WINGO Indoor Rifle Range
WINGO Indoor Rifle Range
Written by Bob Crismon
The year was 1960 ….. The war has been over for fifteen years, times are good. Folks had extra money and time to spend on elective things of interest. Many of us chose recreational shooting activities. Interest in the Single Action revolver and lever action rifle grew every day, sparked by the popularity of movie and TV western shows. Winchester Fire Arms was in the ammunition and long arms manufacturing business. The new gun sport activities resulted in the sale of Winchester blanks, cartridges and brass. But without a manufactured side arm, Winchester could not capitalize on the Fast Draw Western TV show driven business boom. Winchester came up with a brilliant idea – why not develop a shooting sport centered on the use of Winchester rifles? Most Single Action Fast Draw shooters are likely Winchester rifle owners.
The first and only WINGO Indoor Rifle Range was opened in San Diego. A large, freestanding building was built for this purpose. The inside of the building looked somewhat like a bowling alley. However, instead of bowling lanes, twenty or more rifle shooting stations spread across the building. Also like a bowling alley, the front area contained spectator bleachers, a service counter, and restaurant and gift shop. Unlike a bowling alley however, no alcohol was sold or allowed inside the range building. The shooting stations were perhaps ten feet below the spectator level providing excellent viewing advantage.
The provided Winchester pump action rifles used Winchester 22-caliber “rat shot” ammo (a mini shotgun type load). Shooters purchased the inexpensive ammo at the service counter, paid a nominal fee, and were assigned a station. Each rifle was secured in its place by a thin, flexible steel cable. No only did this prevent anyone for taking the rifle from the shooting area, but for safety it restricted the right and left oblique swing (sweep) range of the barrel. Also a safety barrier wall separated the individual shooting stations. The shooter loaded his/her rifle and pressed a button mounted on the loading table. Like in bowling, each shooting activity started and ended individually. Most of the shooters belonged to a team and competed with team members as well as other teams. Bragging rights was the only but sufficient reward. Most teams were sponsored by a business, quite often the employer of the team members. Benches behind the shooting line were used by 6-8 team members. Individual “drop in” shooters could sign up for a non-team station and compete with each other.
I represented the FasDraw Timer Company at the time and was given a VIP tour of behind the scene facilities. Down range behind a wall where bowling alley pin setting machines would have been located, hidden refrigerated machines made an endless supply of ice blocks. Other machines transformed the ice into shaved ice. The shaved ice was then pressed into ice balls about the size of a tennis ball. Each station had five ice ball launching arms. Like a baseball automatic pitching machine, the five ice balls were hurled one at a time toward the shooter station about one second apart. The trajectory of each ice ball was slightly different and would fall to the floor before not quite reaching the shooter’s station. The apex of the ice ball path was perhaps twenty degrees. Rarely did two balls in a row follow the same path. This was because the ice balls themselves were not always formed into perfect balls. In fact, sometimes a handful of slush would be launched instead of a ball. This inconsistency just made the game that more interesting. After all, like in a modern day single action competitive match, the shooters were there for a good time. And fun it was! Each shooter shot three sessions comprised of fifteen ice ball targets. The game was shoot ‘till you hit. Hits were noted on a scorecard. There was no timer involved; just add up the number of hits for a score. Unlike golf, honesty was rightfully assumed (lighten up guys – that’s a joke).
One could find action at the Wingo Indoor Rifle Range from early weekday afternoon on, with peak competition in the evening. Weekends the place was jammed! You may have to wait an hour or so to get a station. But few minded because of the enjoyment in watching others compete plus the friendship and camaraderie that quickly developed between shooters. After about six months, all of a sudden the WINGO Indoor Rifle Range closed and Winchester abandoned the venture. Why, I don’t know. Do you?
WINGO Rifle Range Mystery
Bob Crismon
While researching the Gunfighter Gulch published article “Wingo Indoor Rifle Range”, Greg Custodio found on the Internet an article published in 1971 by Popular Mechanics magazine.
The article contained range photos of a special Winchester rifle apparently developed for Wingo range use. It’s interesting that the article doesn’t say if the range was open at the time of the article. Is it possible the Wingo range closed in the early seventies? Three brothers, Bob, Fred and Dave were shooting Fast Draw in San Diego in 1960 and of course, shot at the Wingo range. We are absolutely sure the 1960 date is correct. Shortly after all three Brothers left San Diego (run out of town by Fast Draw Combat Master Deputy Sheriff Eldon Carl?). We do remember seeing the boarded up building many years later.
We three don’t remember the special rifle in Greg’s article find being used. The article described it as a .20 caliber single shot shotgun. That doesn’t make sense! The photo clearly shows the down range launch board with five ice ball target launch holes. How can one shoot up to five timely launched targets with a single shot rifle? The article mentioned a “control console.” The photo shows two men at each end of the console and they apparently have some type of control panel in front of them. We do not remember a console. Why two consoles for one shooter? Could it be two timers were used to determine the fastest shot (and hit) of two competitors side by side. That would be fun, particularly the shoot ’till you hit game.
Winchester probably came to the conclusion the Wingo range product could not meet profit objectives. Plus, someone forgot what their core business was – manufacture of long guns. Perhaps ten years later Winchester set up a publicity photo shoot at the closed range to test a new shotgun product, modified Wingo system and new timing system. Here is a comment from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wingo
Another Internet find contributing to the Wingo Range mystery may be viewed at:
http://codyfirearmsmuseumblog.wordpress.com/2008/11/24/happy-thanksgiving/
Here is the answer to the Wingo mystery: After all of these years no single story is absolutely correct. However, you may want to go with the eye witness Wingo version but that would mean trusting the nefarious Crismon boys!