The club is a great place to find guns, ammunition, and accessories at highly competitive prices, as well as a great place to get your guns cleaned, fixed, slicked up or tricked out. It may not be Colorado Springs’ largest gun shop, but you couldn’t find friendlier, more knowledgeable people behind the counter anywhere.
Here’s a view of the retail area from the half-landing leading to the offices and classroom upstairs. The original design probably would have been good enough. The revised architectural design lived up to the ideal of an airy, spacious, 100% user-friendly environment for shooters.
Rental Guns:
Unlike every other gun shop in the Colorado Springs area, the club lets you try guns before you buy them. Choose from over 90 rental guns: .22 long rifle all the way up through the .460 and .500 Smith & Wesson’s and Guncrafter .50 G.I.. Members can rent any three guns for $10 or all guns for $15 per session (Some guns are for sale only). The club may not make money renting guns, but members appreciate the extra level of assurance. If you’ve ever bought a gun that looked right and felt right in the shop, but turned out to be a disappointment once you’d bought it and driven to a range, you know what we’re talking about.
In fact, two or three times a month, members rent guns, but don’t want us to order brand new guns identical to those they’ve shot. They insist on buying the rental guns. Sometimes, they just don’t want to wait a day or two for new guns to be delivered; more often, the member says, “Thanks, but I like this one.” Equally significantly, members often decide they don’t like guns they were sure they would. Money not wasted on a gun that doesn’t live up to its reputation or your expectations can pay for a membership and a year’s worth of dues in less than ten minutes.
Yes, you can trade in guns or sell them on consignment. Yes, the club handles firearms transfers: $30 for non-members and members.
By the way, students enrolled in Whistling Pines Gun Club courses don’t need to provide their own guns. Many NRA First Steps students, for example, have never shot firearms, and so embark upon their shooting careers with rental guns at no extra charge. Too much recoil? The gun doesn’t fit your hand right? No problem!
Every gun has two prices: the regular price, and the price after your member’s discount. Just to ice the proverbial “cake,” if you find a better price on a gun you want somewhere else in the area, the club store will do it’s best to meet or beat it.
The club offers a good selection of competitively priced target and self-defense handgun ammunition. As a member, you’ll enjoy 10% off every round you buy, of course. In fact, if you shoot much and/or buy an occasional gun, your membership initiation fee can pay for itself in surprisingly short order.
As you’d expect, you’re equally welcome to shoot your hand-loaded ammunition or rounds purchased elsewhere. If you’ve ever shot at a range that required you to buy its over-priced ammunition, you’ll understand why the Whistling Pines Gun Club doesn’t have such a policy. This is a club built by shooters for shooters, not a get rich off of shooters.
In case you’re curious, yes, we recycle both lead (over 3,000 pounds per month) and brass cartridge cases (over 700 pounds per month.) Shooters are welcome to pick up their brass behind the shooting line for reloading. Brass that falls in front of the line is swept up nightly, sorted, and recycled.
We have a wide variety of targets including game targets, shoot-n-c’s and hostage scenarios:
Now that you’ve earned your concealed carry permit, how about a secure, stylish way to carry your gun and spare ammunition? The club features top quality concealed carry wear from Coronado Leather and SIG, as well as the house brand. If you don’t see the exact style or size or color you’d like, we’ll be glad to order it for you. You’ll get 10% off, of course.
We carry a variety of concealed carry purses and Day Timers. Women make up over 20% of the club’s members, an uncommonly high percentage. Nearly 35% of students in the NRA First Steps course are ladies. Accepting responsibility for defending your life doesn’t have to mean accommodating yourself to plain style or holsters designed to fit men.
Said president Bob Holmes: “Even when the club still looked more like a pipe dream than anything that might ever actually come to pass, I knew it would have to be the Nordstrom of shooting ranges. Friendly smiles from the people behind the counter are a good thing. Friendly smiles from knowledgeable people behind the counter are even better.”
Years ago, shooting clubs were predominantly male-only enclaves. Today, the Whistling Pines Gun Club was designed and built specifically for the whole family. Children, the next generation of shooters, are always welcome. There is no age limit, as long as parents closely supervise their children to ensure the clubs high safety standards are upheld.
