Firearms and Chattanooga

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Insectguy

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I will be relocating to Chattanooga in a couple of months and was wondering if anyone has any firearms-related information about the area. I found the Chattanooga Rifle Club website, and it looks like a great place. Unfortunately, since I am new to the area, I won't have a sponsor.

Any favorite gunshops? Other ranges? Activities?


My work will be right at the junction if I-75 and I-20, so we're looking at living in East Brainard, Ooltewah or somewhere near those. Any and al advice will be greatly appreciated.

Any cities to stay away from?

Also, I have a Georgia CCW permit-- I assume I will still have to take the CCW course for TN before I can obtain one from there.
 
The Chattanooga Rifle Club has a waiting list to join.

East Brainerd area is very good. There are some high end subdivisions in that area. Catoosa Co. Ga is growing like crazy. Email me I will help you any way I can.
 
Soddy-Daisy

OK, it has been at least 25 years since I lived in Chattanooga, but at the time I lived there I shot at a skeet range near Soddy-Daisy, TN. The handgun range wasn't anything special, but it was a nice drive up the mountain, and fun shooting.
 
Yes, he means I-24, since I-20 doesn't get anywhere near Chatt!

that intersection is (I believe) actually in Eastridge! and the Lookout Mountain area is only a few miles away, and has some REALLY nice places to live...

not a bad area... there are some pretty nice gunstores near and around Chatt too...

I worked for Covenant Transport, out of Chatt for a couple years... I spent some appreciable time there, training new students...

while there, check out "The Electric Cowboy" for a good bar to party at too...
 
Check the Tennessee state website for the details on exchanging the GA permit for a TN one. I did it last year with a Michigan permit and only had to pay a $50 renewal fee. It has to be done within the first 6 months of Tennessee residence, but I think you should do it quickly. Tennessee may recognize a GA resident permit held by a Tennessee resident, but other states may not.
 
You mean I-24?
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Yeah-- mea culpa. I'm in Alabama now, and I had a nice flat on I-20, so it's been on mind. Sorry about that...

while there, check out "The Electric Cowboy" for a good bar to party at too...
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You're not sending me to a gay bar, are you? In the Navy, that was always a fun trick to pull on the new guys. :neener:

Lookout Mountain area is only a few miles away, and has some REALLY nice places to live...
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The reluctance I have is the trip up and down, especially in foul weather. Still, my wife has already seen a couple of houses on the internet she wants to view, so who knows.

Enfield-- that's great information. I will definitely check that out prior to my arrival.
 
No, the Electric Cowboy sure isn't a gay bar... (but I DO know of an all-LESBIAN bar in the area, I'm NOT joking!)

the drive up Lookout Mountain ain't bad, and they really don't get alotta "winter" there anyway...
 
Welcome to my city.

Gunshop favorite: If it wasn't so far away from me, I would go to Carter's Shooting Supply exclusively. Great treatment/service, pretty knowledgeable staff, and courteous people who strongly support our RKBA. I live less than a mile from Darr's, and do a lot of shopping there. Courteous, not quite as good service, but still a good place even though to my dismay that do not touch politics. I avoid two shops. One I cannot recall the name, but it is also on Hwy 58, and is a hole in the wall. The owner is simply put, a pompous (non HR comment goes here), but in his defense, like Carter he is pretty big in preserving our RKBA. The other place is Sportsman's Warehouse (might be slightly off on the name, it is NOT the massive new sportsmans place that went up recently) on Hixson Pike near Northgate, who treats customers like lepers.

Carter's has a nice indoor handgun range, but is too far from me to be practical. I always do my shooting up at Prentice Cooper, where I pay no fees and can do whatever I want.

Activities: Well, there are IDPA matches in the surrounding areas twice a month, and I run the Chattanooga chapter of the Tennessee Firearms Association. Feel free to stop by a meeting sometime.

Cities to avoid: Red Bank, East Ridge, and parts of Chattanooga. I am not overly fond of the police departments in any of the three cities (East Ridge's being the worst offenders). Red Bank recently installed cameras to watch us. I hear both ER and Chatt are planning to copy that. If I had my way, I would live in Soddy Daisy/Hixson area.

Enfield more or less covered the bases regarding the fees. Get a TN HCP ASAP, the main reason being it is recognized in more places than GA, and a TN resident must have a TN permit. Also, we have off limit zones, so be familiar with them.
 
If you head up 75 just a bit, to exit 20, you can hit Crosshairs. Your local class 3 dealer/manufacturer. Lots of cools guns in there, and the guys are nice. I'm in Charleston, which is at exit 33 on 75. About 35 minutes north of Chattanooga.

Edit: I moved here from Indiana 3 years ago. Since I had my IN permit, I just had to pay the $50 renewal fee and take the class (no class in Indiana).
 
im new to the whitwell TN area myself but origanally from decatur TN there are a few good gunshops around Fugates firearms in calhoun is a good little gun shop its off exit 36 i think?? up I 75 and on up I75 at exit 49 there is legends outdoor advantage they have everything there
http://www.legendsoutdooradvantage.com/
 
You might try Benton's Shooting Supply, which is up (I believe) 411 in Polk County. It's quite good. You can get there via the 64 Bypass around Cleveland, or by going up I-75 to Exit 36 and heading through Calhoun's. Keep your windows rolled up and your air on internal recirc. around Bowater in Calhoun. It's a paper plant that smells like an open sewer.
 
There is no GREAT gun shop in Chattanooga. Sportsman's Warehouse opened a store and they are probably hurting sales at other gun shops. My suspicion is that shopping there is a matter of convenience rather than strictly price.

The two best gun shops in the area are Benton Shooters Supply (Benton, TN) and Legends (Athens, TN). Both are about an hour drive from Chattanooga. Benton Shooters has the advantage of a really nice public range just up the road near the Hiwassee River. I usually hit both when I'm in the area as well as fish for trout on the river. It is a very pretty area.

Carter's on Hwy 58 (Harrison, TN) is not too bad. There prices are a tad high overall, but I still shop there. They have an indoor pistol range that is pretty nice and membership is reasonable if you shoot much. It will be very convenient to the Ooltewah area if you choose to relocate there. They also give the class for concealed carry permit there. They are real nice folks.

Ammo Dump (also on Hwy 58 north of 153) is small and truly a good old boy place. I shop there some, but almost never feel welcome. I tend to drive by if I just want to look around and go to Carters. The owner is very active at the Chattanooga Rifle Club and gives handgun classes.

The public range at Prentice Cooper is on Signal Mountain area. It is a bit out of the way for me and I usually go to Benton for casual outdoor shooting. I like the drive, if I have time.

Cleveland TN has a club which does IDPA matches. You can join. There is also a club in Athens that takes new members and they have rifle and pistol ranges.

Natchez is located in the Chattanooga area. They are more of a warehouse operation. They supply many of the gun shops and hence do not sell locally for the most part to regular consumers.

Big Daddy's (Bridgeport AL) is located just across the state line below South Pittsburg. They have lots of guns and sporting goods. Fun place to vist. They sell handguns to TN residents via a pawn shop that they own in TN.

Housing is quite affordable in the area. You can spend as much as you want to. Apartments are affordable too.

Gunshows are modest in Chattanooga. But, you can often do okay at Chattanooga shows. More shows are held in Knoxville and Nashville areas. Not a big drive if you view it as a day's activitity.

Cabela's is planning on building a big store in Adairsville GA. Bass Pro has stores in Nashville and Sevierville (Knoxville area); both excellent stores. Gander Mountain opened a store in Knoxville. Sportsman's Warehouse has a new store in Chattanooga.

The Chattanooga area is a great area to live. It is starting to become a retirement area due to housing prices, geography, and climate. If you are a boater or fish for warm water species, lots of lakes. Trout fishing is mainly a tailwater fishery thing, but can be good. Not much snow. Last big snow in Chattanooga was in 1996, but they are rare and related to late winter weather patterns (the perfect storm type thing).

You a biologist?
 
They have a Gander Mountain store in Huntsville Alabama now as well if you don't want to drive to Knoxville for one.
 
You might want to consider Catoosa County, GA. Lower property taxes, excellent and still booming housing market, and you get to keep your GFL. On the other hand, we don't have as many decent gunshops (Grant's down in Dalton is decent. Fair handgun selection, great hunting rifle selection, poor on EBRs or milsurp, though. Good service and excellent layaway plan). Of course, you can always shop in TN and most shops will give you a good rate on transfers from TN. The shooting is better in TN, but at worst living in Catoosa will add a mere 15 minutes to the drive. Just avoid the areas that border Whitfield County.

If you've gotta live on the TN side, avoid anything with 'East' in the name except East Brainerd (Not to be confused with Brainerd. Don't live there, just visit :)). Soddy-Daisy, Hixson, Harrison, Signal Mountain, and Lookout Mountain are all fairly good areas. Avoid Missionary Ridge, houses are higher priced than what they should be, and it's too close to places like East Lake and East Ridge.

Lastly, if you've had enough to drink at 'The Electric Cowboy' that your considering a ride on the bull, call someone to take you home. :D
 
Some people gave positive reviews of Benton's Shooter Supply, my friends visit there was anything but positive. I never plan to darken their doorway. (Bad service, made mistakes, were less than courteous.)

22, Ammo Dump was the place I could not remember earlier. I would hesitate to call him a Good Ole Boy type, as GOBs I meet at least tend to be casually polite. Shaw always gave me the impression he wanted me to go kill myself.

Regarding Natchez, they won't sell to us. They are in fact a warehouse operation, but because they do not wish to undercut gun stores and the like, refuse to sell to locals. I know, I called.

Something I forgot to mention earlier, one more thing that makes Carters a great gun shop, is I hear he rents full autos. Supposedly a Thompson as well. I need to scrape my $$$ together and go rent it.
 
I was trying to be diplomatic concerning the Ammo Dump. The clingons there look at you like you are some sort of zombie. And they're always there. You know what we all do to zombies. Not my kind of place, although I have bought from him. Got one of my supreme bargains there in fact a few years back. So I periodically stop to see what he has. The good stuff (usually consignment pieces) is usually bought by the clingons.

I will have to check out the full auto rental possibility. The gun shop in Knoxville (I believe) rents them if you are interested. It is the one Tamara works at off Lovell Rd. I know they are a Class III dealer; manufacturer actually.
 
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Absolutely invaluable information. Thanks to everyone. I look forward to checking out all the gunshops. :evil:

You a biologist?
Click to expand...

BS in biochem/zoology, MS aquatic ecology.

Of course, I work in nuclear. Go figure.

Entomology is my other hobby. Hence the screen name.

Right now, we're leaning to Ooltewah and Hixson. We'll see where we're meant to be in a couple of months.

BTW, any 1000 yard ranges around? Or any other more than 100 yards?
 
Insect,

Chatt. Rifle Club has 500. That is the biggest in the area as far as I know. Prentice Cooper has a 100yd. Sumac is an unknown to me.

I just flat out like Hixson. I have heard some good things about Ooltewah, but it is a bit more crowded in my eyes.

Also, if you have kids, you are closer to better schools in Hixson.
 
Just remember TN has no state income tax GA does! We have a sales tax on everything but you can always go to GA to shop. The new Wall mart at the bottom of Signal has guns and ammo mainly hunting, but is was interesting to see this new shop have them as they have taken them away from others in the area. The Prentiss cooper range is state run there is a clay and rife range on Montlake near Soddy Daisy and there is a range in Whitwell near Dunlap TN
 
Yes, Coal Creek Armory. I can't swear that they rent autos, but Tamara and had talked about them. I suspect they do though. It is just not my thing.

Either Hixson or Ooltewah are good. There is a wide range of housing in both areas. As you probably know, most TN schools are not the greatest, but certainly either Hixson or Ooltewah are better than the city schools. Private schools are popular also.

I actually have never shot at Prentice Cooper as I'm more on the Ooltewah side of town. I was a member at Carters, but did not renew as I was not shooting much. The range in Polk Co (near the Hiwassee River) is brand new and the facilities are quite nice for a public outdoor range. I believe 100 yd is the max range. I generally shoot handguns or 22 rifles there mostly.
 
CCA rents a Colt 9mm SMG, an MP-5PDW (MP5-K with folding stock), an MP-5A3 (if memory serves) and an Uzi. The last time I did it, the rental was $20 plus range ammo, and you had to have shot there at least a couple times before.
 
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