I hesitate to make this posting but here goes...I am a member and 50-year shooter of the Renton Fish and Game Club which is my go-to pistol range. Their new pistol range master "Paul" is, frankly, rude and intimidating. I brought a lady friend there as a guest to introduce her to the range and to shoot her new 9mm. Paul was so intimidating and abrupt, that she opted not to even shoot. I convinced that so long as we were there to at least fire her gun. I was embarrassed to have put her into that position and suggested she and her husband find a different, user-friendly range. So, my question is: what can I expect at the Issaquah range? Are there any 'affordable' ranges for us seniors in south King County? The only thing going for the RFGC is that the cost of shooting is reasonable for members.

I clicked on their web site link to contact the RFGC Board to express my dismay of that experience with Paul, but the link failed.

Issaquah also has range Nazi RSOs and is crowded.

SVRC is cheap and no Nazis.

I'm sorry to hear that she (and you) had such a bad experience. That's really unfortunate.

Don't try to use the link from the web page; just send an email to "board@rfgc.org".

Hard headed and obtuse with a dash of power trip seems to be the unfortunately common recipe for RSO’s. Sorry to hear you had a bad experience. Of all the public ranges I used to attend there were always a few of those type. I’ve since moved on to a private range and am much happier there.

Have you considered looking for a private range to join? I’m not well versed in what’s available down there in south king. Maybe some others here could make a recommendation?

RFGC Board / Member meeting is the first Thursday of every month at 7pm.
Strongly suggest you go and let them know what happened.

All...thanks for your replies. I did send a second message to the RFGC board and will wait for a (possible) reply. I've checked the Issaquah and Black Diamond club web sites and see they are pretty much the same as the RFGC in terms of convenience of getting there and what they offer as a pistol range.

My primary interest in shooting is to verify my hand load's cycling the action of my semiautos. Frankly, I can build a box and shoot in my basement. All I need to do is get my dogs outside and blast away. What's going for the RFGC is they are only 8 miles (15 minutes) from my house and two miles from my daughter and two grandsons. Trips to the range are combined with my visiting them. If I can get that fool RSO to keep his yap shut, I'm OK with the RFGC. Yeah, I know, good luck with that.

(For the record...I'm age 78, Vietnam ERA vet (Navy) and have a walk-in gun locker with 54 handguns and a collection of mostly Marlin lever actions rifles, former kitchen table FFL, l live alone with my two mutts. I just don't need Paul's BS.)

I have not found issaquah rsos to be any problem. It is very crowded though, and it has odd lane angles.

One nice aspect to the RFGC is that the there's plenty of video camera's recording all the time. So your experience should be on record and able to be reviewed.

Update: I did a Yelp review search of the RFGC and noted that the overall rating is 3.2 with 24 one-star ratings out of 57 reviews. Many were directly negative of Paul (I won't mention his last name). It appears the RFGC board is ignoring these reviews. The guy is a bully and uses "safety" as a tool to intimidate shooters. In my case, we were standing in the office not yet signed in when he began badgering my guest with his provoking questions. I don't know this guy's background or education, but he is way in over his head.

RFGC board, I highly recommend you get serious about these complaints. It ain't just me and a one-time experience. I've seen him walk about the pistol range looking for ways he could bully the shooters.

Have you checked out SVRC?
http://www.svrifle.org/membership---meetings.html

Yes, I have checked their web site with a few other ranges. It's painful for me to admit that the RFGC is just too convenient for me. The only issue I have with RFGC is the bully range master. If I can get the board to at least recognize that he is not in the best interest of members and guests, I'd drop the entire beef. I know there are shooters who spend the entire day at the range, but my primary object is to verify my hand loads cycle the action with accuracy a secondary issue. Like I said in another posting, I can achieve my primary goal with a box in the basement, and frankly, I'm leaning in that direction.

Devils advocate from a person who is President of another local range... Good help is hard to find... Correction, ANY HELP is hard to find. They might be aware that this RSO is not the best image for their association, but no RSO = no open range. So they have to make a hard choice on how to proceed. If the range is still busy and bringing in $$, I am not sure they will admit to something being broken. As soon as behavior starts to really impact the income of the range is when the Board would get more involved.

I don't know if the RSO is a volunteer or paid employee, but that may change the way the Board interact with the RSO as well.

Good points, thanks for that inside insight. As a former business owner, I've had thousands of interactions with customers all but a handful were positive. Those few that were negative really bothered me. I would always consider what their beef was and correct it if at all possible. Word of mouth advertising put food on the table for me and my employees.

No response from my e-mail the RFGC board and frankly, I don't expect one. I might send them that link to the Yelp Reviews of the RFGC where 25 out of 58 were 'one star' largely complaining about the 'staff', specifically Paul by name.

Scarpia, here's your chance to do something about it. ;)

viewtopic.php?f=36&t=131618

The date stamp of that posting is April 2022 so it appears either Paul got that job or possibly the guy at the shotgun range, dunno. There are two range masters on duty at any given time, pistol/rifle range and the shotgun range. I just took possession of another gun and will likely go to the range this Saturday to pop off a few rounds. I'll very quietly sign in and get out of the office ASAP to avoid and possible interaction with Paul. If I had a box in the basement, I could cycle the action of this new gun without having to deal with Paul. I'm strongly leaning on the box and give up my membership at the RFGC.