Reloading: Gun Store adapts to fresh rounds of competition

A year ago, the machine gun range industry was a new thing in Las Vegas, and the city’s original Gun Store was prepared for the onslaught. By the end of 2012, eight other machine gun ranges had emerged, each offering its own version of the original’s business model.

Last year, The Gun Store’s owner, Bob Irwin, said the newbies would create an industry around something he’d been doing since 1988, and he seemed excited about the prospect. Flash forward to today, and Irwin seems slightly less excited.

“We’ve morphed into a very competitive market,” Irwin said.

The Gun Store’s customer traffic is down about 20 percent at 2900 E. Tropicana Ave., and Irwin said it’s probably a function of two things happening in the city. One, obviously, is the added competition, and the other is decreased spending by his visitor base, which is heavy on tourists.

“The average customer is spending a little bit less,” Irwin said.

But he was quick to emphasize his decrease doesn’t mean his demise.

“I’m making enough money. We’re chugging along OK,” Irwin, who’s semiretired, said.

The Gun Store’s yearly gross increased every year for 10 years straight, Irwin said in 2012. Last year’s drop was the first the company has seen in a decade.

Among the first machine gun ranges to open and follow in Irwin’s footsteps were Guns and Ammo Garage and Machine Guns Vegas. The latter was opened by Gun Store expatriates.

Guns and Ammo Garage, which was formerly called Machine Guns 4 Fun, saw about 100 customers a day last year.

“We’ve picked up a little bit. We’re probably seeing a 25 percent increase on that,” co-owner Darby Neagle said.

In terms of the increase though, Neagle said it’s hard to pinpoint whether it’s just because the range is new so growth is inevitable, or it’s because more people are actually coming to the ranges.

Numbers, though, are on the ranges’ side. Last year almost 40 million tourists came to Las Vegas, so that leaves a pretty large tourist market for the nine ranges to tap into. Shooting at one of these machine gun ranges is marketed as an experience in Las Vegas, much like a helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon.

Which also causes bigger issues.

Soon, Irwin said, gun ranges will have to raise their package prices because of ammunition shortages and rising copper prices. Neagle agreed that day may come, but was hesitant because he views not just the other ranges, but all of the Las Vegas activities, as his competition.

“It puts us in kind of a tough spot,” Neagle said.

As for the Gun Store’s concealed weapon classes, those remain full as usual, with local crime scares driving much of that traffic.

“Every time a homeowner is killed, we get an influx of people wanting to buy guns, which is natural,” Irwin said.

Guns and Ammo Garage’s local retail firearm sales have increased “very significantly,” Neagle said.

As for the future, Irwin isn’t sitting around taking his hit on the chin. He said he has some plans to increase his market share, but didn’t want to disclose them here.

“I’d rather they have to wait at least a week to see what I’m doing,” Irwin said.

Contact reporter Laura Carroll at lcarroll@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4588. Follow @lscvegas on Twitter.