Gun Garage

Mark Cole – Guns & Ammo Garage – Las Vegas

If you ask Gun Garage owner, Mark Cole, a firearms related question, he’ll likely tell you that he has no idea.  Then he will turn you over to one of his sales staff.  You see, Mark is not a gun guy but he is a businessman who recognized that he had a prime location for a gun store…So he opened one up.  The location?  Performance Muffler & Performance Rhino Shop on the NW corner of Ali Baba & Dean Martin directly across the I-15 freeway from the Excalibur, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and The Hotel here in fabulous Las Vegas, NV.

The idea here was a retail gun store that could serve the local community and run side by side with the muffler and Rhino shop.  Gun Garage opened on December 1st, 2010 and began selling guns in the shared retail space of the garage….Hence the name Guns & Ammo Garage.  The store is everything you can expect from a Las Vegas gun shop.  They carry range gear, safes, guns, standard boxed as well as reloaded and bulk ammo, handguns, rifles, shotguns, cleaning products, optics, zombie targets, etc…

Calling once again on his business savvy, Mark listened to his customer base who time after time suggested he open a shooting range too.  Within 3 months, plans were underway to do just that.

To make room for the new 12 lane 20 yard range, the contents of the entire garage had to be moved to the shop’s new location at 5370 S. Decatur.  Considering the size and weight of some of the equipment used in an automotive garage, this was no small undertaking.  Air compressors, welders, tool boxes, and the BendPak car lifts were all put on trailers and hauled out.   Once the garage side of things was empty, tear down was necessary to remove some concrete block walls in order to make way for the new range area.

For safety reasons, you can’t exactly build a gun range on the other side of garage doors.  The doors were rolled up and the openings filled with rebar enforced and grout filled masonry block.  Just before the final door was sealed off, all of the steel baffles, bullet traps, HVAC system, and other range components arrived.  Parts of the garage floor were cut away in order to lay a solid foundation for the front wall which separates the shooting range from the lobby and viewing areas.  The wall is built with the same materials that were used to fill in the garage doors plus 2 inch thick bullet proof glass was installed for your safe viewing pleasure.

At the same time that the wall construction began,  the ventilation system, shooting stalls, bullet traps, and everything else down range began to come together.  A small t-shirt/souvenir retail section, waiting area, rest rooms, and the gun rental counter were built directly behind the retail gun store.  Most of the counters are covered with themed graphics from AMR Racing.  This entire area offers a great view of the gun range and has plenty of room for private parties as well as a few table tops built around the support beams.

The range itself was designed and built by Action Target, a well known company who’s products can be found in a number of other Las Vegas shooting facilities as well as many other shooting ranges throughout the world.  Gun Garage opted for a basic target retrieval system which sends the targets downrange on a set of cables and brings them back via the same.  No confusing programmable options here, just a forward and back control and some lighting.  The shooting stalls are all constructed of AR500 steel which protects the shooters next door from harm should there be any accidental discharges.  At this time, 2 of the dozen stalls are equipped with video cameras and the company is working on installing a system which will allow them to deliver videos to those who want to remember and share their machine gun experience with others.

Speaking of machine guns, all the usual suspects are accounted for as well as a few not so common offerings like a Kriss Super V.  They also have a decent selection of handguns ranging from .22 caliber up to the almighty .500 S&W Magnum which isn’t so bad to shoot since after the 3rd round, your hand goes numb. ;)  Shooting packages are available for people of all ages.  The prices range from $40.00 up to $159.95 and include gun rental, eye & ear protection, targets, ammunition, and a T-Shirt.  For those of you wanting more options, larger package deals can be negotiated.

There are multiple gun ranges being built in Las Vegas right now but the Gun Garage was the first to cross the finish line opening their new gun range on January 6th, 2012 just before the 2012 Shot Show.  In fact, with the show almost a month past, each of the other ranges are still dealing with construction and/or County inspections.  Some of these other ranges were anticipating earlier openings and began booking reservations.  This has created a good business opportunity for Gun Garage who graciously opened their doors for the “competition” and worked out a deal so their bookings did not have to be cancelled.  Gun Garage will even arrange special hours for groups.

Overall, this is a neat gun store and machine gun range centrally located in the Vegas valley.  The staff are all friendly and excited about the future of the business.

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Acknowledgements: Construction photos provided by: Guns more...