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BRAIDWOOD -- Braidwood businessman Tony Altiery could not be blamed if he thought he's on the top tier of his career these days.
Long time area contractor Tony, along with his wife Lori, have created something unique to the south Will County area that includes Braidwood, Wilmington and the trans I-55 area of Grundy County -- the only 3-D digital archery range. The range's electronics allow the shooter to see where exactly they placed their arrow in the wild game that includes bear, deer and turkey, with the game in its natural habitat, while giving readout of the speed of the arrow along with letting the archer know if the shot was fatal or superficial. (And, since the range is indoors, it may be used in complete comfort year round.)
While archers use the range they will be tempted to explore the lower level store in the building. A sportsman's paradise, Altiery calls his place The Sportsman's Edge at 264 Front Street (Rte 53) for good reason -- it contains sporting equipment for any outdoor sport for all seasons. Besides a full line of archery products and accessories and the range, the 11,000-square-foot building also contains a huge live bait selection for fishers, paintball guns and gear, a complete archery pro shop where bows and arrows may be either repaired or constructed. Thousands of rods and reels hang along the walls with decoys, tree stands, camping gear and ammo. Since Tony's father Geno is also a professional fishing guide for the area's many streams and lakes, this may be the only outdoors store to offer a guide to customers locally.
In all, the property contains five separate stores with a hot dog hut and Subway coming soon. All Altiery's employees are hired locally.
Some folks will go to great lengths to build what they dream of and Altiery says, 'I always wanted a good tackle, fishing and sports store -- now we have one,'
In this case it was great lengths and much expense since Tony and Lori have $1.5 million invested. It took the couple five years to complete the shopping plaza.
The range and store also feature a full line of Bass Pro Brand products along with Remington firearms and Bowtech archery products.
For more information about hours or services call (815) 458-7997
