Best state (lower 48) to own hunting land

[69ChrisCraft]

If I was bound to one property it would'nt be in the "mountain west". Either south central TX or California. If opportunity was limited to the land you lived on then a moderate, transitional climate would be the ticket. I have a good friend with 1,100 in the "foothills" of CA and he has (with 3 ponds): deer, bear, lion, bobcat, hog, turkey, quail, mallard, canadians, widgeon, goldeneye, gadwall, large mouth, catfish, bluegill....all while having collected an extensive collection of Indian artifacts from the property. I have a hard time imagining an area with such a game rich environment.....sans high fence South Africa and Texas.

If you were into river fishing I would also include coastal steelhead waters of CA and OR which are game rich.

 

[69ChrisCraft]

Any other area I'm aware of would exclude a large portion of the year due to season restrictions or weather. The SE, SW and West Coast have the moderate climate to allow for 365 days of "sportsmanship". Colorado Elk or Iowa Whitetail would be a dream come true for a month or two but I'd rather have 12 months of opportunities than 2 months of premier hunting.

 

[johnnylaw]

if i was in that predicament i would buy 50-100 acres somewhere i wanted to live and spend the rest of that money on trips... and thats a lot of trips

 

[Moose2367]

I have no idea about the tag system you guys have over there, but just a question.

With the landowner tags mentioned, can you only hunt your land there with those tags or are they able to be utilised anywhere in the respective state, such as public land?

All deer here have no tags, except for hog deer, their area/habitat is pretty small and there is a ballot system in at least one area, maybe others, not sure.

 

[nflesher]

In MT, with a 640+ contiguous acres in a permit elk area or 160+ contiguous acres in a permit deer area you would qualify for "landowner preference" for some of the hardest to draw permits in the state (good district-wide).

I keep getting told by you Montana guys that Montana is full, but North Dakota has room haha.

 

[danarnold]

if i was in that predicament i would buy 50-100 acres somewhere i wanted to live and spend the rest of that money on trips... and thats a lot of trips

I dont always agree with the law but... I like what johnny had to say

 

[gmajor]

Why not buy one or two acres (or ten or twenty) which abuts National Forest or BLM land and save the literally hundreds of thousands of $ spent on "many acres." Think about the taxes alone.
Here in remote Idaho we have 30 acres which abuts land owned by a power company, and we're surrounded by thousands of acres owned by a timber company. It is secluded, and we kill everything we need right here. Just my .02.

We've talked about doing this as well. I'm wondering if there is a more efficient system for looking up these type of parcels than what I've been doing (clicking on a listing, looking at a map). Ideally we could get a few nat. forest acres abutting a wilderness area...

 

[Forestryguy]

For whitetails, Southern Illinois along the bluffs and bottom land along the Mississippi River, NE Iowa same setting or SW Iowa. SE Oklahoma.

 

[Tauntohawk]

Kentucky or New York where I can hunt whitetails, turkey and bear. Out west public land can be great but back east it's tough sledding.

 

[charvey9]

I'm gonna throw another thought into the mix. North Dakota. I love to bird hunt, and could do a lot there with 1000 acres for pheasant and the whitetail hunting is supposed to be good also. It would also be a pretty easy drive to MT or WY for elk.

 

[StrutNut]

I would not go to a state where I can only hunt a couple of species. I would opt for the mountains as well where there is a variety of big game. I like that alfalfa field idea too as I am sure not only big game but possible pulling some waterfowl in. Proper land management could get you a variety of hunting and possible fishing opportunities.

 

[camelcluch]

Really its up to you and what you would be looking for. For me I would look for something that gives me the best bang for my buck. Multiple species and available tags. Colorado is a good state for species but tags are slim in places. Although you can get land owner at the size you are talking, pretty much one buck/bull type thing. Nebraska has deer, ducks, turkey, pheasant and some others with a much easier tag system. Plus, if you are living on the property, hunting is minutes from the house. I have been trying to find a partner to do this for years now and just cant seem to get it done. Hope your dream comes true.

 

[Eddiem0nster]

I'm more curious as to how you made 2-4 million to be able to do that.