OnTarget Opens Shooting Range Doors & Gun Shop – A Tour
The sign on the top of the OnTarget shooting range proclaims, "Now Open."
Wednesday was the opening day for OnTarget, Bo Strom’s new Crystal Lake shooting range and gun shop.
The building is way, way out of my normal driving patterns, but, having found it, I can tell you how to get there.
Find Knaack Manufacturing on Route 176 and turn north on, what else, Knaack Boulevard.
Then drive as far as you can.
Past all the Crystal Lake water tanks.
The new building is right next to the high power lines.
Plenty of parking.
The front door leads to the gun store part of the building.
I walked in and saw, would you believe, guns.
There is “a fully stocked retail area selling firearms, ammunition, and accessories,” to put it in the words of a short press release that was sent out.
I looked around the store and found a familiar face.
Any national organization would welcome a volunteer with the energy that Rich (seen here) and Monica Young put into recruiting grass roots support the National Rifle Association.
It was Rich Young, standing behind a NRA recruitment table.
Bo Strom and his manager Tom Dosch came down from the offices above to give me the grand tour.
Jim Carlin, an active member of the Huntley Area Tea Party, chatted with owner Bo Strom.
They took me into the rifle range, which wasn’t being used at the time.
A view of the rifle range from near the shooting positions.
I asked how the range was going to avoid the problem that the National Guard had in Woodstock. They built a range with the building in the 1990′s, but had to close it because of lead pollution problems.
We walked down to the target end of the big hall and Strom explained how his facility solved the problem.
Tom Dorsch observes as Bo Strom reaches down to pick up some rubber fragments where the rifle bullets end up.
A massive triangular shaped wall composed of small pieces of rubber stop the bullets.
A machine sifts the bullets shot from the twelve lanes out of the rubber.
Strom explained that the air in the shooting range has negative pressure.
“Like a medical research facility?” I asked.
I can’t remember his exact answer, but the gist was, “Pretty much.”
“The air is filter out the back end and comes out cleaner than when it when in,” he told me.
This is taken from the pressurized chamber between the store and the rifle range.
There are also twelve pistol lanes on the south side of the building, but Strom had to get back to a meeting and I had to pick up my son.
“There are three training classrooms where we will offer a full complement of various classes,” the press release added.
“Hours are from 10 to 8 except for Sunday which is 10 to 7.”
