East Texas

[mooman76]

Looking for anyone that lives in the east Texas area just below the pan handle. I retire in a few years and am considering a few different places to move to. Are there places to just go out and shoot?

[lancem]

I'm not in east Texas but I would say that pretty much anywhere in Texas you are going to have to own it to shoot on it. There isn't any open range, public land..

[chsparkman]

The northern part of your own state might be best for that.

[Recluse]

Just below the panhandle is actually considered West Texas. East Texas is from around the area of Paris south to Tyler to Nacogdoches, Lufkin, etc.

:coffee:

[ole 5 hole group]

If you move to Texas, you'll probably have to obtain/purchase a lease to hunt and join a club to shoot. While I lived there I was lucky in I got to know a fellow that was a member of a hunting lease and a member from that lease was leaving, so I was allowed to take his spot (expensive too I might add) - otherwise I was basically SOL. As far as recreational shooting - there are several clubs, depending upon your location, you might have to drive an hour or more.

It's not just Texas, a lot of States that use to be friendly to recreational shooters and sportsman are now charging fairly high use fees for hunting and don't allow any trespassing, let alone recreational shooting on their property. State land for recreational shooting sometimes is a long drive as well, depending on your location.

Purchasing acreage for your own recreational shooting can sometimes run into troubles depending upon county regs and neighbors in a lot of States and I doubt it's going to get better as time goes on.

[buckwheatpaul]

moonman76, my better half and I live in NE Texas...if you look on the map of Texas and then find Dallas and then follow I 30 about half the way to Texarkana you will see Sulphur Springs, then Mt. Vernon, and finally Mt. Pleasant. We live in that area....would be glad to help if that is the area you are looking at.....

[LynC2]

You might look at NM, lots of BLM land with good hunting, fishing and decent firearm laws. I'm from Texas and like it here, not too hot and not too cold. :-) But then again we have a lot of liberals here too! :(

[LIMPINGJ]

East TX is the part of ths state where we have a wet heat.

[USAFrox]

I'm currently in the San Angelo area (about 2.5 hours northwest of San Antonio). It's a great place of about 100,000 people. Big enough to have all the amenities, but still has that "small town" feel. Very friendly folks. I'm a member of the local gun club, which gives a year membership for $100 ($50 for us military folks and law enforcement), and membership gets you your own key to the range. It's an outdoor range, with about 8 pistol bays, 2 action areas, a 50-yard rifle range, two 100-yard rifle ranges, a 200-yard range, and they're working on a 500-yard rifle range. It also has 4 shotgun stations on the shotgun range, complete with a thrower for each. It is an unregulated range, so each person is in charge of their own range safety and stuff. There are volunteer range officers who drive around every once in a while, but that is rare, and they generally don't interfere unless they see someone doing something unsafe, although they will stop and shoot the breeze with you if you're not actively shooting at the time. :-)

I echo what most of the others have said, though. Here in Texas, you're going to have to pay to shoot, pretty much anywhere. I grew up in Arizona where you just had to drive 20 minutes outside of town and set up against any mountain to shoot the day away, so it's been a bit aggravating to have all the restrictions here and have to pay to shoot (for the membership to a gun club, I mean). I wish you luck in finding a place that fits your needs.

[mooman76]

Thanks for the replys. I had heard something like this but it's a big state so the intel helps allot.

[Bullshop Junior]

Looking for anyone that lives in the east Texas area just below the pan handle. I retire in a few years and am considering a few different places to move to. Are there places to just go out and shoot?

No, no and no. No public land. The people who own land wont let you touch it unless you are family, or pay them outrageous amounts of money. The public ranges here are ridiculous as well. Just no.

[Char-Gar]

I am a 6th generation Texan and a 60 year plus shooter and hunter and a 50 year plus reloader. There are lots of shooters and hunters in Texas. We always seem to have a place to shoot. Sometimes the land belongs to family or friends, and sometimes it is either a commercial or private gun club. There will be one near you, just about anywhere you want.

No, there is no or very little public land and we take a dim view of folks crossing our fences without permission. We also don't expect the government to furnish us a place to shoot or hunt, but somehow we muddle on and we all find shooting friends and a place to shoot. I have the choice of three outdoor ranges and one indoor range within 20 miles of where I live.

My family fought the Comanche, the Mexicans twice and the Yankees take and hold our land. It is from the land that many Texans take their living. It may be farming, ranching, selling of minerals, gravel, wind and hunting, but the land directly or indirectly is where we derive out sustenance. We take our property rights very serious. Folks who have been squatting on government land all their lives may not understand this.

[Char-Gar]

No, no and no. No public land. The people who own land wont let you touch it unless you are family, or pay them outrageous amounts of money. The public ranges here are ridiculous as well. Just no.

Some years ago, I saw a billboard near San Antonio that read: "Don't like Texas? The road that brought you here will take you right back where you came from."

[Bullshop Junior]

And I plan on taking it next month.

[Char-Gar]

Looking for anyone that lives in the east Texas area just below the pan handle. I retire in a few years and am considering a few different places to move to. Are there places to just go out and shoot?

The best things for you to do is take some vacation time over the next few years and come over here and get to know the land, the culture and the people. Then you can make up your mind if you want to make your home here.

Texas is a different kind of place with it's own history, culture and traditions. We are open and accepting of others, but we are not going to change to suit them. If all they are going to do is belly ach and whine because it isn't like where they came from, then it is better for everybody they dont come in the first place.

I live in tropical deep south Texas and we have ten of thousands of snow birds that winter here from frozen places up north. Some of them are real square shooters, but most just hang out with each other in their RV parks and complain about being here.

I am an older anglo and it is easy to mistake me for one of the snow birds as there are very few gringos down here. I make it a point to never speak English in public during snow bird season. I only speak Spanish. I don't want to be mistaken for one of them.

[wills]

http://www.texas-on-line.com/graphic/ctytexas.gif

That is one map. Lots of different ways to define things.

[GOPHER SLAYER]

There is a beautiful little town about 70 miles west of Houston Named Columbus. I do love the place. There are places in Texas that would be great to live in, the central hill country is one of them. There are also places that are absolutely horrible. The area south of Wichita Falls in Archer county is one of them. Scrub brush country. Oil was discovered there which brought in money and people but the oil got pumped out and so did the people. Larry McMurtry [Lonesome Dove] was from Archer and still has businesses there. Easy to see why he looked for greener pastures. I couldn't get out of that area fast enough. Much of west Texas is even worse. I would visit wherever I was thinking of moving and do it in the winter and heat of summer.

[Bullshop Junior]

I have nothing against texas. The people here for the most part are very nice. Its just not for me. Im used to being able to throw a gun on the front seat of my chevy, that has skittle wrappers and ducktape for tail lights, pop it in 4wd drive off the road, knock over a few trees and go do basicly what ever i want. Hard to do that here

[TXGunNut]

Piney Woods region has lots of national forest land and there are informal shooting areas in some of them. A fair bit of the piney woods region is leased by the state for public hunting, I believe a search of Annual Permit Hunting or a careful perusal of the TPWD website will yeild some good info on the subject.

[Rufus Krile]

Char-Gar... When I lived in E'burg the saying was "Snowbirds come south with a white shirt and a $20 bill... and don't change either one the whole time they're here." Along with some roughneck friends, I got chased off one of the public shuffleboard courts in McAllen one afternoon.... alcohol may have been involved... due to some snowbirds 'needing' to use it. Ever want to see what 55gal of burned motor oil looks like on a shuffleboard court? The oilfield used to be fun....

[wills]

There is a beautiful little town about 70 miles west of Houston Named Columbus. I do love the place. There are places in Texas that would be great to live in, the central hill country is one of them. There are also places that are absolutely horrible. The area south of Wichita Falls in Archer county is one of them. Scrub brush country. Oil was discovered there which brought in money and people but the oil got pumped out and so did the people. Larry McMurtry [Lonesome Dove] was from Archer and still has businesses there. Easy to see why he looked for greener pastures. I couldn't get out of that area fast enough. Much of west Texas is even worse. I would visit wherever I was thinking of moving and do it in the winter and heat of summer.

One of the nice things about Columbus is it is close to La Grange.

[starmac]

LaGrange jest ain't the same since Marvin Swindler shut down the chicken ranch. lol

When I was a kid much of East Texas was owned by the timber companies (probably still is) and they allowed hunting,camping and fishing, but that all changed years ago when hunting clubs started forming and leased it all up.

[MaryB]

Makes me glad I live in MN... I have 20+ wildlife refuges that are open to public hunting within a 50 mile round trip. One is big enough to get lost on, many are small but way under hunted because people think nothing will be on that little 40 acre patch of brush or swamp. Local gun range is a whopping $30 a year to join. Just wish they had an indoor pistol range around here. Need to find a friend with a big pole barn and put in a back stop!

[starmac]

There is pros and cons, most land in Texas is private, there are some exceptions. But if there is oil under it, they don't have to have the presidents permission to drill for it. lol

Someone mentioned Bowie (not my favorite part of the world either) I was driving down 287 one lazy day listening to a couple of Yankee truckers running down Texas. One finally said (after 30 minutes or more) that he would be ashamed to tell anybody he part of it. I finally spoke up, and all I said was I sure wouldn't anybody to know I owned any of those oil wells were looking at either. lol The radio went silent for a few seconds, then one of them spoke up and said, you might just have a point. lol Texas is very diverse, with several complete different types of country, not many people would say they didn't see anything they didn't like if they toured all of it. Texas has had a good economy for years, which also has it's pros and cons, many, many, many people have moved in from probably every state in the country, and it has been changed almost to the point of unrecognizable from what it was when I was growing up.

[scottfire1957]

moonman76, my better half and I live in NE Texas...if you look on the map of Texas and then find Dallas and then follow I 30 about half the way to Texarkana you will see Sulphur Springs, then Mt. Vernon, and finally Mt. Pleasant. We live in that area....would be glad to help if that is the area you are looking at.....

I have a sister in Mt. Pleasant, another just outside Mt. Pleasant but address is Omaha. It's a nice little town.

[TXGunNut]

There is pros and cons, most land in Texas is private, there are some exceptions. But if there is oil under it, they don't have to have the presidents permission to drill for it. lol

Someone mentioned Bowie (not my favorite part of the world either) I was driving down 287 one lazy day listening to a couple of Yankee truckers running down Texas. One finally said (after 30 minutes or more) that he would be ashamed to tell anybody he part of it. I finally spoke up, and all I said was I sure wouldn't anybody to know I owned any of those oil wells were looking at either. lol The radio went silent for a few seconds, then one of them spoke up and said, you might just have a point. lol Texas is very diverse, with several complete different types of country, not many people would say they didn't see anything they didn't like if they toured all of it. Texas has had a good economy for years, which also has it's pros and cons, many, many, many people have moved in from probably every state in the country, and it has been changed almost to the point of unrecognizable from what it was when I was growing up.

Yes, fair bit of oil around Bowie. Used to be some pretty fine peaches and melons as well, deer around there are pretty good sized as well.

[tengaugetx]

I'm in Texarkana. We have two gun clubs just outside of town a few miles near Redwater. Texarkana gun club is a pistol rifle club and a great place to shoot texarkanagunclub.org I'm biased as I am an officer of the club. There is also a shotgun club, Maud Gun Club just around the corner from us.
Anyone in the area is more than welcome to attend as my guest.