Andreeva Archery Range

I decided to check this place out because I saw a Groupon for $ 20 for two people for one hour of shooting. I had never been to an indoor archery range or any archery range for that matter so it seemed as good an incentive as any to try it out for the first time. Before heading out, I decided to give them a call just to make sure they were open. A man answered the phone and told me they closed at 8 p.m. that day and that I should get there no later than 7 p.m. He wasn’t rude but he wasn’t the friendliest or most welcoming either. He asked no follow-​up questions like were you planning on coming in today or do you know where we’re located… basic follow-​up questions I would ask were I the owner or employee trying to display excellent customer service.
We arrived shortly after to find the parking pretty packed. The entrance sign was on the side of the door and while it was red, it wasn’t very large or noticeable. We actually completely passed the entrance the first time around. Upon entering the establishment, we proceeded to the front door where we were greeted by a friendlier woman. I explained to her that I had a Groupon and that my friend and I wanted to shoot for an hour. It seemed to be pretty busy for a Saturday afternoon and she seemed to be the only person working the front desk. She excused herself to answer the phone. While waiting, I noticed several other couples and people standing around waiting for instruction. Once she was done with her phone call, she showed us over to another area where we had to sign in printing and then signing our names and complete a liability waiver. Upon signing in and completing the form, we searched around to find her only to find her scrambling to help several other people. She was definitely the only person working the front and it was clear they needed more help. When she finally became available, she showed us to an area where we could hang our coats and belongings. She told me she had a chair for me to set my purse on. It would seem more convenient and safer to provide lockers for storage of personal items in my opinion. She then walked us over to the shooting area.
I again explained to her this was our first time and if we would receive a training before beginning. She said that she would train us. It was then that I noticed a gentlemen, the one I’m assuming I spoke to on the phone, now helping the customers who were just entering. From the looks of it, they were the only two people running the place and based on how busy it was, they definitely needed more help. Anyway, she did give us a pretty thorough lesson on how to hold the bow, load the arrow, our stance, and walked us through a couple of practice exercises. After completing my lesson, I felt pretty comfortable shooting my first arrow. I let her rip and I must admit, it was pretty fun! From then on, we continued to shoot on our own. She showed us how to remove the arrows out the target once we were done. There wasn’t much privacy as there were no walls or anything blocking you from the person next to you. You were actually quite close. You also had to wait until everyone was done shooting and a red, flashing light was signaled before walking across to retrieve your arrows. This understandably was for safely reasons but I think man-​made walls could easily have eliminated this problem. Each person was also given four arrows. I would have preferred more arrows to shoot longer without the whole stop and wait game. I hit the bulls-​eye a couple of time and the first time, I was awarded with a button that said, «I shot a bullseye». That was pretty cute.
Another small note is that when you go to retrieve your arrows, you must hang your bow on a hook so it’s safely out the way. When I went to retrieve my arrows one time and return to retrieve my bow, it was missing. I was confused because I knew I had hung it up. I searched for the woman to explain what happen and she went looking for it. It turned out the man had moved it to another area of the facility because he was trying to put some of the extra bows up. It would have been nice if he asked if my bow was being used before moving it. It was clearly a mistake but just a small annoyance to me since it was in the area where many bows were being used and could have been avoided by asking a simple question. This also caused me to hold up the whole round because I got started late and everyone had to wait for me to shoot all my arrows.
So, all in all, it is a fun experience if you’ve never done it and have time to wait to be serviced if they are busy and to retrieve your arrows. The woman was really nice and she did make an effort to make the experience more enjoyable. She gave us some promotional material and talked to us about how they do birthday parties, etc. You could tell she was really trying to sell us on returning. I probably won’t be running back anytime soon but it was a fun experience!