I'm potentially moving from Northern Virginia to Charlotte. How do folks like it? I've only visited once and spent the day with family at their house in Gastonia. Have two young kids, so what areas have the best schools? Any gun laws that I need to be aware of? Anything else I should know?

Great place to live.  I don't know Charlotte, but Statewide, there is a "pistol purchase permit" required to buy a handgun.  You can circumvent this by have a NC concealed carry permit... Virginia will not work.  Class III stuff is fine, but not sure about Machine Guns.  If you are able to find a place outside the city with a bit of land, you should be able to shoot on it.

Don't have any MGs yet but have a few suppressors. Glad to see I can bring all my toys. Have a VA CCW and will get NC whenever I get around to it down there. In the meantime, NC has recipricity with VA so I should be g2g for carrying. First thing I thought of with the move, was getting a place with enough land to shoot, but after looking into schools, I don't think that's going to happen.

Anyone know what the hunting is like in that area? Any rules I need to know about (e.g. certain calibers  for deer, no hunting with suppressors)

Any parts of the Charlotte area that I should avoid? what's the difference between living in NC and living just across the border in SC (e.g. tax differences)? If you have a preference, why?

I moved to Charlotte last year and chose to live in SC. I've lived near state lines most of my life and my rule of thumb is to live in whichever state has more fireworks stores on the border -- that's the one with better laws. In this case, that's SC. Taxes ARE lower in SC, but only marginally so. My work is on the south side of the city near 77 and 485 so I looked in Tega Cay, Fort Mill, and Indian Land (the Lancaster County panhandle which is just south of Ballantyne down 521). I chose to live in Indian Land because it's "out in the county" and it's legal to shoot on my own land (little over 5 acres here) so far.

Oh, another thing about SC -- no emissions or state vehicle inspection. Both states have annual vehicle tax and I see a lot of people driving around with out of state plates who I generally assume are dodging the couple hundred a year in taxes, those jerks.

Overall there's nothing my family and I don't like about living here. The area is BOOMING with growth -- lots of development, both commercial and housing. Traffic can be a pain, but during relatively short periods and nothing like what I experienced living outside Chicago and Philadelphia in the past. The airport is an American (formerly US Air) hub with great direct flights to anywhere. Uptown (what the downtown area is known as here) is easy to get into and out of -- my family and I are going to see the Charlotte Ballet (gimme a break) perform the Nutcracker tomorrow night -- it'll be 30 minutes to get into the city, $5 to park, and 30 minutes to drive home. Easy as that.

I don't know much about anything north of the city or about living inside 485 -- I hate living where I can see my neighbor's windows (and vice versa) so never considered it. I know South Park is a fancy area too though.

Oh, and as far as places to shoot, when I'm not shooting at home (really only set up for quiet suppressed fire, as I don't want to annoy the neighbors) I drive down the road (literally, less than 10 minutes away) to Charlotte Rifle Pistol Club, which is members only but apart from annual dues ($204 and a $500 initiation fee as well as a lengthy conditional membership period) free to shoot as often as one likes. There is a 300yd rifle range (with a couple gongs at the far end) that has benches and a couple of positional shooting locations, a 25yd multi-purpose range (with steel for pistol calibers, and dirt berm for paper in rifle calibers) and a couple other ranges for pistol. The club also has an indoor pistol range a little further away in Matthews. Some people go on about gun club politics, but I go, shoot what I want to shoot, and leave. Like I said, it's only 10 minutes away so I get there about three times a week to shoot a bit.

I've also heard of Mecklenburg Wildlife Club on the west side of the city near 85. Haven't been there though and I don't know anything about joining.

Other things: Open carry ok in NC, illegal in SC. Not my thing but sometimes I like to take my jacket off if the day gets hot.

SC postings are very specific, must be a certain design, size, placement to be legal.

In NC anything goes, a translucent sticker with white lettering on the glass at the bottom of the door? Legally posted.

There are some differences regarding unlicensed car carry but they either don't apply to CWP or the way I carry so I can't speak to the details.

Do not bring your Beretta or Taurus into this building.  Phew, good thing I carry a Ruger!

Thanks for all the info. What are the rules for shooting on your own land? Do they differ between NC and SC? I would love to shoot .22 suppressed in the backyard with the wife and kids. I did a quick search for houses with 5 acres in my price range and looks like everything is pretty far away (work will be near the airport) or in areas with pretty bad schools. I did see some plots of land though, maybe I'll look into building something. If this goes through, I'll have about 5 months in VA while the kids finish the school year out, before the family moves down. Anyone know of some good builders?

It's a fair bet that anywhere that's incorporated is going to ban discharge of firearms.

I only know about where I live -- Lancaster County, SC. No laws against shooting on your own land here, and the CCW course my wife took in York County did the qualification on private land there so I assume it's unrestricted there as well.

I was going to say I don't know anything about Mecklenburg and assumed it was restrictive, but it doesn't look awful now that I googled it. That only applies to the handful of areas that aren't in Charlotte city limits (where discharge is banned, period).
http://charmeck.org/mecklenburg/county/countymanagersoffice/bocc/ordinances/firearms.pdf