How buying a gun in Gonzales works
Pick an FFL dealer near you that accepts shipped transfers and name it at checkout. We confirm their license and ship the firearm to them. Ammunition, optics and parts ship straight to your door where Texas law allows.
Texas requires no purchase permit, no registration and no state waiting period. At a licensed dealer you show photo identification, fill out ATF Form 4473 and wait for the federal NICS background check; the Department of Public Safety notes that a current Texas License to Carry may be used in place of that check when you buy a handgun. At the counter, federal law puts the floor at 18 for long guns and 21 for handguns, and Texas adds nothing to that. A private sale between two Texas residents needs no state check, though it remains an offense to hand a firearm to someone you know may not legally have one.
Dealers in these communities all work for Gonzales-area buyers:
- Nixon
- Waelder
- Smiley
- Bebe
- Cost
- Leesville
- Luling
- Shiner
- Harwood
- Belmont
Carrying a gun in Gonzales County
Texas has allowed license-free handgun carry since the Firearm Carry Act of 2021 took effect on September 1 of that year: an adult of 21 or older who may lawfully possess a firearm can carry a handgun, concealed or in a holster, without applying for anything. Licenses are still issued, and they are issued statewide by the Department of Public Safety rather than by any county office. Schools, courthouses, polling places during voting, secured airport areas, correctional facilities and premises that draw more than half their receipts from on-site alcohol sales remain closed to carry, and a property owner may post the signs described in Penal Code 30.06 and 30.07.
Hunting near Gonzales
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department sets white-tailed deer seasons county by county. Archery-only season runs October 3 to November 6, 2026. The 2026-27 general season runs November 7, 2026 to January 3, 2027 in the North Zone, which takes in Bexar County and most of the Hill Country, and to January 17, 2027 in the South Zone below U.S. Highway 90. Muzzleloader and the North Zone special late season fall on January 4 to 17, 2027, with the South Zone late season January 18 to 31, 2027. Any legal firearm may be used, but rimfire ammunition of any caliber is barred for deer. Bag limits and antler rules change at the county line, so read the Gonzales County page in the Outdoor Annual.
Gonzales County follows the North Zone calendar, general season November 7, 2026 to January 3, 2027, with the late season January 4 to 17, 2027. Hogs are a year-round problem in the Guadalupe and San Marcos river bottoms, and dove shooting over the county's grain fields opens the South Zone season on September 1.
The Palmetto State Park bottomlands sit upstream on the San Marcos, hogs work the sandy river fields all year, and the surrounding grain country fills with dove shooters in early September.