Markham Park

[Jkwas]

I enjoyed this weeks podcast and agree whole hartedly that more ranges are needed for the non-hunting demographic.  I live in South Florida.  There are several indoor ranges within driving distance from my home.  Some are very nice facilities, some mediocre, and some not so nice.   The nicer ranges have become nearly impossible to use during the weekends.  Wait times of 2hrs are not uncommon.   As a result I frequent the less desirable ones as they are easy to access but almost impossible to breathe the air in.
That brings us to Markham Park.   It's a lovely facility.  It has a specialty range for cowboy action shooting clubs and IDPA events, Skeet and Trap ranges with very friendly helpful range officers, a sporting clays course, a five stand range, and a Rifle/Pistol range. 
All ranges are readily available and practically  empty, even on the weekend except one:  The Rifle/Pistol range.  The wait time is 2-3 hours to use.  The waiting room is like a doctors office but less comfortable.  The Range Officers are a mixed bag.  Some are very helpful and friendly, others are just plain rude and abusive.  Most of the people that frequent the range are Rifle shooters and the range is primarily set up for them.  The closest you can put your targets are 10 yards.  Only paper targets mounted on cardboard attached to the range target holders are allowed and no human shaped targets can be used.  No steel or reactive targets are allowed.  All brass must be policed between hot and cold sessions which go 15 minutes hot and 15 minutes cold.  It's extremely regimented and not a fun experience at all.    Taking a "newbie" to a place like this one is a big mistake.  I went once with my son and he did not care for it at all, and recently took my wife and we never even made into the place do to the huge crowd waiting to shoot.  continued

[Jkwas]

Sorry for the long post, but I believe this illustrates the need for better and more public facilities.  Aside from private clubs there is absolutely no outdoor range to shoot at South of Lake Okeechobee. 
Palm Beach county used the money allocated for a public shooting park to build a state of the art facility for the Sheriffs Department.  They let the public shoot there once a month so they can say it's a public range, but only shotgun and rifle.  Pretty bad if you ask me.
Thanks for your time and letting me vent.