Buying a gun online in Fort Worth

Order here, pick it up at a licensed dealer in Fort Worth or the towns west of it. Same rules as the rest of Texas, and the ranch country starts at the county line.

Fort Worth is where the West begins, and the gun culture here is older and more traditional than across the county line in Dallas. Lever-action rifles still sell, revolvers still sell, and the quail hunters on the Rolling Plains carry side-by-sides and light over-unders their grandfathers would recognize. Under that sits the same modern market as everywhere in Texas: compact 9mms for carry, AR-15s for the range and the hogs, and bolt rifles for whitetail leases out toward Jacksboro and Graham. Buying online means comparing at a live price first, then using whichever Tarrant, Parker or Johnson County dealer is closest.

What to bring to the dealer

• Government photo ID with your current address. If the license shows an old one, bring a utility bill or other document the dealer accepts.
• The transfer fee, paid to the shop, commonly $20 to $45 around Fort Worth. Call ahead.
• Your order number so they can find the package.
• Your LTC, if you have one. It can replace the NICS call at the dealer's option.

Tarrant County rules

There are none beyond state and federal law. Local Government Code 229.001 bars cities from regulating the sale, ownership, carrying or storage of firearms and ammunition, and 236.002 does the same for counties, so Fort Worth, Arlington, Keller, Southlake, Burleson and unincorporated Tarrant County all run on the Texas Penal Code. No permit to buy, no registration, no waiting period, no magazine limit. A qualifying adult 21 or older may carry a holstered handgun without a license; the DPS License to Carry is optional and still useful. The city keeps its discharge ordinance, and event venues from the Stockyards to Dickies Arena post their own notices at the door.

General information, not legal advice. The statutes are collected on our Texas gun law page, and a Texas attorney can answer questions about your own situation.

Lever guns and the used Marlin shelf

A .30-30 lever gun is still a real deer rifle in the Cross Timbers, where shots through post oak and cedar are seldom past 150 yards, and a .22 lever gun is how a lot of North Texans learned to shoot. This store keeps a Marlin used gun collection of trade-ins, Model 60s, 39As and 30-30s among them, alongside new lever rifles from the catalog. Used guns are listed with their condition and ship to your FFL like anything else.

Quail on the Rolling Plains

West of Fort Worth the Cross Timbers open onto the Rolling Plains, and from Albany to Childress that is the best bobwhite country left in the United States in a good year. Quail season opens the last Saturday of October and runs to the last Sunday of February. A light 20 or 28 gauge with open chokes, a pair of boots that can take mesquite thorns and a dog are the kit. Dove opens September 1 in the North Zone, and the milo and sunflower fields around Weatherford and Decatur fill up at dawn.

Deer, hogs and public land

Whitetail general season in the North Zone opens the first Saturday of November and runs into early January. Mule deer show up in the counties northwest of Wichita Falls with their own short season. Hogs are on every creek and need no license on private land. LBJ National Grasslands near Decatur is the closest public hunting to the city and requires a Texas hunting license and the Annual Public Hunting permit. TPWD publishes the seasons in the Outdoor Annual each August; the hog and deer rifle guide covers what to carry.

What people buy here