Luckily in my area, there is a TON of desert within a 20 minute drive that is free to use. There are a few patches of desert that have been used for shooting for decades and are well known - it either is public land, OR private and no one cares, or is just... well, desert. The well known areas are usually trashed, unless you find an area that has shooters that actually care about it and pick up their trash. I just found another spot recently that is BLM land just across the stateline in NM that is almost at 10 minute drive from me. It's pretty trashed from careless shooters and illegal dumping, but is comprised of a dried out pond or some kinda so it's well laid out for longer range shooting. Since these places aren't really formal ranges, anything goes. That's GREAT if you're like me and like to do your own thing and not be limited by range rules. It's also very bad, because there can be a lot of scary idiots whom do really dumb things out there - I usually try to go out at odd times to avoid this. The last time I went out to this one spot, there was a group of people BBQ'ing RIGHT in the middle of the range, and popping of shots. I stayed far away from them, because it didn't seem like they were acting responsibly (plus there was no room). I honestly thought I smelled weed blowing over from where they were shooting - NOT cool at all. Wrapped it up in 30 min and got the heck out of dodge. That pretty much describes the caveats of well known public land.
On the other hand, I love the indoor range operated by our local community college's law enforcement academy (El Paso Community College). It's affordable, well controlled, has very permissive rules, and lets you shoot pretty much anything you want aside from NFA item's or using AP/Incendiary types of ammo. You can't use the range UNLESS you have proof of training, which they consider as being a LEO, Military, having a CHL, or simply taking their free safety/introduction to firearms class. This REALLY helps keep the scary shooters out of the range, and it contributes to the safe atmosphere, and is also why they don't have silly or restrictive rules (Controlled rapid fire is ok, you can shoot from any position (as long as its safe!), you can draw from the holster, etc). Plus its our only indoor range, is well maintained, has electronic target returns (which go out to 25 yards), and has free targets (heck yes!). Since there is no reason to go past the firing line, you don't have to waste time on cease fires and people checking their groups constantly. My wife and myself do the vast majority of our shooting here and love it. If given a choice, I'll choose this range almost 98% of the time, unless I want to practice moving and firing etc. One downside is that since it is operated by a college, they observe weird-ish hours. That means they are closed pretty much the whole weekend when there is a holiday, and since the main purpose of the range is for training LEO's, it is only open during the evenings during the week.
I digress - I like the fact that I can go shoot by myself out in the boonies when I want to do something different, or just go to my favorite range for all other times. There are other commercially operated outdoor ranges here in town, but they aren't my cup of tea. Having a choice is always good though! We're spoiled in this town for that IMHO.
I'm moving to Austin next month, and am not looking forward to having to find new ranges there. I understand there a number of indoor ranges, but that they can be pricey, busy, dangerous, and have very limiting rules. Ranges like that just won't do for me ("Train like you fight") so I'm really worried about not finding the "perfect" place for my needs. So far Best of the West seems like it's going to be my 'Go-to' range. I really hope is as great as folks make it out to be! I'm going to go crazy (and be really sad!) if the only places available won't let me practice in a manner practical to self defense.
Bottom line: Choice is always a good thing, in my opinion, and so I like to have that when it comes to places to shoot.
