Harrisburg or Lehigh Valley, best place to teach someone to shoot a pistol?

[twency]

I have a couple family members interested in learning to shoot a handgun. Due to where we all live, either the Harrisburg area or Lehigh Valley areas would be options for where we would meet.

In the past I've used the State Games Lands ranges, and a commercial range when I lived in Virginia, but I haven't used a commercial range in PA. (Or really any range recently; my last "practice", sad to say, was a GSSF match last summer.)

I'm thinking that an indoor commercial range would be a convenient place for intro to live-fire. (I plan to do an unloaded tabletop "orientation" in one of our homes before taking them to a range for live-fire practice.)

Anyone have a suggestion for a good commercial range either in the Hburg or Bethlehem/Allentown areas where we could share a lane for a while as they learn to shoot?

I plan to encourage them to take an intro course from a professional instructor if they enjoy the experience, but I don't know that they're interested enough to do that yet.

[GonzoGeezer]

IIRC, Danny's on 322 closed some time ago. The only public indoor range I'm aware of in the area is Freedom Armory down in Glen Rock, York County. If you join Harrisburg Hunters and Anglers you can get guest passes, with some limitations. The club has an indoor pistol range along with all the usual outdoor facilities.

[PennsyPlinker]

In the Lehigh Valley, you have the Firing Line in Whitehall, or Shimersville for indoor ranges. Of the two, I would definitely go with the Firing Line. The hours are better, and the range is nicer. The guy who runs it is strict, but rightly so. I have always been treated well by him and the others who work there. But if someone does something stupid, he is on them in a hurry. That is a good thing. I don't want to get shot by some idiot.

[CartBone69]

In the Lehigh Valley, you have the Firing Line in Whitehall, or Shimersville for indoor ranges. Of the two, I would definitely go with the Firing Line. The hours are better, and the range is nicer. The guy who runs it is strict, but rightly so. I have always been treated well by him and the others who work there. But if someone does something stupid, he is on them in a hurry. That is a good thing. I don't want to get shot by some idiot.

Im on the other side of the paper on this one, i do agree that the firing line range is nicer. Bust last time i was there they made me rent a 22 for the person i came with even thogh he had shot a gun before because they "wanted him too start small" even though the guy shot a gun before but not a lot and hes 6'3 and maybe 230. But they wanted him to start small so i had no other choice to rent their gun and pay to shoot their over priced ammo. But with the people they get in their i dont blame them for the way they are.

I like shimersville because they are more laid back and dont get as many of the idiots that the firing line gets.

[renalp]

Heritage Guild in Easton is a new, really nice range that caters to beginning shooters and has a very good rental selection. People on this forum have been crying that it's soooo expensive, but the $75 / 5 hours package price really isn't bad.

[PennsyPlinker]

Im on the other side of the paper on this one, i do agree that the firing line range is nicer. Bust last time i was there they made me rent a 22 for the person i came with even thogh he had shot a gun before because they "wanted him too start small" even though the guy shot a gun before but not a lot and hes 6'3 and maybe 230. But they wanted him to start small so i had no other choice to rent their gun and pay to shoot their over priced ammo. But with the people they get in their i dont blame them for the way they are.

I like shimersville because they are more laid back and dont get as many of the idiots that the firing line gets.

I have a couple of good stories about idiots at the Firing Line. I've been to Shimerville, and it is okay. It is like shooting at dusk though, with the way the lights are in that place. It is certainly no frills. I suspect they made your buddy start small, not because they thought he would be unable to control recoil, but because of lack of experience shooting and lining up the sights. I have seen some pretty wild things in teaching people to shoot, even after clearly explaining sight picture and getting them to repeat it back to me. One of the wildest was watching a girl (young lady) shoot the foot of my PVC stand while "aiming" at the tin can hanging from a string at the center. The can was about four feet off the ground and three or four feet to the left of the foot, but she managed to shoot the foot.

[CartBone69]

I have a couple of good stories about idiots at the Firing Line. I've been to Shimerville, and it is okay. It is like shooting at dusk though, with the way the lights are in that place. It is certainly no frills. I suspect they made your buddy start small, not because they thought he would be unable to control recoil, but because of lack of experience shooting and lining up the sights. I have seen some pretty wild things in teaching people to shoot, even after clearly explaining sight picture and getting them to repeat it back to me. One of the wildest was watching a girl (young lady) shoot the foot of my PVC stand while "aiming" at the tin can hanging from a string at the center. The can was about four feet off the ground and three or four feet to the left of the foot, but she managed to shoot the foot.

Yea me too, ive only been there about 4-5 times over the last 5-6 years and i have more stories about people there then i do about people at Shimerville and ive been there about 6-7 times in the last 6 months, lol

Also the last time i was at Shimersville the lighting seem to be better then usual, the only thing i dont really like is that i guess they dont think the PA smoking laws apply to them and they still smoke in the building, but i guess ill talk that as opposed to being swept with a loaded gun any day.

[renalp]

Also the last time i was at Shimersville the lighting seem to be better then usual, the only thing i dont really like is that i guess they dont think the PA smoking laws apply to them and they still smoke in the building, but i guess ill talk that as opposed to being swept with a loaded gun any day.

Cig smoke could only improve the air quality in there.

[twency]

Thanks for the responses, I appreciate them.

[twency]

We ended up going to The Firing Line in Whitehall. Seemed like an ok place, generally a good experience as far as the facilities. I was somewhat off-put by the guy behind the counter wearing what appeared at casual glance to be something which might be glorifying Nazis. His t-shirt had an eagle clutching a swastika on the front, and the back had various names and dates in the style of a "tour dates" band t-shirt.

I believe there was also writing in German on the shirt. I was too distracted by other things going on to spend a lot of time figuring out if the shirt was what I thought it was, but my first (possibly wrong) impression was that the guy behind the counter was celebrating the Third Reich.