Anyone from the San Antonio,TX area?

[GEM]

Welcome to the area.

Here's some resources:

An area faq for clubs, ranges and competitions centered around Austin but including San Antonio - http://www.krtraining.com/FAQs/AustinGunFAQ.HTML

Should cover - most disciplines

http://www.dietzgunshop.com/ - Does long range rifle. They have a club for even longer ranges than mentioned in the web site.

Carbine matches - at www.texastactical.net - Lot's of AR folks

There is a modern indoor range that allows rifles (obviously not that long range) - http://www.nardisgunclub.com/

There is also lots of shotgun, IPSC, IDPA, cowboy around.

Upside of the area - housing is inexpensive, decent areas, restaurants, shopping, etc. (we have a Bass Pro in town and a Cabelas in reasonable range - Academy sports with lots of gun stuff). Of course, compare pricing.

Downside - HOT.

 

[BobTheTomato]

Just realize that the San Antonio area has far too many rats in the maze.....meaning constant traffic and everything is crowded. As others have stated there is zero public land and if you want to hunt locally you will need to drop a bunch of money on property or a hunting lease. Also know water restrictions are becoming a big deal which will limit use of it.

As for firearm rights everyone says Texas is so great but its not. No open carry and you need to take a class to get your CHL. Its much more authoritarian that I was used to.

I will say I chose to leave and move to Alabama.

As others have suggested go visit and spend a week there. San Marcos and New Braunfels are close enough to the city (up I35) if you are retired and not as crowded.

 

[winkzoot]

Just to add my $.02. I agree that the Powder Horn is a great gun shop. Very friendly and prices are reasonable. If you are a reloader they starting to get powder back in stock on a regular basis.

I do most of my shooting at the Bracken range. They have covered pistol at 7 and 15 yards. Covered rifle at 50 and 100 yards and Shoot gun where you can throw your own birds.

I have also shot at a place to shoot, they have a nice gun shop at the range. The pistol line is set up like an indoor range with a gravity system to move the targets in and out. The good thing is you could set the distance of your target or change targets with out calling a cease fire. The down side is the floor is a grate so you cannot recover your brass.

I tried the Bullet hole, they have a bay system so that you can control your own area. They allowed you to shoot anything that you wanted in your bay (rifle, Pistol, shotgun).

My new favorite is the Cedar Ridge Range. Yes the guy who runs it can be a little off putting but the bays are very nice, shade covered and you can shoot pistol and rifle in the same bay. They also have 5 stand, sporting clays and trap.

 

[GEM]

Not having open carry and taking a test is rather trivial - having living in an antigun state, TX is quite acceptable. You can flame me for RKBA purity but for a practical answer about San Antonio - that's what I think. Also after living in a megacity, SA traffic is also trivial.

The city is also diverse and that is interesting. Restaurants from many ethnicities. Austin with more fun stuff is close - yep, you can rant about its politics, but it is an interesting town.

Similarly, the hill country is neat.

Gun shops - Dury's is quite nice. The old boy shop on San Pedro has quite a touch attitude and price.

 

[DickP]

I moved to SA from Michigan about 10 years ago and never looked back.
I second Powderhorn as head and shoulders above the other gunshops here.
If you shoot black powder at all, the nicest range (and best kept secret) is Alamo Muzzle Loading Gun Club west of town, towards Castroville.

 

[TIMC]

I live in the New Braunfels Area, great place to raise a family and or retire!

Dietz gun range is just outside of town. A little farther south just outside of Seguin is Bexar Community range which has very nice skeet and trap fields along with nice pistol and rifle ranges. The are not too Nazi about rapid fire. Bracken range s also fairly close so there is a lot of choices.

 

[M2]

I am up on the NW side of SA near Helotes. This is a great town, especially for retired military (which I am). There are three major bases (Lackland, Randolph and Ft Sam) and there is a range open for DoD ID card holders at Camp Bullis on the weekends.

In addition to the great weather, as GEM mentioned we are on the edge of the Texas Hill Country, some of the most beautiful land on God's green earth. There is a lot to do here from the Riverwalk to Six Flags and SeaWorld to a variety of other activities. This is a really a family-friendly place, with a rich Hispanic culture. I've always told people that if you can't find fun things to do in San Antonio, it's not the city's fault!

The cost of living here is also cheap and there are lots of jobs for former/retired military personnel (I've been a DoD contractor ever since I retired in 2006). We also have a huge tourist and medical sector, so our job market is usually better than the rest of the country. Same goes for housing, it's inexpensive and wasn't affected as bad as the rest of the country by the real estate collapse a few years back.

Rush hour can be bad, but considering the size of this metro area it could be a lot worse! We do have a fair selection of gun shops, ranges and some great shows; so it's very gun-friendly. There is a huge firearms community that contains some of the nicest folks you'll ever meet!

And while I would love to see open carry here, I don't think not having it should keep anyone from moving to Texas. Folks pretty much have a live-and-let-live attitude and are friendly as long as you act appropriately.

About the only downsides I see are the vast growth occurring in this area. It's no secret that this is one of the best places to live in the country, and people are flocking here. Water is my other concern, with our droughts we are drawing a lot of the stuff from the aquifer. Medina lake is at near-record lows, and we need a good, prolonged rain pretty badly.

Otherwise, I've lived all over the country and still travel quite a bit; and while I love seeing other places there's nothing better than that feeling you get when the wheels of that airliner touch down in the Alamo City!

Cheers! M2

 

[CharlieDeltaJuliet]

Thanks M2, that was exactly the description I needed. The wife and I planning a trip to check out everything over Christmas. My mind is made up, while Nevada was my first choice it is funny how things work out. The best part, the people, the ones I have met and know from various shoots and competitions.....well they are Texans.. That's a good thing. They are polite, take no gruff, still say yes ma'am or yes sir, and have a good attitude about each day they wake up. Given these are just a handful I have met, but its funny how they all are pretty close to the same.... My area used to be like that, it was bombarded with people who wanted to retire here.. That was great, more people growing economy, wrong...

They changed the way people lived here. They worked their way into county commissioner seats, tripled taxes and cut benefits to the businesses that were here. So basically the retireees and people who lived here in the summer wanted a mountain town without the "hillbillies". All of the jobs left(except the ones that they still needed), factories closed. We were left with a 16-18% unenployment rate in under a years time because a county of 27,000 lost over 2500 jobs in three months. The people who were born and raised here or came back here like me are being driven out. Everyone is rude and no longer feels like the small town it was. My wife and I make a good living, but are no longer happy, so I hope one day soon to say, Texas is where my heart is.

 

[AKElroy]

I have lived in San Antonio for 45 years. I travel quite a bit, and find my hometown a breath of fresh air whenever I get home. The people are friendly, and we are two hours away from anything that matters to me. The coast? Two hours. The highland lakes? Two hours. The best deer hunting in the state? (llano / mason) two hours. Tons of pigs as well.

Lots of shooting ranges, and a culture that embraces the inner redneck. I'm 47, and when I was in high school here, it was common to see shotguns in truck windows in the school parking lot during dove season. This was in the 80's; were not talking a lifetime ago.

 

[AKElroy]

Water is my other concern, with our droughts we are drawing a lot of the stuff from the aquifer

Not a concern. Our water issues are largely political, not actual. Our lakes are suffering in this drought, but the aquifer would meet our needs for over 100 years without a single drop of recharge rain. It covers over 1250 square miles, one of the largest in the world. It is required by federal law to be kept FULL in order to maintain spring flow in the San Marcos and Comal springs to hydrate the precious "snail darter", an endangered species that by court order is incapable of surviving in PUMPED water. It is a travesty that we will be forced to spend billions on alternative sources to meet this federal mandate while we sit atop one of the largest fresh water deposits on the planet.