Inside Florida’s Most Unusual Shooting Range – A Former State Prison

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There are shooting ranges, and then there’s this place.

Tucked into 1,200 acres of South Florida scrubland along the Hendry-Collier county line sits one of the strangest and most compelling destinations in the state – a decommissioned state prison that has been reborn as a world-class tactical training and shooting facility. Welcome to the Force Center, home of the Immokalee Range & Gun Club.

This is not your typical gun range. This is a place where the past lingers in every crumbling cell block, and where the future of firearms training is being written on a former correctional campus that once held hundreds of Florida’s inmates.

What Was the Hendry Correctional Institute?

Before it became a shooting destination, the property at 31101 Nafi Drive in Immokalee was the Hendry Correctional Institute – an active Florida state prison. The facility included the full infrastructure of a working corrections campus: cell blocks, administrative buildings, a mess hall, school buildings, a library, and the kind of controlled, institutional architecture that defines a life behind bars.

Today, the prison is no longer operational. The state decommissioned it, and the property was repurposed into something the state of Florida has never quite seen before. But the old bones remain. And they are haunting.

Wander beyond the active shooting bays and you’ll find the abandoned wings of the former prison – windows blown out, buildings crumbling from years of exposure and tactical use, the eerie silence of a place that once held a human population. Some who’ve walked the grounds describe it as genuinely unsettling. The corridors, the empty cells, the mess hall with its institutional tile – all of it sits frozen in time, a ghost campus swallowed by the Florida scrub.

Whether or not you believe in haunted places, the atmosphere here is undeniable.

The Force Center & Immokalee Range & Gun Club Today

The active portion of the property operates as a high-end tactical training compound and civilian shooting range. The facility caters to military units, law enforcement agencies, and civilians alike – a rare combination that gives the range a serious, professional atmosphere you won’t find at a standard public range.

What’s Available to Shoot

The range amenities are extensive:

• Pistol bays – multiple configurations for defensive and competition shooting
• Rifle bays – set up for both carbine and precision work
• Shotgun bays – dedicated areas for shotgun disciplines
• Precision rifle range – one of the longest in Florida, stretching multiple miles and capable of accommodating extreme long-range shooting that simply isn’t possible at most ranges in the state
• Shoot houses – built into the former prison infrastructure, these tactical buildings are used for force-on-force and live-fire training in realistic interior environments

Memberships and Walk-On Access

The facility is not a drop-in-and-shoot operation. Here’s how access works:

Non-members can shoot at general bays by completing a safety course and passing a background check. It’s a straightforward process, but you’ll need to plan ahead and not show up expecting to walk on without any prior steps.

Members get expanded access. The tiered membership structure unlocks areas like the precision long-range rifle range and tactical buildings that aren’t available to casual walk-ons. If you’re serious about precision shooting or tactical training, membership is the way to go.

Specialized training – the shoot houses and multi-mile precision range often require advance booking regardless of membership tier. Check the Immokalee Range & Gun Club website before visiting.

Planning Your Visit

Address: 31101 Nafi Drive, Immokalee, FL (straddling the Hendry and Collier county line)

Website: immokaleerange.com

Before you go:

• Complete the required safety course if you’re a first-time visitor
• Check the website for current membership tiers, pricing, and booking requirements
• Bring valid ID – background checks are part of the process
• Arrive with a plan; the property is large and the different range areas serve different purposes

Have you visited the Force Center or Immokalee Range & Gun Club? Drop a comment below or reach out – we’d love to hear your experience.

– Unmapped Florida

A note of thanks to Josh Porter, Fort Myers resident, who made the trip, captured what words can’t, and brought this place to life for the rest of us.

The state chose this isolation on purpose, a history laid bare in Devil in the Grove; the swamp keeps its own buried structures too, the kind we found further north, in the Green Swamp.