I had high hopes for this place as this area sorely needs some competition as far as gun ranges go. I've been shooting for years now, and there aren't any good ranges this side of town. Peters is just way too run down and nasty. I don't care for the drive out to Double Action or Target in Royal Oak. So, when I heard a new one was opening near me, I was giddy.
Well, that giddiness is now gone. I went there this past Sunday with a group of friends and had a simply awful experience. We waited in line 20 minutes before we could even sign up for a lane (not to mention waiting after signing up). I'd almost be fine with that, except 15 of those 20 minutes were spent with no one doing anything. They weren't that busy, they weren't at capacity. We just stood in line, not moving at all, for 15 minutes. Once we finally purchased a lane, it was another 10 minutes before we were called in.
I get that ranges can be busy, and we expected some wait for a lane, but 20 minutes just to sign up for a lane (we were third in line)? Making maters worse, once we got inside the lane, it was only half full. There was easily 4 or 5 open lanes, so why the heck did we have to wait so long?
So, we get to our lane (we're shooting a rifle) and it's not turned on. We ask the range master, who checks our receipt. While he's looking, another couple comes in, and says they too were given the same lane assignment we had. Awesome.
So, range master heads out and finally gets our lane activated. Enter the next problem. We paid for an hour, they only activated it for 30 minutes. We didn't notice that until our time was nearly up and the range officer (new guy now) went to kick us out. So, I had to go out, and fight again now. They tried to argue that our time began 20 minutes before it actually did. They finally gave us 20 more minutes, which is all we really wanted.
The facility itself is quite nice. If you're shooting a hand gun, it looked like they had 12 lanes or so, and another 12-ish in the rifle side. The shop is immaculate (to be expected since the facility is brand new). The target holder is a bit obnoxious, but I love the automated distance setup where you just tell it how far out to send the target. Things were well ventilated and well lit. They were severely lacking counter space behind the range (a place to put your jacket/range bag etc). Just people fighting for space on a few plastic folding tables they had setup.
But the service....ugh. It's simply terrible. I'd be willing to accept these mistakes if they had just opened, but they've been open for 6 months now. The range safety officers seem to be glorified janitors. One guy enforced the 'no rapid fire' rule, the other guy seemed not to care at all as people just went ape-shit rapid-fire crazy. He just spent his time sweeping casings off the open floor.
I will give these guys another 6 months before trying again. Hopefully by then they have their act more together. read more