Posted: 1/10/2026 11:30:07 AM EDT
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I’ve accepted a job that requires me and my family (wife and three kids aged 5 to 10) to relocate from Colorado to Florida. While I won’t have an office to commute to, I’ll be required to be in North Florida. My wife and I have been exploring and driving around North Florida, and we’ve developed a strong preference for the Mandarin area. We plan to list our house next week and would greatly appreciate some local insights. Could you please share your thoughts on the area? Are there any popular spots for shooting? Are there other areas that we should consider? Are there any things that we should avoid? What are some important factors to keep in mind when buying a house? Although we homeschool our children, we would still like to find good schools in the area. Thank you in advance for your assistance. We are eagerly looking forward to moving to a red state. Colorado is becoming increasingly difficult to live in. |
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Stay out of Alachua county. We have the highest property taxes with the least government services. Libtardville. Columbia, Bradford, Union are good if you like rural. Bradford Sportsman in Graham is a good outdoor range. Feel free to ping me if I can help. |
Amateur General rating. NRA certified instructor.
NRA EVC. NRA Benefactor. Golden Eagles. SAF life member. GOA member.
NRA EVC. NRA Benefactor. Golden Eagles. SAF life member. GOA member.
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Originally Posted By kissfan: Stay out of Alachua county. We have the highest property taxes with the least government services. Libtardville. Columbia, Bradford, Union are good if you like rural. Bradford Sportsman in Graham is a good outdoor range. Feel free to ping me if I can help. Assuming he needs to be close to Jacksonville for work… The ‘Mandarin’ area of Jacksonville has shifted over the years and could basically be considered anything south of Baymeadows. Although, most will think south of 295 until you hit St Johns County. It’s still in Jacksonville so if public school might be in the future, would be in the Duval County school system. Traffic sucks in the area but it does in all the other surrounding counties (Clay, Nassau, St. Johns) too because of never ending construction. Saltwaters (St. Augustine) has the longest (770 yard) rifle range in the area. |
| Does it have to be in FL or would extreme SE Georgia do? If the latter is OK, check out the St. Marys/Kings Bay area. Plenty of amenities yet a rural/semi-rural area with inexpressive property. An added bonus of being close to Kings Bay, if WWIII kicks off, you will not suffer. |
Soldier for Life
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Yulee (Nassau County) is a new build out with many good builders there. You’d want to look at the Wildlight community to start. Stay out of Duval County (Mandarin is in Duval County). Property taxes and sales taxes are higher there for less in return. My wife, son and I live in St Johns County just below Duval County. Our son goes to a karate academy that has their main location in Mandarin but the subsidiary is in the Silverleaf community that we live in. We walk to the Silverleaf site most of the time but drive to Mandarin once in awhile. St Johns County is rated top 5 or even top 3 in Florida (it’s currently #1) as far as school system. TONS of families here. There are several good to great communities in St Johns County with solid amenities. Examples are Silverleaf (where we live), Shearwater, Rivertown, Beachwalk, Nocatee, Grand Oaks, Mill Creek and others. |
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Originally Posted By Mannlicher: St Johns, River Town, Mandarin are all fine. Stay out of Jax. Mandarin is Jax.... jump over the creek south and you are in the no. one school district in the state of Florida... It is growing - but still the best area of NE Florida.... Red Edit to add.... Best range to join is the FOP in St. Augustine....you have to watch them to see when there is a slot open... Edit to add II if you can swing it....be looking at Rivertown....or just south of that....have a new toll road coming - they are building the new bridge now.....will tie that part of florida to I-10 to the north....to I -95 going north and south.... and will be a quite area....everything Florida is going crazy...we should have closed the gate about 20 years ago... |
B Double-O M Spells BOOM - BF
$7 Mil will get you this little gem.  13224 MANDARIN Road, Jacksonville, FL 32223 |
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Join us Florida Carry |
Amateur General rating. NRA certified instructor.
NRA EVC. NRA Benefactor. Golden Eagles. SAF life member. GOA member.
NRA EVC. NRA Benefactor. Golden Eagles. SAF life member. GOA member.
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Man, I missed the boat. I just got a trust AND joined US Lawshield and there are member offers for both.  
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"The answer to crime is always cows." -Cheesebeast
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Been in the area for the better part of 30yrs from East Arlington (Atlantic/Kernan) to deep Clay Hill in Middleburg.. Mandarin is Southside Jacksonville. Hasn't been great, hasn't been horrible. Been living and working in Clay County since 2006. Fixing to move back into the Middleburg area. I know a few solid realtors in the area between work and some gun groups if you need a lead.. In fact I know of two properties off hand both in Clay County. Outdoor ranges: 1) Clay County Outdoor Adventure Park (closed for the Sheriff's Office Mon-Weds, open to public Thurs-Sat) - 200yrd rifle bays and 10-15yrd pistol bays - still tweaking and adding more things.. Call me guilty, I shoot a majority of my time here thanks to work. 2) Saltwater Shooting Club - (clay shooting, multiple pistol bays, 100yrd rifle of US1 across from the airport 3) FOP 113 - Strictly members Only, no guests (multiple short 20-50yrd bays, one long 100yrdish bay) in St Augustine off 16 behind the left chunk of Outlets - members only restriction following a accidental death in 2011 and another accidental shooting in the last 8-10yrs. 4) Bradford Sportsmen's Farm (20yrd pistol, 50/300yrd rifle, and 850yrd long range that requires a one-time qualification) 5) Volusia County Gun Club - I've only shot long range gas matches here out to 850yrds... its a blast until a cow goes moo-ving across the range and we go cold. Some people like Gateway Rifle and Pistol Club but the RO's are a bunch of "no rapid firing" fuds. There's also unfortunately Tangodown over in Maxville... The owner's legitimately a moron. They first opened and hosted a machine gun shoot.. Had people parking behind Hesco Barriers.. Well those hesco barriers weren't filled and customer's cars got shot up - he refused to take responsibility for damages. He also advertised training courses yet refused to identify the instructors beyond retired military status (I like to vet instructors before I hit classes) and when he advertised membership program, none of the pricing lined up compared to public rates and .mil/LE discounted rates.. I called him on that on social media then got blocked.. bunch of buddies do pistol matches there but I haven't been back since that MG shoot. Indoor ranges (I tend to avoid indoors in general unless I have to): On Target Sports off Wells Rd, Basics Gun and Range off College Blvd in Orange Park. Gun Gallery in Jacksonville off Beach Blvd. Shops in the area (my go to's): GT Distributors on Kingsley Blvd for your varying blue label/LE and military pricing programs, usually a good solid used selection.. Sentry Firearms on San Jose.. KMA Armaments and ACE Hardware down in Green Cove Springs. Bass Pro just opened last year in St. Augustine and theres a Sportsman's Warehouse in the area too. Recon Rifleworks off Blanding (they're in the middle of a location change). Not my instant go to's but no bad experiences: Gun Gallery, Basics, Shooters of Jacksonville, Wild West Guns and Gold, St. Nicholas Guns and Range... Whatever you do, stay away from Green Acres off Normandy. They price gouge like a fool and do horrible gunsmithing work. Once you get settled.. and start making the right friends.. private ranges become quite a commodity. I train regularly with a group of solid guys but a part of that hinders to work affiliations. |