Best State for Resident Hunting Opportunties

[cnelk]

Mule deer at the top of your list, Colorado is a better bet than any other state.

Youve been right on many things, but this aint one. Maybe several years ago

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Alaska is great but people don’t realize how short their hunting seasons are. Most big game seasons are only 6 weeks long. With unlimited funds and time off that can be drawn out. Most the time hunting season is done in September then you have to endure 6 months of dark and cold. With unlimited funds and time I would absolutely stay an Alaska resident, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

 

[schlumpyj]

Alaska is great but people don’t realize how short their hunting seasons are. Most big game seasons are only 6 weeks long. With unlimited funds and time off that can be drawn out. Most the time hunting season is done in September then you have to endure 6 months of dark and cold. With unlimited funds and time I would absolutely stay an Alaska resident, but unfortunately that’s not the case.

Where did you move to?

 

[Soilguy115]

Montana.


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[Bighorse]

I live in Alaska. I own a boat. Deer from Aug-Dec (four), Mt Goat (1), Black Bear 2, trapping, wolves, wolverine, Elk (1), Moose (1).......annually

If I travel north then I have opportunity at Caribou, Sheep, Bison, and Muskox. I might as well live in the lower 48 cuz I have to make a flight or magnum drive to participate in those.

For the first list it's all just time and effort locally with my personal equipment. Time is the expense! You don't travel remote without spending and using it. The weather dictates the expense far more than the distance

All that said.....It's not all about the harvest and I know other locations provide meaningful experiences. AK is still pretty wild though and if carving out a spot to kinda call your own mattters, you can point at a map and start hiking with reasonable expectation of being the only human predator on the hill. It's a must do experience for a man in my opinion.

 

[kickemall]

Worry about the hunting and the women won't be an issue. It's been my experience that no matter where you are, if you're a semi decent looking guy with any kind of a job and not a drunken Ahole, women are never a problem to find.

 

[landman650]

Tons of great advice and help on this thread. I’ve spent several days looking at real estate in a few states thanks to the posts here.

 

[Mojave]

If I travel north then I have opportunity at Caribou, Sheep, Bison, and Muskox. I might as well live in the lower 48 cuz I have to make a flight or magnum drive to participate in those.

The biggest difference between living in Alaska and not living in Alaska is the guide requirement and the distance.

If a guy was able to drive up every year (at least 5-7 days each way) and hunt for a week, ok great. But you are going to see lots of things you can't shoot because you are not guided.

So 10-14 days of travel if you are dragging your own boat.

 

[Bighorse]

Im in the islands of SE and need to ferry vehicles to the road system. Either Prince Rupert or Haines. Magnum trip but you're right, I can hunt some species a non resident can't. If I wanna hunt a sheep....I could.

 

[Scoot]

Worry about the hunting and the women won't be an issue. It's been my experience that no matter where you are, if you're a semi decent looking guy with any kind of a job and not a drunken Ahole, women are never a problem to find.

Huh... does that mean I'm ugly or an Ahole? My job is ok and I'm not a drunk, so...

 

[Mojave]

Im in the islands of SE and need to ferry vehicles to the road system. Either Prince Rupert or Haines. Magnum trip but you're right, I can hunt some species a non resident can't. If I wanna hunt a sheep....I could.

Right, that is why I am trying to move back. Even living in Anchorage (meehhh ) I have more opportunity for species I would be paying $20,000 (or more) to hunt if I stay here in the Southern Rockies.

Which means I probably won't get up there very often.

 

[Dexter Grayson]

Where did you move to?

had a baby and moved back to Oklahoma.

 

[hh76]

I mentioned something similar to a friend. I asked, where would you move if you focused on hunting? He said "why would I move?"

Upper Midwest has months of great hunting out our backdoors, great fishing, and if I choose to hunt elk/mule deer, it's not that hard to plan a trip out west.

 

[cwparry44]

Alaska has to be number 1. WY and MT have great opportunities as well.

 

[TreeStandAthlete]

I mentioned something similar to a friend. I asked, where would you move if you focused on hunting? He said "why would I move?"

Upper Midwest has months of great hunting out our backdoors, great fishing, and if I choose to hunt elk/mule deer, it's not that hard to plan a trip out west.

Here here. I vote Iowa. World class whitetail hunting, solid everything else from stocked trout fishing in the Driftless to waterfowl hunting. Close enough to SD, WY, CO, and NM that I have plenty of driveable hunting opportunity out west. Yet if those plans fall through is still have KY, WI, IL, IN, KS, MN, SD, and ND for low cost, last minute whitetail/upland/waterfowl trips.

 

[TradArcher]

I have lived in Washington, Wyoming, Montana, Arizona, New Mexico, California, Maine, Florida, Hawaii and in 5 other countries thanks to my Uncle Sam. Grew up in Wyoming and currently live in New Mexico.

Here is my take on this controversial topic.

Nobody wants you to move to their honey hole. So the odds of getting an honest answer are completely off. I personally don't care where you move.

Here is my 2 cents:

Wyoming. There is decent over the counter hunting, but it will be competitive. You can hunt elk and deer every year over the counter. Fishing is pretty good, and not super crowded. There is no resident points programs for antelope, elk and deer. You may spend 3-5 years between buck antelope tags.

Montana. Also has decent over the counter hunting, because most of the state is OTC. They were stupid and adopted a resident points program. The goat, moose, bison and sheep tags are on a bonus points program, so you could possibly see one or two of those tags in your life.

Idaho. Has decent over the counter hunting, if you are a bowhunter most of the elk and deer tags are OTC. No points program for anything. More people than Wyoming and Montana, and less land. It would suck to live in East Idaho or Boise and not be Mormon and be single.

Arizona. Great quality hunting if you can draw a tag. Preference points program you are 30 years behind on. Fishing is ok, desert state. Scottsdale looks like a good place to be single, tons of fake boobs.

New Mexico. Great quality hunting if you can draw a tag, but no points programs. We have been residents for 3 years and I have drawn; elk, a crap deer tag, a great deer tag and a javelina tag in that time. If you bow hunt you can almost always draw a tag of some sort. Close to Arizona and Texas for draw hunts. Fishing is better than Arizona. Mostly desert state. If I was single, I am not so sure I wouldn't stay here, as it there are tons of hot women as long as you like spicy Latina brunettes. Especially down here near El Paso.

Alaska. I was single in Alaska the first time, yep. It is a boring place to be single. There are so many single dudes, that a lot of the women are tired of being chased and have given up on men. I was single in Barrow as well as Sitka. In Sikta it sucked, in Barrow it was fine. But I was 25 and all the women were in their mid 30's. They still dated me, but there wasn't good age matches.
There are also a huge number of wallet and chain lesbians in Alaska. So that doesn't help your odds. Fishing in Alaska is the best it can be. Hunting is based on your ability to get to it, because you bought the equipment or paid someone to take you out there. The draw hunts in Alaska have really poor odds. Bear hunting for grizz is over the counter and you can shoot 2 a year. You could hunt dall sheep, mountain goats, moose, grizzly, wolves, wolverine and more every year OTC. Kind of hard to beat that. And have a trap line. Especially if you lived someplace like Glennallen, Tok or Cantwell on the road system. You would still have internet connectivity for your job.

Utah, if you are single and not LDS I wouldn't consider moving there. They also have a super lopsided points program and you'll never get a tag. Quality of hunting is superb.

Nevada. Good place to be single. Points program has been developed for 20 years. Quality of hunting if you get a tag is very good.

Washington and Oregon. Ok place to be single if you like hippy chicks or want to date a transgendered dude. Hunting is a train wreck with long screwed up points programs.

Hooved animal Hunting quality ranked: New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Alaska.

Bear hunting and trapping ranked: Alaska. No place else is even close.

Hunting tag availability ranked (provided you can get to it): Alaska is so far above anywhere else, then Wyoming, Idaho and Montana. I put Idaho above Montana because of Montanas stupid points programs.

Single opportunity ranked: Arizona, New Mexico, gets really weird after that. Depending on how old you are there will always be single moms, and very few professional single women that have never been married. The Northern Rockies is going to be tougher than the Southern Rockies for dating.

Cost of living ranked (cheapest): New Mexico, Montana, Alaska, Idaho, Wyoming, Arizona in that order. ID, WY, and MT have housing booms that haven't even started to fall at all. Alaska and New Mexico had a mild housing boom. Western Montana is more expensive than eastern Montana.

I am curious as to what you thought of Maine. I lived there for a few years in the area around Ellsworth Maine and the Deer hunting and Grouse hunting was very good in the forests near there. I was spoiled from my earlier years though when I lived in MN and WI where the grouse hunting was great so my opinion of Maine upland hunting was based off that earlier experience.
Alot of folk up there called Maine "little Alaska" because of the Northern Woods and the long snowy winters. Never been to Alaska though myself so I have not point of reference.
Taxes where ridiculous though and the power outages in winter could last a week - it did one year over xmas and that sucked so unless I were to buy land adn build a very solid off grid worthy abode I wouldn't consider it.
Medical care was close enough and good enough though for retirement.
Ocean absolutly beautiful - never seen shades of blue like the ocean up there.
Did you hunt much there and if so what did you think of that state?

 

[Mojave]

Maine is both awesome and shitty.

It has strong Alaska vibes. There are way more women in Maine. Meth and Fetanol are big problems in rural Maine, and I think that if you have a job you can have really good success dating. Maine cities kind of suck.

Bird hunting is good, there are ruffed grouse everywhere.

Fishing is really good.

Taxes suck.

Power grid sucks.

Road system is shittier than Northern California. I don't think they can actually afford to keep up their roads, and it shows.

The moose lottery for residents is really solid. You have a real chance of shooting 2-3 moose in your life time if you are under 30, and at least 1 if you are over 45.

I would not personally choose to end up in Maine as my current situation sits. Unless I was offered a pretty good promotion.

I have three daughters all in the 6-10 age, and one that just graduated college.

Beautiful state though.

Single, I would consider it.

The snowmobile culture in Maine is better than it is in Western Montana. Especially in rural Maine.

I have not been in a strip club since then, but the club in Jay, Maine out in the middle of nowhere was incredible. This was like 2008.

 

[TJ M]

I’ve done a lot of research in this because I’m going to retire from the military in a couple of year. My number one choice would Alaska but I would only do that for a like 10 years. The next would be Arizona tied with Wyoming. Idaho would be next followed Montana then Nevada and Utah. New Mexico would be number 1 but their taxes suck.

As a Nevada resident, I’d say that it used to be amazing here as a resident big game hunter, both for amount of opportunities and chances to go on true trophy hunts. However, population growth and major drought have changed things dramatically here. The shear number of applicants is staggering now and quotas are down drastically because of severely declining animal numbers. It’s a total bummer.

 

[Goatboy22]

I always like the responses from Alaska where the hoods are up and the skies are grey. If you were raised in a state where you had a lot of blue sky and nice weather, you might be in for a rude awakening.

 

[scott85]

As a Nevada resident, I’d say that it used to be amazing here as a resident big game hunter, both for amount of opportunities and chances to go on true trophy hunts. However, population growth and major drought have changed things dramatically here. The shear number of applicants is staggering now and quotas are down drastically because of severely declining animal numbers. It’s a total bummer.

I’m about to find out, I’m moving to Nevada in the fall. I still think Nevada beats Utah.