Retiring shortly and I want to get off the east coast.  Was looking at Wyoming but the spousal unit isn't too thrilled.  Starting to look at Arizona but don't know much about state politics and such.  Any recommendations for locations or other information I should be aware of ?

Do you like heat or snow?  Do you like big city, little city, rural, etc?

Retirement community?  Golf?  Shooting?

Need more info to give a recommendation.

Do yourself a huge favor and visit.  The differences between "the valley" (Phoenix, Scottsdale, Mesa, etc.), the Tucson area, Central AZ (Prescott, Verde Valley, Sedona), Flagstaff, Eastern AZ (Show Low, White Mtns) the Rim Country (Payson, Pine, Strawberry), Western AZ (Yuma, Lake Havasu, Bullhead City, Kingman) and SE Arizona (Bisbee, Tombstone, Sierra Vista, etc.) are profound.  Unless you take the time to explore you'll never know if there's a place for you here, but the possibilities are almost endless.

My spousal unit prefers warm.  I am ok either way.  Medium to little city if possible.

We both prefer to stay out of a retirement community and I hate golf with the passion of 1000 exploding supernovas.  Outdoor shooting is a must.  

warm or hot ?

Big difference in the answers you get.

Only warm? Payson or Prescott.

What about the state politics ?  Zero Hedge (if you consider it anywhere near reliable) listed it's 10 best states for 2021 and to my surprise Arizona wasn't listed.  I don't want to move only to have Leftists/Dems/Kali-expats fuck everything up....or is it too late ?

Your a little on the late side. With our neighbor being California just like ALL the states bordering it they become a Mecca for the disenchanted after awhile. Now we are nowhere near the liberal neighbors of the North West, we still are in a very active and present fight against the liberal retardation that stems from living close to California.

Home prices are Cali-lite.  If you have money to spend, there's no shortage of nice places to live.  All the towns worth living in are seeing insane booms in population and home prices.  There is plenty of dirt for sale in the middle of nowhere if you want that too.  As far as anything "affordable" where you'd actually want to live...Nothing that  I can suggest.  Come visit and poke around.  Beautiful state.

In 2004 the phoenix metro area grew tremendously!

In 2020 the phoenix metro area grew tremendously!

If you're looking for medium city, look elsewhere.

Also, houses that were about $160K in 2012 are now $400K.  Coming from the east coast, that's probably not a huge concern for you but the market is really inflated thanks to people from CA, CO, WA, IL, NY, etc... etc...  I see more out of state license plates than ever before!

Also, the summers are HORRIBLE!!! (not really, just trying to scare people off)

Good luck!

You really need to come out and visit different areas of the State.  Especially during the summer months.  The State might be turning Blue, but it still seems fairly live & let live.  The State Gov. doesn't seem to be in a rush to restrict your gun rights, and AZ is consistently voted #1 in G&A magazine for gun owners.  Any gun laws that come down will probably be on a National level.  Both our current Senators are Dems.  More conservative areas will be Yavapai county (Prescott) & Mohave County (Kingman, Bullhead City, Lake Havasu).

There's plenty of Ranges to shoot at, but desert shooting is limited.  A lot of land in AZ is State Trust land that doesn't allow target shooting.  Or Indian Res.  And a lot of BLM spots get closed due to the mess people leave out there.

AZ also has a ton of seniors & snow birds that show-up during the winter months.

It's really hard to gauge what someone will like or dis-like.  That's why you need to visit different locations.

Casa Grande, medium sized town 50- miles south of Phoenix. City maintained free outdoor range south of town, max 300 yard line. MANY public ranges within daily drive time. The valley is right up the road with good eats, etc. AZ wins Firearms Freedom #1 from Guns and Ammo magazine 8 years in a row.

Prescott is full, Payson isn't. Plus OP said little to no people, so definitely Payson.

The wife and I are also retired and chomping at the bit to vacate the Land of Entrapment.  The White Mountain area, at least 40 acres, is where we are looking.  Dreading how far we will have to punch a well and the price of fencing.

It's getting sparse, wish we had started looking years ago.  New Mexico has turned into Shithole Extraordinaire.

Sounds like Lake Havasu, except warm is not a option, hotter than hell is.

Biggest problem with Lake Havasu, Bullhead City, Kingman areas IMO is the WIND.  It really blows, if you take my meaning.

Spousal Unit has seemingly gone 'all in' for Arizona...

Will probably visit the Prescott/Payson area shortly.  The Compass Training Center and Jim Jones shooting ranges seem to be the only semi-decent outdoor ranges in the area.

Just to re-iterate VERY concerned about Kali expatriates and state politics.  Leftists and RHINOs have destroyed Virginia, I don't want to leave the frying pan for the fire.

Meh, it's not that bad. Just don't get caught in the middle of the lake during a monsoon.

Get here before all these ass clowns from CA turn it to far blue. They run their shit into the ground them come here.    Don’t CA my AZ!!

Something lots of people don’t think about when moving is health care. Moving to a remote high desert hideaway sounds great, until you realize ( usually when you need it the most) the nearest hospital is 45 minutes away, and may not have all the specialists you require, and finding primary care can be extremely difficult. As a medical practitioner in the Prescott region I see it frequently. People move from an area with heavy medical market saturation to a small town and can’t find what they need without a couple hour drive. And while it may not be an issue now, sooner or later it will be.
I frequently have to direct patients to Phoenix metro area ( 1&1/2 hours drive) for specialists.

Having said all that I really like it here, but in the greater Prescott region the population is exploding with thousands of new house built every year.

I post this every time:

Folks often post questions about Shooting in AZ on forums, I often reply, I finally saved my replies so I won't have to retype everything each time. This probably gives more info than you asked for but its easy to copy/paste. latest update in Jan 2021.

Websites:
http://www.arizonashooting.org/ web group
http://www.azshootingzone.com/forums/ web group
https://arizonagunowners.com/ web group
https://www.ar15.com/forums/hometown/Arizona/13/ another web group
http://www.phoenixrodandgun.org/ A club with a range in south phoenix
http://www.rsscaz.com/ A club with a range in east Mesa
https://www.azgfd.com/shooting/basf/ A range with clubs in north phoenix.
all 3 have public ranges and competition ranges and active competition groups
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/ my website about competition

3 ranges in the Tucson area:
http://www.tucsonrifleclub.org/
https://pimapistolclub.com/
https://tucsontrapandskeet.com/

orgs:
http://www.asrpa.com/ our state association they do: competition, training, education, run a range west of phoenx and civil rights advocacy.
http://www.azcdl.org/ is 100% civil rights

AZ has open carry and constitutional carry. Take the AZ CCW class anyway, its useful info and the permit is your proof of background check so you don't have to go thru NICS when you buy.


There are 4 or 5 nice outdoor shooting ranges in the Phoenix area. See below. (As well as several indoor ranges I don't know much about.)

I've been a member of both PRGC & RSSC for over 20 years, (and have been a volunteer, match director, coach or club officer in those years).

Both RSSC & PRGC are true member-run clubs, both lease their dirt (RSSC from AZGFD, PRGC from PHX city park).

Ben Avery is a AZGFD owned and run facility, landless clubs reserve  the various ranges and run shoots there.

A smaller range, Joe Foss range in Buckeye, an hour west of Phoenix, is run by ASRPA.

All 3 larger ranges have a public range, the 2 clubs offer membership. All 3 have lots of competition style events. Every scheduled competition or practice style event at the 2 clubs and the clubs that use Avery are open to everyone, most by walk-on, some shoots take advanced entry reservations.

Both PRGC and RSSC cost about the same to join. Each has a main range and 6 or 8 specialty ranges. RSSC faces north, PRGC faces south (low winter sun is unpleasant to shoot in) PRGC High Power range is configured properly with 1 pits and 3 firing lines, Rio is backwards, 1 firing line and 2 pits.

RSSC tries to run itself like a business, all members have to leave when the last RO clocks out, even if there are still 3 hours of sunlight remaining. All the specialty ranges (except shotgun) require a lengthy approval process to gain access. On top of that, there is a tedious process to get the after-hours pass that allows weekday shooting till 9.  RSSC has the best sporting clays field in the state, perhaps all the states. But they don't allow carry.

PRGC is much more member-friendly. members can use most (but not all) ranges without a special qual process. PRGC is very friendly for members bringing guests and allows carry.

BASF has about 80 firing points on the public range and 15 or 20 trap/skeet/clays fields and a huge archery area. The facility also has about 15 other ranges reserved by clubs for shoots including 100 firing points to 1000yds on high power, 2 silhouette ranges and about a dozen practical bays.

PRS-style shooting is monthly at a private shooting site called "Cowtown" in the west part of the valley not far from Ben Avery. And a monthly shoot at RSSC.

BLM is opening some formal maintained shooting sites in the west valley desert.

There are some nice outdoor ranges in Tucson, also near Casa Grande, Flagstaff, Payson, Kingman, Yuma and other parts of the state.

As to shooting in the Desert, BLM and National forest permit shooting most of the year. State Trust Land permits hunting but NOT target shooting.  Indian reservations do not permit anything. Check the national forest websites, Tonto NF, the one closest to phoenix, has closed off shooting on hundreds of square miles nearest town due to dirt bike infestation and bans water jugs. Steel and paper are still OK, but plan on an hour drive to find a safe legal place. During hot weather fire seasons all the NFs ban shooting, camp fires and smoking.

Hunting is by drawing for tags to hunt anything larger than a quail or coyote. But lots of public land to hunt on.
https://www.azgfd.com/



Shopping in the Phoenix area:
BassPro in Mesa
Cabela's in northwest valley
2 or 3 Sportsman's Warehouse stores
lots of Local gun Shops.

Hope this helps, welcome to AZ, shoot good!

Poole



more:
The problem with "rural" in AZ is nearly all the land is BLM, national forest, state trust, indian rez. (except for rez, all are open to hunting with an AZ license, BLM and NF are open to target shooting, except for the crowded areas infested with dirtbikes and the entire state during fire season, so "rural" is far away or expensive, often both. if not there may not be water. I'm speculating, but I bet there are probably few places in PA where a 50' or 100' well does not produce water, there are fewer places in AZ where a 100' well is deep enough or any well at all is even possible.

"Phoenix", the area, is the city of Phoenix and the 20 or so cities and areas that form its suburbs. Sometimes called the  "Valley of the Sun" (some time'a year its more like the "Surface of the Sun" :) but we like it this way!

There are some rural-ish locations around Phoenix. South: Maricopa, Casa Grande. SE: Apache junction, Florence, NE: Cave Creek/Carefree. North: New River, SW: buckeye & beyond, and NW: beyond sun city out to Wickenburg. All of these put you about 1 to 2 hours from PHX airport.

This really is a significant consideration, even if you're healthy.

Wife and I (AZ native) just relocated from Cave Creek to the Prescott area and this is what tipped the balance to our choosing Prescott -- which is medically advanced compared to a lot of areas. If you go with Show Low, it's 3-3 1/2 hours if you have to go to Phoenix, but it at least has a hospital and some specialists, though fewer than Prescott.

Payson was initially pretty high on our list, but it was shockingly lacking in any medical support, even primary care is pretty thin there.

I had a ranch in a remote-ish area in NE AZ and it was one of the things that nixed it as a place to migrate to was a lack of basic healthcare access. While in most areas you can find an urgent care within a hour's drive, anything beyond that turns into a significant trip.

Sierra Vista is becoming a medium City pretty quick  However we are a military community and that scares some folks off.  We have a couple of great shooting ranges a decent hospital and decent school system.  Tucson is an hour or so away.

its not safe here, stay where you are

Too bad to hear the AZ is not safe.  Leftists and Dems destroyed Virginia.  Guess it's back to Wyoming.

Good luck in Wyoming.

with a state that small, the growth of Jackson Hole and Cheyenne and a Dem Governor about a decade ago, I wouldn't assume that's a stalwart "GOP" state either.  

If shooting is your focus, it doesn't get much better than Arizona.  It's cultural here with HUGE amounts of Public land that's OK to shoot on.  I find its hard for Easterners to understand.

Although I'm a long time Republican and own a firearms training company (retired 11B also) I do have a number of Dem friends.  away from Universities most Dems, not all but most, are armed and moderate.  Living near the border is a mind opener to use a bit of common sense.

yup

I was a college Republican back in the day, my first shooting buddy back then was a hippie (for lack of a better term) that carried a 44 magnum.  

I suspect it'd be an odd couple anywhere else.

AZ ir and bluer.  Every election, the R majority shrinks.  And an awful lot of Arizonans are where Virginians were 10 years ago... "This is Virginia, not California!  I don't have to be active!  I don't have to fight!  Get out of here!"  And then, boom.  It's going to happen here unfortunately.

Sadly, it looks like to avoid that cancer, we have to look at moving to where the Californians don't want to go.  Cold, windy, snowy places.  Or hurricaney places.

Last election Republican majority stayed exactly as it was in the state legislature. Multiple bills are almost through the AZ legislature to tighten up voting laws to cut down on voting fraud that Dems exploit. Naturally, they are crying. If you want to see all of AZ law and politics, we have one excellent website that covers damn near everything in our state government, including all Arizona Revised Statutes.
https://www.azleg.gov/

This makes me feel a bit better.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/arizona/articles/2021-04-06/arizona-governor-signs-bill-to-preempt-federal-gun-laws

Might want to look at far, far east valley in Gold Canyon.
Friend just finished building some homes out there and said prices are reasonable still, far enough from the urban sprawl to be fairly quiet.
Not too far from Rio Salado range.