5 Star Firearms of Zion, Illinois prepares to showcase their brand new state of the art indoor shooting range!

EDIT 8/27/2015:  THIS NEW SHOOTING RANGE IS OPEN FOR BUSINESS!   I REPEAT,  THE RANGE IS OPEN! 

On Monday morning (8/15/2016) a local radio station played a commercial about the new shooting range just when I happened to be in the neighborhood (Sheridan Road north of Route 173) so I decided to stop in and check it out.

The mailing address is Zion, Illinois but the pedants among us will note this location is technically on a stretch of unincorporated Lake County between Zion and Winthrop Harbor.  How many of you locals recognize this building as the old roller rink?  Well, the structure has been repurposed; the inside has been heavily gutted and refitted.

Yes, the gun store is open for business.  Stop in and give it a look see.  The shooting range is nearing completion.

This is a full blown gun store and includes all the goodies coveted by reloaders.  After hours, everything is stored inside a VAULT!

 I just happened by as the bossman was fixing to take some curious folks on a tour, so I joined in.

Armor and ballistic glass divide shooters.  These shooting stalls are comfortably wider than the norm.

These guys are really into making this facility a success.

View from a shooting station looking downrange.

View from downrange looking back at the shooting stations.

Tons of ground up rubber from scrap aircraft tires catch all the projectiles that shooters will be  tossing downrange.  The site is engineered to handle .50-BMG but the management set the range limit to .308 caliber.

The 5 Star Firearms shooting range is a beautiful facility and I look forward to having some good times there.  It's 13-miles from my door; that's a laid-back breezy easy 30-minute cruise.


The range information below is a copy and paste from the 5 Star Firearms website.

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Range Info

Range Description:

5 Star Firearms range is located at 41666 N Sheridan Road Zion, IL 60099. Our range is a state of the art 16 lane, 25 yard range that was built by Target Worx and is proudly MADE IN THE USA. Target Worx has built many ranges for military installations as well as others. Their new target retrieval system debuted at the NRA Headquarters Range in 2010. 

Comfortable....Our booths, at 48” wide, are spacious and very comfortable. The booth walls are made from a 1/4” thick sheet of AR-500 armor plate and level 5 ballistic glass to protect you from a careless neighbor and prevent hot brass from hitting you from your neighbors station. The booth ceiling and first two ceiling baffles have a very dense rubber product to absorb and hold an accidental discharge, should one occur.  

Innovative....
The Target Worx Target Retrieval System opens a new chapter in target retrieval systems. The days of using cables and electric bus bars are coming to an end. No more faulty drive cables or electric bus bars along the track and our heavy duty steel I-beam track is just that - an I beam. Our 6" tall I-beam track has flanges that are 1/4" thick with a 3/16" thick web which eliminates 90% of all problems associated with cable and bus bar target systems. What makes this possible is the carrier, which houses onboard all the electronics to control the carrier, communicate with the booth and master control, and electronics to charge the battery. Sensors monitor the carrier's location as well as the target holders’ location for edge/face functions. All of the sensors on-board have no moving parts and use infrared light for a long service life. When you send a target to 50 feet, it's at 50 feet, exactly. Accuracy is consistently less than 1/2 inch. User Friendly…. The user interface is the latest technology from an industry leader in human machine interfaces. In fact our units were not available to the public until July 2010. They use the latest LCD LED backlight technology as well as a 7" wide touchscreen.

Bullet Trap.... As with everything, we chose to use the best materials and proper design. Our support structure is covered in 1/4" AR500 plate, including seams, and set at 30 degrees. Over 48” of ground rubber in the bullet trap is clean and coated with a liquid fire retardant during installation. 

We also have a state of the art ventilation system to provide a comfortable atmosphere. We also offer firearms safety training and firearms sales and rentals as well as a wide selection of ammunition.

Range Prices:

Member: $15 / Hour

Non-Memeber: $20 / Hour