What was a hobby for Forrest Hoffert is now a business.
Lebanon Indoor Archery and Supplies at 2 E. Lehman St., Suite 1, Lebanon, was inspired by Hoffert’s long-time love of the sport. It opened June 2 and offers archery supplies and several types of indoor ranges.
There’s a 50-yard 3-D range, a 20-yard range where participants shoot at a paper target 20-yards away, a youth/beginner range that can be set up to shoot 5, 10 or 20 yards, and a TechnoHunt range.
Hoffert explained that TechnoHunt is a virtual archery hunting system. There are cameras on all of the ranges for security, and each range is equipped with safety features to keep participants safe.
“Some people like paper targets, others like the 3D experience, and others like TechnoHunt,” he said.
“Any of the ranges can be used to host tournaments. We have people with all levels of experience coming in to use the ranges from archers who shoot in tournaments who wish to practice to those who have never shot a bow and people practicing for hunting season.”
Bows are available to rent, which means that people who have never shot a bow before don’t have to make a financial investment by buying one to try out the sport. A retail shop onsite offers bows and accessories, and there’s a shop to work on bows.
Hoffert said he originally purchased the building, which has nearly 70,000 square feet of space, in the summer of 2020 to serve as a storage facility for his other business, H&M Diversified Enterprises. He also earmarked the building for future expansion of the business.
Through its H&M Glass division, Hoffert explained, the company installs and repairs glass for commercial and residential use within a 150-mile radius of Lebanon. H&M Glass also offers glass shower enclosures.
“The building has a basement, which we couldn’t use for the glass business since the materials and equipment would be too heavy to get upstairs,” he said. “I had this space and I wanted to do something with it.
“I’ve enjoyed the sport of archery since I was 12 years old, but I got away from it when I got married and had a family. I decided to turn the basement space of the building into an indoor archery range that H&M’s 50 employees could use.”
Feedback from employees about this new benefit was positive.
“About two weeks after opening the range to employees, I began to consider expanding it and opening to the public. A number of employees had said they had friends who would enjoy an indoor range,” Hoffert said.
Once he made the decision to shift the indoor archery range from a private range to one that’s open to the public, he knew he needed someone to run it, and offered the job to Larry Miller.
“I knew Larry for a number of years from both school and his involvement with archery. I showed him the range and asked him if he would like to manage it,” Hoffert said.
Miller is a certified archery trainer, as is another staff member Tim Reichard. Miller said he’s been shooting bows for over 20 years and coaching and setting people up with bows for about 20 years.
“Most of the bows we rent for both kids and adults are the original Genesis bows; they’re the same bows that are used in (gym classes in) schools. The rental bow gets their feet wet, and they can take the next step if they want to,” he said.
Rental bows a Lebanon Indoor Archery may have a 10-pound draw, which Miller said is good for kids about 6 years old, or a 20-pound draw, a bigger bow that takes more strength to draw.
Lebanon Indoor Archery and Supplies sells both recurve (the traditional wooden bow) and compound bows. Miller said he’s in the process of creating some group training classes for beginning archers. He said training sessions can also be set up by request for individuals or groups that want to learn together.
The business is currently building a traditional 28-yard archery range.
“This is more suitable for recurves than compound bows,” Miller said.
Both Hoffert and Miller welcome people to visit the indoor ranges and try them out.
“We’ve had a lot of good feedback from people since we’ve been open. Some people just stumbled on us; others heard about us from their friends or co-workers,” Miller said.
Lebanon Indoor Archery and Supplies hours are noon to 9 p.m. Monday through Friday and 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. More information is available at Lebanon Indoor Archery’s Facebook page.
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