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Manchester Firing Line

nhtimba

nhtimba

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Mar 18, 2009
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Manchester , NH
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Ok well +1 for MFLR , went and picked up my AR from Jim today..did'nt get to talk much but seems like a cool guy to deal with , well organized place he's got and tons of firearms. Ar's , AK's , rifles , pistols you name it its probably there.

Dealt with Cindy , I believe her name was . Very nice woman . All in all was a pleasure doing business there and will definetly be going back to pick up some ammo and more toys in the future.

oh and Jim , if ya read this thanks for handling the transfer for me !! Your the man , see you soon .

If your in the Manchester area and have'nt stopped by the shop , I suggest you swing in and check it out

Later , Rob
 
Did you pick up the bushmaster M4s they had on sale?

I agree, Jim is a really nice guy to work with and talk to...I dropped off my remington rifle for consignment over the weekend. Now hurry up and sell my gun Jim! -D

The place seems to have all kinds of guns around, I stood there for 10 minutes admiring the mini-gun they had for display...it was like a museum!
 
No I did'nt actually had a DPMS shipped to him , he handled the transfer for me . I'm gonna be heading back over there in the next couple of weeks to find a .22 pistol for the wifey [wink]

And yup , does have a very nice collection of firearms in there , thats for sure ! And good people to deal with
 
Went in Friday to buy an AR lower, great service, got delayed on the NICS but today I called and believe I talked to Jim's son and he was great, gave me a rundown on what usually causes delays, what it means, when they will get more information overall great experience so far, still waiting on the delay though booo :-(.
 
I gotta say, I love the Manchester Firing Line. I've been in there a few times to do some shooting, and it's always a blast. The staff are friendly and helpful, the prices are fair, and the fact that you can rent machine guns rules. I know I'll keep going back.

It is kind of painful going in there as a MA resident though. I see all these awesome things on sale, but I'm restricted from buying the better majority. Stupid state law... Certainly not a mark against the club, however. If I lived in NH, I'd be in there buying the place out.
 
I was there on Friday and wanted to shoot some rifles. Unfortunately, they didn't have any frangible ammunition but did have many other calibers in stock and for sale. Lots of good stuff in stock, if you live elsewhere. I would call in advance to make sure they have the necessary cartridges, especially if you plan to rent a firearm. Seemed like a nice bunch of folks to deal with.

-MS
 
+1 on MFL. I went there to pick up some surplus rifles. their supplier goes through the crates and picks his stuff out. they may be a little higher in price on a few old surplus guns, but that is fine because of the quality. great customer service as well.
 
I stopped by today to pick up some ammo as I'd communicated with MFLR here on NES and found that they had exactly what I needed. +1, great selection and some nice displays even with a lot of their inventory out at the show in town.
 
I stopped by MFLR for the first time on Saturday to pick up some ammo and was very impressed. Not only did they have a great selection, their staff was first rate.

A couple was renting some pistols to shoot for the first time and one of the guys behind the counter spent quite a bit of time going over safety, operation, loading, unloading and everything else. It was good to see him being patient with newbies.

I was helped by a tall bald guy who was great to talk to (sorry I didn't get his name). Very helpful even though the shop was packed.

Great shop!
 
I visited MFL recently and rented some firearms. They have a pretty good selection and its a low-cost means to try-before-you-buy.
 
Been there multiple times and always have come away with a good experience, not this weekend however.

I have been thinking about picking up a P239 but wanted to shoot one first. Called MFL on Saturday to see if they had one available to rent and they confirmed that they did. So I changed plans and made the trek up there only to find out that the P239 rental is out of commission and needs to be repaired. It did not happen in the hour from when I called to when I arrived either. No apologies from the staff for giving me false information over the phone.

I also verified that if you want to try multiple handguns, you have to pay the full rental fee for each regardless of how many rounds you fire. Someone had mentioned in another thread that MFL allowed you to rent for a flat fee and try multiple guns, this is not the case.
 
Exact same thing happened to me - I went there asking about a specific firearm only to find it was out being serviced. You just need to be real specific with your questions on availability when you call ahead i.e. "Is the firearm truly available (in the glass case) or is it out being serviced?"
 
MFLR can be a very busy place at times so it's very possible that whoever answers the phone tells you the last info they had. Asking politely if they could please check the case to be sure the firearm you want to demo is actually there is probably a good idea. Yeah, it would be nice if they automatically did that for you but, if you've been there during peak times, you would understand that this probably won't happen very often. Overall, really nice people and a great place to shoot.
 
On a weekend or in the evening, when MFLR is jam packed, I wouldn't expect to be able to demo a bunch of pistols, especially if they have paying customers waiting to shoot. Perhaps first thing on a quiet weekday morning they may be more accommodating.

Worth a phone call or maybe the owner will see this thread and respond.
 
OUCH!

djo said:
Been there multiple times and always have come away with a good experience, not this weekend however.

I have been thinking about picking up a P239 but wanted to shoot one first. Called MFL on Saturday to see if they had one available to rent and they confirmed that they did. So I changed plans and made the trek up there only to find out that the P239 rental is out of commission and needs to be repaired. It did not happen in the hour from when I called to when I arrived either. No apologies from the staff for giving me false information over the phone.

I also verified that if you want to try multiple handguns, you have to pay the full rental fee for each regardless of how many rounds you fire. Someone had mentioned in another thread that MFL allowed you to rent for a flat fee and try multiple guns, this is not the case.
Click to expand...

I'm truly sorry for the long drive and poor service. I was in Mass myself since thursday helping a friend with a flooding disaster and took my third Saturday employee to help leaving the crew here very short handed. Enough with my excuses - If you care to make the trip again, here's what I'll do to make it up to you:

A. Call me in advance on my cell - 603.396.6540 and I'll reserve a lane for you (no waiting)
B. The first rental and box of ammo is on me.
C. Free range time for one person - membership rate if you have someone else along.

In the future - I'd call before coming up like the other poster said to insure that the item is clean and ready. A firearm could be down after anytime it goes out to rent. At any given time,we could have up to thirty firearms in the back for repair or cleaning.

In my new range coming (real soon) the rental selection will go from dozens - to hundreds. Many more things to try,but many more that could be broken or dirty. I will have many Mass Compliant new rentals just for my Mass customers to try even though you can't purchase most of them from me. That's why you have Four Seasons :>) <Plug>

As far as a flat fee for using multiple guns - I just can't do that. But will try to offer a discount for multiples after my move. These are expensive machines,they get used and cleaned a lot - costing serious money in repair and labor cost maintaining them. I will have a full time gunsmith at my new location to keep more things running instead of the down time of shipping them back....

I'll also be adding weekend staff in the new facility to better serve you when we're jammed up!!
I hope this helps......Jim
 
Jim,

Thanks for the response. You run a great shop and I wasn't trying to say otherwise. Just wanted to state that I called ahead to ask if something was in, was told it was, showed up and it wasn't. Morale of my post was for people to take away that they should double check when they call because I wouldn't have thought about that before. You guys do some brisk business so I understand how it happened.

I appreciate the response and your offer is generous but not necessary. One bad experience isn't going to keep me away. Keep up the good work. Where is the new location going to be?

Thanks,
Dan
 
MFLR said:
I'm truly sorry for the long drive and poor service. I was in Mass myself since thursday helping a friend with a flooding disaster and took my third Saturday employee to help leaving the crew here very short handed. Enough with my excuses - If you care to make the trip again, here's what I'll do to make it up to you:

A. Call me in advance on my cell - 603.396.6540 and I'll reserve a lane for you (no waiting)
B. The first rental and box of ammo is on me.
C. Free range time for one person - membership rate if you have someone else along.

In the future - I'd call before coming up like the other poster said to insure that the item is clean and ready. A firearm could be down after anytime it goes out to rent. At any given time,we could have up to thirty firearms in the back for repair or cleaning.

In my new range coming (real soon) the rental selection will go from dozens - to hundreds. Many more things to try,but many more that could be broken or dirty. I will have many Mass Compliant new rentals just for my Mass customers to try even though you can't purchase most of them from me. That's why you have Four Seasons :>) <Plug>

As far as a flat fee for using multiple guns - I just can't do that. But will try to offer a discount for multiples after my move. These are expensive machines,they get used and cleaned a lot - costing serious money in repair and labor cost maintaining them. I will have a full time gunsmith at my new location to keep more things running instead of the down time of shipping them back....

I'll also be adding weekend staff in the new facility to better serve you when we're jammed up!!
I hope this helps......Jim
Click to expand...

Wow, reasonable explanation and a great offer to make up for inconvenience. Well done Jim.
 
MFLR called me this morning to let me know a pistol I left there on consignment was sold and they had a check waiting for me. I picked up the check this afternoon. As always, great service and great people to deal with.

One suggestion for the shop, though. Since a lot of the staff's time is taken up with checking in people for the range, Jim might consider an area dedicated to sales. It might help to put up an overhead sign for this, so people can wait there if they're interested in buying something.

The way the shop is currently set up most everyone gets in the same line for everything or waits around the display cases in an unorganized manner. This might help a bit when things are busy.

This isn't a knock on the place, just a friendly suggestion.
 
Well I was in the area with some time to kill around lunch today and plugged in the name to my nav system. If I only realized how close I was at times I'd have stopped in before! I was in awe!! Jim's collection is outrageous!! I can't wait to bring my son by to see the new place! And to top it off I bumped into another Massachusetts NES'er dreaming about what we can't buy then was welcomed by Jim himself as we stared with glassy eyes up at his "wall-o-automatic weapons". Jim offered to let us handled whatever we liked, gave a great history lesson about a few and a some movie trivia about some items as well. I had a great time and will bring my son and others back even if we can' buy much there, I truly enjoyed Jim's generousity with his time and knowledge. Got a new loyal customer or at least as loyal as I can be from Mass!
 
MFLR said:
As far as a flat fee for using multiple guns - I just can't do that. But will try to offer a discount for multiples after my move.
Click to expand...

That's nice, but I'll be coming in Thanksgiving week to help my wife pick out a gun she feels comfortable with. She would like to try some out and see what she feels comfortable with. The only gun she's ever shot is a Les Baer I used to have. But it's a hard pill to swallow when paying a rental of $20+ for a handgun she might try for 5 minutes. The right gun is what I want her to have... but it could easily cost a couple hundrend dollars over the span of an hour finding a gun, or size, she feel comfortable with; especially since it's a nightstand/practice gun, not carry. I called last week and was told they have a lot of guns available for rent so I should come in and look... regardless of what I had in mind. Me, I already know what I want, so it's just a matter of whether or not MFL has one available to buy at a decent price.
This isn't meant to badmouth MFL. They recently sold a M1 for me on consignment and I have no complaints on that.
I was hoping that when we come in I could have one of the people working come into the range and show my wife a proper 2 handed right hand hold... I'm a lefty and can't for the life of me figure it out. But I can't help but think what that will cost.
 
She might be able to narrow things down by holding some of the guns in her hand at the counter. If it's not comfortable to her then, it certainly won't be when she's firing it. Then pick a few that fit and fit her needs and take it from there.
 
LenS said:
She might be able to narrow things down by holding some of the guns in her hand at the counter. If it's not comfortable to her then, it certainly won't be when she's firing it. Then pick a few that fit and fit her needs and take it from there.
Click to expand...

Maybe. But my, and her, main concern is the recoil. I know her hands would fit nicely around the grips of a compact .38 special. Would the recoil be too much for her to even want to practice on a regular basis? Probably. I know at the old location getting anyone's attention was a huge hassle. Maybe things have changed, I don't know. But if I need to buy a gun for her somewhere else and bring her there to show her how to use it then I will. My guess is the profit on range time is more than gun sales so it's no loss to them (besides my future business). But I'm just guessing, without knowing what the outcome will be.
 
Comfort with .38Spl revolvers has probably more to do with the grips on them than anything OTHER THAN weight of the gun. Thus, what you try out may not seem comfortable, but change out the grips for full walnut or Hogue wrap-around grips and it suddenly becomes OK. Revolvers will be a tough one to "try out" as there are so many different size grips for them that no range will have available for rental.
 
And, to expand on what Len said, there is a HUGE difference in the "felt" recoil between a 2" airweight snubbie .38 spl and a 4" or 6" steel revolver shooting the same cartridge! Obviously, a 6" revolver is very difficult to conceal, but the purpose for owning the gun weighs heavily into the equation, and the same gun that is impractical for concealed carry makes a very good "bump in the night quick access" gun. If it isn't easily shoot-able in a 2" snubbie, try a longer and heavier barrel until she reaches a comfort level.
 
I visited MFLR today and logged in a couple of hours as a paid member there.

Staff was courteous and relatively efficient. It took me longer to check out than it did to check in, although the wait was not very long... and that was pretty good, considering the place was mobbed.

The lanes are best described as what is probably the best indoor shooting in the region. There are acoustic panels on the dividers and above and in front of the firing line. This makes a big difference. If some guy a couple of lanes down is firing a .500, or an SMG/Rifle, it's still loud, but you won't be getting punched in the head by muzzle blast.... It's amazing what a difference it makes compared to a typical range with little to no dividers. The dividers are also huge enough that you won't be bothered by whatever is going on in the lane next to you. the lane itself is pretty wide. Wider than what I've seen on most other ranges. This is nice because even with the brass bouncing off the panels it won't hit you nearly as much.

There are helpful range officers overlooking both ranges. I noticed that when herds of people showed up, that more staff seemed to appear, which was somewhat comforting.

Air circulation/filtration is great. You won't cough up a lung visiting MFL. The interior of the range is warm. No excuses from your wife/gf/lady friend of "I'm cold".

Target system is incredible, you can dial in pretty much any distance you want up to the maximum. (To be honest, I'm not sure exactly what the max is, I pretty much ran my target out from 20-50 feet). Staplers are provided making changing targets quick and easy.

The only downside to MFLR is that I anticipate that it will be mobbed the colder it gets, especially on weekends. For those that are members, call ahead early and reserve a lane.

Paid membership is expensive $175 but it goes down to $130 for renewal. You get all kinds of discounts, including percentage based discounts on gun rentals, ammo, etc. If you shoot frequently it will pay for itself. You also get a nice parking spot a little closer to the front door.

Even if you decide not to shoot, if you are near Manch airport, it's worth a stop in, even if it's just to check out the "Gun Museum" inside the shop.

-Mike
 
I have been there a few times and really liked the place. Friendly staff, state of the art lanes. If I ever make it up that way again I am going to rent one of the German Mp40's
 
As a follow up to an earlier post, I took my wife to MFL after she handled many relvolvers at Kittery, and they happened to have a S&W 686 to rent. It was the one she felt most comfortable with so that was a big bonus. Plus I got to shoot the Kimber that I bought a couple hours earlier [grin]
I wasn't impressed with the instructions the counter guy gave my wife on using the revolver for different situations;luckily she ignored him. But the range itself was fantastic. So much better than the old location. If I was still living in the area than a membership would definitely be in the plan. The cardboard backings where the targets are stapled to... well, I'm not too sure about. My wife managed to staple my finger while I was holding the cardboard tight so the stapler would even work. It bled like a sob for about 30 minutes. My cleaning cloth ended the day being soaked in blood. Ah well, just a fond memory of my visit home.
 
I went there to shoot a few times before I was a member at HSC, I rented a Glock 19 one time, and they have a great selection of other guns to rent. I may go back there during the winter break to shoot some handguns.
 
Another recommendation for MFL. I was at MFL this last Saturday to take a friend to the range for the first time. We ended up waiting for about an hour for a lane to open up, but that is life at a place like this. Absolutely amazing rental selection.

I really liked the new range. The computer controlled target stands and ventilation is awesome. I was also happy to see an employee watching the range: a few years back, we got swept by some (I think) new shooters doing close quarter drills at MFL, and that was really uncomfortable.

Overall, my friend enjoyed it, and ended up being amazingly proficient with an M4, and it was great experience. Thank you.
 

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