Wake County Firearms Education and Training Center

what’s to say about a government gun range? It’s SAFE. There’s no horseplay here. Sometimes, the RSO’s could use a sense of humor, but i get it, gun safety requires no laughing. Although it’s in door, it’s cold in the winter and warm in the summer due to the fresh air forced into the facility. It NEVER smells of gun powder, which to me is a plus. People of all ages come here, i’ve seen dads bring their sons & daughters to teach them to shoot, husbands & wives as well. It gets loud, so EVERYONE needs their own ear protection.
The range officers are always helpful, and answer any/​all questions. Been here many times for classes and punching holes. It’s worth the class to use the facility. IF you live in Wake county or any county which shares a border with Wake, you are required to sit through the training class on gun safety and range rules. (small price to pay). I’ve had friends from out of state that were able to come in and shoot NBD as i’m a member. (been through class) We’ve shot rifles on the 100yd range as well as pistols (as far or close as you want).

Best range around here for sure. You do have to take a 2 hour safety course before even shooting here but for only $ 15 to start and the discount coupons they give to you for the first 5 range trips, you cant beat it. Also I believe the information given is great for any beginner shooters and is essential. $ 10 per lane per hour is unheard of around here, as PDHSC in Raleigh charges $ 25 per person! Anyway, this range is great, but there are some odd differences between a normal range and this one. First, there are no target retrieval systems, the range switches between cold and hot every 20 minutes or so, allowing you to go out onto the range and setup your own target on standing cardboard figures, feels odd at first but it works. Second, the lightning is okay, before the renovation it was horrible, the lightning is better now, but when I am shooting, sometimes I can’t even see my rear sights because of the lightning configuration. Lastly, a few of the range officers are complete jerks, most of them are great and actually help out people with tips on shooting, as there are a lot of beginners, something a range officer isn’t even required to do. However there are a few ROs that are pure d-​bags, yelling at people, making people feel less than, and just micro managing everyone. I understand safety is key in such an environment but they can be a little nicer, especially to new shooters. This is not all the time though, as most of the time the nice range officers are there. Bottom line is, with 40 different lanes for pistol AND rifle shooting, cheap hourly cost, and mostly great range officers, it definitely beats anywhere else.

Best range around with some minor drawbacks. To shoot here, if you live in Wake County or ANY county that touches Wake, you must take the 2 hour safety course and pass a test. Cost, $ 15. But in reality $ 5 since you get 5 $ 2 off coupons for range time, which is $ 10 an hour.
You can not rent firearms as you can with some other ranges. You can however purchase all your standard caliber ammunitions. A variety of paper target styles. And you can rent a variety of equipment from pistol and rifle rests, to spotting scopes, and that thing which I can’t pronounce or spell that measures muzzle velocity. Thats a useful tool for hand loaders.
The pluses are you have the ability to shoot both rifle and pistol indoors, and most often you can switch between them in your lane. Can even go all the way out to 100 Meters. That just doesn’t exist at an indoor range anywhere else. You are also pretty much free to fire any caliber weapon you like up to .50 cal. Again, you are not going to find that at any other indoor range. The one thing you most certainly can NOT shoot is a shotgun unless you are firing slugs. Must be slugs.
Class III items are allowed as long as you have your paperwork with you. Want to use your suppressor, go on over to your lane and be as quiet as you want. Want to bring your fully automatic? Go ahead, BUT, you can only fire it in semi mode. You can’t fire it on full auto.
Minor children are allowed with parent. You will have to sign a release. Big whoop. I bring mine about 50% of the time
The downsides are fairly minor. The lighting was improved, but could still be better. There is almost always a wait. Sometimes very short. Sometimes 30 minutes plus. And unlike what most people envision a shooting range to be, they do not have those «send out and retrieve» systems where you clip your target on it, hit a button and send it out, then hit a button and bring it back to you. You will have to wait until the range is cold to go out and set up your target on manually moved target holders. Then fire away when the range goes hot. Then wait /​continue firing until the range once again goes cold to go out and change your target. Not really that big of a deal, but it can get annoying some times when you get your lane and the range just went hot and now you have to wait 20 minutes to set your first target.
The other downside for some, not for me, but for some people is the aspect of pretty much any weapon being allowed. Its not uncommon to get a lane next to a guy who just got a shiny new AK pistol with a break on it and by golly, he’s gonna unload that 30 round clip in 10 seconds. So now you have a fire breathing cannon next to you and the concussive force can be pretty distracting. The ROs are pretty good about not putting you next to such if you don’t want to be. Such doesn’t bother me, but when I have my 9 and 6 year old with me and they just want to enjoy their Mossberg 22s and Sig 22s, I really don’t want that next to us.
Its a quality facility with quality employees and 99% of the shooters follow the rules and are respectful of one another. And for the price, $ 10 an hour per lane, not person, but per lane, so you and a friend, spouse, kid, etc can share a lane and still only pay $ 10, it can’t be beat.

Before stepping foot on this range, you must take a safety orientation course to familiarize yourself with range rules and firearm safety rules. The perk to sitting through it is a membership that does not expire unless you do something stupid, and a few bucks off your first five visits to the range. It’s $ 15 for Wake County residents and takes approximately two hours.
While public use of the range is limited to certain days of the week and times, it is an absolute steal if you can get in there. Plus, there are tons of courses that you can take which will help you be a better shooter.
Today, my fiancé and I took two rifles and two pistols to the range and were able to get two lanes next to each other, as well as some targets, for $ 9 each. The range wasn’t really all that packed, but it was snowing so people might not have wanted to leave their homes. We were able to shoot for an hour, burning through a few hundred rounds each, and since we were on a range that allowed for pistol and rifle fire, use both types of guns indoors.
Most RSOs were pretty awesome, but there was one female RSO that needs to work on her communication skills. Aside from her, the staff is top notch.