[Shootist45]

Ladies and Gentleman:

I learned just hours ago, six to be exact, that we are being relocated by our company from California to the Commonwealth of Virginia!!!

I need help!!!!:eek:

We, my wife and I, will be moving by next Sunday! This is a very fast transfer. What can I expect in Virginia? We will be managing a self storage facility in Herndon, Virginia, about a mile from Dulles International. We understand this is a great area.

I need to know about getting a CCW; hunting; fishing; churches; who of you are near; shooting ranges, both indoor and outdoors.

I realize this is on short notice but, we were shocked at the whirlwind needs of our company.

Again, any help on the above would be appreciated.

My greatest reservation is that I can't help my fellow shooters in booting Gray Davis. Or could I? Maybe not change DL 'til nest year? Oh, well.

Thanks to whom ever can help.

Shootist45. :what:

[4v50 Gary]

Well, I've been there several times. Never checked out the prices for housing but general rule of thumb I'm given to understand is that the closer you are to Washington, the more it costs.

Gun laws are better than CA and a lot of THRers will tell you that. CCW are much easier to get unlike CA. You're near Fairfax and the NRA National Firearms Museum. You're also close to a lot of battlefield (there was a big family feud around 1861-1865).

Congratulations on your escape from the Waste Coast.

[Mike Irwin]

Here's a site that has some decent overview information.

http://www.nvaweb.net/

Cost of living in the area is damned expensive, and has been going up quite a bit over the past few years.

I bought my townhouse in Fairfax in 1993 for $154,900. It's worth almost double that right now in the current market.

CCW permits are handled by the County Sheriff's office, or the chief LEO of independent cities. You'll need to figure out where you're going to park.

Check out the Virginia State Police web page for more information on that.

Hunting and fishing I don't do anymore, so I really can't help you there, other than Virginia has decent hunting from what I hear.

Churches? What denomination? Take your pick. It's a cosmopolitan area. Within 30 miles of Herndon you have all major Christian faiths, Latter Day Saints, Jehova's Witnesses, Church of Christ Scientist, a variety of Hindu and Sikh temples, Mosques, Hebrew Temples, etc.

Outdoor ranges are hard to come by. Your best bet is to join Issac Walton if you want outdoor rifle. The NRA range is within 20 miles of Herndon in Fairfax, as is Blue Ridge Armory. Bull Run Shooting Center, for the clay sports, is also in that periphery in Centreville.

There are a BUNCH of us in Northern Virginia. I'm in Fairfax, MTNBKR is in Manassas, and others are scattered liberally througout the area.

We've been meeting occasionally at Bull Run for shotgunning, or at the NRA Range, and have dinner afterwards.

Welcome to Northern Virginia. The traffic stinks, and it's pretty liberal, but it's not a bad place to live.

[Majic]

Needless to say you are moving into a high cost of living area of VA. Things are way overinflated there because living near the beltway is more of a status symbol. Because of the DC crowd northern VA is trying hard to become liberal, but on a whole the state is conservative. The northern VA residents here can point you to the finer points of the area. I'm in central VA. Just remember that when the stress of of the area starts to get to you (traffic, liberal know-it-alls) in just a few hours you can either be sitiing on the beach sunning or admiring the lush green mountains we have. Just to add what 4v50 Gary said, all of VA is basically a war memorial for the Civil, and Revolutionary wars. Parks, points of interest abound all over the state.

I don't know about where you are coming from, but here in VA you will learn the meaning of "Humidity".
Fishing is great with ample rivers, the Chesapeake Bay, and the ocean. We have a wide variety of fish. We are in the belt for migrating saltwater species.
Hunting, most of Va is run over with deer. Turkeys are plentiful too. Small game hunting depends primarily on what the preditors have done the preceeding year. There is also duck and Canadian geese hunting.

Welcome to the state

[Kharn]

If you're close enough, consider a place in West Virginia or Pennsylvania (dont even look over the river to MD) if you can save on the price of a house. One downside is that Virginia only issues resident permits, so you might be in a bind getting reciprocity.

Kharn

[foghornl]

My greatest reservation is that I can't help my fellow shooters in booting Gray Davis. Or could I? Maybe not change DL 'til nest year? Oh, well.

Ummmmmm absentee ballot? Is that allowed in recall votes?

[rrader]

Consider joining the Virginia Citizen's Defense League:

http://www.vcdl.org/

It's a very effective statewide group working for full restoration of Virginian's 2nd Amendment rights.

[Zundfolge]

Welcome back to America :p

[Partisan Ranger]

Welcome to Virginia! Our gun laws are much more reasonable than CA of course. Super easy to get a CCW; I got mine in December. We DO have some stupid gun laws - that one handgun per month thing, for example, and you can't carry concealed in any establishment that serves booze. But you CAN openly carry just about anywhere.

As you're going to be in Herndon, you could live in the Shenandoah Valley (technically not Northern VA) where I do. I know quite a few people in Winchester who work near Dulles. It's a 45-50 minute commute, not that bad for this area. As you'll soon discover, housing costs withing 20 miles of the Beltway are high. My 257K house in Winchester would cost 500K in Fairfax.

For working near Dulles, WV is also a strong possibility, the panhandle, I mean. But the schools up there aren't very good I hear. In any case, welcome to the area!

[Shootist45]

Thanks for the early responses.

I guess I should have mentioned that we will not need housing as that is provided for us.

The church denomination is Episcopal.

Fishing and hunting sounds great!! I'm eager to get back into it again.

We lived in north Georgia for 8 years and know about that little "feud" way back when and will look into that part of history again.

Again, thanks for the early responses!!

[mtnbkr]

Welcome. As everyone has said already, there's a lot here to enjoy. Fishing in the Potomac and Shenandoah river is generally good, but due to pollution, you don't want to keep anything. If you like smallmouth fishing, this is a good area. For hunting, the nearest public land I know of is the GWNF down by the intersection of I81 and I66. It's about an hour from you.

Gotta run, but we're happy to have you!

Chris

[themic]

most northern virginians are pretty familiar with most of northern virginia. feel free to ask more specific questions. i like this area.

and hey! us people closer to the beltway aren't always status seekers. i just prefer mass transit when possible, so i live near a metro in arlington. yes, i know, this makes me weird. but my wife and i also save by not having a second car.

[Poodleshooter]

For hunting, the nearest public land I know of is the GWNF down by the intersection of I81 and I66. It's about an hour from you
There's also CW Phelps WMA east of Culpepper, and I believe there is some hunting on Quantico.
www.dgif.state.va.us for Virginia hunting and fishing information.

[Mike Irwin]

"The church denomination is Episcopal."

No problem. There are Episcopal churches in the area.

And, given what's been happening with the Rev. Gene Robinson, there may be double the number of Episcopal churches if the church splits as some are predicting if he's confirmed as Bishop of New Hampshire.

Where is the housing you're being given?

Do you have a physical address (street)?

The reason I'm asking is that the Herndon/Reston area has suffered through one developer's social conscious view of what a community should be when the area was being developed in the 1960s and 1970s.

In many areas of Reston you have VERY nice houses socked right beside some rather seedy and nasty public assistance projects.

When they were first built they were fine, but then drugs moved in in a big way, gangs followed, and now the crime rate in Reston is higher than it should be.

[MJRW]

If your storage location is anywhere near your home or work, you'll be very near me as I'm in Reston.

Shooting:

From Herndon/Reston area just hop on Reston Parkway toward Fairfax. Turns into West Ox Road. Get on 50 toward Fairfax. Left on Waples Mill. Couple of blocks and NRA range is on your right. Takes me 20 minutes. Very nice indoor range.

Another place, get on Fairfax County Parkway toward Fairfax. Hit 66 West down to the second exit for 29. Take that...errr...I think toward Warrenton. Go many miles down that to Clark Brothers for outdoor shooting. I tend to take back roads for this one so I'm not too certain on directions. Should take about 60-90 minutes.

For trap/skeet, get on 66 west and take the first 29 exit. Take 29 South about 2 miles. Turn left on Bull Run Post Office Road. Its a twisty turny road for a few miles. You'll see a sign.

There is also Blue Ridge, but I don't recommend it for anything. Poorly ventilated range. GSCs abound. Overpriced on everything.

There are a few good stores in this area. Virginia Arms in Manassas, Shooters Paradise in Woodbridge, Gilberts in Lorton, Loudon Guns in Leesburg, Galyans in Fairfax, and soon a Dick's in Manassas.

CCW process is have some form of approved training (NRA course, military, something on paper), go fill out some paperwork, give them a check, wait up to 45 days. You'll probably be living in Fairfax County so you will end up waiting 44.999999 days. I think you will get it on 11:59.59 PM on the 45th day.

Don't know much about hunting around here. But there is West Virginia, Pennsylvania, and all of Southwest Virginia that is worth exploring for that.

Fishing locally you've got a few lakes and the Potomac. There's Fountainhead about 40 minutes away from this area (and a bit hard to get to, haven't been there in years). I've pulled more than my share of bass and some huge catfish out of there. Currently I go to a private lake about every other weekend and have for several years now so I don't know the fishing around here as well as I used to.

[Skunkabilly]

If you meet a girl that can pick the banjo and put a .223 up a fly's doo-doo, PM me! Southern drawl a bonus.

Congratulations....

[DragonRider]

I must have been an anomally, I got mine in 41 days. Welcome to the area. Blue Ridge has its goods and bads. And I think its getting better, slowly, under new ownership. Good luck with the move, I know the feeling your going to be dealing with soon. I just bought a townhouse in Centreville.

If you find out where your job is located, we can help you better with figuring out where it will be better to live to be going against traffic instead of stuck in it. I'm stuck in it, but for only 10 mins on 28.

Good Luck,

John

[Shootist45]

The packing is going to be "fun"? Oh, well.

Thanks for the housing suggestions. As mentioned, the company provides housing. It's on site, Mini U Storage, located in Herndon on 13741 Wall Road.

Also, the commute is literally "down the hall and through the door". VERY lucky in that respect.

The site for the DGIF was good and I'll be going over it later. And the stores, that was great, afraid the wife might object, but......

Skunk, sorry didn't get to meet ya. If ya like, ya can drive the truck to Virginia, a reverse of the Beverly Hillbilly's !!!!!!!!:D :D

And MJRW I'll be about 5 minutes from you. I'll let you know when we get settled.

Thanks again and keep that info goming, I'll be on line 'til Thursday the 7th.

[Standing Wolf]

Congratulations! My only regret about leaving the People's Republic of California is that I didn't do it years sooner than I did. You're going to enjoy living in the United States.

[Kharn]

Skunkabilly:
I know a few such girls, but there's a few problems:
1. They live in Maryland
2. They dont want to leave MD, who would tend to Pop's tobacco (pronounced tow-back-ee) farm if they left? (If you had a relationship with them, you'd be expected to pull 16-18 hour days on the farm)
3. They dont like carbon fiber, and say its just a marketing gimic, as Pop's Remington .223 from 1968 works just as well on groundhogs as any other .223 in the store.
Sorry dude, I think you're SOL. :neener:

Kharn

[Smurfslayer]

Plenty of local history to explore. The bases have pretty much all been covered. Virginia has some firearm oddities, but all in all is a very pro 2a state. Unless you're in the heart of LA, or are used to NYC traffic, get prepared for culture shock, traffic around here brings non-civility to new heights. We've got a lot of "transplants" who know nothing of southern hospitality.

Open carry is not only legal here, VA SP acknowledges such... See VCDL website. The VA permit application, while long, is straightforward, and if you're not a bad person the court has to issue the permit. Open carry goes a little further if you have a concealed permit due to our laws here...

It's very likely that you will also have a class 3 friendly CLEO ( for form 4 signoffs ) too.

Ranges already covered - NRA, speaks for itself, Blue ridge arsenal - hot, needs better vents, and loud, but has a cult following ;) New ownership is improving things. I and several buddies shoot there Friday nights and hang out for dinner afterwards... Don't think anyone's mentioned Shooter's Paradise in Woodbridge. Newly class 3, recent range upgrades with good vents... A really decent gun shop - but no range - Virginia Arms in Manassas. Decent prices, cheap transfers, excellent ( and helpful ) staff.

P.R. said "housing costs within 20 miles of the beltway are high" HOGWASH. :uhoh: They're INSANE. One thing is certain though, if you can afford to buy here, you won't lose money.


Again, welcome...

[Norton]

Ditto on all things mentioned above. For outdoor shooting, the Itzaak Walton League-Bethesda Chevy Chase Chapter has a beautiful facility in Poolesville, Maryland (right across the river on the beltway).

I did my Basic Pistol Course there and they must have several hundred acres of land in the midst of one of the most densely developed places on the east coast. You don't even feel like you're in PRMD:D

[Guy L Johnson]

One word says it all CONGRADULATIONS

[4Truck]

Sounds to me like there is a NOVA shoot in order once you get settled...

[mtnbkr]

oh yeah. Mebbe we can take over the NRA range one evening :)

Chris

[22x9]

I work out near Dulles(right off of Rt. 28) and live out past Leesburg. I know the storage place that you mentioned.

Congrats on the move. Hope to see ya one day. If you can somehow swing owing a small piece of property in Loudoun County, I'll be glad to sponsor you for the Loudoun County Chapter of the Izaak Walton League. ( www.loudouniwla.org )

My shooting schedule is really limited for the next few months(baby on the way), but I try and join the THR "Welcome to VA" Shoot.

[Partisan Ranger]

You're right, the housing prices near the Beltway are insane. I'm all for the free market, but there are absolutely no new single family houses built near the beltway for less than 500K. Decent townhouses are 250K+. Thus I moved to the Valley. Even though I'm 75 miles from DC, we made 10 percent on our house in a year! Even out in the sticks, housing prices are going up, which is great if you already own.

[XLMiguel]

Arriving here in August is a bit tough - the '170 Rule' applies, i.e. the sum of the temperature and humidity will equal of exceed 170, but the Fall is long and slow, and Spring comes early. As noted, housing prices are silly, but then again, so are they in SoCal. Traffic sucks, but it sounds like you have an easy 'commute'. Schools in Fairfax or Loudon are good. VA is "Shall Issue", and the local crew has pretty much covered the other necessaries so I'll just add: "Welcome to the Old Dominion!"

[Shootist45]

Thank you all.

It's almost 7:00 pm, Wednesday evening PDST. I'm goning to be off line 'til the 15th at the earliest.

I will try to contact some of you when I'm able.

Sincere thanks for the information on Virginia. I think my wife and I will find things quite enjoyable.

Shootist 45

[4v50 Gary]

Free! He's Free! He's a Free Man!:)

[22x9]

Anyone want to start taking bets on how long it'll take him to start buying full capacity mags, get a CCW or start down the path to get a silencer or an AOW?

[mtnbkr]

I say two months before he starts to fill out his CCW paperwork. That gives him his 30days residency and time to take a class. :)

Chris

[H Romberg]

May I say, Welcome to Virginia.

Some notes on our idiosyncratic nature:

Northern Virginia and the rest of the state are not the same thing.

Virginia has an ego the size of Texas's. It's just not so loudly expressed.

Thomas Jefferson and Robert E. Lee are both considered near-gods. Learn all you can about both to accelerate your aclimatization to the state. They embodied much of what we think makes it special.

We tend to be really proud of our history, our wine (Now don't get all Californian on us and complain about the high acid content either. It's "character".), our horses, our produce, our landscapes, and above all, our status as Virginians.

We all know that the Civil war would have ended before it began if Virginia hadn't carried the south, but we're too polite to mention it very often.

We're firmly convinced that the same was probably true for the Revolution.

We think the Chesapeake Bay produces the world's finest seafood. And we're right.:D

Our "hillbillies" make hand carved wooden dulcimers, furniture, fiddles, rifle stocks that sell for 10's of thousands of dollars.
I hear they also make some of the best shine in the business, but you'll have to be here for a long time before anybody'll sell some to you.
I've been here all my life, and I still haven't found any. If it weren't a sacrelige to say it, I'd think the revenuers must've got all the stills out there.

"White Water" is the foam coming off the beer you crack open as you drift slowly northward in your inner tube on the Shenendoah. (Watch the rocks in dry years!)

Go ahead and buy land. Just do it really far out from the DC area. You'll be able to put a hunting cabin on it, retire, and wait for Urban Sprawl to make you a millionaire.

The Dulles Corridor (the area along the toll road from the airport to DC) is unofficially known as Silicon Valley, East. It has literally anything you would ever want, and probably within 30 miles. You just have to pay through the nose for it.

Climate:
Winter: Stay off the roads unless it's sunny and dry. Locals become idiots when it rains. Don't ask about snow, and don't even go out doors when the freezing rain starts. Hunting Season!

Spring: Watch out for flash floods, and as usual, stay off the roads when it rains. Pretty, cool, etc. Check out the horse country around Middleburg. Spring trophy Rockfish season on the bay!

Summer: One word: Humidity. Most of us go to the bay or the ocean to swim, eat crabs, or sail a boat around. Those near the river go tubing. Cook something on the grill.

Autumn: Everybody heads for the blue ridge to watch the leaves turn colors, eat pumpkin pie, take winery tours and hay rides. Most towns have some sort of fair going on. The Rockfish return to the Bay! This is our best time.


Enjoy!

[carp killer]

Congrats on your escape from the Nanny State to the land of the free!

[mtnbkr]

We tend to be really proud of our history, our wine (Now don't get all Californian on us and complain about the high acid content either. It's "character".), our horses, our produce, our landscapes, and above all, our status as Virginians.

Speaking of wine, there's a wine festival off of I66 near The Plains coming up if you want to sample Virginia's wines. I think it's the weekend of Aug 16th. My wife and I went back in June. I came home with some interesting fruit wines instead of the usual grape based stuff.

http://showsinc.com/vawf/index.html

Chris

[Cacique500]

Welcome to VA!

You're going to love CCW here - its one of the most gun friendly carrying states I've been in.

As mentioned before, you can't carry concealed into anyplace that serves alcohol...but...through a loophole you just make your weapon unconcealed and you're legal...go figure.

Hope your move goes smooth and again welcome.

[jacketch]

Congrats and remember to never carry in church:eek:

[mtnbkr]

Well? Shootist45, did you make the move intact? How's Va treating you so far?

Chris

[Mike Irwin]

Unfortunately he's not made a post since August 6...

I hope everything went well...

[JohnBT]

He's probably stuck in traffic. :)

Meanwhile, speaking of moonshine, here's part of a 2002 article from the New York Times about the Moonshine Capital of the World...Rocky Mount/Franklin County. Looks like the old boys haven't all gone to raising smoking dope.

"Yet, the government maintained on March 6 in an affidavit related to its request for a search warrant, Mr. Hale is the person code-named Hat Man in the journals of the Farmers' Exchange. According to the journals, Hat Man bought 17,925 100-pound bags of sugar, paying close to $700,000, and 2,710 bundles of one-gallon containers for which he paid $42,000. With the sugar, the affidavit said, he could have produced 179,250 gallons of illegal liquor, worth $1.8 million at $10 a gallon." "
_______

Now, about that "Ego the size of Texas" thing. Well, it is a great place, at least since West Virginia decided they were really Yankees and not Virginians. Really original name for a state, too.
(Do you know the definition of WVa foreplay? "Git in the truck woman.") (But we're a fair people, too... Do you know how many Richmonders it takes to change a lightbulb? Four. One to change it and three to talk about how good the old one was.)
_______

Presidents born in Virginia, four of them before Texas joined up:

George Washington
Thomas Jefferson
James Madison
James Monroe
William Henry Harrison
John Tyler
Zachary Taylor
Woodrow Wilson

Presidents born in Texas:

Dwight Eisenhower
Lyndon Johnson

LBJ? Okay, I guess everybody is allowed one mistake. :)

Guess I'll head off the store to look at the P-3AT they just called me about.

John

[Shootist45]

It has been a long time for me to be off line. We got our phone line in on the 28th of August.

Took until today to get the internet connection, and it's just a dial-up!!! Feel like Neanderthal man. :fire:

We have been packing, driving or working since August 6th and just had a day off for the 1st of September, Labor Day. That makes 25 days straight, we're tired!!

I will try to be in contact on a more regular basis, even though it is a dial-up connection and work is demanding now. We are not in an area that has DSL and the cable company won't spend the extra $150.00 to string a line across the street.

If any of you Virginia High Roaders are close, let me know.

Have a good evening and we are honored to be in the great state of Virginia.:p

[MagKnightX]

Let me say, Welcome to the Land of the Free.

As to the VA NRA range, membership is worth it, and I believe is cheaper if you are a member of the NRA already. If you become a member of the range, you can shoot basically all you want for only the membership cost, but only an hour at a time. The range is 12-lane, electronic target movement system, 50 yd range, well-ventilated indoor range, that can take anything up to and including .460 Weatherby. It is located in the same building as what is probably the world's most comprehensive firearms museum. People at the range, both officials and shooters, are friendly. If you have a wife and chilluns that want to go shooting, buy the family membership. If you shoot often, it will pay for itself.

Let me offer you advice: avoid the famous "mixing bowl" if possible, and visit DC as soon as possible. Go a few times. See the Smithsonians, the Washington Monument, the Capitol, and the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials. Go to Mount Vernon. See Gunston Hall. Visit Monticello. Take pictures. Have fun.

Finally, as to the NOVA THR gathering, if we can pull it off, that would be fun. I'll let anybody who wants to take a few shots with my Mosin, P99, and 10/22, as long as ammo lasts.

[DragonRider]

Feel free to PM me if you need any help, I'm in Sully Station, Centreville along 28. We try to get together about once every few weeks at Bull Run for some shotgun shooting in the evening. Once again, welcome!

John

[mtnbkr]

Yes, let's try to get together again at Bull Run soon.

Chris