Midwest Shooting Center's terms of acquiring Top Gun Shooting Sports Store include a commitment to offer positions to its 30 employees and honor customer memberships and gift cards. (Photo courtesy of Top Gun)
What started as a couple of guys from New Boston shooting the breeze to open a gun store has ended up as a 20-year success story that is about to close another chapter.
The Top Gun Shooting Sports store in Taylor is targeted for sale to a Midwest retailer with stores and gun ranges in Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania.
In nearly two decades of operation, the Taylor store near the intersection of Pennsylvania and Ranch streets has established itself as a go-to spot for hunters and firearms enthusiasts.
Founder and operator Mike Barbour said Top Gun is being acquired by Midwest Shooting Center, which was started in 2016 by former Marine Corps officers.
Barbour said the deal is expected to close in July. The terms include a commitment that Midwest will offer positions to Top Gun's 30 employees and honor memberships and gift cards for Top Gun customers, he said.
Over the years, Top Gun employees have included Barbour's father, mother, wife and children, giving the store a neighborhood feel.
For Barbour, the success of Top Gun was a testament to the value of friends and family.
A native of the New Boston community in Huron Township, Barbour said the roots of Top Gun can be traced to conversations between friends two decades ago.
“We were just hanging out and someone suggested we open a gun range,” Barbour recalls.
A year later, in 2003, they did just that.
Barbour said the store's founders included Errol Price, Roscoe Barbour (Mike's father, a Ford Motor Co. retiree who died in 2015), John Harris and Eric Price.
The store opened in a smaller building nearby and moved in 2014 to its current 21,000-square-foot center.
Barbour's relatives, his wife, Sarah, and mother, Sandy, have worked at the store.
“I couldn't have done this without their help,” Barbour said.
Other familiar faces are Barbour's three children Landis, Logan and Maddie. Now adults, the kids started out as pre-teens with various jobs and setting prices, Barbour said.
Top Gun Shooting Sports advertises itself as “the largest selection gun store in Metro Detroit.”
It has sold more than 68,000 guns and offers 30 shooting ranges and 119 brands from “A” (Armalite) to “W” (Winchester).
Barbour estimates that Top Gun has served more than 800,000 shooters in nearly 20 years.
The store provides gunsmith services, firearms training and events, target ammunition, holsters, gun vaults and safes, hunter safety training and basic first aid. The store's Big Rock Archery section sells bows, targets, cases and accessories and bow upgrade parts.
Midwest Shooting Center's motto is, “You're always at home on this range.” Founded in 2016 by former United States Marine Corps officers, the business began as an e-commerce retailer. Since then, the company has expanded to include brick-and-mortar gun retail stores throughout the Midwest.
The Taylor store would be the first Midwest Shooting Center business in Michigan.
The company's mission statement reads: “We are dedicated to building a great company that positively impacts the lives of our employees, customers and communities by revolutionizing the firearms industry through a modern, experience-based business model.”
