Wake County Firearms Education & Training Center

I use the 100 yard rifle range. It is great for precision tuning. It is indoors etc. The range is free to use. Range officers are great folks. Downside is you are packed in and it is predominantly loud center fire AR. I was next to a 308 last time and I could feel the blast wave each time he fired. Better get really good hearing protectors. Also the range is only open to public Fri evening Sat and Sun.

Delighted by the basic pistol and basic rifle classes Jason taught this past weekend. I'm looking forward to when he prepares a more advanced class for us. I hope the facility will be able to get the budget to have red training rifles for the classroom. I think I'll bother NC House 036 and NC Senate 13 reps about it.

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Updated 9/12/25: some of the changes introduced last year after the summer break were reverted. The rifle lane is back to 50 meter with a minimum of 25 meter. That is excellent news as it allows those of us that like to run a 36 yds zero to do so, again. Unfortunately, multi use is not allowed, so no hand guns . The rest of the changes from last year are still existing. I wish the operator realized that the hand gun lanes are operated without a light source so seeing the target is rather impossible. I pray for the wake county admins to just go to the range and try it. Updated 9/6/2024 past range setup changes initiated by the operator Wake County. This is the shooting range of the Wake County law enforcement. Fridays after 5:30 PM and over the weekend as well as Monday's after 5:30 PM it is free for citizen to use. Prerequisite is to attend a safety briefing to obtain a range pass. The briefings take place every hour at 10 after. The range pass is valid for 1 year. Reservations can be made online very conveniently. 3 different types of shooting lanes can be reserved: 25-meter pistol only, 25-meter rifle (each with a 10-meter minimum) and 100 meter rifle (minimum 50-meter target distance). The maximum caliber you can shoot is 50. No ammunition that is magnetic / steel tipped. It is possible to reserve a lane for up to 2 hours or to reserve 2 different lanes consecutive the same day, for instance pistol first and then next hour rifle only. The range security officers are very competent and super nice. At any time at least 4 RSOs are present, ensuring safe operations for everybody. All in all, this is a great opportunity to practice shooting in a safe environment with skilled staff that helps those asking. I recommend giving it a try if you are an novize shooter. If you are an advanced shooter, the rifle range change from 50 meter to 25 pretty much renders that range useless for you. The shooting bays were moved half into the range. Light is non-existent in that part of the range. Using battery operated lights placed in front of the target is no longer permitted. In addition, the vents that are available at the beginning of the range providing some air on hot summer days and a little heat during cold winter times, are not existent half way down the range. That means you are instantly starting to sweat. The shooting bays are nice but they do not offer a seating option. Shooting from the bench with a bipod is practically impossible in that scenario. Same applies to trying to zero your gun (which doesn't matter anymore because no one zeroes a rifle at 25 meters. 33 meters or 36 yards is a common zero distance but that is no longer possible). Whoever authorized this change had only one goal, to alienate the shooters. The pistol range setup is comparable to the 25-meter rifle range. Here the issues with the lack of light and air flow apply as well. Seating is not an option, too. I consider the usefulness of this range rather limited compared to a modern environment as provided by TSA or OnPoint. Again, these changes demanded by Wake County can only have the one goal to alienate the private shooter patronage. The 100-meter range is unchanged so far. Here you get the option to for instance zero your rifle between 50 and 100 meter. Looking at the setup as demanded by Wake county, one can only have the impression that someone without any common sense has authorized this crime of a change. Seems the private shooter should be pushed out of this range. This is very sad. I recommend if you are a 2A supporter, that you give your state senator or house of representatives member a call and discuss with them why they are making it so hard on the county residents to use this beautiful range. I like to empahasize that the range security officer are doing an excellent job in keeping everybody safe. They guarantee a seamless operations of this range for all of us and have not been involved in the decision making for these idiotic changes. Hence, I kindly ask you from refraining to blame them for the stupid decisions Wake County has made.

Great spot for shooting practice. There are some hoops to get through but small price to pay for a free shooting range.

It's a fairly good range but the management needs work. First and foremost, it's never open. What is the point of having a range that is open to the public *most weekends*, except closed every third month for the next 6 weeks. I think I am able to go about 10% of the time I would want to go simply because the range is never open and available. Secondly, the safety focus is good but becomes overbearing. The RO took the time to tell us a story about how--one time--someone pulled their gun out of the case at the firing line and it was loaded!?! Can you imagine?!? Safety is absolutely important, but when a range officer can't imagine a gun being stored loaded then they have lost sight of a primary reason people have firearms--for self defense. Otherwise the range is nice enough and being free is hard to beat. If they would open up on week nights and stay open consistently this would be an easy 5 star place.

Clean, safe, professional and well run. And free to the public! 🙂

Very nice staff, nice facility. It was extremely hot inside today, but otherwise love it.

Took the pistol class and Boat (our instructor) was awesome. Very well done and Alex and his staff run a very nice facility.

The facility and staff are great. Also, ALL of their services are FREE! Class instructors are extremely knowledgeable and supportive. Great place for beginners!