Any die hard hunters on here ever have to move from prime hunting areas to less desirable areas?

[Rogue Bay]

I may have a slightly different view on this. As much as I appreciate the convenience of hunting close to home, I find having to travel puts me in a different state of mind and I’m more driven and focused.

We used to live in Montana and we had great hunting just minutes from home. It was great with a young family but it was also easy to talk myself out of going or into packing it in early. We moved back to Oregon and I knew going into this I was going to be sacrificing some great, convenient hunting opportunities, but was providing more opportunities for my daughters and better careers for my wife and I. We have incredible black-tailed deer, bear and bird/small game hunting and fishing at home, but travel for elk (access issues locally). I find that I get more enjoyment out of a good hunting camp in a special place than always hunting minutes from home. Traveling to hunt elk means less time so I hunt harder and better. And there’s a finality when the trip is over. No temptation to ditch the family or skip out on work for another outing.

I believe anywhere you choose will have great hunting of some kind. It will likely just be different than what you are used to but you may find you love it. Best of luck to you and your family.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Glad someone can relate to the cold, How far south did you end up going? Just travel to other states to hunt ?


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We are originally from Oklahoma and moved back. So pretty far south. I do travel to quite a few other states to hunt, but most of my hunting is within 2 hours of my house.

 

[BRTreedogs]

So you want to move somewhere more expensive.
And make hunting more expensive as well with fuel costs?
So then you’re gonna have to work more and have less time for hunting.

 

[NorthIdahoDude]

I lived in SE BC (East Kootenays) back when it was more affordable (2001-2010 ish). Amazing hunting opportunities, wife and I killed whitetail and mule deer every year. Elk sucked for success rate because of the 6 point regs, but we saw so so many elk, it's hard to explain to people who have never hunted high population densities like they had. Weather in winter was sub zero cold, but winter was also pretty sunny actually.

Moved to North Idaho about 15 years ago. Hunting here is not awful, but not on par with what we had in BC. Took me a few years to get my groove back; lower animal population density and higher hunter density changes the game a fair bit. Weather is like a vacation after BC, super rare to see sub zero (f), but lots of overcast sky all winter. Cost of living is not too insane, except for housing, which is very insane.

All that said, Grand Forks or Creston or Osoyoos are all much warmer climates than you likely have in north BC, if you don't need a big city. But then you'd still be in Soviet Canuckistan with the woke crazies running the show, LOL.

I will say USCIS is a third worldesque nightmare, if you and your wife aren't already US citizens. Took me quite a few years and many thousands of dollars and dealing with more stupid than you can possibly imagine to legally import my Canadian wife.

 

[Elite]

So you want to move somewhere more expensive.
And make hunting more expensive as well with fuel costs?
So then you’re gonna have to work more and have less time for hunting.

Southern bc Is yes. But that’s why the post states we are exploring further south


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[BRTreedogs]

Southern bc Is yes. But that’s why the post states we are exploring further south


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I’d have a hard time giving up otc Goat and Sheep man.

Unless you’re rich plan on never hunting them again if you move to the states.
And shed hunting is highly competitive here.
I average at least 10miles per antler.

 

[Elite]

I lived in SE BC (East Kootenays) back when it was more affordable (2001-2010 ish). Amazing hunting opportunities, wife and I killed whitetail and mule deer every year. Elk sucked for success rate because of the 6 point regs, but we saw so so many elk, it's hard to explain to people who have never hunted high population densities like they had. Weather in winter was sub zero cold, but winter was also pretty sunny actually.

Moved to North Idaho about 15 years ago. Hunting here is not awful, but not on par with what we had in BC. Took me a few years to get my groove back; lower animal population density and higher hunter density changes the game a fair bit. Weather is like a vacation after BC, super rare to see sub zero (f), but lots of overcast sky all winter. Cost of living is not too insane, except for housing, which is very insane.

All that said, Grand Forks or Creston or Osoyoos are all much warmer climates than you likely have in north BC, if you don't need a big city. But then you'd still be in Soviet Canuckistan with the woke crazies running the show, LOL.

I will say USCIS is a third worldesque nightmare, if you and your wife aren't already US citizens. Took me quite a few years and many thousands of dollars and dealing with more stupid than you can possibly imagine to legally import my Canadian wife.

That’s a good comparison of you know what bc has to offer, I have heard the kootenays elk population has decreased substantially last few years down there. Weather looks 10x better then I’m used to up here….


Anything else you find on the negative side of being in USA ?

Canada is headed down a very deep dark hole here….


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[riversidejeep]

I didn’t think we were allowing any new immigrants into the states? Not even joking. Some Canadian friends that couldn’t get sponsored by a US business were never able to make the move, but I really don’t know how it works.

I was living up north and my wife at the time said she was moving to warmer weather and I was welcome to come along, so I can relate to family pressures and wanting to keep everyone sane. A friend of mine also had a wife dealing with depression and in her mind all their worries would go away, but of course they don’t, but they stayed together. I had an opportunity to find wife #2 in a warmer climate.

Moving is a big expense, but if you don’t do it all the time you’ll fit right in anywhere. I feel bad for those who make a big move, get frustrated and move back to where they came before getting their legs under them. One big expense is hard enough and two is brutal.

Either way hang in there and good luck. It might be a long winter.

Like TaperPin say's , I think The Boss of the USA said we're full up for awhile. They may let you visit for a month or so.

 

[Elite]

Like TaperPin say's , I think The Boss of the USA said we're full up for awhile. They may let you visit for a month or so.

I have looked into it. There is still lots of investor visas that you can get and also a sponsorship for work is an option.


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[NorthIdahoDude]

That’s a good comparison of you know what bc has to offer, I have heard the kootenays elk population has decreased substantially last few years down there. Weather looks 10x better then I’m used to up here….


Anything else you find on the negative side of being in USA ?

Canada is headed down a very deep dark hole here….


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I haven't kept super close track of what the East Kootenay elk population numbers are since I left. I think I have heard the numbers are down, but then the few friends I keep in touch with there send me pic's of some big ass bulls about as often as they did when I lived there.

If the East Kootenay weather looks better than yours, wow! I mean, I got along in it fine, but we'd get 4 or 5 weeks a year of fairly serious cold (lows in the -25 C range, highs in the -10 C range, occasionally lows as low as -40-something). Where I'm at now, I've only seen -25 C once or twice since I been here, and typically winter temps are maybe -10 to -5 C overnight, and -5 to +5 C during the day. West Kootenay's/Creston valley is lower elevation/closer to what we get in Northern Idaho, and I think Grand Forks and Osoyos and such are even warmer than that.

All that said, I'm super-happy to be back in the US these days, and I would not move back to Canada if I could help it. Back when I was living in Canada, cost of living was crazy cheap compared to the US (especially if you figure in health care/insurance costs in the US), but that has pretty much inverted and US is cheaper now. Even after the exchange rate, bread, milk, booze, fuel, etc, all substantially cheaper down here. Guns and ammo and reloading stuff is WAY WAY WAY cheaper. For any given thing you might buy, the US is a much bigger market than Canada, so across the board the selection for any given thing is much bigger down here, way more available, and the customer service you get most places is much better.

Health Insurance can be a huge deal in the US, but I solve that by having a job that provides good insurance for The Wife(tm) and I. I'd say going to a hospital, as far as quality of care and all that, you'd never know the difference between a US hospital and a Canadian one (other than the US one will never offer to kill you if your case is difficult or expensive to treat, LOL). Some doctors are brilliant, some are dumb, some nurses are nice, some aren't, etc, all that is pretty much the same.

The biggest obstacle will be, if you and your wife (and by proxy your kids) are not already US citizens, you'll have to deal with USCIS and the immigration process, and as I said, that's a third world nightmare of epic proportions. I'm confident that places like Lybia and Packistan have saner and more functional immigration systems. Even if only one of you is a US citizen (which would cover them and the kids), you will still get drug through the mud. I was born and raised American, and my wife is Canadian. We tried for a couple years back in the late 90's/early 2000's just to get her a green card, and never were successful (she got a temp work permit, and legal status, so she was able to stay and work, but that is not the same as having the green card).

When we went to move back to the US in 2010, we were told by USCIS "oh, sure, we got all your old paperwork, all you have to do is file this change of status form, and you're good to go, you can even go ahead and move here, your green card will show up in the mail in about 30 days". Well, that was all a lie, and my wife ended up having to live in Canada with some friends and just visit me in the US (which she did for long periods of time, so it wasn't all that bad), for several years while we spent many thousands of dollars and fought through dumber bureaucratic s**t than you can possibly imagine. Eventually, we had to fly to Monteral, at which time they got everything finalized and she got legal status in the US and got to move here for real.

If neither of you are US Citizens, I honestly don't know that much about what all would be involved, but I presume it would be even crazier than my wife and I experienced.

 

[StupidLightweight]

If you do have trouble legally moving to the U.S., my suggestion is to show up at the border, claim asylum from the cold winters, and say you identify as a Native American so you can hunt year round on ancestral lands.

I don't know about today, but that would have worked a year ago.

 

[omicron1792]

I think chance of you recreating the exact same hunting is low.

However, there can be great positives. In the SE USA where I live you can be outdoors all 12 months a year. We have liberal hunting seasons and limits. I can almost guarantee your time outdoors would double or triple if you moved here.

Would you hunt elk a lot? No. But you could take yearly trips to hunt elk or other big game. And you could hunt and fish 11 other months of the year here at home.

 

[chasewild]

Glad someone can relate to the cold, How far south did you end up going? Just travel to other states to hunt ?


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Anyone can say they would move up to hunt, but very few do it, and those that do realize 10-15 days of sheep hunting starts to look different after months with a little kid indoors. We run trap lines, ice fish, ski, all of it, and my son still spends 30% more of his life indoors then he would down south.


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