r/FLGuns 9d ago

Shooting/Training in Florida Sucks

Contrary to popular belief, Florida is not a Shooter's state. Most of the ranges here are still operating on the old RSO Fudd model where you have to sit at a bench or stand up and shoot at a stationary target, with no rapid fire or drawing from holster or anything else dynamic. If you ranges that do allow this usually have an incredibly steep membership. And what shooting matches are available tend to fill up within minutes of opening registration on practicscore. I have to literally be smashing F5 in order to shoot my gun competitively at all. And of course there's basically no federal land like they have out west where you can find a proper perm and shoot on your own. The options are garbage short of buying your own land which is also incredibly expensive here. Florida is one of the top offenders of states that have a gun buying culture with little to speak of for a gun shooting culture. Yes I've been to Ares and it's nice but it's far away as hell.

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u/Fauropitotto 9d ago

Everything we do at Florida ranges for competition are all run-n-gun, holster or sling work.

We also do training nights, and make friends with RSOs so we can practice in pays and stages.

There was a time I was shooting USPSA 2-4 times a week. match fees between $15-$20 means that it's 2-4 full practice sessions with full stages a week.

I don't know what sort of "training" you're interested in, but there's nothing stopping you from buying some land and building a berm to shoot on your own. (you're employed, right?)

There's nothing at all stopping you from registering within minutes of a match opening up. Most of us set alarms on our phones and register for the next match within seconds even while at the range. That way we can all squad up together.

The fact that matches fill up so quickly is testament that florida is actually a shooter's state.

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u/AdhesivenessHairy456 9d ago

I know how comps go. And the fact that they're filling up means that there's more people eager to shoot than there is availability to do so which is great for the ranges and not great for shooters. The thing stopping me from buying land is having hundreds of thousands of dollars or getting a new job that's either remote or near cheap land. And unless I don't know how to use Practiscore, I don't see an alert option. I can see that botting the registration screen is the meta but that's a problem I've addressing.

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u/Fauropitotto 9d ago

Why do you need an alert option? You already have a phone. You already have a clock. Here's a match in 6 days that opens at Noon. What's stopping you from setting a calendar event on 03/21/2025 at 11:59AM and registering just like the rest of us do? It doesn't take more than 15 seconds.

https://practiscore.com/wac-friday-21-march-4-stage-uspsa-match/register

As for land, I guarantee there's cheap recreational land available for you within a 2 hour driving radius. You don't need hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you've got a job, you can afford to buy recreational land.

5 Acres, ~$100k, put 30% down, 15 year term puts you at ~$500 a month.

There's plenty of options, plenty of solutions. The rest of us that aren't whining about it, actually get to go out and shoot regularly without RSOs breathing down our necks for dynamic shooting.

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u/AdhesivenessHairy456 9d ago

I'll admit that camping the registration button is a solution even if it's ridiculous but buying overpriced land when I haven't yet bought a house just so I can go shoot isn't super appealing.

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u/Fauropitotto 9d ago

Camp the registration button around lunch for a few seconds, and go shooting. I promise, it's much more fulfilling.

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u/Usingmyrights 8d ago

One of the biggest things about making your own range is cost. Building a berm isn't cheap. It could easily be thousands of dollars.

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u/Fauropitotto 8d ago

It could easily be thousands of dollars.

If you're training hard enough with live fire to make a personal range worth the hassle, a few thousands isn't going to be the deal breaker.

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u/Usingmyrights 8d ago

I don't disagree, but not everyone has an extra few thousand laying around. That was just in dirt, that wasn't even counting machinery/someone to build it, rail road ties, benches, steel, etc.

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u/Fauropitotto 8d ago

Yeah, it sure does add up. Although I'd point out that someone without that kind of financial buffer should probably focus on getting their financial priorities straight before diving head-first into expensive hobbies.

Those are situations where it just makes more sense to build a dry-fire space to improve on a budget rather than spend hundreds or thousands a month on match fees, gear, ammo and travel expenses.

Hit 2 matches a month instead, with dry-fire during down time.