Me and my girlfriend are looking to move to Oklahoma, so she can be closer to her family. She grew up in Lawton/Apache and spent some time in OKC. She graduates from her nursing program in May and has gotten some kick ass job offers in Tulsa. She's been to Tulsa once, me never. The only thing we know about Tulsa is from The First 48.

We're looking to do the apartment living thing for a year or two then purchase a home and land. In the mean time we need some ideas on what the city is like.

What are the areas to avoid?  Where are the cool places to hang out? Where are the good gun shops/ranges(I like to shoot long range) Where are the good bass lakes(kayak friendly) Where are good public hunting lands. What's the political climate like? What's the weather like? Do I need to worry about tornados? Being from Virginia am I gonna be called a yankee? Do I have to declare OU or OSU?

Just any kind of knowledge about the city and surrounding area will help.

Thanks in advance.
-Matt

Let's see if I can answer your questions.
Stay away from 61st and Peoria area and anywhere north of admiral, also stay away from admiral and memorial Walmart. Lots of rich and vibrant people in those areas. Most of those first 48 episodes are filmed in North Tulsa (north of admiral) more often than not.

Cool places to hang out depends on what you want to do for fun. Tulsa Raceway Park is open back up for the season if you like drag racing. Downtown has some good restaurants, like fat guys burgers, caz's chowhouse and the drillers baseball field is right next door to fat guys if you like baseball. Admiral twin drive in is open too.

The only good outdoor range is USSA on 66th street north behind the police academy. Or out near skiatook lake there is the zink ranch and they have a 1000yd range. 2A shooting center is the best indoor gun range, it's on admiral just west of Yale. Tulsa firearms stay away from, they are rude and act like if you haven't won the bianchi cup you aren't shit. Their customer service skills are lacking. Dongs also has customer service skill issues and they have a dress code.

The closest lake to Tulsa is keystone lake west of sand springs, you can also fish in the Arkansas River too, there is also oloogah lake up highway 169 about 25 minutes from Tulsa.

Public hunting land I'm not too sure about.

The political climate is largely conservative, but Tulsa is more liberal, the mayor is a cuck pussy. The Tulsa cops won't bother you unless you are doing something absolutely criminal.

The weather, well it gets hot as hell and extremely humid in the summer, heat index well over 100* in July/August lows of 80*, winters can get cold, usually we don't get much snow in the winters. This winter was the exception to that rule and so was 2011 AKA snowpocslypse.  

No, I wouldn't worry too much about tornadoes, I have lived here my entire life and have never seen one in person, usually if a storm spawns a tornado, more often than not it will move from southwest to northeast following I-44. Usually will go south, or North of tulsa. But that's not 100%.

You may get called a Yankee, OU is the more popular team.

Hope this helps.

I've lived here 23 years in Midtown, both the Wife and I are in the medical field as well as own our own business.

we love Tulsa, but it has its own problems.

live in a surrounding town. period.
BA/Owasso/Collinsville

feel free to PM or email me.
we also can answer any questions you have regarding medical field employment.

Another vote for Owasso/Collinsville  here, much better than Tulsa. I personally wouldn't live in Tulsa.

Stay away from the 21st and Garnett area if you have to live in Tulsa,to much low income housing around here now.There is quite a bit of public hunting area within about an hour or so of Tulsa.Go to www.wildlifedepartment.com to see the locations and regulations for the areas.Most of the hunting areas around Tulsa are close to or located on a lake.
I've lived in Tulsa all my life almost 61 years,had 1 tornado go over the house in the 70's and a couple within a mile of the house in the last couple of years but still haven't got around to putting in a storm shelter.

I deer hunt, but I'm looking to get into hog and coyote. How prevalent are they?

The public area that I hunt we have seen both hogs and coyotes and seem to see and hear more every year.
From talking to the wildlife personnel in the area they are a problem and want as many shot as possible,but the regulations for public areas can make it hard to hunt them.Such as during deer season they can only be hunted
with what ever the season is,like bow only during archery season.