What are the pros and cons of living in Phoenix?

Phoenix proper is HUGE though... there are normal suburban like areas of it, ghetto areas of it, and then you get downtown and uptown.  The closer to the center the worse the traffic, and it can be horrible or not bad depending on where you are coming from LOL.

But the best places are the surrounding cities imho.  I prefer the East Valley area.  Chandler/Gilbert/Mesa(parts of)/Scottsdale.  You can lump Ahwatukee into that too, which is a part of south Phoenix.

The biggest con is the heat in the summer.
The biggest pro is the weather the rest of the year.

Pros: Winter weather is great and some of my favorite places to eat are in Phoenix.

Cons: It’s Phoenix

Pros: It's not technically California.

Cons: Shitty weather, shitty people, and it's Phoenix.

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Can you elaborate?

Can you elaborate?

I've been here coming on 30 years, sorry I forgot to lock the gate....

I'm guessing you're from out of state.


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 Dec 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 phoenix and civil rights advocacy.
http://www.azcdl.org/ is 100% civil rights

NRA/CMP/PRS style competition groups:
https://phoenixrodandgun.org/    (prgc)
https://www.rsscaz.com/     (rio)
http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/    (avery)
https://www.facebook.com/AZLRPRS     (cowtown)
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/

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, closed in 2024

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 qualification process. PRGC is very friendly for members bringing guests and allows carry.

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

no .50 BMG at Avery, Rio or PRGC, not sure about the other places.

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.
some big gun shows nearly every month.

Hope this helps, welcome to AZ, shoot good!

Poole
http://arizona-rifleshooting.com/

Weather: It's hot as hell in the summer. For at least 4 months it will rarely dip below 100 degrees during the day. The lows can be anywhere from the low 80's to high 90's. The rest of the year is amazing. I live way out east, and it's cold when the sun comes up in December-January, but the rest of the day is pretty nice.

People: We have a lot of assholes here. Don't know why, but we've got 'em. Been that way since I moved here in 1983.

Phoenix: Phoenix proper is a huge city, full of libs, and severely over crowded. The closer you get to downtown, the worse it gets. Like was said before, our roads here are constantly 10 years behind where they should be. It's like no one has any forethought over at ADOT.

But, it's not all bad. Look how many people in this thread have lived here for a long time.

Weather: Summers there are naturally hot as hell and the sheer amount of pavement traps heat which makes it even worse.

People: Something about that place breeds aggression, Stormfront-tier racist bullshit, and drug addiction. Often all three in the same people in my experience. I've never seen anything quite like it.

Phoenix: It's overcrowded, the traffic is nuts, cost of living is ridiculous, crime is substantial. Political corruption is also remarkable, see the AZGOP bribery scandal earlier this year.

Thx

That's a lot of good content! Thx

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Thx

The traffic isn't that bad.  Phoenix is just a big metro so if you decide to live far from work you'll have a long way to go in traffic.  Most of the surface streets are six lanes wide and the freeways are big.   Not nearly as bad as traffic in some other major cities.  

What you plan to do for work should be considered with where you want to live.

Agree. Come see Philly area traffic and congested roads. Barely any 3 lane or larger roads out this way.
I can't wait to move to AZ permanently. Recently purchased 2nd home in East Valley.

Too many people for my taste. Politics have drastically slid left the past few years too. And taking the major highways feel like driving in a NASCAR race depending on the time of day. I’ve been living back in the valley the last few years to finish my bachelors degree at ASU. The moment I graduate, I’m out of here.

Been here 10 years and kind of like it. Some of you long-timers should move Dibs on guns!

Cons
-hot
-very busy
-horrible traffic in most big cities and highways
-expensive houses and utilities
-becoming California and will likely be blue this election

Pros
-lots of outdoor activities
-at the moment gun friendly
-plenty of places to visit and fun places to go out


If you go north to Williams then you will eliminate some of the issues, but still highways are busy and we were purple last time and I don’t think we are going back to red anytime soon

The building of apartment complexes and the absolute animals that occupy them ruined the majority of populated areas in Arizona

That and everyone moving here.

Said the Apache, Navajo, Hopi, etc, etc etc.

Con's
- It Hot for a few month

Pro's
- Weather is great the rest of the year.
- San Diego is a 5.5hr drive
- Hawaii is a 5.5hr flight
- Lots of public land to explore
- High country forest are a 2.5hr drive
- No natural disasters(Hurricanes, tornados earthquakes etc.)
- Mexican food

Pros:
Weather is excellent 7-8 months out of the year.
It's pool weather for the other 4-5 months (do definitely get a pool).
Inexpensive compared to other (not all) large metro areas.
Great employment & business opportunities.  
All the amenities of a large metro area (concerts, restaurants, flights to other areas, entertainment, shopping, etc.).
Weekend trips are fairly close by and easy to drive.
Our location is 'desirable', so we can fly direct to many locations or have 1 layover.
Fairly low utility bills in the winter.

Cons:
Weather is terrible June through Sept, particularly if you work outdoors (I design/sale pools & landscaping, so I get exposed for hours at a time).
Pools are a must June through Sept.
It's no longer cheap to buy houses, although cheaper than elsewhere (like Honolulu, Hawaii where I'm from).  But you can still do it if you really want to.
The freeways are a Nascar race with people driving 10 feet from your rear bumper at 75 mph in the slow lane.  You get flipped off for doing the speed limit in the middle lane.
High electricity bills in the summer (I average it out and pay $180 monthly for a 2200sf. home with a pool)

Traffic isn't as bad as some other places.  But, if you get stuck to rush hour going the wrong way, it'll feel like it's as bad as anywhere else at times.  I'm lucky that I make my own schedule and mostly work from home.  Time to time I have an appointment set at the wrong time and get stuck in traffic on the freeway.  There are also bad areas to be in if you have a 8-4pm office job in downtown Phoenix.  So living location depends on job location.

Peoples driving is atrocious, but I don't think that's limited to Phoenix.  People literally drive 1 car length from you on the freeway while doing 75mph in the middle or slow lane.  Then serve around you just to do it again on the next car.  Texting is out of control, but again, not just a Phoenix problem.

Phoenix is great if you are in the upper middle class or higher financially.  I bought my house 20 years ago when they were cheap ($138K) and make well over the median income for Phoenix (or most of the US/world).  I'm not rich in that I still have to work, but I live a great life.  If you are working poor (paycheck to pray-check), everywhere sucks and Phoenix is no exception.  But a summer electric bill can really hurt you if you don't plan for it.  If you have disposable income, Phoenix has everything you want except nice weather for 4 months out of the year.  That is where having a pool comes in.  But being well off is great just about anywhere, I'm assuming you are a working man like most of us.  I've found my way to the top of my payscale in landscape/pool sales/design, so it's been good to me.  I realize it isn't that way for everyone.  It's a little easier in Phoenix than Honolulu, Hawaii.

Gun laws are excellent in AZ.  Having moved here from Hawaii 25 years ago, it's a breath of fresh air.  I'm trying to give my nephew an AR rifle and it's a pain in the ass.  He had to take a training class (Hunter Safety) and then apply for a 'permit to acquire' longarms, which he is waiting on.  I really want to move back to Hawaii, but will probably do it only part time when I retire.  At least I can keep my toys here in AZ and have just a few in Hawaii.  I currently fly out to Hawaii for family parties and funerals, so I'm still familiar with everyone and life on the ground there.

Double tap

I used to love AZ.  I've been in the west valley since 1988.  Never thought I'd want to live anywhere else.

I don't feel the same way anymore.  Most of the cons have probably already been listed.

I'd look elsewhere.

OP, where do you currently live?

A lot of people are talking about the traffic.  Yes, there can be a lot, but I always felt the infrastructure was amazing.  Compared to the freeways in Minneapolis (which is where I was before and after my tenure in PHX), the ones in the Valley are amazing.  And the grid setup on the side streets is also wonderful.  We always felt like it was a clean city.  Granted, there are some areas that are not so great, like most anyplace, but overall we loved it.

Most of the time we lived in the East Valley, and loved our neighbors.  I really did not find people unfriendly, and when I did shooting matches around the area, most everyone was really cool.  However, I generally consider myself a friendly person.  I'm usually not outgoing, but I will occasionally joke and make small talk with people I encounter out in the world.

The weather was, ironically, what brought us down there and what drove us back.  I loved how most every day was sunny and the skies were gorgeous.  Probably 8 months out of the year the weather was perfect.  Yes, the summer days are damn hot, but eventually the nights got that way too.  When your overnight lows are 90°+ your body just cannot cool down, and the humidity during the monsoon seemed to be getting worse.  At least, things seemed that way.  Maybe I was just getting less tolerant as I got older.

More food for thought.

Con. AZ Supreme allows 98,000 people to vote without a clear picture of their actual citizenship status.

Eta really bad for local elections, illegals could always vote here for federal shit