The Sportsman's Shop — Local services in East Earl Township

Been to their range a handful of times, decent experience the first couple. But the last time I went will indeed be my last time! First of all their prices are a little on the high side, in their store and range! Now I understand firearm safety should be taken very seriously and absolutely agree that it should but the harassment I’ve witnessed from the RSO not only to me but other customers as well is ridiculous!!! I took a few of my firearms in there (couple deer rifles, shotgun, pistol and my AR) in my previous visits I didn’t have my shotgun but this time I brought it because I installed a red dot on it and wanted to sight it in. Rented 2 lanes cause I had 3 people with me and I made the mistake of shooting bird shot out of it and accidentally hit their target holder, no damage was done to it but it knocked my paper target off! The range officer came over there and was very rude and said why are you shooting bird shot (might add that nowhere is it posted clearly that birdshot isn’t allowed so I didn’t know) the range officer made a big deal out of it and told me to put the gun away if I didn’t have slugs and that now we was going to have to shutdown the entire range so he could retrieve the PAPER target that was laying on the ground… so I put my shotgun away and went on to shooting my other firearms! About 10 mins later I pull out my AR and began to shoot with the target all the way down range and that same range officer came up to me again and started harassing me and asked what I was shooting at? I said the paper target at the end of the range… he followed up with “Are you aiming for his head or what because it looks like you’re aiming high and if you hit one of my target hangers I WILL kick you out” I assured him that I was a good shot and not to worry I wasn’t going to hit his holder! Also one of their precious holders messed up on us and wouldn’t move and we had to wait 20 mins for someone to come fix it! Pretty sure I would’ve still been charged full price for that lane if I wouldn’t of said something to the lady at the checkout about a discount because I only had access to one of my lanes for 40 minutes instead of the full hour! Management needs to step up and address the attitude and customer service issues within...

So this was my second time going to TheSportsmansShop for the range the first time was okay, I didn’t think highly nor negatively. My second time was today, I think to consider myself pretty knowledgeable on everything regarding firearms at least with the basics. Anyways, I decided I would go shooting for my birthday it’s something I don’t get to really do often & my girlfriend wanted to go with me. I walked in & was greeted by a gentleman @ the front counter asking me how I was doing & if it was range day. Which was very nice. Fast forward I was informed by the lady @ the desk that the RSO’s were changing in about 20 minutes from Paul to Mark? I believe it was. I started shooting with Paul as the RSO I’m gonna guess the target was about 10 yards out, no problems at all. My girlfriend started shooting as Paul’s shift was ending & it was switching to Mark. Believing there was an overlap to which both were there. Which then Mark stated something about “watching your fire” & we needed to move the target back to the way back which I believe is 25 yards which it was possible that the target was too close. But the attitude I feel we received wasn’t in a friendly manner. I still don’t understand what the problem was. Other than mechanical offset? So we obliged to which my girlfriend decided she didn’t wanna shoot anymore to the attitude we received which then we heard Mark I believe boasting about his wife or daughter that can shoot @ 20 yards with his pistol no problem. Now I don’t know if this was intentional or not. Either way I feel this was very unprofessional due to the circumstances that just occurred. I then decided I wasn’t gonna keep shooting much more. So we go to check out & received a very bland, quick & slightly miserable attitude. So that definitely concludes my business here. I figured I’d give it another shot & found myself very disappointed & quite frankly irritated on my birthday no less. Definitely telling my friends about this visit & to...

Worst range experience ever! I will never return to The Sportsman Shop again. My family and I decided to go to the range for a relaxing night, but as soon as we stepped inside, the RSO was already giving us dirty looks. My younger brother and I headed to our lane and set everything up properly, placing our target at a distance of about 15 yards while we were preparing the weapon.

Almost immediately, the RSO approached us and made a snarky comment about how long guns require targets to be set at a distance of 20 yards. It's worth noting that the people next to us, who were using a long gun, had been shooting their target at just 10 yards without any reprimand.

We adjusted the target distance and began shooting. At one point, I accidentally shot a portion of the target retrieval system downrange, causing it to break. The RSO came up behind us, angrily confronting me and my younger brother—who hadn’t even touched the gun and was safely standing away from the shooting area. He cornered both of us, creating a hostile environment, raised his voice, and told us that we were banned from the range.

It seems like the RSO might be new to the job or in need of retraining on how to properly handle such situations; his behavior was unprofessional. While on his power trip he called a cease-fire at the range to make an example of our simple mistake. Based on other reviews, it appears this place has a pattern of belittling newcomers to the sport for minor errors.

To make matters worse, the general manager completely dismissed and ignored us when we left the range. When we confronted him about the situation, he offered only one-word responses and no formal apology for the RSO's behavior. I’m baffled by how he holds this position. The owners should consider finding a qualified general manager who knows how to address customers and handle situations like this properly. After this experience, I will never recommend this shop to any...