Summer Update, and an Announcement

2020 is a weird time.

The pandemic shut us down for 8 weeks, which was not great, but when the lockdown lifted, we were pretty much in summer mode. Basically, we came out of a 2-month dead stop into a 3-month slow crawl - which we were expecting, because summer is our slowest period anyway. However, this summer has been made exponentially worse by the Liberal government’s May 1st firearms ban. Lots of us have AR-15s and other sporting rifles that we can no longer use, and that has severely impacted range traffic.

To make matters even worse, the government lockdown on training courses is still in effect, and we don’t have any information about when they will allow us to resume our CFSC training schedule.

Plus, this happened:

“Yer a wizard, ‘Arry.”

The thing is, we’re not too worried. In fact, we’re pretty optimistic about the rest of the year.

RANGE TRAFFIC

The good news here is, if you want to shoot handguns or any rifle that hasn’t been added to the “naughty lists,” there are no line-ups or crowds. The range is safe and clean, and you’ll probably get the range all to yourself for as long as you need it. We have temporarily closed the odd-numbered lanes, so the open lanes are at least 2m apart and thoroughly ventilated - social-distancing friendly. We do have some bookings in the fall, but summer is wide open - no courses, no special events until September. Come whenever you want.

Additionally, because of the loosening of some restrictions, we can once again allow our members to bring guests from outside their own households. As usual, you are responsible for your guests respecting range rules and behaving in a safe and responsible manner, and this includes respecting social distancing and practicing good sanitation. Our washroom is well stocked with water and soap, and we have hand sanitizer and wipes available at the front desk and on the range.

2020’s Man Of The Year

Also, we still have plenty of ammo for sale, and our prices are still pretty good. We’re still offering curbside pickup Thursday evenings and Sunday mornings for orders placed via email, Facebook, Messenger and our website contact form through the week, or we can do walk-in sales during staffed hours. And if you happen to have a bolt-action .223 rifle, now is the perfect time to buy ammo because the AR dudes aren’t buying it all up.

PAL/RPAL COURSES

In regards to the PAL/RPAL training schedule, we can’t book any courses until we have a confirmed restart date from the government. It doesn’t matter if we limit the class size to meet the maximum-10-person-gatherings provincial rule, or how we space the desks in the classroom. The office is closed, and they don’t have a date yet when they will reopen. We cannot offer courses without the support of the Firearms Safety Education Service of Ontario (FSESO, please read the big red-text notice on their main page), and if we go ahead and do the courses anyway, we lose our credentials and licensing.

PAL and RPAL represented by Rugers.

When we do get a date, we will begin booking the courses immediately, and we will be offering them more frequently in order to deal with the backlog. Frankly, we expect a significant increase in people wanting PAL and RPAL courses due to the bizarre events of the past few months. So we may need to sustain an accelerated training schedule for a while to meet that demand.

People who signed up for courses that got cancelled will be getting first priority when we resume training. Again, we don’t have a clear timeline for when that will be, but the moment we know, you guys will know. And once we get that ball rolling again, we’re going to be busy. And since the province announced that we are moving on to Phase 3 of the reopening plan, we anticipate that we should be back in action soon.

EXPANDING OPERATIONS: TSA PRO SHOP

We were riding pretty high at the beginning of the year before COVID-19, and we’re pretty sure we can get back up to those levels even with all the setbacks of the last few months. It’s been sort of an open secret that we are building a new retail store inside the range. We’ve been teasing out pictures since March, and we’re in a position now to offer up some details.

It will be more secure once the windows are installed…

Firstly, we will be significantly expanding our ammo selection and reloading supplies. We will have a broader selection of handgun ammo, a range of .30-calibre rounds for hunting in the fall, and some other stuff that we don’t currently carry, and it will all be range-safe. We also plan on bringing in shotgun ammo and clays, which is not range-safe. We’ve already moved our ammo cage to the new space.

The sales counter will feature interior mood lighting

Right now, we have bullets and powders exclusively for handgun/pistol reloading, but we will be bringing in rifle reloading components as well. We’ll also be beinging in presses, dies, shell holders and other reloading tools.

You’ll also be able to find cleaning supplies, ear and eye protection, cases, locks, an expanded selection of targets, holsters and belts, magazines and lots of other sports shooting equipment and fun stuff. We’re going to have a particular focus on sports shooting rather than hunting.

These are the “for-sure” items we will have in stock on opening day, and we’ll be able to custom order pretty much anything our customers want. We have access to the same suppliers as everyone else, and we’re local.

Ammo cage has friends now.

We’re also planning on some more interesting merchandise, but we need to get the i’s dotted and t’s crossed on some government paperwork for that. More details will be forthcoming as that situation develops.

Our current plan is to officially open our retail store to the public on Saturday, September 12. For the week leading up to the grand opening, there will be a members-only soft opening - the store will be accessible by keyfob only for TSA members and their guests. Our opening week store hours are posted on the calendar. These plans are subject to change in the event of another government lockdown, but, again, we’re feeling optimistic.

And for the record, my hand is healing nicely.