Urban vs Rural

[tarosean]

Rural for 6m a year.. Out of the country for the other 6m.

 

[Ragnar Danneskjold]

I live just inside the "fringes" of "rural" really. I have 15 acres and, although I do have several neighbors close by, I still have enough room for a range (nothing behind me but open fields for at least 2 miles) and a little "light" small game, varmint and deer hunting at home. I'm only about a 10 minute drive to the gas station and 15 to the store. I have always wanted to move much farther out where "rural" borders on "wilderness." However, after having my outdoor activities somewhat limited by growing up in the suburbs, with only weekend visits to my grandparents farm to hunt, shoot and tramp through the woods (until they passed in my early 20's), I am very grateful for what I now have.

I would love something like that. I want to live someplace where I can have enough land to have my own range, play my drum kit any time I want, enjoy a quiet morning or have a bonfire at night with the "outdoors" feeling....

...but still be a fairly short driving distance from civilization. I like developed areas. Seeing people enjoying the fruits of technology, engaging in commerce, etc makes me feel good. I want to be able to go to a Subway or Chipotle, grab something at Home Depot or Meijer, check out the used games at Gamestop, and work in a developed area.

I want to live in a rural area be be able to travel, for work and entertainment, to a highly developed area in a short amount of time. If I could find someplace where I could get 15-20 acres of land about a 30minute drive from downtown Indianapolis, I would be ecstatic.

 

[Teachu2]

I went with in-between. Bakersfield metro is ~600k people, surrounded by farmland and scrub brush. I'm on the west edge of the metro - west end of my block is ag land, everything east is city for 10 miles. Downtown is 20 minutes from the boonies, and I'm half an hour from varmint hunting - 'cept they occasionally roam the neighborhood...

And we're 100 miles north of Los Angeles...

 

[CoRoMo]

In between the 'inbetween'.

Not near a major city, and not what I consider the 'boonies' or 'out in the sticks'. We live in one of a few small country towns out where we like to be and we're planning on moving out to the real 'boonies' eventually.

We've lived in two 250k+ populated cities and then one ~100k before we moved out here. Never going back.

 

[mbopp]

I grew up rural, when we wanted to shoot we walked out the back door.
Now I'm in-between, there's some State land 5 miles down the road and the club I belong to is 20 minutes away.

 

[David4516]

I live in a semi-Rural area about half way between Portland and Seattle:


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yelm,_Washington

While the town is small-ish (population about 7,000) it's also one of the fastest growing towns in the state. The house I live in is in one of those developments where the lot sizes are tiny. I can almost stick my arm out my window and touch my neighbor’s house :banghead:

A couple years back when my wife and I were looking to buy a house, we found we had 2 options: either get a nice lot with a crappy house, or get a nice house with a crappy lot. We didn't have the $$$ to buy a nice house on a nice lot...

Despite my semi-Rural surroundings I've had a difficult time finding places to shoot. All the land out here is private and you see "no shooting" signs about every 2 feet. Even the public land (Capital Forest near Olympia) has had most of it's range areas closed. I know of only one left there, and since it's the last one, EVERYBODY goes there. It's always crowded and there is always someone doing something strange and/or unsafe. I can't shoot there because I can't focus; I'm always looking over my shoulder worried about what others are up to.

Thankfully there are a couple of gun clubs in the area, I found that I really liked Tacoma Rifle and Revolver club. However they are "under attack" and while they're great places to go to sight in your hunting rifle, you can't "plink" at a club.

I'm getting very frustrated by the situation. It was easier to shoot back when I lived just outside of Portland in the suburbs. Sounds like my situation might not be that uncommon either. I worry that the biggest threat to the shooting sports isn't any gun-ban, but a simple lack of places where one can actually shoot.

Short of winning the lotto, buying 100+ acres of land, and building my own private range, I don't see what options I have...

How does everyone else deal with this?

 

[bergmen]

We're about two miles from the southern edge of Ukiah, which is about 17,000 people. You wouldn't know it if you stood on our property (3 acre farm), it looks like we are definitely out in the boonies:

- Looking east during a mild snowfall:

- Looking west during a gorgeous sunset:

National forest and BLM land just a few miles away. North and west of us (up to the Oregon border) is rural.

My wife likes to say "It's not the end of the world but you can see it from here."

Dan

 

[TNboy]

I chose "rural" although I think it is really a matter of perception. What one person views as rural another may say is urban, it just depends on what you are used to. I knew a guy once that relocated to TN from Los Angeles. He got 2 acres on a fairly heavily traveled highway about 5 miles out of town but used to tell people "I live out in the middle of nowhere" and in his mind he did. In my mind he lived out just slightly more rural than a subdivision.

I live 15 miles from the nearest town where I can for the most part get what I need, if not Knoxville is 30 miles away, but the closest gas station is 10 miles. I'm less than a mile from a Smoky Mountain National Park entrance. I safely shoot in my back yard. Lots of land around here and not too many homes. Neighbors are few and far between. When we have a severe weather event and loose power we are always the last in the county to get it back on over here. To someone from Montana I may not seem that rural but it's about as rural for TN as I have found. Oh yeah, I'm 4 miles from the nearest cell signal, but if you go the opposite direction it's 40 miles.

 

[guntech59]

I chose in between. I live on about 3/4 acre just outside village limits (pop. 2500). The closest big city is about 85 miles away.

 

[joeq]

I live about 8 miles Southwest of downtown Austin Texas. My area would definitely be considered urban.

 

[Shovelhead]

Both.......
4 br house on a quarter acre lot in the city, 3 br house on >50 acres in "the boonies" (retirement sooooon)

 

[Ignition Override]

The row of houses across the street has woods behind it, then semi-rural roads with houses along most of them.

It's nice being away from the Memphis midtown noise (left over five years ago, to reduce taxes).
Both the club range and river bottom are only minutes away.

 

[Nugilum]

~110 miles to any city <10,000 people.

Da Boonies!

 

[hammerklavier]

I live in the suburbs, but I want to live in between, rural if I had the money.

 

[TennJed]

interesting that as of right now it is split almost evenly 3 ways

 

[303tom]

I choose Urban, because I live just inside the city limits of a city of less than 4000.............

 

[JEB]

im out in the sticks. born and raised. i have spent the last year living in an appartment in what most people would call a small town (anything over 1,000 people is a big ol' city to me since my home town was about 160). i am moving back to my home county at the end of May, and it just cant get here fast enough! front yard shooting range, here i come!!!

 

[mrvco]

"in between"

15 minutes away and half a mile above.

 

[sedona]

I live in the city.My indoor gun range is about 10 minutes from work.I go twice a week.Lived in small towns and in the country growing up.Prefer the city.

 

[Hunter125]

We rent a place that is very much rural. The folks we rent from are 1/2 mile to the across the field and are my closest neighbors. Out the back there is a ditch, a field past that, and a woods past that. The ditch is the perfect place for a range and my landlords are nice enough to let me shoot, even clays. In a few years we will probably be moving, hopefully buying our own place, but I will miss this place. Hopefully we'll find something similar to buy.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

I'm 35 miles west of Colorado Springs, close enough that I can drive into town for supplies, while enjoying living in the woods. The Pike National Forest boundary is a 5 minute drive from my driveway, its where I shoot.

You couldn't pay me enough to live in the city, now way! I also have an ATV and there are about 140 miles worth of trails 10 minutes away from here. This place is freaking awesome!

Summer temp's average about 80 degree's with about 10% humidity, its nice! Elevation = 9200 feet.

 

[geim druth]

The suburbs, 3 miles from where I grew up, in one of the most populous counties in the most populous state in the nation. But everyone knows everyone else, and I know which places have the best pizza and which serve good booze. In many ways it's a small town, with all a small town's vices and virtues.

Of course, I'm an hour from my range, if the traffic isn't bad, and my state's laws are a farce, but I shoot as often as work allows and can log onto THR at any time of the day or night for a sanity fix.

 

[hermannr]

20 mile and 2000' down the mountain to the nearest village (>1000), 120 miles from anything <5000, unless I go into Canada, then it's only 70 miles to <5000. Five miles of dirt or gravel before you hit the hardtop. Yep, the boonies.

 

[mnrivrat]

I realy don't think about Urban until the population reaches about 100K in one area. Large population centers are much different than small, and mid size city living, and attitude changes seem to follow the more dense populations vs the rest of the country.

In my state for example most of the counties are red, while the blue counties all include the largest of the states cities. Probably about 10% of the land mass, or less, carries the states Democratic voting record .

 

[exavid]

I live in the suburbs of Medford, OR the largest city in Southern Oregon with a population of 75,000. The nice part of it is that this is still a town with people who hunt and fish. We have several gunshops and every friday the last section of the news paper gives the fishing report on what river spots and lakes are producing fish and what the hunters are getting and where. The area is definitely gun friendly. It takes me about ten minutes to get out in Forest Service or BLM land. The best of both worlds, a town big enough to get whatever you need without the urban viewpoint and open country and mountains to wander around in.