I believe that is St John's county?  How are the gun laws there?  Any good gun rangers that can be recommended?  I live in NJ but my wife and I very close to making a deal on a home in Ponte Vedra Beach and I'd love to hear what life is like there for a gun owner and in general what there is to do.

I started a thread a few months back but it seems to have been archived--or perhaps my computer literacy is really bad.  

Cheers and hope to be joining you guys in the warm weather this winter and more permanently in a couple years.

Rob

I live there.  It is in St. John's County.  There are a few ranges here and it's nice to be close to Jacksonville and St. Augustine.  Gun Gallery is nearby as well.

Firearms laws are pretty good...nothing county specific I can remember.  I'm not sure what the Sheriff's policy is on NFA sign-offs (I have a trust).

Do you have anything specific you'd like answered?  It's kind of an open-ended question haha and I'm not exactly the head of the tourism bureau.

Good point it was a bit open ended.

I know Florida is favorable towards firearms but I've been led to believe it varies by region.  I want to be sure that moving into that area would not be prohibitive towards CCW and enjoying shooting sports at all.   I wanted to make sure there was a reasonable amount of range capacity to serve the area.

I wanted to understand if there was a good quality of life.  We enjoy the beach and casual dining and cocktails on the weekend.  Other than that we're a bit boring, but I do enjoy riding my motorcycle as much as possible.  Lastly, is it a reasonable commute to the JAX airport?  

Thanks!

That's a very nice area. Based on your criteria, I think you'll be very happy. There are some good ranges in the area, but none are particularly long. Florida's flat and not as many opportunities for super long range shooting. If you're interested in competitions there are pretty much matches every week that you could shoot in. I've gotten in to that aspect of shooting and it's been very fun. I hope you enjoy your move!

I am in southwest florida, naples area....so I don't have any input on the area that you are inquiring about.  When it comes to CCW, you don't need a CLEO sign off...I haven't heard of any area in Florida requiring that.  The Department of Agriculture handles CCW permits.  You may want to give them a call to see what requirements are.  Do you have a NJ CCW, they may have different rules for someone that has an out of state CCW.  I know there is talk of a law that would require CLEO and it seems alot of them may not sign off, so I would look into that and move a little faster with due diligence.  Also may want to consider a trust if you don't have one already.

You made me chuckle, there is no CCW in NJ--it's one of the worst states in the country for firearms.  Our senate president once made a joke there will never be CCW in NJ.  I'm looking to relocate because NJ is basically the last bastion of communism.  I will make the calls that you mentioned as it's better to be safe than sorry.  

Oops, I was not aware of that.  Glad you got a chuckle.

zerOt,  here is a link for the various Florida Statutes and Constitution.  Here, State law preempts local gun laws and ordinances.

http://www.leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Index&Title_Request=XLVI#TitleXLVI

Thank you. I'll look it over.  I'm excited to move from Amerika to America.

Ponte Vedra is one of the nicest cities in all of Florida, with one of the highest median incomes.  In other words, it's high end with intelligent people and a high quality of life.  PV, Fernandina Beach, and St. Augustine are probably the nicest areas in North Florida, and maybe in entirety with the exception of one or two cities on the west coast and Palm Beach/Lauderdale/Miami Beach.  It's nice.

TPC sawgrass is here (The Players Championship), nice beach without a huge amount of people, many nice resorts and quality neighborhoods, not far away from downtown Jacksonville for Jags games, etc., Concours d'Elegance in Amelia Island, Jacksonville Town Center...

Basically can go on and on.  It's the nicest area in the Jacksonville area IMO.  Ride to the airport is about 40 minutes.

An someone else mentioned, there are probably better places in Florida for shooting, mainly because there's no where around here where you can shoot very far.  The laws here are awesome, but it's just a matter of facilities.  So PV isn't top for that, but it does excel in other areas.  Hope that doesn't come off as elitist or biased or something...just an honest assessment from my perspective.  It's hard to beat.

Makes it sound more appealing actually.

PM me if you'd like to chat on the phone or something about it.  Usually it's easier to communicate more clearly in a direct convo haha.

Thank you I appreciate the offer.

I think there might have been a slight misunderstanding with the whole CCW/CLEO sign off. david05111 was referring to NFA (Class 3) firearms and suppressors, not CCW. Just wanted to make you aware before you started making calls about it.

FL is great you're gonna love it down here, except the humidity

Ponte Vedra is the best and safest area in Jax. I've lived in PV for the past 7 years now in Nocatee about 3 miles south of PV. You will love it. Look me up and I can show you around. Hope you like to fish...



Leon/Slug-O

Slug-O show him the local Fauna you hand catch in your Neighborhood!!!!!!

No Shortage of these suckers in the dunes at the beach too..

Jesus, there better not be!  I haven't seen one down here ever, and I've lived at the beach for 27 years haha.

God I hate those things...

Is Nocatee part of PV or it's own town?  It's a planned new community isn't it?  I see every major builder has developments going on there (Lennar, Toll, Standard Pacific).  I know they are using PV schools but I'm not sure what the difference is.

Does that mean I can't get a stamp for a SBR in that area?

If you want a much quicker and easier commute to JIA, you might have a look at Amelia Island/Fernandina Beach. Less traffic there too. There is a great indoor range (Second Amendment Outfitters), a skeet club (Amelia Shotgun Sports), and the SEPSA outdoor range (this one is private except during pistol and 3 Gun competitions, unless you know someone like me with anytime access ;) )

You know, I should know the answer to this.  To my knowledge, Nocatee is indeed its own town, which exists in St. John's County.  It is building a school right now and at least for the moment, the kids go to St. John's county schools, ie. Nease High School or Ponte Vedra High School.  

At least I think that's the deal.  I drive through Nocatee all the time, but I gotta admit I don't know a whole lot about the project.  Slug-O can definitely fill you in here.



Alright, let me clarify a few things since somehow this managed to get totally screwed up.

1). Florida is one of the easiest states in the country to get a CCW.  As far as I know, no county requires a law enforcement signoff.  You will have zero issues getting one and in fact could apply for one right now from out of state and have it by the time you moved here (only takes a few weeks).

2). SBRs, DDs, SBSs, Silencers, AOWs, and machine guns are ALL legal in the State of Florida.  All can be purchased or made and held by a trust currently with no law enforcement signoff required.

3).  Should you desire to go the individual route for NFA, that is county specific as far as what they will sign off on.  From what I understand, the Sheriff in St. John's won't sign off on anything but machine guns.  I don't know that for sure, but I heard that at one point and it stuck.  It had something to do as I understood it with the time required and the amount of requests.  He didn't want to be bothered with all the applications, so basically said that he would sign off on machine guns only because there were very few requests and therefore it wasn't burdensome.  His position was that trusts could be used for everything, so go that route.

Now I'm not sure if that's still accurate or not.  I can tell you that I went the trust route to not have to deal with all that nonsense, and I have two machine guns, an SBS, 3 SBRs, and 5 suppressors.  There's no prohibition on the stuff in this county, and as a matter of fact, I think state law protects all of that through preemption.

Ducal county is slightly different.  Sheriff Rutherford will sign off on SBRs and I *think* SBSs, but definitely not silencers.  I'm not sure about the rest.

Basically, no matter where you choose to live, be it PV or somewhere like Fernandina or Amelia, just get a damn trust if you want NFA stuff.  It's way easier.



Speaking of the guy who is largely responsible for my M16, how ya been man??  Lets hit the range again at some point.  I think I have your number somewhere...it's been too long.

It not a part of PV if you ask me. Yes it's only a few miles down the road and it's not a part of "Palm Valley" also too... Nocatee is it's own entity. Wonderful and growing fast and has it's own schools too.

Yeah I actually really like that area.  It's developing really nicely, which is great considering a few years ago the project was on the verge of collapse with the housing crisis.  It has great infrastructure and access, which is a huge plus.

It really is a nice area that people should consider.  I prefer to be a bit closer to the ocean myself, but being as close as it is to the schools in the area and having the access there with US1 and 95 not too far away are major selling points.

OP, definitely look at Nocatee.  New construction, reasonable prices, great setting.  The stuff out in PV is either older and expensive or new and really expensive.  I love it, but I bought in early.

Slug-O, we should really meet up at some point and have a drink.  Always nice to meet new people around here

Sounds good to me...

I think Nocatee will be really nice in 10-20 years. In the future, it will essentially be like Julington Creek is today. Right now, as far as I'm concerned, it's a little remote. It's all still very new and there's not a lot around. I always feel like I'm out in the middle of nowhere when I'm out there. It's a bit too far east of a lot of things in South Jax and a bit too far South of a lot of the nice things in Ponte Vedra. It's very nice, but you should probably drive around and see if you like the location.

How is it getting around to leave the Island?

have you seen the roads they are building around the school to I95 ect?? I moves out there to get away from everyone 4 years ago... wow look what happened...

Think that we need to go back to talking about our state blood sucking bird - the skeeters and how bad the snakes are....

We do not want all them Bloomburg loving Yankees down here.

just sayin,

Red

Not bad when some moron hasn't rear ended someone on A1A/SR200

If I'm working the airport to the Ritz or Omni....I dread the run between yulee and the walmart..

Definitely a Yankee but not a Bloomberg fan.  I thought it would be obvious....I'm a participant in a gun forum.

Hey guys thanks for the help so far.  I've narrowed it down to two homes.  One in Amelia Island and one at PV Besch.  The Amelia island home is in Islam De Mai development and the other is on lake stone circle in PVB. The island home development has a large community club hose and pool area and the fees to go with it.  That's not important to me so I would pay for something that I wouldn't us much. It's a bicycle ride to the beach.  

The PVB home has much lower HOA because there is no community pool but it already has a pool and a walk to the beach.  

I'm leaning toward PVB but nice to hear from the folks who've live nearby.  

As I've stated earlier I'm looking for a safe, quiet suburban life where I can enjoy the outdoors, my bike and firearms.

Thanks again for the help to this point.

Where in PV may I ask? I have lived and have a condo there next to the Marriott Sawgrass. I live in in Kelly Point in Nocatee and Guide out of Palm Valley.

Slug-O/Leon

It's in Saw Mill Lakes east of the intercostal.

Ha.... Your about 3 miles max as a crow flies from my house. Hope you like to fish...

So I guess you think it's a good spot?  I'm available to fish every day that I'm there.  :)

Just don't let Leon take you out on the "Shark Bait!"  

Nope.. Sold SB after I hurt my back..  OP.. This is where I live compared to you..

That can't be more than a few miles.

Just up the road from you.. wait till I show you my office view...

Have you met the locals yet??this is a Micklers local..

Both are really nice areas

I'm used to staring out the window at time square, which sucks in comparison to your view.

The view was quite nice again today and a few friends stopped by the cooler for my friend and I...

You're killing me.  I gotta get out in that boat.

This was a quick trip yesterday before the sun went down..

Damn, nice catches!