WEST PALM BEACH, Florida - March 4, 2010 - West Palm Beach resident Gary MacDonald hasn't missed a chance to fire his rifles at the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office outdoor shooting range since it started opening its doors to the public more than a decade ago.

For MacDonald, a former competitive shooter who makes his own guns, the sport is beating himself at his own game.

"It was raining on a Saturday and 32 degrees outside and I was out here," said MacDonald.

But lately MacDonald and the thousands of other gun owners who use the range have been faced with a new kind of competition - simply securing a spot to fire their weapons.

The number of gun owners using the long-arms range near 20-Mile Bend has more than tripled in the past decade. Last year alone, the range saw a 40% surge in the number of people using it.

Whether it is because of better marketing at gun shows, anticipation of tighter gun controls, or the fact there's no other outdoor public range in a county the size of Rhode Island, one thing is certain: the bullets are flying here like never before.

Most days, the facility is used exclusively by the sheriff's office and about 100 other law enforcement agencies for training. But 18 weekends a year, the county and the sheriff's office open it to the public.