Manatee Gun & Archery Club & Other FLorida Outdoor Shooting Range Questions

[Evergreen]

I was wondering if anyone can tell me there opinion of the Manatee Rifle range that is near the Tampa/Sarasota area. I just called the range today and spoke with someone who works there. He seemed friendly enough and made the claim that the range is the largest rifle range in the SE United States. FLorida , along with a few other southern states are on my list of places to move and I was taking a deeper look at the Sarasota and Tampa areas.

Does anyone here shoot at this range? What are you opnions about it? Does it seem to satisfy all your needs? Are the range officers decent enough and the people who go there friendly? I like to know more about it and people's experiences there.

The range doesn't look particularly cheap, but its not really that expensive either. Actually its quite a bit cheaper than the rifle range we have in the Portland, OR area.

Does anyone have suggestions of other nice places in FLorida to live that have good sized outdoor rifle ranges available? I have seen a few others, such as Titusville Rifle Range, Orlando Rifle , Port Malabar. I also would be interested to hear your opinions on thaose ranges.

 

[davidjblythe]

Manatee is a nice place to practice with your long guns. They have a 1000 yd range which is a lot of fun. At the 600-ish yard line they have a permanent metal target, as well as several out at 1000. They provide golf carts to use if you need to go way down range. I enjoyed each of my trips out there. They offer free admission to military members.

 

[Wes Janson]

Manatee is one of the best ranges in the country. There's only one other range even close to it in distance in Florida, and that's still only 600 yards (Port Malabar, on the East Coast). What's nice about Manatee is the atmosphere, and their (usually) relaxed attitude on different things. Aside from one or two RSOs who can be a pain, Manatee will generally let you do most anything you can think of-full auto, .50 BMG, anything Title II, shotguns, handguns, benchrest, cowboy, action shooting, etc.

It's just a damn shame there aren't more places like Manatee across the country.