Square 1 Gun Range – Lake Placid, FL – 11/6/2025-11/9/2025

I departed from the house at 10:28AM EST and headed Southeast to Square 1 Shooting Range in Lake Placid, FL. I took US-301 South to SR-675 in Parrish. Then I took SR-64 a couple of miles to the Verna Bethany Rd down to SR-70. The shooting range is off of SR-70 East of Arcadia, about 7 miles prior to US-27 in Lake Placid. I arrived at 12:15PM EST (all of SR-70 in Arcadia is under construction and down to a single 25MPH lane).

The camping area is East of the shooting range near the beginning of the Sporting Clays path/loop in the middle of an oak hammock. Since my solar panels weren’t working, I parked in the center of the oak hammock near the restrooms (and across from the pavilion). They have a small travel trailer behind the restrooms that can be rented, but it was vacant and I had the entire area to myself. This is a “dark skies” area and it was definitely very dark at night.

Thursday – After arriving and checking in I setup the camper and then loaded my .308 (Casper) into my golf cart and headed back to the shooting range. There was only one other customer shooting on the rifle range (all other ranges were empty). He switched the range to “cold” so that I could setup a target and shortly after that the Range Safety Office (RSO) arrived. The RSO walked me through the rules, allowed me to setup my target, and by the time I was getting ready to send one down range, he headed off to do maintenance on the handgun range. By the time I got three shots off the other customer/shooter wanted to go “cold range” in order to leave (because it had started raining). By the time he got packed up and left, the rain had stopped and I had the range entirely to myself until closing at 4PM (heaven). I shot seven more shots at 100yds to verify I was dialed in and gather plenty of velocity data on my new Doppler Radar Chronograph (it’s so sweet). Due to the lack of any wind, Casper was dialed in perfectly and I started working my way downrange by shooting at the numerous gongs they had setup (a coyote at 200yds, a razorback hog at 300yds, and then various sized gongs at 500yds). I didn’t have any trouble consistently hitting any of them. It was a glorious day, all alone on a 500yd range.

Friday – I took the Bushmaster V-Max to the range to test 69gr and 77gr loads for the its new 20″ barrel. When I arrived around 10AM there just two other shooters. When they departed two others arrived, but by 1PM I once again had the range to myself. I was able to work my way out to 500yds with all loads tested. I finished up around 3PM, went back to the camper, and fired up the generator and enjoyed some air conditioning until dark.

Saturday – At 8:30AM I heard the first shots of the day. I managed to wonder over to the range with my long AR (Boo!) by 9:30AM. At that point there were six total shooters (including me). Unfortunately all the benchrests on the left side of the range were taken, forcing me to the right side where there is no way to see the targets at 500yds due to a berm blocking the path. I still managed to have fun by shooting the heck out of a single paddle reactive shooting target at 300yds. The temperature climbed to a very humid 88, so at noon I was happy to return to the camper, fire up the generator and air conditioner, and watch Purdue get destroyed by Penn State in football.