There just seems to be a lot more opportunity to shoot out west if you don't have your own land to shoot on compared to the east coast from my experiences.
I was thinking about this on my way back dropping my one boy off for work.
4 states on the East Coast that I consider myself pretty familiar with are NY, Pa, WV and NC. From my own experiences out west, and speding a lot of time in those states are Idaho, Montanna and Utah.
Square miles and estimated population by square state
Montanna 145,556 sq miles, population 1.1 million
Idaho 82,751 sq miles, population 1.8 million
Utah 82,168 sq miles, population 3.2 million
NC 48,718 sq miles, population 10.4 million
NY 47,224 sq miles, population 19.4 million
WV 24,087 miles, population 1.72 million
I understand that NYC screws the state over in population, along with controlling Albany, but it is what it is.
Taking topography out, the reality is there is more space and less people out west.
That said, I still remember in the 90's when I spent a lot of time in Idaho and a lot of the "locals" complaining about California and the influx of people from that state.
I came to the conclusion that it wasn't bad living back east because I knew we were already screwed with population and government. Thing is, even back in the 90's people thought they were getting screwed by people moving in out west, and I knew even back then they hadn't seen anything yet.
I know everything is bigger in Texas (268,557 sq miles with a population of 29 million), but back then I couldn't stand the heat and liked cold better, and Texas can't hold a candle to Alaska with 663k sq miles and a population of 732k, but I could never get us the the daylight and night hours up in Alaska. I took a very long drive in Alaska and it really blew my mind.
At the end of the day, less people with more land means more shooting opportunities