Sunday, February 09, 2020

Review: The Bullet Hole, Mission KS

TL'DR - good large shooting range and gun store. Bit dated and dusty. I like it.

Now for the novel:

The Bullet Hole is a fine shooting range and gun store in North Johnson County, KS. Been shopping here 20+ years, ever since I moved to town. They certainly do have the largest range in the area, upper floor is 15 or 30 lanes with target carriers out to 25 yards. Lower level is two open rooms for competition events; IDPA, IPCS, revolver, steel challenge and more.  Nice conference room downstairs too.  Lane fees are great - one fee for the annual membership - and you get to shoot free that day - and one flat rate for the lane for as long as you care to shoot.  No hourly fees. Air handlers work well, pulling smoke and lead fumes downrange and out of your face.  Air is directly pulled from outside, so it's right cold in the winter.

After becoming a member at The Bullet Hole (not sure of the time period)  you can rent a wide variety of handguns to try out, and I understand they have recently gotten their machine gun permit and have rental machine guns there tool.  Pull the trigger once - all 20 rounds fire off, unless you let go of the trigger.

While  busy, the employees have always been polite, even when I ask the same question 3 or 50 times in a row (usually about pricing and the colored tags).  Their firearm selection is first rate, focused on personal protection.  Pricing is better than you find at gun shows, and usually competitive with online shops.  They've been very gracious in letting me look and handgun after handgun, knowing I''m not buying anything that day. They've helped me to purchase and installed TFO TruGlo sights on my handguns, fair price, on the spot turnaround and no labor fees.

They offer reasonable prices on factory ammunition, and frequently have bulk ammunition sales.  They also have reloading supplies, although I've never seen any reloading presses set up or for sale.

Their accessory selection (holsters, primarily) has always been an afterthought it appears; they do have some holsters, but they are not in good order on the pegs and you simply have to flip through to see what you can find. I don't blame them - with the diversity of makes, models and types of holsters, limited wall space, and brutal competition online, I wouldn't put a lot of time or energy into holsters.  They could stand to clean it up and dust though.

One less star for the store for cleanliness.  Granted, it's an old building.  Granted, millions of round have been shot in it.  But it could stand a coat of paint, fresh carpet every 3 or 5 years, and a weekly detail clean of everything, and daily dusting. When it's busy, and they've had a ammo truck delivery, it's very crowded, hard to move around in during peak times.  Try to come by at 10AM or 2PM instead of lunch or just after dinner when everyone else does.

As I understand they've recently been bought out and now offer remarkably better communications, dozens of classes from the newest shooter to the grizzled old competition shooter through several vendors, not just the owners.  Very pleased to see that, have taken one of my sons through their basics class and he was *geeked*.  Wife and I did a couples / 2 person self defense class, and she was treated with respect, highly enjoyed the class and still brags on the class to this day. 

Long story short, big range.  Good gun shop.  20+ year customer, will continue to do business with them.

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