Moving along quickly the exterior is almost completed. The interior has a long way to go estimating a August completion date.

Impressive from the days of a trailer and the older "Indoor " Pistol range that was built as an outdoor range with little to no budget.

Nice, glad to see them expanding! Hopefully it allows them to better keep pace with demand. I've never actually been there, and am not familiar with the facility...do you know what's going into the new space?

The SIG SAUER Experience Center

NEWINGTON, N.H., (May 7, 2021) – SIG SAUER, Inc., is pleased to announce the official commencement of the construction of the SIG SAUER Experience Center on the grounds of the SIG SAUER Academy in Epping, New Hampshire.

Today, Ron Cohen, President of SIG SAUER, Inc. was joined by Governor Chris Sununu and other local and state dignitaries, for the official groundbreaking ceremony at the future site of the SIG SAUER Experience Center, a state-of-the-art 40,500 square foot facility on the grounds of the SIG SAUER Academy in Epping, New Hampshire.

“SIG SAUER is growing, and we are excited to officially break ground for the SIG SAUER Experience to mark the beginning of another phase of our evolution,” began Ron Cohen, President and CEO, SIG SAUER, Inc. “This facility will attract visitors to the New England region from all over the world and create new jobs, and we view this endeavor as a true partnership with our state and local leaders that have worked hard to foster an environment where SIG can grow and thrive and are one of the secrets to our continued success and growth here in New Hampshire.”

The SIG SAUER Experience Center will feature the SIG SAUER flagship retail showroom, state-of-the-art indoor shooting ranges, and a high-tech, interactive SIG SAUER museum depicting the history of SIG SAUER, and a one-of-a-kind educational experience for SIG SAUER products, a multi-purpose meeting space and conference rooms.

“The continued expansion of SIG SAUER’s New Hampshire operations with this new construction in Epping is another welcome addition by SIG SAUER to our growing economy,” said Governor Chris Sununu. “SIG SAUER is one of New Hampshire’s largest employers providing a diverse mix of high-tech manufacturing jobs to our workforce, and I am glad to partner with them as they continue to firmly plant their roots right here in the Granite State.”

Design-Build services are being provided by North Branch Construction and architectural design by Cowan Goudreau Architects both of Concord, NH. Civil engineering services are being provided by T.F. Moran, Inc. of Bedford, NH.

https://www.sigsauer.com/blog/...epping-new-hampshire

Unfortunatly it probably won't be done for the 2022 Adaptive Shooting event. The new function room would remove the need for a off site dinner event. Plus another indoor range nearby the main stages.

Maybe luck will speed up the construction and it will be available.

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
The SIG SAUER Experience Center will feature the SIG SAUER flagship retail showroom, state-of-the-art indoor shooting ranges, and a high-tech, interactive SIG SAUER museum depicting the history of SIG SAUER, and a one-of-a-kind educational experience for SIG SAUER products, a multi-purpose meeting space and conference rooms.

I'm still curious just how granular and informative the history portion turns out to be, as in would a SIG aficionado or a firearms researcher like Ian McCollom or Larry Vickers find one-of-a-kind prototypes and obscure design and curator or company historian level info here... but I'm going to go out on a limb and say... "'bout damn time!"

^^^Well, we know that SIG was insufficiently interested in the P226C, a.k.a. PROTO-1 when they had the opportunity, so that particular 'one-of-a-kind prototype' won't be a feature in any SIG SAUER museum...

quote:

Originally posted by nhracecraft:
^^^Well, we know that SIG was insufficiently interested in the P226C, a.k.a. PROTO-1 when they had the opportunity, so that particular 'one-of-a-kind prototype' won't be a feature in any SIG SAUER museum...

Agreed, and point taken.

No one, including company ownership/ leadership has a perfect track record of decision making, and I'm hoping that PROTO-1 is a case of that was then and this is now and can't cry over milk spilled previously.

Exotic Italian car manufacturer, Lamborghini, created a separate archive division called Polo Storico, dedicated to maintaining the company's records and long heritage, restoration of clients' legacy cars, certification, and the storage and manufacturing of legacy parts.

HK has long had its famous Grey Room firearms display. SAN SIG has their museum with a curator, records, and little known prototypes. Smith & Wesson has a company historian with access to old records and the ability to research them and issue certificates or letters of provenance. If I'm not mistaken, I think Colt has, or had, a similar position.

SIG's CEO has given interviews in a room with cased wall displays of early and first run production guns.

With the myriad of decisions that a company's ownership/ leadership need to make to not just survive but thrive, it's easy to see how they need to focus on priorities, and skip over more mundane and less critical archive and company history efforts...so I won't beat them too hard on this.

But, SIG Sauer has a 150 + year history, and it's long past time that they recognize that their customers and fanbase have an enthusiastic interest in company and product history, configurations, finishes, serial numbers, certificates, minutiae and trivia, etc..

I have high hopes that this new SIG Experience is a step towards recognizing SIG's history and legacy and their contributions to firearms manufacture and design.

It was quite the grand opening weekend. I understand the estimated turnout for Friday was 5,000 guests. Yesterday was even more packed, and I would not be surprised to hear the Saturday number being more than 7,500.

We spoke to hundreds of people in the vendor area adjacent to the new building. Bruce and Keith came from Grayguns, along with Bruce's wife, Beki.

The free concert Friday night by Brantley Gilbert seemed to be a big hit, but we did not go. I think that was a good marketing move as the crowd we saw on Friday was different than you see at the average firearms event. The crowd reminded me of the NRA Annual Meeting in Atlanta a few years ago.

Food trucks were a hit. They had four trucks both days. More than 20 vendors/partners were on-site. I saw one minor medical event where someone fell in the parking lot outside. The staff and medical teams were right on it immediately, ensuring the gentleman was OK. They spent some time with him and called an ambulance just in case. (He was fine.)

SIG is not resting. They have a renewed focus on direct-to-the-consumer events, and new products are in the pipeline. We spoke to Ron Cohen for quite some time yesterday. He's enthusiastic about improvements in ammunition, and it sounds like they will be expanding their hybrid cartridge lineup. He really enjoyed checking out the Grayguns products we had on the table.

The plan for the old pro shop is to turn it into a restaurant to open in April. The upper deck range (outside the original indoor range and pro shop) will be repurposed as well. More force-on-force training space and airsoft there too. (Think birthday events for kids on the weekends.)

Excuse the not-so-great photos and the fact I do not have any from the indoor ranges.

Meh, doesn't look much different than my LGS.