When I removed the resistor from the circuit the range is much better but I'm worried about having that as a permament solution
You are taking a risk. I wouldn't go "into production" with a design like that, but it's up to you if you don't mind the risk of frying your Arduino (or the risk of an otherwise possibly unreliable design).
You are exceeding the current rating of the Arudino, and probably the current rating of the LED too.
You can drive the LED with a transistor or MOSFET, but you should calculate your resistor value to stay under the 50mA rating for the LED.