm every requirement and figure with ATF, your state authority, your local planning office, your environmental professional and your lender before you commit capital.