Can anyone fill me in on the area between Stephenville, Grandbury and South West Fort Worth ?
My company currently has a job opening in the area that I would like to apply for but am unsure of the area. I visited the DFW area a year ago and really liked Fort Worth, was there during the week and to tell you the truth the traffic was not all that bad as it is here in West Palm Beach Fort Lauderdale, and my family had a real kick over at the stock yards. I did not venture off the beaten path so I don't know what it is like along SR-377 that seems to lead out of town to Stephenville.

Looking for a semi-rural area, interested in purchasing 20+ acres of land for our home, a small home for my Mom and of course my own small shooting range.  How far out from SW Forth Worth would I need to go to start finding 20-40 acre homesites ? Is the local sheriff in those parts friendly to signing off for Title II weapons ?

Currently have a internal job application in TN filed but 100 people applied and it's been 2 weeks and the manager has not gone through all of them. I don't want to pass up on a good shot at TX just to wait to hear back from TN which may not pan out with that many applicants.

Thanks,
Rich

land there is getting more and more expensive.  the suburban sprawl!  I am afraid unless you are cash rich it is gonna be expensive. There is an indoor range there in sandflats just between ft worth and granbury already.  Outdoor range?  well you better buy plenty of land and quick!  There are a lot of the 1-2 acre home sites out there already and those people in thise 200-300K homes miught have a bit to say about that and all the noise it will make.  
Good Luck.  By the way there is already a very professional range close to Stephenville called Tacpro and bill does a great job abd has a huge following with the local people and the local military and policed departments and is highly regarded as an excellent shot and sniper.  Check out their website.  Ihope I did not scare you off but he pretty much has the market sewed up around in that area with a 1oo-1000 yard range and covered pistol range, and a 100-400 rifle range and even sniper elevated courses and I believe he is holding the National sniper event in a few months.  he also has classes in pistol rifle shotgun and military rifles every weekend.www.tacproshooting.com  I think that is it.  a search would confirm it though.

Beatiful area.  I am from and grew up in Mineral Wells, which is about 45 miles from Stephenville.  I have to agree with the previous poster that land is getting harder and harder to come by as the well to do from the metroplex keep coming farther and farther out.  It is scary how much more crowded it is versus 15 years ago.  I've been looking for a piece of Brazoz river frontage for a weekend retreat for a couple of years now and it don't come easy.

All of the towns around there have great people.  Cleburne, Mineral Wells, Stephenville, Granbury, Glen Rose.  Weatherford seems to have been pretty much absorbed by Fort Worth at this point, though.

If you check out the TacPro shooting center.  Be sure to stop by Mary's Cafe in neighboring Strawn.  Best chicken fried steak in the world.  Period.  End of Story.

The closer you get to Stephenville the better for what you are asking.  Erath County is gun friendly (I'm not sure about class 3) and has one of the better 4H shooting programs in the country.  Land is not too bad out that way.  Do a Google search for a general idea.

Thanks guys... as far as the range goes I was not speaking about commercial, just something for the family out to possibly 100 yards but mostly pistol. If I were going to do any shooting further than that I would then find a commecial range.

Well here my 1.25 acre of land is worth $285K and I am on a dirt road with well and septic, sounds as if some of those areas are getting close. I was pleased to learn that land in the Knoxville TN area is still somewhat cheap, and not dump land either, many plots near paved road with utilities.  I was hoping that I could find something over in TX so I could apply for that  job also, I am not picky as long as it's country.

If anyone has some ideas of what towns to search for (closer to Stephenville of course) where land is still at a fair price let me know the names and I'll try to do a MLS search.  I am afraid though if I want a selection like that I may need to look further towards Waco and the job would not allow it. I got to live between Stephenville and SW FW, part of the job requirement since I would be working on the road.

Heck, for 250k you can get this:

http://www.landsoftexas.com/texas/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=17732

hey thats not a bad house on that like. you could shoot right off of your back porch downhill. I really need to find some land to shoot on up here in hunstville

I live in Azle, which is northwest of Ft Worth about 15 miles, North of Weatherford about the same distance. Moved here in May of last year, we have really enjoyed it. Moved here from Utah, where we could shoot just about anyplace that wasn't inhabited.

I ride a Harley and really like the area around Stephenville. Some of the towns you might look into are Glen Rose and Cleburne. I'd look around Weatherford too.

There are some little towns out in that area, but mostly it's ranch and farm country. Stephenville is a cowboy town, lots of rodeos and that sort of thing. It's also the edge of the "Hill Country" and there are a lot of game ranches south of Stephenville.

I belong to a private gun club (Parker County Sportsmans) north of Weatherford that is cheap and has ranges out to 250 yards. I've been disappointed with the gun shops around Ft Worth, but Cheaper Than Dirt is here, and there is a Cabelas up by the NASCAR track and a Bass Pro over by the airport, if you like those. I understand there are some better gunshops over in Dallas, but I haven't been to any of those yet.

In Erath county you can probably find rural land for $1000 - $2000 per acre.  Of course, any house, barn, etc. will add to the price.  The closer you move towards Granbury or Fort Worth, the higher the land cost will be.  Glen Rose is a nice town between Granbury and Stephenville, but it's not on Hwy. 377.  You probably want to get at least 10 acres so that even if somebody builds right next to you, you'll still have enough "room" for shooting.

FYI, Granbury is in Hood County, Glen Rose is Somerville County, and Stehpenville is Erath County.  You may be able to find some leads on property via internet searching for land in those counties.

I have lived in Stephenville for the past 15 years.  Land and housing has started getting expensive because too many people are moving here wanting to get away from the Dallas and Ft. Worth area and are willing to pay whatever.  I bought my house, a three bedroom w/ two bath and two car garage for $73,000.00 five years ago.  Now houses in my neighborhood start at $120,000.00 and people are buying them.  Stephenville is a good place to live.  It is a very gun friendly town w/ two very excellent gun ranges and a couple places to shoot skeet and trap.  

Great info... keep it coming. I am going to do some on-line searches right now for those areas. I got till' Tuesday at 5pm to apply for the position so I am going to do as much research as possible.

Shannon007 question ... how long from your town to Arlington,  by Six Flags to be exact since that is where the office is. We work out of our homes but do need to get to the office from time to time for meetings, training and to exchange parts.  I was also told that my responsibility area would be from SW Fort Worth to Stephenville. Exactly where in SW FW I have no idea but from the general area to Stephenville about how long of a drive time ?

Chances are I would be looking at something closer to the middle to keep response time to a minimum but I sure will try to push the manager to allow me as close to Stephenville as possible so I can keep the land cheap!

Quoted: Heck, for 250k you can get this: www.landsoftexas.com/texas/index.cfm?Detail=&INV_ID=17732

I've got to quit renting and buy some property...

FLRich-It is about an hour and a half to an hour 45 minutes from Stephenville to Arlington, depending on the time of day and traffic.  

OK that would be like the old days 1.5hrs from home to the office for meetings. I got lucky 3 years after working for them they decided to buy land 2 miles from home, but 10 miles by truck! ATV or horse and I would be at the office in a blink

How long of a drive from SW Fort Worth to Stephenville ? I am assuming about 1 hour give or take ?

I can't get my bearings straight but last January I spent about a week in the DFW area, had a hotel room across the highway from the Fort Worth Zoo. Did a lot of driving to and from Dallas and to tell you the truth even during the week traffic was not all that bad! I hear people complain about traffic in the area all the time but maybe they have just not dealt with Ft. Lauderdale and New Jersey traffic before. I made it a point to drive the highways several times during rush hour and even parts of both cities during peak time to get an idea of how bad it really is and I was impressed. The state is so big I had no chance guessing what areas jobs would open in so I just went to see DFW, been in Austin, Houston (OMG!) and San Antonio before just to get a general idea how different the various parts of the state are. Never made it to Rio Grande (Laredo has a job opening) and El Paso, not looking to raise my kid on a border town.

FLRich-From the town of Stephenville it is one hour to Ft. Worth.  Erath county is a pretty big county and if you live in the north part it is even quicker to Ft. Worth by 20-30 minutes depending on traffic.  A lot of people live here and commute to Ft. Worth.  From Stephenville there are two different ways to get to Ft. Worth.  You can go either Highway 377, which take you through Granbury and a couple small towns that you have to stop @ lights and slow down.  Or you can take Highway 281 that goes to Interstate 20.  On Highway 281 there is only one small town and you just have to slow down and not stop.  The distance is longer by going Highway 281, but the time is the same because in Granbury there are many traffic lights and traffic is bad on their loop around the town.  

Great info thanks Shannon007! I would be working the entire area (I maintain Cell Sites) so give or take it would take me about 1 hour to get from one side of my responsibility zone to the other side. I was just given a rough area by the manager that has the job posting but it's some info to research. I am guessing I would be covering 377, 281 and 20 in addition to countless other country roads since cells only cover 3-6 miles each, I'll be responsible for 30-34 locations in that general region.

Over the years I have learned to deal with mocassians and cotton mouths in addition to the occasional sidewinder, I guess in that area I'll be learning do deal with Diamondbacks! All the equipment is outside and they have a nasty habbit to nest in cabinets for the warmth of the electroncis.
Rich

Well Shannon it looks like I am closer to becoming a neighbor. I missed the job posting by a couple of hours before it closed but I sent the manager my resume anyway by e-mail. He was interested enough to ask HR to open up the job posing again for a day so I could get my application in officially! It's a done deal so I guess the next step is the interview, hopefully they will want to meet me first and fly me over but they have been known to accept the transfer with just a phone interview. Kind of scared to move somewhere that I have not been to (other than the City part of DFW)!

I guess TN will miss out on me... shame I really wanted to go there. If you guys think land is reasonable over there you got to check out TN! 56 acres with a 6 stall barn outside of Knoxville City limits for $330K!!! I could build a house on it and still be only $50K more than what my 1.25 acres are worth!

Not to mention TN is a "Shall Issue" state for Title II weapons, very little if any wait on having the Form 4 signed by what I see. I guess since TX does allow Title II in the laws if the Sheriff in the county that I decide to move to is not willing to sign the fingerprint card I can always have my Trust buy it. You can't fingerprint or photograph a trust or corporation so no need to get the Sheriff's signature since that is all he signs off on, the fingerprint card.

Things are moving along, got a 1st interview today and set up for a formal phone interview in the morning so it looks as if they like me.  Tried to get a better idea of the area he want's me to live in. Any words of wisdom ? Roughly West of Arlington and South of 30. Counties mentioned are

Palapinto Co. SE Corner
Eastland Co. to the west
Erath Co NE to E
Mansfield Co to the West
and most if not all of Hood County

This first call was to make sure I was SURE I wanted this area. He kind of scared me since I am asking myself why ? He says there is an awful lot of nothing out there, well maybe he is a city boy but I have visions now of just pastures with an occasional house, no traffic lights for 50 miles or more and the ground covered with Diamondbacks! Part that scares me the most is 30 miles to the closest supermarket and my 6 year old waking up at 4:30 am to catch the bus at 5:30 and not coming home till' after dark. It may be OK for my wife and I but I don't want to subject a little boy to missing out on most of his day since most of it will be spent on the way to and from a school miles upon miles from home.