I am about 5-6 years away from retiring if all goes well and starting to plan my escape from liberal western Washington state.

I have pretty much settled on south-eastern Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, or northern Georgia for the retirement destination. My primary selection criteria being conservative political climate, good gun laws, low taxes, mild weather climate without extreme hot summers or extreme cold winters, low tornado/hurricane/earthquake concerns, and low cost of living. Mind you, these things all being relative to WA.

Assuming things in the economy stay on track, and allowing for appreciation, I should be able to afford something that is currently in the $175K - $250K range. Seems you can get a reasonable house with a fair amount of property in the target area for that.



I am not looking for pasture land, no interest in farm animals so low maintenance wooded property would be best I think.

While not an absolute necessity, I would love to be able to go out on my land and shoot occasionally. Doubtful I would build any official range, just occasional plinking into a dirt berm with water jugs, etc.


So my question is this... having always lived in the suburbs, and only owning property measured in four digits of square feet, I am curious just how much land would suffice for such activity to first off be safe and secondly to not irritate new neighbors? I have found listings that look great and varying from 4 acres to over 30 acres.

I love the idea of owning 30 acres (as long as it doesn’t have to be worked!), but my wife thinks that is crazy.


Discuss...

Going to depend on county ordinances, deed restrictions, and the noise tolerance level of your neighbors, no matter where you are. If they can't hear it, they don't know about it. A .22 with CCI CB Longs might be a good idea.

Hereabouts, 4 acres would be considered nowhere near enough. We have a neighbor with 6 acres who got the law called on him by another neighbor for shooting a .22 rifle on his place. 20-30 acres might do it. And nearly everybody around here has a gun or twenty, so most folks aren't hoplophobes.

As little as three acres can get it. KY has a great law on the books involving ranges. If it has been an established range for a year, it is immune from civil and criminal liability regarding the noise. And only the deed holders that border you can attempt to say anything. There is a rough definition of what a range is in KRS, and back yard at home ranges fit.

If you move to KY and I will do your CCDW for freee as soon as you are eligible. That goes for you and yours.

In most rural county areas in TN, just a couple acres and a good hill. Watch Hickok45. He has a nice simple setup.

That would depend on a lot of variables but the minimum I would consider if everything was perfect otherwise, 5 acres.

It is my understanding that in GA, 5 acres is required by law. And as long as (1) not prohibited by laws of any city you live in, and (2) not within 50 yards of a public road. Only heard it by word of mouth, from a co-worker who was approached by a Deputy. My friend was sponsoring a bunch of Boy Scouts working on their skeet shooting merit badge. Deputy came out (because some of the neighbors were complaining about noise/gunfire). In the course of the conversation, he deupty said it was a fine thing that these fellas were teaching gun safety to young men, and that "...your neighbors need to know you have guns..." I thought that was not only hilarious, but useful.

My parents have 3 acres and we shoot and hunt on it. Really depends on the size of the neighboring land and location of structures.

I have never heard of any law that requires a minimum acreage. 50 yards from a public highway is the ONLY State of Georgia restriction I know of when it comes to shooting on private property on which you have permission to shoot.

Local ordinances will apply, obviously.

In Texas, there are laws restricting local (city and county governments) from prohibiting shooting guns on properties of certain sizes - city governments can't prohibit use of shotguns, pistols, and airguns on more than 10 acres or rifles on more than 50 acres (Local Government Code 229.002), and county governments can't prohibit the use of any firearms on more than 10 acres (Local Government Code 235.022).

Note that DOESN'T mean firearms are illegal to shoot on smaller properties - it just prohibits local governments from prohibiting firearms use on larger properties.

The good news is you can probably get land a little cheaper since you don't mind living on the side of a hill. It's really going to depend on your neighbors though. It really doesn't take much physical space at all to create a safe range, but bad neighbors can make your life miserable even if you are well within your rights.

My brother's neighbors shoot, so they don't care at all. We shoot out there all the time. My parents have some land too. We don't shoot there anymore because of recent developments in the area, but before that the neighbors would call the police every single time. The police would check in on us as well as explain to the neighbors that we were fine shooting, but they would call again the next time anyway. We didn't shoot out there incredibly often, but we could count on getting to meet one of the deputies every time we did.

My father in law is on ~50 acres in rural TN bordered by a river and comparable sized or larger properties all around. His house is at the back of the square sized lot and we shoot all the time when we visit. One neighbor house is within eyesight and we just shoot the other direction. He could probly get away with half to quarter that size lot as it’s mostly leased out for hay growth that somebody else maintains and cuts and bundles and just writes him a check a few times a year. But again all the neighbors Are far away.

Side note. He built this home and bought the land after he retired from 30 years on a great job in CA, was originally from the area though. He’s had the land about 20 years and has been in the custom built house about 15 years or so and is now in his mid 70s and everytime he comes to visit he complains about how much work it is to maintain that much land even though 25-30 or so acres are leased out. House is a tri level and the stairs suck more as he gets older. He still has to maintain the 1/2 mile long private gravel road and land behind his house down to the river. He thinks within the next 10 years he will sell and buy a condo near his siblings in Pensacola

Outside of what may be county to county, and city to city, I can back up Ga only has the within 50 yd of a PUBLIC roadway. However, I can say I've not seen nor heard of anyone getting arrested for shooting within 50 yards if they are not conducting criminal activity. YMMV though.

I can shoot in my back yard here in Hall County GA. No land requirements as long as you are safe. That said, I have almost 4 acres.

This is a great site for looking at real estate in other states (nation wide). You can use their filters to narrow it down to what you want/can afford.

www.unitedcountry.com

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
As little as three acres can get it. KY has a great law on the books involving ranges. If it has been an established range for a year, it is immune from civil and criminal liability regarding the noise. And only the deed holders that border you can attempt to say anything. There is a rough definition of what a range is in KRS, and back yard at home ranges fit.

If you move to KY and I will do your CCDW for freee as soon as you are eligible. That goes for you and yours.

I think he may be a little confused about our climate here

quote:

climate without extreme hot summers or extreme cold winters

Just got done with a 2 week period with not even getting into the double digits. Then on the flip side we have weeks it won’t drop below 85 even at night.

I have 4 acres in Western VA at my shop with a 100 yd. range.
It helps that my neighbor has a 250 yd range on his property too!

You'll be moving to a gun free state, just buy a bunch of suppressors, keep your guns pointed in a safe direction and your good to go.

I own 3 1/2 acres on the side of a mountain in eastern Tennessee to retire to some day.
Hopefully when I am excavating to build my house I will dig out a berm as a back stop.
I am in the unincorporated part of the county so there should hopefully not be any problem with a home range.
I won't know for about another 15 years though I still have to retire first.

quote:

I love the idea of owning 30 acres (as long as it doesn’t have to be worked!), but my wife thinks that is crazy.

I went this route and my wife thought I was crazy. We bought 31 Acres (all wooded) we built a house in the center of it, I have a 150 Yard space that I've cleared and I use to shoot on. Follow the dream and go for it.

I would think the shape of the parcel would matter a lot.

As well as how it is situated with regards to nearby roads, buildings, neighborhoods etc.

As far as the dream goes --- go for it!

------------------------------

Thanks for all the input. To address some of what has been offered...

quote:

Originally posted by jljones:
...If you move to KY and I will do your CCDW for freee as soon as you are eligible. That goes for you and yours.

I’ll be sure to take you up on that!

quote:

Originally posted by Perception:
The good news is you can probably get land a little cheaper since you don't mind living on the side of a hill...

...The police would check in on us as well as explain to the neighbors that we were fine shooting, but they would call again the next time anyway. We didn't shoot out there incredibly often, but we could count on getting to meet one of the deputies every time we did.

The difference in property value amazes me. We are currently in a modest, 3 bedroom 2100 sq ft. house on about 1/5 of an acre. Built in 2014 and paid $300K. All indications put the value north of $400K. Then I look on Zillow and find house of comparable size/condition/lot for $100-$125K and similar houses with 5,10,30 acres for $225-$275K.

The Po-Po are welcome to visit anytime, I’ll keep coffee and croissants on hand, heck I’ll be happy to tell them where to go just like I did “in the old days”


I really wish I didn’t have to wait 5 years, I want to be there now!

quote:

Originally posted by Black92LX:

I think he may be a little confused about our climate here

quote:

climate without extreme hot summers or extreme cold winters

Just got done with a 2 week period with not even getting into the double digits. Then on the flip side we have weeks it won’t drop below 85 even at night.

My concern is average winter lows in single digits or below zero. We will get cold snaps here in the teens and low 20’s. I can deal with that so long as I have a fire and am not buried in 5’ of snow for weeks on end. Montana, Colorado, Idaho, and such are all out for the winters.

I am confident that as long as I don’t have to commute, be somewhere, or shovel I am ok sitting inside a cozy house when the weather drops.


As for summer highs, averages of 80-90 would be welcome. Not interested in regularly occurring triple digit runs no matter how “dry” it is. Texas, Arizona, etc. are out for the summers.

Places I am looking at seem to average about 10-15 degrees cooler in winter and 10-15 degrees warmer in summer. Considering only about 10% of houses in western WA have AC (and we aren’t one) I am not too concerned as wherever we land we will have AC.

quote:

Originally posted by RaiseHal:
You'll be moving to a gun free state, just buy a bunch of suppressors, keep your guns pointed in a safe direction and your good to go.

Just as soon as they get rid of NFA requirement I will be happy to do so!

quote:

Originally posted by 71 TRUCK:
I own 3 1/2 acres on the side of a mountain in eastern Tennessee to retire to some day.
Hopefully when I am excavating to build my house I will dig out a berm as a back stop.
I am in the unincorporated part of the county so there should hopefully not be any problem with a home range.
I won't know for about another 15 years though I still have to retire first.

I love the idea of building (or having it built) myself. Don’t think I would be up for the stress of it though. Our plan is to dump all furnishings and just bring personal items and high dollar things such as guns, cameras, electronics. That way we don’t have the expense of moving a houseful of crap that may not fit with the house we like. Will furnish to taste once we have landed.

The goal will be to find a nice 3 bedroom 1500-1800 sq ft rambler no more than about 10 years old. Valhalla would be for it to back up against national forest or large tract of wooded, undeveloped and uninhabited land.

quote:

Originally posted by 95flhr:
I went this route and my wife thought I was crazy. We bought 31 Acres (all wooded) we built a house in the center of it, I have a 150 Yard space that I've cleared and I use to shoot on. Follow the dream and go for it.

She has had primary say in where we lived for the past 25 years. Each time we moved, her commute was shortened and mine increased. I am now 43 miles each way and she is a housewife with no commute.

Come retirement, there will be discussion but in the end it will be my decision on where and with what land. I’ve been prepping her for this and she understands (at least she says she does).