[Non-Va] Shooter's Choice, Dover

[Atamisk]

Well, That was odd.

I was in Deleware this weekend, and i decided to take my cousin (who had never been shooting before) to their local range for some plinking. When we got there, i noticed that there was a sign saying that all guns must be unloaded before entering the store. Easy enough i thought, so i dropped the magazine out of my sidearm and tossed it into my ammo box. When i got in there and spoke to the teller to get set up for the range, he asked where my gun was, and i pointed to my hip, and his eyes got sort of wide. He said "Never, ever bring a gun in here on your hip!! We don't allow that sort of thing in here!" I was promptly sent outside, at which point i popped open the breech of my gun and set it in my case. When i came back in, the teller checked out the gun, shut the case, and set my gun and ammo BEHIND THE COUNTER. After the usual paperwork involved with getting into a range for the first time was complete, i rented my cousin a gun, and asked for my gun and ammo box back so i could go shoot. He gave me this blank look like "What Gun??" I had to 'remind' him that he set my 1911 and about $150 worth of ammunition behind his counter.

Once that little exchange was over with, the experience was nice, i suppose. The indoor range was 25 Yd, which was a pleasent surprise for sure. It was well-lit, and each lane had a dimmer switch that controlled a set of downrange floods, so you could shoot in the dark or daylight. Also, they don't want people sweeping their brass unless they plan to reload it, so when each person leaves, they sweep the brass downrange, which was a little odd to me.

Sidenote: My cousin actually managed to get well inside the scoring area on an NRA B-8 at 25 yards with a 9mm XD after having never fired a handgun before! I was duly impressed!

I guess the exchange with the counter guy was just some 'Northern' culture shock, but i was still very uncomfortable that he took my gun and set it behind the counter. I can't say he was discourteous (quite the opposite), but i do think the was under the impression i was carrying illegally, which i wasn't.

tl;dr: Range was good, but i was rather surprised how "careful" they were around letting people carry in-store.

[Reca]

I don't think I would have been comfortable enough to let him set it behind his counter. Sweeping the brass onro the range opposed to letting people pick up after themselves... Sounds like they might be reloading to make a little extra profit.

[Atamisk]

Yeah, it made me sort of nervous as well. Also, he straight up said that they reload the brass. Can't fault them though, because they let people carry off their own brass, so that's not too bad.