Shooting Range Business Plan
SBA names indoor and outdoor shooting ranges in its list of Environmentally Sensitive Industries, and that can change your timeline and your budget before you have bought a single baffle. Under SOP 50 10 8.1, when commercial real estate is offered as security for a 7(a) or 504 loan and a current or known prior use of it matches that list (a unit in a Multi-Unit Building excepted), the lender's environmental investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". Without a match, a loan up to and including $250,000 may begin with an Environmental Questionnaire. The test follows the collateral, not the purchase, and on a range the contaminant at issue is lead.
Verify every requirement with the named agency and your lender before committing capital. We have not surveyed state or local rules, or construction and equipment costs, which are site-specific.
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. SBA's rulebook does not treat the property that way, and the reason is written down rather than a matter of anyone's risk appetite.
SOP 50 10 8.1, in effect since 1 October 2026, 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 the whole of code 713990. It carved out shooting ranges specifically, indoor as well as outdoor, and put them on the same list as oil and gas extraction, mining, and heavy and civil engineering construction.
What does being on that list actually cost you?
Where it applies, it removes the questionnaire route. SBA requires an Environmental Investigation of "all commercial Property upon which a security interest such as a mortgage, deed of trust, or leasehold deed of trust is offered as security for a loan or debenture", on 7(a) and 504 loans alike. With no Appendix 6 match, 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." Above $250,000 it "must, at a minimum, begin with an Environmental Questionnaire and Records Search with Risk Assessment".
With a match, that graduated approach is gone. The lender compares the NAICS codes for "the Property’s current and known prior uses" with Appendix 6, and on a match the investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". So the test follows the collateral, not the purchase: a leasehold deed of trust on premises you rent counts, and a former range is caught by its prior use. One exception: for "a unit in a Multi-Unit Building", non-industrial with four or more units, the lender may skip the comparison and use the no-match route above. Our SBA environmental requirements guide has every step.
The standard is named too: Appendix 4 defines a Phase I as "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, or in the alternative submit results for an exception to policy at EnvironmentalAppeals@sba.gov.
On known contamination the SOP says: "Loans may not be approved or disbursed if there is known Contamination or on-going Remediation at the Property unless the risks have been minimized to the satisfaction of SBA."
At a range the obvious contaminant is lead, a hazardous substance under the Superfund law, CERCLA, which EPA's manual on lead at outdoor shooting ranges (revised June 2005) says "imposes liability on past and present owners or operators of properties where a release of a hazardous substance into the environment exists". On an existing range that history comes with the property; ask an environmental attorney what protects a buyer. If range real estate is your collateral, budget for the Phase I, and treat a Phase II as a live possibility rather than a tail risk.
None of this makes a range ineligible: Appendix 6 is an environmental list, not an eligibility list. The listing adds a report to the timeline and a cost to the diligence budget, and a plan can deal with both before the lender asks.
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 has a ceiling: the number of lanes and your opening hours fix how much of it you can sell. So we model a range on up to four lines: lane hire, retail (firearms, ammunition, accessories), training and certification courses, and memberships.
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, rests its whole repayment case on one line.
What licenses does a shooting range need?
Three layers of rules to check.
- Federal. Under 18 U.S.C. 923(a) no person may "engage in the business of importing, manufacturing, or dealing in firearms, or importing or manufacturing ammunition" without a Federal Firearms License, applied for through ATF. A dealer includes a business selling firearms or repairing them (18 U.S.C. 921(a)(11)). Rental on the premises sits differently: under 27 CFR 478.97(b) a "club, association, or similar organization temporarily furnishing firearms" to participants in a target or similar shooting activity "for use at the time and place such activity is held" is not, "unattended by other circumstances", engaged in the business of a dealer. Whether your range fits that sentence is for ATF to say, not an article, including this one, because the answer depends on specifics we cannot see.
- State. We have not surveyed state law. Ask your state authority whether it licenses dealers, regulates ranges or sets design standards.
- Local. Zoning, noise ordinances and conditional use permits. The federal license is tied to this layer: under 18 U.S.C. 923(d)(1)(F)(i) the applicant certifies that the business "is not prohibited by State or local law in the place where the licensed premise is located". Resolve the zoning question before you option the site.
The federal dealer fee is in the statute: 18 U.S.C. 923(a)(3)(B) sets "a fee of $200 for 3 years, except that the fee for renewal of a valid license shall be $90 for 3 years" for a dealer outside destructive devices. We could not retrieve ATF's current Form 7, so confirm the figure there. We have not surveyed state or local fees.
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. In our view these variables move the number; treat each as a question for your designer and suppliers:
- Indoor or outdoor. Entirely different projects.
- Ventilation at an indoor range. Airborne lead is an occupational exposure question: OSHA's lead standard, 29 CFR 1910.1025, "applies to all occupational exposure to lead" (construction and certain agricultural operations aside), and under paragraph (c)(1) the employer must assure that "no employee is exposed to lead at concentrations greater than fifty micrograms per cubic meter of air", averaged over an 8-hour period.
- Baffles, backstops and traps. Ask how lane count and the calibers you intend to permit, rifle or pistol-only, change the specification.
- Lane count. Ask what it does to parking, restrooms and staffing.
- Retail inventory is working capital.
- Environmental diligence and any remediation, per the section above. Where a range or former range is the collateral, this can be the least predictable line.
Build the figure from your own quotes and keep it in the shape of the SOP's total project costs, because that is the base a 7(a) start-up's equity injection is measured on.
How do you fund a shooting range?
SBA 7(a) and 504 are the two programs SOP 50 10 8.1 covers. Two rules set the minimum equity.
First, on a 7(a) loan, 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.
The SOP then says "All 7(a) loans made to a Start-Up Business require a 10% equity injection based on the project cost"; on SBA Express loans it leaves equity to the lender's business judgment. The base is the whole project, not the loan: "all costs required to become operational, regardless of the source of funds, except for lines of credit and 504 loans". Buying an existing range business and continuing its operations is a change of ownership, which has its own equity rules: see our SBA equity injection requirements guide. But where there is no clearly defined continuity of operations and you are not continuing the seller's business, Appendix 15 says "the Lender may evaluate the transaction as a start-up".
Second, on a 504 project the property classification matters, and the test for a new business is a different one: Appendix 3 defines a New Business as one "that has been in operation for 2 years or less at the time the loan is approved", and an older business "may be considered a New Business if it is a change of ownership that will result in new, unproven ownership/management and increased debt unrelated to business operations". Every 504 borrower contributes at least 10%; a New Business or a Limited or Special Purpose Property makes it at least 15%, and both together at least 20%. A shooting range is not named in the SOP's list of examples of such property, 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". On our reading a purpose-built ballistic structure is a plausible candidate, which would put a new range at 20% rather than 15%.
You can work your own figure out with our free SBA equity requirement calculator, which applies the 504 tiers.
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. Which real estate secures the loan, whether its current or known prior uses match Appendix 6, who is doing the Phase I, when, and what happens if it escalates.
- 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, from a quote rather than 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. It is an environmental list, not a list of ineligible businesses.
Do I need a Phase I environmental assessment for a shooting range loan?
If commercial real estate with a current or known prior use as a shooting range is offered as security, yes, unless it is a unit in a Multi-Unit Building: SOP 50 10 8.1 says the Environmental Investigation "must begin with a Phase I, regardless of the amount of the loan". The Environmental Questionnaire start for loans up to and including $250,000 does not apply.
What happens if the Phase I finds lead?
SOP 50 10 8.1 says that if the Environmental Professional conducting the Phase I concludes further investigation is warranted, typically a Phase II, and the lender still wants to make the loan, the lender must proceed as recommended or submit the results for an exception to policy. With known Contamination, a loan may not be approved or disbursed unless the risks have been minimized to SBA's satisfaction.
Is a shooting range a special purpose property for SBA?
A shooting range is not named in the SOP 50 10 8.1 list of examples of Limited or Special Purpose Property. 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 on a 504 loan.
Do I need an FFL to run a shooting range?
It depends on what you do. Dealing in firearms as a business requires a Federal Firearms License under 18 U.S.C. 923(a), applied for through ATF. 27 CFR 478.97(b) treats a club or similar organization that temporarily furnishes firearms for use at the range differently. Confirm your category with ATF directly.
What can stop a shooting range before it opens?
Local zoning and noise rules can. The federal firearms license depends on them: under 18 U.S.C. 923(d)(1)(F)(i) the applicant certifies that the business is not prohibited by State or local law where the licensed premises are located. Settle zoning before you option a site.
Sources, checked on 10 October 2026: SBA SOP 50 10 8.1, effective 1 October 2026 (Section A, Chapter 5; Section B, Chapters 1 and 2; Section C, Chapter 1; Appendices 3, 4, 6 and 15); 18 U.S.C. 921 and 923; 27 CFR 478.97 and 29 CFR 1910.1025, annual editions compared with the current text at the Legal Information Institute; EPA, Best Management Practices for Lead at Outdoor Shooting Ranges (EPA-902-B-01-001, revised June 2005). Not retrieved: ATF's own pages and Form 7. Not surveyed: state and local rules, costs and revenues.
This page summarizes what SBA SOP 50 10 8.1 and the sources above say as of 10 October 2026. It is general information, not lending, legal, environmental or firearms regulatory advice, and it is not a commitment to lend. Confirm every requirement and figure with ATF, your state authority, your local planning office, your environmental professional and your lender before you commit capital.