I have to say I'm very pleasantly surprised by Oklahoma. It's not everyone's cup of tea but I love it here. The gun laws are great, the state is VERY conservative, low population density (especially in the SW part of the state where I live), 2A sanctuary, banned CRT in schools, etc... But very little public lands. Pretty much just like Texas. Only a little over 4% of the land is public. That sucks.

Having said that, I've not found it difficult at all to find a place to shoot. People, including the landowners (around here they're mostly farmers or ranchers), are very easy to approach and exceedingly friendly. A local farmer has a nice range in one of his fields and after just an introduction and a little chat I have a nice place to shoot any time I'd like. I also dropped off 500 rounds of 5.56 for him to try in his first AR when he couldn't find ammo. It's pretty amazing how much good will some small gesture like that will buy.

The weather is decent year round and makes shooting possible for most of the year. Yes, it's hot in the summer...about like the Denver area. It's not really humid in this part of the state...but the eastern half of the state is. The eastern half of the state is also much prettier with lots more trees and small mountains. EVERYONE is gun friendly here, it seems. No permit required, no BGC required if you have a permit, NFA stuff is OK, etc. Open carry is pretty common in the more rural areas around here. The cost of living is very low in the rural areas. All things considered, I enjoy living here more than I've enjoyed anywhere else I've lived in my entire life...and that's a lot of places. Altus is actually convenient to many larger metro areas: 1 hr to Wichita Falls, less than 2 hrs to OKC, 2.5 hrs to Amarillo, 3 hrs to DFW. You can also take commuter flights out of Lawton...an hour away. The roads in this part of the state are wide open...no traffic and congestion anywhere around here. I really enjoy that because I like riding my motorcycle and this is a great area for that.

I really liked northern Idaho, too. Much like Colorado in terms of beauty and scenery, mountains, etc... The people aren't nearly as approachable and friendly. But I think ID ranks 4th in terms of public lands in the country and in terms of a gun friendly, conservative state, I'd say ID and OK are likely the top 2. If you live in the northern part of the state, accessing the airport in Spokane is easy. Even Lewiston is easy and convenient to fly out of but you'll likely have to go through Spokane, Boise or Seattle to get anywhere.

I wanted to move to Wyoming...but the winter weather was the deal killer for me. Aside from that it would be at the top of my list. It's just miserable in the winter for me. I liked AZ, too. For me, though, the cost of living was the deciding factor because I could retire here in OK...I couldn't do that in AZ, mostly because housing was, relatively speaking, far more expensive than OK. There are also only 3.9 million people in OK...the population of AZ is almost double that...but AZ is also about 50% bigger than OK. I wanted fewer people in the state. I lived in AZ in the 80s and loved it, though.

I know exactly what you're going through in terms of looking for a place where you can relocate to. It's a tough choice because there's lots of nice places out there. Colorado is probably one of the prettiest states around and I hated what it became years ago...and it's only getting worse. There's absolutely nothing wrong with wanting to move to a place where you can find happiness and improve your quality of life. I've done it a couple of times and couldn't be happier with my decisions. I hope it works out well for you and your family.