The Hesseling Range offers an indoor shooting range, with ground moving for an outdoor area behind the Elida Road facility.
Precious Grundy | The Lima News
LIMA — A business that began in a small garage has transformed into a brick and mortar and much more.
The Hesseling Range is celebrating its seventh year in business. Owners Phil and Gennifer Hesseling shared the importance of remaining in the community and continuing to grow the shooting range and gun store at a new location at 387 Elida Road, Lima.
“This is just the beginning. We opened in our garage in 2017,” Gennifer said. “It was 300 square feet and smaller than the kitchen. We sold guns at the top, and they coated guns in a plastic tent at the bottom of the garage.
“Seven years later, we are standing in this building — half of the building is where our custom and machine shop are, where we do our gunsmithing. We coat guns for the entire industry, and they go out through distribution channels.”
The Hesselings recently moved to a bigger location. Gennifer also said the business did the same work at its smaller location. The new space allows a bigger retail space, a community room and space for more activities to come.
“The dust is settling on this project for us,” Gennifer said. “There is a whole lot of dust happening across the road. We have 19 acres here on East Road behind the facility that we are developing into our outdoor complex. We are moving dirt and learning land. That has been a process for quite some time. It will be a shooting complex. There will be trap rifle lanes, a paintball area, an archery area and fishing.”
At the new location, the Hesselings introduced the community to a new indoor range with interactive features.
“It is an infrared system that picks up your shots,” Gennifer said. “The targets are fixed at 20 feet, but it is scalable — as you scale it out, you can simulate the distance. There are also interactive games where you can train, complete personal safety scenarios and do different interactive targets. There are also leaderboards so you are competing against the entire country for people that have the system.”
Gennifer also said participants can email themselves the target.
For more information, visit hesselingandsons.com.
CELEBRATING OUR SPIRIT
Many businesses and organizations started right here in the Lima region, with the goal of making an impact in the region. This year’s Celebrating Our Spirit looks at those trailblazers. Read more stories at LimaOhio.com/tag/spirit.
Reach Precious Grundy at 567-242-0351.
