By Meredith Colias, Mason City Globe Gazette

MASON CITY — After seven months of renovations, Hart Brothers Weaponry has settled into its new location at 613 S. Federal Ave. in Mason City.

Since the location opened last month, owner Kemlin Hart said business has been steady. The store has added another full-time employee, he said.

“We’ve seen some new faces, which is a big (thing) in an election year,” he said.

The current location offers 5,400 total square footage with a 4,100 square-foot sales space — more than doubling its former space on 19th Street Southwest.

“One of the problems we had at the last store is that we had so much inventory that we couldn’t display it all,” Hart said. “We couldn’t find it when it was displayed because it was just too condensed.

“With the extra space we can add more product,” he said.

Since purchasing the former Party Store location, Hart said extensive renovations were completed, including a new front, roof, interior walls, air conditioners, furnace, lights and electrical wiring.

Top sellers are conceal-carry handguns ranging between $300 and $600 and semi-automatic rifles like the AR-15, typically priced between $600 and $1,000 or more.

Since 2010, the store has catered to Mason City gun owners with a large inventory of new and used handguns, rifles and shotguns, ammunition and accessories under brand names including Bushmaster, Browning, FN, Kahr, KelTac, Remington, Ruger, Smith & Wesson, Springfield and Taurus.

The store also features a selection of accessories including optics, rifle accessories, holsters and ammunition.

Hart said he is planning to add standing gun safes to the sales floor.

The new store also has a new puppy — an 8-week-old Stanley poodle obtained last Sunday who is still nameless.

Hart learned the trade practically from infancy by going to gun shows and then later working with his father, Milan Hart, who founded Hart Brothers Weaponry in 1977 in Albert Lea.