Range Update from FWC:

The building we were planning on renovating to temporarily use for restrooms/check-in at the Palm Beach County Shooting Park did not meet current county codes.  It was cost prohibitive to renovate this structure.  This is delaying the opening of the rifle and pistol ranges.

A bid was awarded for the remainder of the site work.  A new contractor will soon start working on this phase of the project.

As soon as the restrooms and supporting buildings are bid and a contractor selected, we’ll be able to provide a projected opening date.

No information on employment, memberships, etc.

Thanks.

great

Is all that baffling down range necessary?  Seems kind of funky with shadows and all.
I understand its to keep rounds on range, but.

new normal.  if you can see blue sky its a no go.

Government

No kidding...its only been what.10 years to get this going?  Actually longer I think. Anybody else remember going to the meeting across from the airport on Military Trail?

Which gate is this?

I've never seen a gate like that on the Beeline.

Or is that the gate at the end of Seminole Pratt/Hapatokee Road?

The end of Seminole Pratt

Was at that meeting too

I am pissed, they were so close and now it seems like they are ready to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  contractor gone and no opening date in sight.  unable to afford to rent a trailer



the govt fucks up everything they touch.

No kidding... they can't borrow a FEMA trailer and put it out there?

It's almost as if they didn't really want to build the shooting facility.

Where exactly is the range located? I drove to the west end of Northlake Blvd and then headed north for a bit and then the road turned in to a dirt road. Is it North or South of Northlake Blvd...and about how far in the direction?

Thanks

just keep going on the dirt road until the end, its a couple of miles max

Okay, thanks. As soon as I hit the dirt road I stopped.

Jest keep going about 2 to 3 miles, you can't miss it on your right.

I hope they have that road, in heavy rains,  ughhh I have a nice 4x4 Truck but..

2 miles north.  If you go there, take some pictures and post them here please.

Jesus christ, I'll shit in a hole.
Just let me use the damn range.

As of Sunday they still have not broken ground on the check in building. Everything else looks great from what I could see from the fence.

Just as a comparison; it took only 410 days to build this from start to finish.

Of course, in contrast to what appears to have been going on with the shooting range, they actually wanted to get the damned thing built.

September 2017
Phase II Construction begins at Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park

When complete, new park will offer Olympic shooting sports, hunter safety classes and other recreational opportunities

Progress is being made at the Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) awarded MJC Land Development of Royal Palm Beach the

contract to complete the second phase of construction at this facility. Phase II consists of clearing the remaining 150-acre site, completing the stormwater retention controls, and installing the

remaining roads, parking, sporting clays course and major utilities. MJC Land Development began phase II construction Sept. 15.

FWC is on track to release the request for bids for the support structures – admission building, classroom, restrooms and maintenance building – before the end of the year. Construction of these

supporting structures will run concurrently with the phase 2 construction efforts.

“As soon as the supporting structures are built, we should be able to open the handgun and rifle ranges,” said Dean Stoddard FWC’s construction manager. “Depending on the contractor’s schedule, this should be during the first half of 2018.”

Phase I construction was completed in June 2017. It consisted of the site work on the west side of the complex, including the rifle and handgun ranges. The shooting lines and safety baffling was

completed for the 30-position 10-meter/50-foot handgun range, the 42-position 25/50-meter handgun range, and the 20-position 100-yard rifle range.

Site work also was completed for the 200- and 300-yard rifle ranges; however, the shooting lines and safety baffling for these ranges is budgeted for completion later in the project.

Recreational target shooting is big business in Florida and firearm sales have risen in recent years: 32.5 percent of all Floridians own a firearm, more than 1.5 million have a concealed carry

permit, and nearly 900,000 Floridians participate in recreational target shooting. The state’s sporting arms and ammunition industry supports 14,850 jobs and generates $695 million in wages and

$2.4 billion in total annual output. Florida ranks third in the nation for total firearms industry jobs and fourth for economic output.

The Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park will be one of the largest shooting sports facilities in Florida with five rifle and pistol ranges, five Olympic trap fields, six American trap fields, nine

skeet fields, and a 14-station sporting clays course. It will provide opportunities for people to participate in shooting disciplines safely, allow practice for Olympic-style shooting events, and host

hunter safety courses.

This project is supported by funding from the Wildlife Restoration program, which brings funding to Florida from the sporting arms and archery industries and the people of Florida who participate in

these activities. Florida ranks fourth in the country for contributing to the Wildlife Restoration program. A portion of these funds are apportioned to the FWC to provide hunter safety training and

public shooting ranges.

Additional support and funding for the Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park are provided by Palm Beach County, National Rifle Association, Fish & Wildlife Foundation of Florida, and South Florida

Water Management District. The facility is located at Seminole Pratt Whitney Road – toward the south entrance to J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management Area and Everglades Youth Conservation Center

Camp.

good job "govt" another 1 year delay.  what a joke

Don't care how big, how new or what it offers.  If there's no rapid fire, or a section that allows it,  it's no better them markham park.

If's not a joke; it's disgusting.

Drove by yesterday Nov 6, 2017 and had a look around. Still the same, looks like no progress has happened since last OP post. Very discouraging.

thanks for the update I was just going to go by myself and you saved me a trip.  Govt project at its finest.  And they wonder why people don't trust the govt anymore.

Thanks VinD. Somehow this stinks of Palm Beach county’s anti gun influence

If the construction project had been a social services facility it would have been completed and opened years ago.

Screw the Palm Beach County Commisioners.

Let me try to make something clear that some of you guys don't seem to understand.....

Palm Beach County has nothing to do with this range.  

The property was transferred to FWC which is the STATE and FWC is paying for, contracting out and will be running the range.  FWC is a STATE agency.

As I understand it, the reason nothing is happening is because the money for the next phase hasn't been allocated yet.  

If you want to bitch about it, bitch to the right people.

Anymore news on this range? will be down at the house in March and was hoping.......

I hope they get it together soon.

I was somewhat excited about this range until I visited Markham park, only very slow fire, bunch of steps and time wasting just to get to shoot, and a guy breathing down your back the whole time. Dont see the point, its for old fat white guys who want to shoot their hunting rifles 1 shot per minute. I just want a place to actually have fun with my guns, shoot steel, perform drills, run and gun. If anyone knows where I can do this let me know, Ive hear of people driving out somewhere west but Im not sure if shooting there is actually legal

lol.

I've actually grown old waiting for them to complete this simple project.

You're not the only one!  I'm now a card carrying AARP member!!!

I'm not in a hurry for that range to be finish. If is run like markam park(well the day I went and never went back) were the range officers are rude and "almigthy", I got no desire to go there. I will dearly miss the police range. Where the officers are friendly, knowledgeable and helpful and fun to be around. But as soon as the public range is open, the PBSO range is going to be closed for us mortals.   PBSO range I had made a lot of friends there also, fellow shooters and reloaders. If I have a question about anything firearm related, it will be answer at range day.

Some of you guys are obsessed with comparing this range to Markham Park.  I don't get the obsession.

Markham is controlled by Broward County Commissioners.  The new range will be controlled by FWC.  Can we stop talking about Markham in this thread?

These are the rules for an FWC range
http://myfwc.com/hunting/safety-education/shooting-ranges/safety-rules/

It got NOTHING to do with the rules of  BBC or FWC, but the people that run the place. Firearm handling and safety rules, are almost the same every where you go. You hire morons to run the place and be safety officers, the results are going to be the same.

ok, so you went to Markham one time and now you never will go back and you just s**t on it every chance you get.

Got it.

In the meantime, the manager of Markham, Doug, has retired.

Most of the older ROs are gone and have been replaced by new ROs.  I was there today and there were 4 ROs, all new, one older guy and three in their mid twenties.  None of them were there the one and only time you went.

Sad.

I interviewed for a part time RSO job there & got it but couldn't work the hours they gave me with my FT job. Slow fire is still lame & so is stock only shotguns....
But hopefully the new range allows at least rapid fire.

@ribeyemediumrare www.okshooting.com

been there, much better then any govment range but still far from ideal. its too expensive there if you wanna do a variety of shooting, pistol and range is one fee, steel is another, another fee if you wanna shoot your rifle in any position other then sitting down on a chair, yeah theres the tactical range but its about $35 per person for just that range and you need to rent or bring a RO, no thanks

$250 a year

Back to the topic at hand...I was in the area and went by the range earlier this month. Looks like they are working on the trap and skeet sections and still not a bucketful of dirt moved on the structures. The berms are overgrown with weeds. Ridiculous, I have never seen anything sooooo slowwwww

Just adding my two cents since some people are freaking out about "rapid fire". Ive shot at Cecil Webb which is the FWC range on the west coast north of Naples, and I believe they have "rapid fire" days on like the first and last Sunday of each month or something to that effect, they also allow silencers. Normally there isnt a range officer at the 200yd range and you must "qualify" on the 100yd range first before they let you shoot the 200yd one. Every time I have gone the 200yd one has been empty though.

It's outrageous the way they're jerking us around with this project.

I've finally given up on this range opening anytime soon. I went ahead and bought a cheap shooting table/bench to use at the PBSO range in the mean time.

It should have been open a year ago, our govt hard at work with our tax dollars.   Need Trump to come and fix it.

So I sent an email to FWC to find out whats going on and I received this update.

Feb. 12, 2018

Construction to begin on support facilities at Palm
Beach County Shooting Sports Park

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) awarded Leisure Construction
the contract to build admissions buildings, restrooms, a classroom and maintenance facilities
needed to operate the Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park. When complete, this state-ofthe-
art facility will safely support the needs of hunters, hunter safety students, and target
shooters. The park will be one of the largest shooting sports facilities in Florida and will include
opportunities for Olympic-style shooting events.

“As soon as the supporting structures are built and the landscaping is complete, we expect to
open the handgun and rifle ranges,” said Dean Stoddard FWC’s construction manager. “We
anticipate building construction to be completed in the fall.”

Phase I construction was completed in June 2017 and consisted of site work on the west side
of the complex, including the rifle and handgun ranges. The shooting lines and safety baffling was
completed for the 30-position, 10-meter/50-foot handgun range; the 42-position, 25/50-meter
handgun range; and the 20-position, 100-yard rifle range. Site work also was completed for the
200- and 300-yard rifle ranges. The shooting lines and safety baffling for these ranges is budgeted
for completion later in the project.

MJC Land Development of Royal Palm Beach is close to completing site work associated with
Phase II construction. This consists of clearing the remaining 150-acre site, completing the storm
water retention controls, and installing the remaining roads, parking and major utilities.
Phase III construction is scheduled to begin July 2018 and consists of completing:

• Trap and skeet fields
• Sporting clays course
• Long distance (200- and 300-yard) rifle ranges
• Landscaping

When complete, the Palm Beach County Shooting Sports Park will meet the growing demand
for shooting sports facilities with five rifle and handgun ranges; five Olympic trap fields, six
American trap fields, nine skeet fields, and a 14-station sporting clays course.

This project is supported by funding from the Wildlife Restoration program, which brings
funding to Florida from the sporting arms and archery industries and the people of Florida who
participate in these activities. Additional support and funding for the Palm Beach County Shooting
Sports Park are provided by Palm Beach County, National Rifle Association, Fish & Wildlife
Foundation of Florida, and South Florida Water Management District. The facility is located at
Seminole Pratt Whitney Road – toward the main entrance to J.W. Corbett Wildlife Management
Area and Everglades Youth Conservation Center Camp.

Recreational target shooting is big business in Florida. Firearm sales have risen in recent years
and 32.5 percent of all Floridians own a firearm, more than 1.5 million have a concealed carry
permit, and nearly 900,000 Floridians participate in recreational target shooting. The state’s
sporting arms and ammunition industry supports 14,850 jobs and generates $695 million in
wages and $2.4 billion in total annual output. Florida ranks third in the nation for total firearms
industry related jobs and fourth for economic output.