James Young

Class taken on Sat, Mar. 7, 2026
|Taught by Valley Outdoors +3 more

"The Class was great, but I was not expecting that we were going to a shooting range. When Jay called me he did not say a thing that I should bring my handgun or hearing protection. I did have my gun, but no hearing protection besides the foam ear plugs that were supplied at the shooting range that did nothing for me. So I was on the shooting range with a shooter to the left, and right, plus my own gun firing 15 rounds in total between the 3 of us. I left with my eardrums blown out, I hope it's not permanent damage. I was going to stay after I was done, and leave with the group, but I did not need anymore hearing damage, as I was in the first group of shooters, with about 30 left to go. This was a total fail on the instructors part, and he knows this. As I talked to him about it. But he feels it's my fault. Update, 2 weeks later, and my hearing has not improved, my hearing is muffled, with constant ringing, and buzzing, I used to be able to talk to my neighbor a few hundred feet away, and hear his reply, now I have to walk over to hear his reply. I am now tone deaf, I used to be able to tell 90% of the songs that were playing by the first note, or lyric. Now I don't know what is playing. Monday March 9th, the USCCA emailed me a survey to rate the class. I was pissed off, and scared that I was going to have permanent hearing loss over this shooting range incident, so I gave the class 1 star, and wrote a bad factual review about my experience. Tuesday March 10th. Jay called me, and I declined the call, as I was busy at the moment. So I called him back, and he asked me to remove the review, and pretty much made it sound like it was my fault that I didn’t ask for more ear protection, he also said he had 7 sets of ear muffs with him on every class, why would an experienced shooter not give these to everyone that was on the front line is beyond me? He was the teacher, and I was the student. But like I said, he had his ear muffs on, as well as his partner, because they knew better. He said the review would hurt the store, and his standing with the USCCA, he assured me that my hearing issue would only be temporary. And I figured, he would know more than me, but ultimately time would tell, I did not want to harm the store, so not being able to take it down, I screenshot it, and removed all text, and changed the review to 5 stars. Because I knew I could easily edit it, if I found out my hearing damage was permanent. So here I am, pissed off, that I had to lose my hearing, while Jay had 7 sets of ear muffs, and never offered me a pair on the range. As far as I am concerned, the 3 shooters, and the next 4 people in line should have been wearing these ear muffs. I called a couple of ear Dr.s and they all set pretty much, damage is done, but they can test my hearing, making an appointment today. Do not call me, and ask me to change this review, own it! I went to a course on defense, and lost one of my most important defenses as a result, the defense of hearing. Robert Donnelly "

Submitted on Mon, Mar. 9, 2026 by Robert D.

Class taken on Sat, Jan. 17, 2026
|Taught by Valley Outdoors +3 more

Submitted on Tues, Jan. 20, 2026 by .

Class taken on Sat, Dec. 13, 2025
|Taught by Valley Outdoors +3 more

"Class was thorough, and instructors took time to go above and beyond! Highly recommend! "

Submitted on Mon, Dec. 15, 2025 by Daniel P.