The purpose of this project is to combine the strengths of the public and private sector to increase target shooting capacity and participation where demand is the greatest: urban areas. Recent U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) grant-funded research shows most target shooters will not travel more than 30 minutes to a range (2012 NSSF, 2025 SAF). Another shows roughly 70 million people from urban areas across the U.S. have strong interest in recreational shooting but have never tried it (2025 OSCF). A third used GIS techniques to demonstrate the greatest demand for shooting range access is concentrated in urban areas (NSSF 2024). Altogether, with 80% of the U.S. population now living in urban communities and increasing (U.S. Census Bureau), future increases in recreational shooting will primarily come from urban areas. Ranges in urban areas are more difficult to develop and operate than ranges elsewhere. This has constrained shooting range capacity in most metro areas, preventing many interested participants from trying target shooting and limiting participation nationally. However, the public and private sectors have complementary strengths. Uniting the two to expand urban range opportunities will have big impacts. This project will build from the recent research mentioned above to demonstrate how public-private sector initiatives can overcome the shortage in urban range capacity more efficiently than isolated efforts. This project’s activities will quantify current demand for urban ranges, identify urban audiences (e.g. disabled vets, families, retirees, etc.) most constrained by current range availability, detail the costs needed to provide new or expanded urban range capacity, and profile potential visitor use and spending. We will employ a survey of the general population of major U.S. metropolitan areas to reach residents with a high level of interest in target shooting or actively participate and their spending preferences. Case studies of public-private ranges will also be developed explaining how the few public-private urban ranges developed plus their challenges and solutions. The final deliverable will be a visual, easy-to-read summary report complete with recommendations about how states and industry can cooperate to expand urban range capacity and use. The results will be provided directly to all states’ range managers, through presentations at national range manager events such as the International Hunter Education Association (IHEA) and the Council to Advance Hunting and the Shooting Sports annual meetings, and sharing with industry and organizations supporting target shooting. The Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation will also provide a webinar focused on states’ range coordinators and private range operators. By providing the insights needed that show how states and industry can work together, the expected outcome will be an increase in urban target shooting capacity and participation nationally, driven by new formal and/or informal cooperative public-private efforts at the local, state and national levels. The intended beneficiaries are states’ range developers and operators, private range operators and ultimately urban residents who want to try target shooting or participate more frequently. Southwick Associates will be a subrecipient. Considering the public and private sectors have complementary strengths, uniting the two to expand urban range opportunities will produce significant benefits.