Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Bostwick.
Stephanie, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
We started the company several years ago as a training resource for military, veterans, contract workers and civilians. We quickly realized that ranges were not open to having outside instructors come in and we realized that in order to fully follow our dream we would need to open a public range ourselves. When my husband’s work brought him to Dallas 6 years ago, we began preparations to do just that. We opened B-Tactical on July 4th, 2013 with a 25 meter pistol range, 50 meter rifle range and a 900 square foot shop that contained my office/check in area, a firearms “display” (generous description at best) and a classroom with plywood walls. It was rough to say the least. We have since then added on to the building, doubling our size and allowing us to have a full gun store, two offices, and two classrooms. We have also added on to the range by expanding into a 100 meter rifle range, and 300 and 400 steel only rifle ranges along with three private tactical bays allowing for more dynamic training. We use these areas for our Tactical training that we provide to both civilians and local law enforcement and also allow people to rent them out on an hourly basis for more practical training purposes than simply shooting a paper target.
We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
I don’t think owning your own business is ever a smooth road!! One of the largest hurdles that I’ve personally had to overcome has been being a woman in a male dominated field. My husband and I both own the range but he works full time elsewhere so I’m the one who is in charge out here and the one who is here everyday. There have definitely been times when customers have challenged my authority on what I’m telling them and I’ve had to learn how to have a voice and speak up. I now have 5 employees and managing them has added new challenges but I’m grateful that we’ve grown past the days when I would be the sole person here for hours and I would watch out the window to see if we would have a customer and would get so disappointed when people would just use our parking lot to turn around in, lol!! Now, we often have a wait on Fridays and Saturdays and there is rarely a time when we don’t have customers here and we are so appreciative for the support of the local community as well as from people who live far away!
We’d love to hear more about your business.
We are a public gun range with a full service gun store. We are on almost 60 acres and go out to 400 yards for rifles and have three private tactical bays that people can rent out by the hour and that we use for our private classes and training. We specialize in and are most proud of our customer service. You can look us up on any type of social media and see that we have almost a 5 star rating, something that is difficult to maintain for five years. Being a girl who loves guns, I would always go into gun stores and was appalled at the way I was treated, as almost without fail there would be a general tone of condescension and an I’m better than you attitude because they were behind the counter and I wasn’t. Now that I own and work at a gun store and range, I try to never make someone else feel inferior and I have instilled that into all of my employees. We are very careful with who we hire, most of our employees are veterans and I think having that level of life experience makes them more open to new ideas and treating people with respect. We are also able to cater to women and make sure that they have a fun and safe environment to come learn a new skill or practice an old skill! We offer women only classes and one of our main Texas License to carry instructors is a woman.
What were you like growing up?
I was a total nerd! All I did was read books and I still enjoy a good book now but maybe not quite to the same extent as back then. I was always wanting to be around adults and not children and being the third born of seven kids made me fairly outgoing. I volunteered at my local therapeutic horseback riding center and had more than 400 hours with them from 9th-12th grade. Other than reading or volunteering with horses, I was working and babysat for the neighbors and did any other odd jobs that I could make money at.
Pricing:
- $18 Lane fee with discounts for Military, Police, Fire, EMS, L3 Communications and Teachers and School Staff
- On Mondays, Active Duty Military and Police shoot for free
- Tuesdays are ladies day and Thursdays are beard day with discounted lane fees on both days
Contact Info:
- Address: 2975 W Interstate 30
Caddo Mills, TX 75135 - Website: b-tactical.com
- Phone: 903-527-0296
- Email: seb@b-tactical.com
- Instagram: b_tactical
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/btactical/
Image Credit:
Mary Dubuisson Photography – photo of Steph shooting purple rifle
Meg Lawson Photography- Family Photo
Getting in touch: VoyageDallas is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.
