Gotham Archery - Brooklyn — Attraction in New York

Beautiful space. MANY employees. Range is very frequented. You can shoot at 20 yards. Convenient hours of operation. FUN for kids -- any time I've been there when kids were there too, they've run the line like a kids birthday party.

However, my perception of safety is a HUGE red flag -- huge enough that I feel obliged to write this review.

1-Kids birthday party vibe is great for kids, but that means kids running, shouting, iffy line discipline, the line moving VERY slowly (~11 ends per hour when kids are there). Little instruction. Is rough showing up as an adult and feeling like you're in a kids birthday party.

2-There's little consistency in how the staff calls the line (though there are signs everywhere instructing staff how to properly do it). The calls to allow archers to shoot have varied from "clear to pick up your bows and shoot", to "clear", to "shoot now", to "go", to "time to practice" to "clear to practice", to "get your bows" (without a call to shoot), etc. The calls to direct archers to put their bows down and retrieve have varied from "bows down and clear to retrieve", to "clear", to "retrieve", to "get your arrows", to "go" -- and there's probably another dozen variations for both.

THE WORST example: I've heard multiple staff members, multiple times, use the single word "CLEAR" to direct folks to both "clear to shoot", and "clear your arrows off the targets".  Using the IDENTICAL single word only for both of these totally opposite directions is a huge accident waiting to happen -- especially as they cater to children and newer archers.  Some staff are better than others at this and seem to individually call things consistently and correctly (the only person who I've seen do this 100% of the time correctly was a black guy in his 20s, sorry I don't know anyone's name, but he's been great), but in the aggregate, my experience of this here has been very bad and (potentially) dangerously inconsistent. If "CLEAR" means "shoot", but also means "get your arrows" -- that seems unnecessarily risky.

3-Other unsafe behavior from staff: One claimed he was practicing before a trip to "shoot from horseback in Montana", and to do this, he lined up BACKWARDS on the shooting line, and then turned his torso around to the target, literally drawing his bow across and towards the entire shooting line as he turned around to the target. One slip and that's potentially an arrow hitting a person.

4-Same staff member was also putting down his bow (in between ends) on a hook which was roughly 6 feet BEYOND the shooting line (toward the targets). When done shooting, while other archers were still shooting (before he called bows down to clear), he would cross that 6 feet beyond the shooting line, and put his bow on that hook -- all while other people were still shooting. Seems unnecessarily unsafe for him to walk into the line of fire, and would be traumatic for any archer who accidentally hit him while he was in a restricted area.

5-I also witnessed multiple staff members regularly calling the line during a single hour session (at least 3-4 of them). Okay if they call consistently, but most staff use different calls at the line, & this could cause confusion and be unsafe. They've sometimes called inconsistent calls simultaneously.

6-Targets are often staggered to allow ppl to shoot at different distances, but this can make it hard to see, from the shooting line, whether someone is behind a staggered target (still retrieving arrows), and I've rarely seen a staff member fully effectively check to make sure no one is "unseen" before they call the line to shoot.

This place is cool and I'm glad NYC has a comfortable and nice looking place to shoot. But as a mom I'm so worried about my perceived potential safety concerns.

If any owners or management read this, even if you don't believe me, PLEASE take this to heart and at least double check that staff is trained properly and use only consistent calls on the line. I'm not exaggerating and am genuinely concerned about the safety of archers there...

My partner and I recently took an intro class at Gotham Archery, and we were blown away. Even though we’ve trained at other ranges before, we found out that Gotham Archery's intro class was mandatory—and honestly, we’re glad it was! Huge props to Martin and Jackie who led our session. They clearly know their stuff and made the class warm, fun, and exciting, even for novice archers like us.

Having gone through similar safety and intro training at other ranges, we can confidently say this was hands down the friendliest, tightest, and most entertaining introduction to archery we’ve ever experienced. Gotham has struck a perfect balance between catering to archery enthusiasts and making the experience unintimidating and joyful for complete beginners. I think my partner and I were discussing that they covered more fundamentals in one hour than some other places do in four hours.

It’s clear Gotham is doing something right. The vibes around the range were joyful, and even on a school night the range was packed (but not crowded!) with activity. Beyond Martin and Jackie, we met Kelsey after our shoot, and the same great vibes were unmistakable. The entire team made us feel welcome and inspired to keep coming back. We loved our experience so much we even extended our time by an hour to shoot at the lanes!

As new residents in the neighborhood, we were looking for a range to call home—and we’ve found it. Gotham Archery, we’ll see...

Gotham Archery is an excellent choice for a group outing. The beginners classes are fun and fast - within 20 minutes you'll get a bow of your choice (compound or recurve), arrows, and some instruction on stance and sighting, and all the beginners classes end with a fun group game. Gotham also is a nice space if you want to shoot on your own (which you can do once you've completed one beginners session).

So why 3 stars? Because if you actually want to learn archery this is not the place for you. The staff I've interacted with skew young in age, and the actual attention and customer service provided leaves more than a little to be desired. I actually stopped coming to this place for more than a year because I was annoyed with the lack of attention paid by staff while I was on the range (this was before the private lessons which are apparently available now - back then you did the beginner class and were told you could rent a lane a shoot with experienced staff to provide feedback). Tried to give it another go and dealt with more of the same: a chaotic space that caters to beginner classes, provides a fun environment for just shooting solo, but with staff that leave a little...