SBA Loans for Shooting Ranges, Gun Shops and Guntry Clubs

If you own a gun shop or indoor shooting range — or you’re thinking about opening one — there’s a good chance you’ve already hit a wall with a bank. Maybe they said no outright. Maybe they strung you along for two months before quietly declining. Either way, you got the message.

This is a real pattern. Some banks have internal policies against lending to firearms businesses regardless of your credit, cash flow, or time in business. This has nothing to do with SBA rules — the SBA has no restriction on firearms retailers or shooting ranges. It’s a bank-level policy decision.

The good news: SBA-focused lenders are a different breed. Many have been doing SBA loans for gun shops and shooting ranges for years. The program is available to you, and the possible financing structures have real advantages.

What You’ll Learn in This Guide

• Whether gun shops, shooting ranges, and guntry clubs qualify for SBA loans
• Which borrowers can qualify for 100% financing
• How the SBA 7a and SBA 504 programs work for firearms businesses
• Typical down payment requirements and the special use property question
• How shooting range construction loans are structured
• Why some banks refuse firearms businesses — and which lenders do not
• What outdoor ranges can and can’t do with SBA financing
• How veterans with firearms experience have a genuine underwriting advantage

On This Page

• Guntry Clubs — The High-End Shooting Range Concept
• Are Gun Shops and Shooting Ranges SBA Eligible?
• Can You Finance at 100%?
• Why Some Banks Say No
• What You Can Finance With an SBA Loan
• SBA 7a vs. SBA 504 — Which Program Makes Sense
• Down Payment Requirements
• The Special Use Property Question
• Ground-Up Construction of a Shooting Range
• Outdoor Shooting Ranges
• Buying an Existing Gun Shop or Range
• SBA Loans for Veteran-Owned Gun Shops and Ranges
• Credit Requirements
• Typical Loan Sizes
• NAICS Codes and the Two-Industry Rule
• Working With a Lender Who Understands This Industry
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Guntry Club Financing — Larger Projects

Guntry Clubs — The High-End Shooting Range Concept

Before getting into the specifics of how SBA financing works for gun shops and ranges, it’s worth briefly introducing the high end of this market.

If you’ve heard the term “guntry club” and wondered what it means, it’s exactly what it sounds like — a firearms facility that combines a shooting range with the amenities of an upscale country club. Think VIP lounges, fine dining, craft beer, cigars, simulator rooms, professional instruction, gunsmithing, retail, and multiple range configurations under one roof. The concept has been around since at least 2013, when the first one opened in Georgia, and it has grown steadily since, establishing the format as a legitimate and growing segment of the firearms industry.

Are Shooting Ranges and Gun Shops SBA Eligible?

Yes. Neither firearms retail nor shooting ranges appear on the SBA’s ineligible business type list. The SBA’s eligibility rules — codified in 13 CFR § 120.110 — are about business structure and use of proceeds, not the type of legal product being sold. Firearms retailers and shooting ranges do not appear anywhere on that list.

The SBA has not just allowed these loans — it has celebrated them. Multiple shooting range and gun shop transactions have been highlighted in SBA success stories over the years. One recent project involved a veteran of the National Guard and a former police officer who used an SBA 504 loan to build a state-of-the-art 10-lane indoor shooting range attached to his firearms retail operation.

Can You Finance a Gun Shop or Shooting Range at 100%?

Yes, if you are not considered a startup and you have solid cash flow, good credit, reserves, etc. The same 100% financing rules that apply to other SBA-eligible businesses apply for fireams businesses.

If you already own a profitable gun shop or shooting range and you’re expanding — purchasing a second location, buying a competitor, or building a new facility — some SBA 7a lenders will finance the expansion at 100% with no down payment. Your existing business’s cash flow and track record serve as the functional substitute for the equity injection.

This is not available from every lender, but there are many that we work with that will do it based on the strengths of your existing operation, your personal credit, etc. It is very real, it’s documented, and it’s been done for firearms businesses specifically.

If this is your first location and you don’t have an existing business to leverage, you’re looking at the standard 10% down, but there are flexible ways of coming up with the 10% – including the ability to borrow it from another source. For a full breakdown of how 100% SBA financing works for gun shop or shooting range applicants, here is the link to the 100% financing post again: how to get an SBA loan with no money down.

Why Some Banks Say No — And Why That’s Not an SBA Problem

When a bank declines a gun shop for financing, the loan officer often says something vague about “risk” or “underwriting standards” or sometimes just goes quiet. What they rarely say out loud is that the bank has a corporate policy that prohibits lending to firearms businesses regardless of creditworthiness.

Numerous banks have been known to have restrictions on commercial lending to the firearms industry, and if you call the wrong one you might assume it is an SBA issue. It isn’t. The SBA has no restriction on firearms businesses. The problem is the bank, not the program.

SBA-focused lenders — particularly the truly savvy SBA lenders and banks that specialize in 7a and 504 lending — have very different cultures from the big retail banks. They evaluate loans on cash flow, collateral, and character. A gun shop or shooting range with solid financials is just another deal to them.

This is one of the most important lender-selection scenarios I come across. If you’ve been turned down for SBA financing for a firearms business, the answer is usually not to give up on the SBA — it’s to find a different lender.

What You Can Finance With an SBA Loan

Both the SBA 7a and SBA 504 programs cover a wide range of uses for gun shops and shooting ranges. Here’s what’s financeable:

Use of Funds	SBA 7a	SBA 504
100% financing (no down payment)	✓ (existing business owners)	✗
Purchase existing building	✓	✓
Ground-up construction	✓	✓
Building renovation or buildout	✓	✓
Purchase an existing business	✓	✗ (real estate/equipment only)
Equipment — ventilation, bullet traps, baffles, target systems	✓	✓ (major equipment)
Working capital	✓	✗ (unless part of a refinance)
Inventory (initial stock)	✓ (with some lenders)	✗
Refinance existing business debt	✓	✓ (real estate related)
Partner buyout	✓	✗
Closing costs and soft costs	✓	✓

One thing worth calling out specifically for shooting ranges: the specialized equipment involved — ventilation systems, bullet traps, range baffles, electronic target systems, soundproofing — is expensive and often the largest line item after the building itself. The SBA 7a can finance this equipment as part of a larger transaction, and the 504 program can include major equipment as part of a real estate deal. This is one of the areas where SBA financing genuinely outperforms conventional commercial lending, which typically wants to separate real estate from equipment financing.

SBA 7a vs. SBA 504 — Which Program Makes Sense for a Gun Shop or Shooting Range

The right program depends on what you’re trying to do. Here’s a quick comparison:

Feature	SBA 7a	SBA 504
Maximum SBA loan	$5M standard ($7M+ with select lenders)	$5M SBA portion ($12.5M+ total project)
Down payment (established business)	No Down Payment Required* (startups 10%)	10–20% depending on property type
Working capital	Yes	No (but possible with refi)
Business acquisition	Yes	No
Interest rate	Variable (fixed available with some lenders)	Long-term fixed on SBA portion
Special use collateral	Cash flow driven — more flexible	Collateral dependent — less down for mult-use properties
Best for shooting ranges	Most transactions of approx $8M, outdoor ranges, acquisitions	Large real estate projects, guntry clubs, long-term holds

*The SBA 7a does NOT require a down payment for existing businesses for owners with a proven track record with that specific business.

The SBA 7a is the more flexible program and is always worth considering for most gun shop and shooting range transactions up to approximately $8 million. It can handle real estate, equipment, working capital, and business acquisition all in a single loan — which is a meaningful structural advantage. If you’re buying an existing business that includes a building and a shooting range, the 7a can wrap all of it — goodwill, fixtures, equipment, real estate — into one loan with one payment.

The SBA 504 becomes the better choice for larger transactions — whether an established business purchasing a substantial facility or a large ground-up construction project that exceeds what the 7a can reasonably handle. The 504 cannot be used for business acquisitions, but it can accommodate total projects in the range of $20 million or more, and the rate on the SBA second mortgage is fully fixed for 25 years, which is genuinely hard to beat for a long-term real estate hold.

For mixed-use transactions — purchasing an existing gun shop that includes a retail operation, a range, and the building — the 7a is almost always the cleaner structure, assuming the loan amount fits within the 7a’s ceiling . For larger mixed-use deals that exceed what a single 7a can handle, there are ways to structure a solution using a combination of both programs, though those transactions require a lender who knows how to layer the two properly.

Down Payment Requirements

Standard down payment for an SBA 7a loan on a gun shop or shooting range is 10% of total project costs UNLESS you already own and operate a succesful business of the same type (same NAICS code), in which case a down payment is NOT required for the 7a.

The 10% is calculated on the full project — real estate, equipment, working capital, SBA guaranty fee, and closing costs — not just the purchase price of the building.

For the SBA 504, the standard down payment is also 10% for an established business purchasing an existing property. It goes to 15% for a new business and 20% for special-use properties — and an indoor shooting range with a custom ventilation system and bullet traps may be considered special-use by some lenders, so that’s worth confirming early in the process.

The down payment does not have to come entirely from personal savings. Acceptable sources include:

• Cash savings
• Borrowed funds (as long as you have income to service the borrowed amount separately)
• Retirement account rollovers (ROBS structure)
• Seller-held standby note — as of June 2025, the seller can hold 5% on full standby if you contribute 5% cash, effectively splitting the required equity injection
• Gift funds
• Equity in other real estate (cross-collateralization — very lender-specific)

The Special Use Property Question — and Why It Matters for the 504 Down Payment

One nuance worth understanding before you start lender conversations re: a 504 loan, is how your property gets classified — specifically whether a lender or the SBA treats it as a special use property or a general use property. This classification can make a 5% difference re: the required down payment on a 504 loan, which on a $5 million project is $250,000.

The SBA defines a special use property as one that cannot be converted to another use without a large capital investment. A purpose-built indoor shooting range could be considered special use, but it really depends on the specs of the building.

A mixed-use facility — a guntry club or larger firearms center with substantial retail space, classrooms, a restaurant, event spaces, or fitness areas — is a more arguable case. Those components all have clear alternative uses independent of the shooting range and an experienced lender can make a credible argument that the property as a whole is not purely special use, even if the range lanes themselves are. That argument is worth making because it can save a meaningful amount of money at closing.

The SBA 7a handles this differently. There is no formal special use designation that automatically increases the down payment under the 7a program — it is a cash flow loan and the lender evaluates the business rather than applying a categorical property rule. A 7a lender comfortable with shooting ranges as an asset class can do 10% down on a startup purpose-built range while a 504 lender might require 15% or 20% for the same project. The 504’s long-term fixed rate advantage can still make it the better long-term choice depending on project size and rate environment — but the down payment comparison is worth running before you commit to a program.

SBA Shooting Range Construction Loans — Ground-Up Financing

Ground-up construction is one of the most common uses of SBA financing for shooting ranges, and for good reason — a purpose-built facility is almost always preferable to retrofitting an existing space, and the cost of doing it right is substantial enough that most owners need financing to make it work.

Both programs handles this well, but the SBA 7a is particularly beneficial because of what is financeable as well as the short prepayment penalty that allows you to refinance relatively quickly should it be advantageous to do so. With the right lender, a single 7a construction loan can finance:

• Land acquisition
• Full construction costs including specialized range systems
• Construction contingency (typically 10% of hard costs)
• Interest payments during the construction period — built into the loan so you’re not making payments out of pocket while the building isn’t open yet
• Working capital for the initial operating period
• The SBA guaranty fee
• Third-party closing costs — appraisal, environmental, title, legal

The loan closes once, converts to a permanent loan at completion, and carries a 25-year amortization with no balloon payment. For new construction, your business must initially occupy at least 60% of the square footage — slightly higher than the 51% requirement for existing buildings.

Outdoor Shooting Ranges — Can You Finance One With an SBA Loan?

Outdoor ranges are a different conversation than indoor ranges, and worth understanding before you start the process.

Outdoor shooting ranges are SBA-eligible businesses. There’s no rule against them. But financing one — particularly a purpose-built outdoor range with minimal permanent structure — presents a collateral challenge that indoor ranges don’t have.

The core issue is appraised value versus loan amount. An outdoor range typically consists of land, earthen berms, target frames, basic utilities, and maybe a small building for storage or a pro shop. The land has clear alternative use value. The range-specific improvements — the berms, the lanes, the target systems — have almost none. An appraiser valuing the property for a lender is going to look at what the property is worth to a buyer who isn’t operating a shooting range, and that number is often going to be lower than what you paid to develop it.

For this reason, the SBA 7a is actually the more logical program for an outdoor range with limited permanent structure — not the 504. Here’s why that matters.

The 7a is fundamentally a cash flow loan backed by an SBA guarantee. A lender with a 75% guarantee on a $2 million loan only has $500,000 of unguaranteed exposure. If you have enough going for you to make a lender comfortable with your ability to run the business, the loan can get done. SBA 7a lenders fund startups all the time — even businesses with zero collateral, like e-commerce companies. A proven operator is an easier approval, but the right combination of strengths can get a startup across the finish line too.

The 504, by contrast, requires that the bank and the SBA are comfortable with the real estate collateral position. If the appraisal comes in low because the improvements have limited alternative use value, the 504 structure breaks down quickly. The 504 is a collateral-first program in a way the 7a is not, which makes it the wrong tool for a property where the improvements don’t carry much independent value.

Where outdoor range financing gets more interesting — and where either program becomes more viable — is when there’s meaningful permanent structure involved. A covered shooting pavilion, a retail pro shop, a classroom for training courses, a clubhouse — the more permanent construction on the property, the stronger the collateral position and the more straightforward the financing conversation. This is exactly why many outdoor range operators eventually move toward adding an indoor component. One of the larger SBA-financed shooting range projects in recent years involved a business that started as a gun shop with an outdoor training center and used a multi-million dollar SBA loan to build a large indoor complex. The outdoor operation was the foundation. The indoor build was where the SBA financing made sense at scale — because now there was a real building to support the appraisal.

My take on pure outdoor ranges: it’s possible with the right 7a lender, the right cash flow history (or business plan in the case of a startup), and a borrower with strong relevant experience. It’s not a common transaction and the pool of lenders willing to do it is smaller than for indoor ranges, but the SBA guarantee exists precisely for situations where the collateral doesn’t fully cover the loan.

Buying an Existing Gun Shop or Range

Business acquisition is one of the most common uses of the SBA 7a, and it works the same way for gun shops and shooting ranges as it does for any other eligible business. The 7a can finance the full purchase including:

• Goodwill and intangible assets
• Existing inventory (with some lenders)
• Equipment and fixtures
• Real estate if it’s included in the transaction
• Working capital for the transition period

The standard down payment for a business acquisition is 10%. As of June 2025, if the seller is willing to hold 5% of the purchase price on full standby for the life of the loan, you can reduce your cash contribution to 5%.

The two things that can increase the odds of approval on a gun shop or range acquisition are a solid cash flow history of the business being purchased and your relevant experience as the buyer. Lenders want to see that the business has been generating enough revenue to service the debt, and they want to see that you know what you’re doing. Prior experience in firearms retail, range operations, law enforcement, or the military is all viewed positively — it’s relevant experience that reduces the lender’s perception of operator risk.

SBA Loans for Veteran-Owned Gun Shops and Shooting Ranges

There’s an obvious intersection here between veteran business owners and the firearms industry. Veterans who’ve spent years working with firearms — whether in active duty, law enforcement, or both — are natural candidates to own gun shops and shooting ranges. The relevant experience argument is strong, and lenders recognize it.

As a veteran-owned business, you may also qualify for reduced SBA program fees on certain loan types — specifically a reduced processing fee on SBA 504 loans. These are modest but real benefits. The more meaningful advantage is simply the relevant experience that military and law enforcement backgrounds bring to a firearms business — it makes for a stronger loan application.

For more on SBA financing options for veteran-owned businesses generally, see the VA commercial loans and veteran business financing page.

Credit Requirements

The SBA has no minimum credit score requirement for loans above $350,000. Individual lenders set their own standards, and those standards vary significantly.

For a gun shop or shooting range, I’d say the higher the score, the better — as it removes friction, but just know that most of the better lenders are okay with just decent credit scores.

Prior credit issues — a bankruptcy more than three years ago, a foreclosure with an explainable story, some late payments during a difficult period — are not automatic disqualifiers with the right SBA lender. The SBA’s underwriting philosophy is to look at the whole picture, not apply rigid cutoffs. But the business cash flow (or projected cash flow) has to be there.

For more on credit quality, scores and past credit issues -and what SBA lenders actually look at – see my post on SBA loans after bankruptcy.

Typical Loan Sizes

The range here is wide. A small gun shop acquisition with minimal real estate might be a $500,000 to $1 million 7a loan. A ground-up shooting range facility with 10 or more lanes, specialized ventilation, retail space, and working capital reserve could easily be a $3 to $5 million project. Add a second building or a second location and you’re pushing toward the (normal) $5 million 7a ceiling for most lenders.

For larger shooting range construction projects — think a full-service firearms training facility with multiple range configurations, retail, classroom space, and significant specialized equipment — the SBA 504 structure becomes more attractive. A maxed out 504 loan could build out a serious facility.

For projects above the standard 7a ceiling of $5 million, a small number of lenders will layer an unguaranteed second note behind the SBA-guaranteed first position, reaching $7 to $9 million for very strong transactions. This is not common but it happens for the right transactions and it’s worth knowing about if your project is in that range. For a full breakdown of how SBA loan maximums actually work, see the maximum SBA loan amount overview.

Green Commercial Capital works primarily with larger transactions — most projects start at $500,000, with many significantly larger. If you’re looking at a smaller startup loan or a micro-loan, a community bank or online microlender is a better fit.

NAICS Codes, the Two-Industry Rule, and What They Mean for Your SBA Borrowing Capacity

Most borrowers in this industry have never thought about their NAICS code beyond filling it in on a tax return or loan application. NAICS codes determine more than just how your business gets classified — they directly affect how much SBA financing you can access, whether you qualify for 100% expansion financing, and whether owning multiple businesses gives you a separate $5 million in SBA borrowing capacity or locks you into a single limit. For business owners in the firearms industry specifically, the NAICS landscape is genuinely interesting.

The Firearms Industry NAICS Map

These businesses sound related — and operationally they often are — but they live in completely different NAICS classifications:

Business Type	NAICS Code	First 3 Digits	Category
Gun shop / firearms retailer	459110	459	Sporting Goods Retailers
Indoor shooting range	713990	713	All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries
Outdoor shooting range	713990	713	All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries
Archery range	713990	713	All Other Amusement and Recreation Industries
Firearms manufacturer	332994	332	Small Arms, Ordnance & Accessories Manufacturing
Firearms wholesaler / distributor	423910	423	Sporting & Recreational Goods Merchant Wholesalers

Every business type in the table above has a different three-digit NAICS prefix. In SBA terms, that means each one is a separate industry — and that separation has significant financing implications.

The Two-Industry Rule — How It Creates Up to $10+ Million in SBA Borrowing Capacity

The standard SBA 7a maximum is $5 million per borrower. What most people don’t know is that this limit applies per industry, defined by the first three digits of the NAICS code. A borrower who owns businesses in two different three-digit NAICS subsectors may qualify for up to $5 million per business simultaneously — for a combined total of $10 million in SBA 7a guaranteed exposure.

For the firearms industry, this creates some genuinely useful scenarios. A gun shop owner (459) who also owns a shooting range (713) owns businesses in two completely different three-digit NAICS subsectors. Under the two-industry rule, the existing SBA debt on the gun shop does not reduce the borrower’s SBA eligibility for financing the range — and vice versa. Each business has its own $5 million limit. The same applies to a range owner who also manufactures firearms (332), or a retailer who also distributes (423). Every combination in the table above qualifies for the two-industry rule because no two of them share the same three-digit prefix.

For a full breakdown of how the two-industry rule works in practice, see my post on the $10 million two-business NAICS rule.

Firearms Manufacturers — A Separate and More Powerful SBA Category

Firearms manufacturers deserve their own mention because they sit in NAICS 332, which is a manufacturing code — and manufacturing businesses get meaningfully better treatment under the SBA than most people realize.

Under the SBA 504 program, manufacturers qualify for a higher second mortgage limit of $5.5 million per project versus the standard $5 million — and can use this across multiple separate projects, which can result in over $40 million in total 504-financed projects for a manufacturer with multiple facilities. For SBA 7a loans, the standard $5 million limit applies, but select lenders will go higher using the layered structure described in the loan sizes section above.

There is also pending legislation — the Made in America Manufacturing Finance Act, which passed the U.S. House unanimously in December 2025 and was placed on the Senate calendar in December 2025 — that would raise the SBA loan maximum for qualifying U.S.-based manufacturers to $10 million per project under both the 7a and 504 programs. If that bill passes, a firearms manufacturer whose entire production process is U.S.-based could potentially access $10 million under the SBA 7a program or up to $10 million under the SBA 504 program — a significant increase from the current $5 million limit under either program. See my post on the new $10 million SBA loan for manufacturers for updates as this develops.

Working With a Lender Who Understands This Industry

Gun shops and shooting ranges are SBA-eligible businesses — but that eligibility only helps you if you’re working with a lender whose internal policies are consistent with the SBA’s rules. Many banks simply will not consider firearms businesses regardless of credit or cash flow. The key is working with lenders who understand the industry and the SBA programs.

SBA lenders who are comfortable financing specialized properties and businesses, including firearms retailers, indoor shooting ranges, and mixed-use firearms facilities will consider all of the following:

• Indoor shooting range construction — ground-up and conversion projects
• Gun shop acquisitions or startups— business only or business plus real estate
• Guntry club development — $5M to $15M projects
• Startups and expansions of ranges
• Mixed retail and training facilities
• Additional locations of any of the above

If you’re exploring financing for a gun shop, shooting range, or firearms training facility at

Final Thoughts

Gun shops and shooting ranges are fully eligible for SBA financing. The challenge is rarely the SBA itself — it is finding lenders willing to work with firearms businesses and who understand the asset class well enough to structure the transaction correctly.

When the right lender is involved, both the SBA 7a and SBA 504 programs can finance everything from small gun shop acquisitions to large multi-million dollar indoor shooting range construction projects and full guntry club developments. The structure of the loan — which program, how the collateral is described, how the appraisal is managed, and which lender is at the table — will make a significant difference in how the transaction comes together.

Feel free to get in touch if you are considering financing a gun shop, shooting range, or guntry club project:

Frequently Asked Questions