Indoor shooting range open for business
An indoor shooting range originally proposed for Midtown Kingston has officially opened its doors on Kieffer Lane.
The finishing touches are still being put on the facility and its inventory, but an indoor shooting range originally proposed for Midtown Kingston has officially opened in the town of Ulster.
The Safeshoot indoor shooting range and firearms training center at 10 Kieffer Lane opened to the public on Nov. 17 and to its members on Nov. 10, according to Dr. Adam Soyer, one of the owners. He said the facility is still getting in its inventory and setting up, but the indoor shooting range is operational and people have started to take advantage of it.
The facility features a 24-lane indoor shooting range divided into three bays of eight. The first two bays can be used for pistols, while the third is for pistols and rifles. Each of the lanes is 25-yards long.
“Everything is state of the art,” Soyer said during a tour Friday, and the range and entire facility are handicapped-accessible. He added that the trap for bullets fired in the range is totally self-contained, which minimizes labor for the staff and exposure to lead. Soyer said it is a hands-off system in which the spent bullets are taken outside via an enclosed conveyor belt and dumped into a sealed drum. An electronic alert notifies the staff when the drum needs to be replaced, he said.
In addition to the range, there is 5,000-square-feet of retail space for guns and accessories, as well as a “ladies lifestyle” section with clothing and bags. Safeshoot will also be manufacturing range ammunition on site as well as providing gunsmithing services.
On the second floor of the facility is another 5,000-square-feet of space that can be used for large events like banquets, corporate functions or gun shows. The second floor also features a café space that Soyer expects to be up and running by January, as well as offices, classroom space, a catering area and a members-only lounge.
“The model of the business is not to reproduce the box stores,” Soyer said. He said Safeshoot looks to sell items that cannot typically be found in stores.
Safeshoot is located in a 22,000-square-footbuilding off East Chester
Street Bypass that formerly housed the Eastern States electrical supply company. It is on the same property as Kingston Block and Masonry.
“Thank you city of Kingston for running them out,” Ulster town Supervisor James Quigley said this week when asked about Safeshoot opening. He said the town of Ulster is “open for business.”
Soyer had originally planned to open a five-lane indoor shooting range in a 3,000-square-foot medical building he owns on Prince Street in Kingston, but that proposal ran into opposition because of its nearness to the YMCA and the Kingston High School. City officials also revised a 1978 local law that restricted the location of shooting ranges in Kingston and set requirements for their operation, effectively blocking Soyer’s proposal. He put the Prince Street building up for sale as a result, but later decided
to keep it.
The Kieffer Lane property is an out-of-the-way industrial site, Quigley has previously said.
Soyer said the current Safeshoot facility is much larger than the one he envisioned in the city of Kingston. He said he took on two partners, Ted Musialkiewicz and Kathy Maxwell, to bring the project to fruition.
Safeshoot offers a range of membership options, as well as hourly range rentals. Users can also rent guns and purchase ammunition on site.
Memberships range in price from $25 for a limited monthly option, to $2,500 for life. There is also a $25 per month membership for law enforcement personnel. The range is also open to non-members.
Soyer said Safeshoot would also have classes beginning in December. Those classes would include the basic pistol safety course required by New York state for handgun permits, as well as classes for novice to more advanced shooters, he said.
For more information, visit www.safeshootny.com.