Idaho vs Wyoming

[BKIdaho]

I’m an Idaho resident. My opinions.

Deer - probably slight edge to WY
Elk - WY all day, look no further than gen tag
PH - WY by a mile
Trophy species - I could go either way
Turkey - Idaho
Wolf/lion - even
Fishing - Idaho (I’m a lake guy)
Waterfowl - probably Idaho
Predators - even

Overall big game - WY
Overall other stuff - ID

This^^

I’d guess it’s a lot cheaper to buy in a nice area of ID vs same of WY. WY is a rough winter, hence the population.

Would have loved 5-6 yrs of hunting Reg G Deer and elk almost anywhere, but I love Idaho, despite all the transplants coming in.

 

[displacedtexan]

I’m an Idaho resident. My opinions.

Deer - probably slight edge to WY
Elk - WY all day, look no further than gen tag
PH - WY by a mile
Trophy species - I could go either way
Turkey - Idaho
Wolf/lion - even
Fishing - Idaho (I’m a lake guy)
Waterfowl - probably Idaho
Predators - even

Overall big game - WY
Overall other stuff - ID

Unless you're a river fly guy... Dead on.

 

[Mojave]

If you look at the big 4, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska and Idaho there is no clear winner.

Wyoming and Alaska don't have state income tax. But they have taxes for everything else.
Montana has no sales tax, but they nail you in the rear end on everything else. It changes regularly but I think Montana has the lowest across the board impact to the individual tax burden of any state.
Idaho has a fairly low total tax picture.

For veterans there is not a clear winner. There is no single resident veteran program in one state that is better in another. None of them are Texas with tons of great programs, none of them are like Vermont with no programs.

Weather.
Alaska is either really cold, really rainy, really snowy, or really really cold.
Wyoming is either really cold, always really windy and really hot and dry.
Montana it depends on which side of the state you live on. It is either really snowy, really cold and if you live in eastern Montana really windy.
Idaho gets a lot of snow in the mountains, and a lot of wind in the desert. Yes it is still cold.

Fishing winner Alaska, edge Montana and Idaho over Wyoming. Alaska has something like 14,000 miles of coastline with halibut and king crab in the briny deep. Plus king salmon. Kind of hard to beat that.

Upland winner Montana or Alaska, then Wyoming and Idaho.
Waterfowl winner Alaska, Montana and Idaho way over Wyoming.

Access.
Alaska is the best and worst because the best areas are fly in or boat in. If you have the financial means Alaska is great.
Wyoming has a lot of locked up lands, so does Montana and Idaho.

Cost of living.
Housing in Anchorage, SE Alaska, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho Falls is all really expensive.
Housing in Fairbanks, Wyoming crap-hole towns like Riverton and Rawlins, Eastern Montana (or Montana reservation towns) and Idaho/Oregon Idaho/Washington border towns is much cheaper.
Riverton is my home town, I get to call it a crap hole. Rawlins is a prison town.

Sheep/Goat/Moose
Obviously Alaska is king. There is no comparison OTC tags for sheep, goat and moose.
Montana has the most goats. Quite a few moose and quite a few sheep.
Idaho has a lot of goats and moose.
Wyoming has very few goat tags and quite a few moose tags.
Alaska first, then it is all the same.

Elk
Wyoming has the fewest resident hunters (because of population) and is 90% the size of Idaho and 60% the size of Montana approximately. I think there is more elk available on a general in Montana than there is in Wyoming. Montana elk seasons favor bowhunters, Wyoming elk seasons are fairly fair to rifle hunters. I have not done the research on elk seasons in Idaho. I think it depends on if you are a bowhunter or not. I am not so I favor Wyoming. If you had horses and the equipment and were young enough to want to deal with brown bears in the Buffalo Thorofare there would not be any competition. But that is a tall order. Bowhunters would favor Montana.

Deer.
There are lots of very average to below average areas in Wyoming for deer. But there are a lot of deer.
Montana has a lot more whitetails, but I think you can get more tags in Wyoming.
Idaho has more whitetails than Wyoming does. I would split hairs and say Montana is slightly better, but it depends on what you like. I like hunting mule deer in the alpine. I also like sitting in a tree stand waiting for deer to come in. Alaska has Sitka blacktails, and you get to take 3 bucks, so for me it is the clear winner. I don't see any real advantage on the other three.

Pronghorns. Not even a close race. Wyoming, Montana then Idaho.

Extra credit:
Alaska has caribou, brown bears, wolverine and feral reindeer, woods bison (no tags yet, but coming soon) and muskox. So for the extra credit stuff Alaska is the clear winner.
There were mountain caribou in Idaho and Montana when I was a kid. I don't think there are anymore. Idaho does not have a hunt able population of bison on public land. So Idaho is clearly last.
The bison hunts in Wyoming and Montana are kind of a BS deal. But hey they have them so they are 2nd and 3rd in some order.

Women for the single man, or looking to become single man.
Alaska is probably not first, but it isn't last. I had very good luck as a single man in Barrow. You had your choice between the imported Phillipinas working as nurses in town, and a lot of professional women. There are about 85% as many women in Alaska as there are men, but the competition isn't as bad as people claim. There are so many completely feral dudes, borderline physcopaths that you'll have better luck than you think. There are also an abosolute mountain of chain-wallet lesbians in Anchorage. I had one cut me off when I was driving downtown on a Saturday, then end up next to me at a red light. she had her window down so I told her off, and she just turned into a marshmallow in the sun and melted bawling, is probably still crying her eyes out at that red-light today.

Quality of life (sports, bars, library, safety, security, crime).
Alaska has the worst crime, mostly native problems in villages and big city problems in Anchorage.
Wyoming has a lot of crime. Oilfield imported issues from out of state, and the reservation native problems.
Montana has the same, but not to the extent that Wyoming does.
Idaho has reservations too, but it is probably the safest.

Oilfield in Wyoming and Alaska had paid for a lot of infrastructure that doesn't exist in Montana and Idaho to the same degree. Libraries, parks, sports complexes, minor league sports, huge museums, and in the case of Alaska massive.

Wyoming has a couple small private universities, a few junior colleges and the U of WY has Laramie and Casper. Montana has a mountain of both private and public universities all over the state. I think Idaho has something similar.

Reservations are either really impactful like Riverton, or not an issue at all depending on how far they are away from where you live.

Wyoming is massively at risk for the Salt Lake and Denver bubbles to explode in population. Wyoming has always been someplace that didn't have the infrastructure of housing that could support a huge immigrant federal dumping situation that Omaha and Bowling Green got during the Kosovo war, or Afghan immigrant situation that Detroit and other areas have gotten recently. Saying that Wyoming is very close to the populations of Salt Lake and Denver. There is already a migration issue in Wyoming with retirees. Who are building infrastructure, and I think thee problems will come.

Alaska has a huge immigrant population from Asia and the Philippines. This doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Alaska also has fairly major military installations. The Air Force Bases in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho don't lead to the same form of retired and ex-mil migration that Alaska gets. Military wives are rarely happy about any of the WY, ID, MT locations.

Major cities:
Boise is 400,000 plus
Anchorage is 400,000 ish
Billings is 300,000 ish
Missoula, Idaho Falls, Couer D Lane, Bozeman, Fairbanks, Juneau, Casper are all around 60,000-110,000. Or in the case of Cour D Lane (no I don't know how to spell it), it is 30 miles from a 150,000 city in Washington.

That is my not-so deep dive on the subject.

 

[displacedtexan]

If you look at the big 4, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska and Idaho there is no clear winner.

Wyoming and Alaska don't have state income tax. But they have taxes for everything else.
Montana has no sales tax, but they nail you in the rear end on everything else. It changes regularly but I think Montana has the lowest across the board impact to the individual tax burden of any state.
Idaho has a fairly low total tax picture.

For veterans there is not a clear winner. There is no single resident veteran program in one state that is better in another. None of them are Texas with tons of great programs, none of them are like Vermont with no programs.

Weather.
Alaska is either really cold, really rainy, really snowy, or really really cold.
Wyoming is either really cold, always really windy and really hot and dry.
Montana it depends on which side of the state you live on. It is either really snowy, really cold and if you live in eastern Montana really windy.
Idaho gets a lot of snow in the mountains, and a lot of wind in the desert. Yes it is still cold.

Fishing winner Alaska, edge Montana and Idaho over Wyoming. Alaska has something like 14,000 miles of coastline with halibut and king crab in the briny deep. Plus king salmon. Kind of hard to beat that.

Upland winner Montana or Alaska, then Wyoming and Idaho.
Waterfowl winner Alaska, Montana and Idaho way over Wyoming.

Access.
Alaska is the best and worst because the best areas are fly in or boat in. If you have the financial means Alaska is great.
Wyoming has a lot of locked up lands, so does Montana and Idaho.

Cost of living.
Housing in Anchorage, SE Alaska, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho Falls is all really expensive.
Housing in Fairbanks, Wyoming crap-hole towns like Riverton and Rawlins, Eastern Montana (or Montana reservation towns) and Idaho/Oregon Idaho/Washington border towns is much cheaper.
Riverton is my home town, I get to call it a crap hole. Rawlins is a prison town.

Sheep/Goat/Moose
Obviously Alaska is king. There is no comparison OTC tags for sheep, goat and moose.
Montana has the most goats. Quite a few moose and quite a few sheep.
Idaho has a lot of goats and moose.
Wyoming has very few goat tags and quite a few moose tags.
Alaska first, then it is all the same.

Elk
Wyoming has the fewest resident hunters (because of population) and is 90% the size of Idaho and 60% the size of Montana approximately. I think there is more elk available on a general in Montana than there is in Wyoming. Montana elk seasons favor bowhunters, Wyoming elk seasons are fairly fair to rifle hunters. I have not done the research on elk seasons in Idaho. I think it depends on if you are a bowhunter or not. I am not so I favor Wyoming. If you had horses and the equipment and were young enough to want to deal with brown bears in the Buffalo Thorofare there would not be any competition. But that is a tall order. Bowhunters would favor Montana.

Deer.
There are lots of very average to below average areas in Wyoming for deer. But there are a lot of deer.
Montana has a lot more whitetails, but I think you can get more tags in Wyoming.
Idaho has more whitetails than Wyoming does. I would split hairs and say Montana is slightly better, but it depends on what you like. I like hunting mule deer in the alpine. I also like sitting in a tree stand waiting for deer to come in. Alaska has Sitka blacktails, and you get to take 3 bucks, so for me it is the clear winner. I don't see any real advantage on the other three.

Pronghorns. Not even a close race. Wyoming, Montana then Idaho.

Extra credit:
Alaska has caribou, brown bears, wolverine and feral reindeer, woods bison (no tags yet, but coming soon) and muskox. So for the extra credit stuff Alaska is the clear winner.
There were mountain caribou in Idaho and Montana when I was a kid. I don't think there are anymore. Idaho does not have a hunt able population of bison on public land. So Idaho is clearly last.
The bison hunts in Wyoming and Montana are kind of a BS deal. But hey they have them so they are 2nd and 3rd in some order.

Women for the single man, or looking to become single man.
Alaska is probably not first, but it isn't last. I had very good luck as a single man in Barrow. You had your choice between the imported Phillipinas working as nurses in town, and a lot of professional women. There are about 85% as many women in Alaska as there are men, but the competition isn't as bad as people claim. There are so many completely feral dudes, borderline physcopaths that you'll have better luck than you think. There are also an abosolute mountain of chain-wallet lesbians in Anchorage. I had one cut me off when I was driving downtown on a Saturday, then end up next to me at a red light. she had her window down so I told her off, and she just turned into a marshmallow in the sun and melted bawling, is probably still crying her eyes out at that red-light today.

Quality of life (sports, bars, library, safety, security, crime).
Alaska has the worst crime, mostly native problems in villages and big city problems in Anchorage.
Wyoming has a lot of crime. Oilfield imported issues from out of state, and the reservation native problems.
Montana has the same, but not to the extent that Wyoming does.
Idaho has reservations too, but it is probably the safest.

Oilfield in Wyoming and Alaska had paid for a lot of infrastructure that doesn't exist in Montana and Idaho to the same degree. Libraries, parks, sports complexes, minor league sports, huge museums, and in the case of Alaska massive.

Wyoming has a couple small private universities, a few junior colleges and the U of WY has Laramie and Casper. Montana has a mountain of both private and public universities all over the state. I think Idaho has something similar.

Reservations are either really impactful like Riverton, or not an issue at all depending on how far they are away from where you live.

Wyoming is massively at risk for the Salt Lake and Denver bubbles to explode in population. Wyoming has always been someplace that didn't have the infrastructure of housing that could support a huge immigrant federal dumping situation that Omaha and Bowling Green got during the Kosovo war, or Afghan immigrant situation that Detroit and other areas have gotten recently. Saying that Wyoming is very close to the populations of Salt Lake and Denver. There is already a migration issue in Wyoming with retirees. Who are building infrastructure, and I think thee problems will come.

Alaska has a huge immigrant population from Asia and the Philippines. This doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Alaska also has fairly major military installations. The Air Force Bases in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho don't lead to the same form of retired and ex-mil migration that Alaska gets. Military wives are rarely happy about any of the WY, ID, MT locations.

Major cities:
Boise is 400,000 plus
Anchorage is 400,000 ish
Billings is 300,000 ish
Missoula, Idaho Falls, Couer D Lane, Bozeman, Fairbanks, Juneau, Casper are all around 60,000-110,000. Or in the case of Cour D Lane (no I don't know how to spell it), it is 30 miles from a 150,000 city in Washington.

That is my not-so deep dive on the subject.

I'd call it pretty deep for a question about hunting opportunities in Idaho vs Wyoming.

 

[2ski]

Nebraska....you should move to Nebraska....

 

[displacedtexan]

Nebraska....you should move to Nebraska....

Great album.

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

If you look at the big 4, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska and Idaho there is no clear winner.

Wyoming and Alaska don't have state income tax. But they have taxes for everything else.
Montana has no sales tax, but they nail you in the rear end on everything else. It changes regularly but I think Montana has the lowest across the board impact to the individual tax burden of any state.
Idaho has a fairly low total tax picture.

For veterans there is not a clear winner. There is no single resident veteran program in one state that is better in another. None of them are Texas with tons of great programs, none of them are like Vermont with no programs.

Weather.
Alaska is either really cold, really rainy, really snowy, or really really cold.
Wyoming is either really cold, always really windy and really hot and dry.
Montana it depends on which side of the state you live on. It is either really snowy, really cold and if you live in eastern Montana really windy.
Idaho gets a lot of snow in the mountains, and a lot of wind in the desert. Yes it is still cold.

Fishing winner Alaska, edge Montana and Idaho over Wyoming. Alaska has something like 14,000 miles of coastline with halibut and king crab in the briny deep. Plus king salmon. Kind of hard to beat that.

Upland winner Montana or Alaska, then Wyoming and Idaho.
Waterfowl winner Alaska, Montana and Idaho way over Wyoming.

Access.
Alaska is the best and worst because the best areas are fly in or boat in. If you have the financial means Alaska is great.
Wyoming has a lot of locked up lands, so does Montana and Idaho.

Cost of living.
Housing in Anchorage, SE Alaska, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho Falls is all really expensive.
Housing in Fairbanks, Wyoming crap-hole towns like Riverton and Rawlins, Eastern Montana (or Montana reservation towns) and Idaho/Oregon Idaho/Washington border towns is much cheaper.
Riverton is my home town, I get to call it a crap hole. Rawlins is a prison town.

Sheep/Goat/Moose
Obviously Alaska is king. There is no comparison OTC tags for sheep, goat and moose.
Montana has the most goats. Quite a few moose and quite a few sheep.
Idaho has a lot of goats and moose.
Wyoming has very few goat tags and quite a few moose tags.
Alaska first, then it is all the same.

Elk
Wyoming has the fewest resident hunters (because of population) and is 90% the size of Idaho and 60% the size of Montana approximately. I think there is more elk available on a general in Montana than there is in Wyoming. Montana elk seasons favor bowhunters, Wyoming elk seasons are fairly fair to rifle hunters. I have not done the research on elk seasons in Idaho. I think it depends on if you are a bowhunter or not. I am not so I favor Wyoming. If you had horses and the equipment and were young enough to want to deal with brown bears in the Buffalo Thorofare there would not be any competition. But that is a tall order. Bowhunters would favor Montana.

Deer.
There are lots of very average to below average areas in Wyoming for deer. But there are a lot of deer.
Montana has a lot more whitetails, but I think you can get more tags in Wyoming.
Idaho has more whitetails than Wyoming does. I would split hairs and say Montana is slightly better, but it depends on what you like. I like hunting mule deer in the alpine. I also like sitting in a tree stand waiting for deer to come in. Alaska has Sitka blacktails, and you get to take 3 bucks, so for me it is the clear winner. I don't see any real advantage on the other three.

Pronghorns. Not even a close race. Wyoming, Montana then Idaho.

Extra credit:
Alaska has caribou, brown bears, wolverine and feral reindeer, woods bison (no tags yet, but coming soon) and muskox. So for the extra credit stuff Alaska is the clear winner.
There were mountain caribou in Idaho and Montana when I was a kid. I don't think there are anymore. Idaho does not have a hunt able population of bison on public land. So Idaho is clearly last.
The bison hunts in Wyoming and Montana are kind of a BS deal. But hey they have them so they are 2nd and 3rd in some order.

Women for the single man, or looking to become single man.
Alaska is probably not first, but it isn't last. I had very good luck as a single man in Barrow. You had your choice between the imported Phillipinas working as nurses in town, and a lot of professional women. There are about 85% as many women in Alaska as there are men, but the competition isn't as bad as people claim. There are so many completely feral dudes, borderline physcopaths that you'll have better luck than you think. There are also an abosolute mountain of chain-wallet lesbians in Anchorage. I had one cut me off when I was driving downtown on a Saturday, then end up next to me at a red light. she had her window down so I told her off, and she just turned into a marshmallow in the sun and melted bawling, is probably still crying her eyes out at that red-light today.

Quality of life (sports, bars, library, safety, security, crime).
Alaska has the worst crime, mostly native problems in villages and big city problems in Anchorage.
Wyoming has a lot of crime. Oilfield imported issues from out of state, and the reservation native problems.
Montana has the same, but not to the extent that Wyoming does.
Idaho has reservations too, but it is probably the safest.

Oilfield in Wyoming and Alaska had paid for a lot of infrastructure that doesn't exist in Montana and Idaho to the same degree. Libraries, parks, sports complexes, minor league sports, huge museums, and in the case of Alaska massive.

Wyoming has a couple small private universities, a few junior colleges and the U of WY has Laramie and Casper. Montana has a mountain of both private and public universities all over the state. I think Idaho has something similar.

Reservations are either really impactful like Riverton, or not an issue at all depending on how far they are away from where you live.

Wyoming is massively at risk for the Salt Lake and Denver bubbles to explode in population. Wyoming has always been someplace that didn't have the infrastructure of housing that could support a huge immigrant federal dumping situation that Omaha and Bowling Green got during the Kosovo war, or Afghan immigrant situation that Detroit and other areas have gotten recently. Saying that Wyoming is very close to the populations of Salt Lake and Denver. There is already a migration issue in Wyoming with retirees. Who are building infrastructure, and I think thee problems will come.

Alaska has a huge immigrant population from Asia and the Philippines. This doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Alaska also has fairly major military installations. The Air Force Bases in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho don't lead to the same form of retired and ex-mil migration that Alaska gets. Military wives are rarely happy about any of the WY, ID, MT locations.

Major cities:
Boise is 400,000 plus
Anchorage is 400,000 ish
Billings is 300,000 ish
Missoula, Idaho Falls, Couer D Lane, Bozeman, Fairbanks, Juneau, Casper are all around 60,000-110,000. Or in the case of Cour D Lane (no I don't know how to spell it), it is 30 miles from a 150,000 city in Washington.

That is my not-so deep dive on the subject.

Phenomenal write up. There are so many contributing factors to consider.

 

[wytx]

Humm...
Don't agree with all of it but not bad.

 

[StupidLightweight]

Other states to consider for hunting opportunities is North and South Dakota. Those are highly underrated. I won't say they're better than the aforementioned states, but I bet life is cheaper, and in 2024, that matters.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

Other states to consider for hunting opportunities is North and South Dakota. Those are highly underrated. I won't say they're better than the aforementioned states, but I bet life is cheaper, and in 2024, that matters.

I would love to live somewhere in the black hills of South Dakota. I will say I don’t think it’s any cheaper really than Idaho based on my Zillow searches of the area. I’m sure there are other places in SoDak that are cheaper but there is 0 chance my wife would be willing to live in the other 95% of South Dakota that isn’t the black hills


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Mojave]

Phenomenal write up. There are so many contributing factors to consider.

Thanks. I have a big mouth on the internet.

 

[manitou1]

I’ll preface this with the fact that I’m an Idaho resident. Both states offer over the counter deer and elk tags to residents, to draw a rifle pronghorn tag in Idaho requires beating 2-4% odds with no points, but a Wyoming resident can draw them as a 2nd choice. I’m pretty sure bear/mountain lion/wolf opportunities are all the same between the 2. Don’t know or care about turkeys much, I’m guessing we have more opportunity in Idaho. Anyway I think Wyoming wins


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I think ID beats WY in lion, bear and wolf quite a bit.
When faced with which species to hunt during your off time and you have elk, muley and antelope tags, most opt for elk and mule deer to spend their time on. At least I do.

 

[manitou1]

If you look at the big 4, Wyoming, Montana, Alaska and Idaho there is no clear winner.

Wyoming and Alaska don't have state income tax. But they have taxes for everything else.
Montana has no sales tax, but they nail you in the rear end on everything else. It changes regularly but I think Montana has the lowest across the board impact to the individual tax burden of any state.
Idaho has a fairly low total tax picture.

For veterans there is not a clear winner. There is no single resident veteran program in one state that is better in another. None of them are Texas with tons of great programs, none of them are like Vermont with no programs.

Weather.
Alaska is either really cold, really rainy, really snowy, or really really cold.
Wyoming is either really cold, always really windy and really hot and dry.
Montana it depends on which side of the state you live on. It is either really snowy, really cold and if you live in eastern Montana really windy.
Idaho gets a lot of snow in the mountains, and a lot of wind in the desert. Yes it is still cold.

Fishing winner Alaska, edge Montana and Idaho over Wyoming. Alaska has something like 14,000 miles of coastline with halibut and king crab in the briny deep. Plus king salmon. Kind of hard to beat that.

Upland winner Montana or Alaska, then Wyoming and Idaho.
Waterfowl winner Alaska, Montana and Idaho way over Wyoming.

Access.
Alaska is the best and worst because the best areas are fly in or boat in. If you have the financial means Alaska is great.
Wyoming has a lot of locked up lands, so does Montana and Idaho.

Cost of living.
Housing in Anchorage, SE Alaska, Wyoming, Boise, Idaho Falls is all really expensive.
Housing in Fairbanks, Wyoming crap-hole towns like Riverton and Rawlins, Eastern Montana (or Montana reservation towns) and Idaho/Oregon Idaho/Washington border towns is much cheaper.
Riverton is my home town, I get to call it a crap hole. Rawlins is a prison town.

Sheep/Goat/Moose
Obviously Alaska is king. There is no comparison OTC tags for sheep, goat and moose.
Montana has the most goats. Quite a few moose and quite a few sheep.
Idaho has a lot of goats and moose.
Wyoming has very few goat tags and quite a few moose tags.
Alaska first, then it is all the same.

Elk
Wyoming has the fewest resident hunters (because of population) and is 90% the size of Idaho and 60% the size of Montana approximately. I think there is more elk available on a general in Montana than there is in Wyoming. Montana elk seasons favor bowhunters, Wyoming elk seasons are fairly fair to rifle hunters. I have not done the research on elk seasons in Idaho. I think it depends on if you are a bowhunter or not. I am not so I favor Wyoming. If you had horses and the equipment and were young enough to want to deal with brown bears in the Buffalo Thorofare there would not be any competition. But that is a tall order. Bowhunters would favor Montana.

Deer.
There are lots of very average to below average areas in Wyoming for deer. But there are a lot of deer.
Montana has a lot more whitetails, but I think you can get more tags in Wyoming.
Idaho has more whitetails than Wyoming does. I would split hairs and say Montana is slightly better, but it depends on what you like. I like hunting mule deer in the alpine. I also like sitting in a tree stand waiting for deer to come in. Alaska has Sitka blacktails, and you get to take 3 bucks, so for me it is the clear winner. I don't see any real advantage on the other three.

Pronghorns. Not even a close race. Wyoming, Montana then Idaho.

Extra credit:
Alaska has caribou, brown bears, wolverine and feral reindeer, woods bison (no tags yet, but coming soon) and muskox. So for the extra credit stuff Alaska is the clear winner.
There were mountain caribou in Idaho and Montana when I was a kid. I don't think there are anymore. Idaho does not have a hunt able population of bison on public land. So Idaho is clearly last.
The bison hunts in Wyoming and Montana are kind of a BS deal. But hey they have them so they are 2nd and 3rd in some order.

Women for the single man, or looking to become single man.
Alaska is probably not first, but it isn't last. I had very good luck as a single man in Barrow. You had your choice between the imported Phillipinas working as nurses in town, and a lot of professional women. There are about 85% as many women in Alaska as there are men, but the competition isn't as bad as people claim. There are so many completely feral dudes, borderline physcopaths that you'll have better luck than you think. There are also an abosolute mountain of chain-wallet lesbians in Anchorage. I had one cut me off when I was driving downtown on a Saturday, then end up next to me at a red light. she had her window down so I told her off, and she just turned into a marshmallow in the sun and melted bawling, is probably still crying her eyes out at that red-light today.

Quality of life (sports, bars, library, safety, security, crime).
Alaska has the worst crime, mostly native problems in villages and big city problems in Anchorage.
Wyoming has a lot of crime. Oilfield imported issues from out of state, and the reservation native problems.
Montana has the same, but not to the extent that Wyoming does.
Idaho has reservations too, but it is probably the safest.

Oilfield in Wyoming and Alaska had paid for a lot of infrastructure that doesn't exist in Montana and Idaho to the same degree. Libraries, parks, sports complexes, minor league sports, huge museums, and in the case of Alaska massive.

Wyoming has a couple small private universities, a few junior colleges and the U of WY has Laramie and Casper. Montana has a mountain of both private and public universities all over the state. I think Idaho has something similar.

Reservations are either really impactful like Riverton, or not an issue at all depending on how far they are away from where you live.

Wyoming is massively at risk for the Salt Lake and Denver bubbles to explode in population. Wyoming has always been someplace that didn't have the infrastructure of housing that could support a huge immigrant federal dumping situation that Omaha and Bowling Green got during the Kosovo war, or Afghan immigrant situation that Detroit and other areas have gotten recently. Saying that Wyoming is very close to the populations of Salt Lake and Denver. There is already a migration issue in Wyoming with retirees. Who are building infrastructure, and I think thee problems will come.

Alaska has a huge immigrant population from Asia and the Philippines. This doesn't seem to cause any problems.

Alaska also has fairly major military installations. The Air Force Bases in Wyoming, Montana and Idaho don't lead to the same form of retired and ex-mil migration that Alaska gets. Military wives are rarely happy about any of the WY, ID, MT locations.

Major cities:
Boise is 400,000 plus
Anchorage is 400,000 ish
Billings is 300,000 ish
Missoula, Idaho Falls, Couer D Lane, Bozeman, Fairbanks, Juneau, Casper are all around 60,000-110,000. Or in the case of Cour D Lane (no I don't know how to spell it), it is 30 miles from a 150,000 city in Washington.

That is my not-so deep dive on the subject.

Great write up with one disclaimer: Here in WY we have very few moose tags. It can take (and does) over fifteen years for a resident to draw.
Most areas (units or zones) in other states only give out 2-5 tags annually for all applicants.

 

[Ralphie]

I know Utah you can have up to 3 elk. General otc bull and 2 cow permits

You are correct. Utah is the clear winner. It is an undiscovered gem for resident hunters.

 

[el_jefe_pescado]

Thanks. I have a big mouth on the internet.

Haha. I was being being serious, I appreciate the deep dive. When answering "what state has the best resident hunting opportunities?" you can't ignore what it "takes" to be a resident. What seems like minutia at first ends being the reason folks leave after a couple years--despite those great hunting opportunities.

 

[The_Jim]

Nebraska....you should move to Nebraska....

I'm confident that the mandatory "my state is full" has never been said about Nebraska on this forum(or likely any other forum)

 

[Mojave]

Haha. I was being being serious, I appreciate the deep dive. When answering "what state has the best resident hunting opportunities?" you can't ignore what it "takes" to be a resident. What seems like minutia at first ends being the reason folks leave after a couple years--despite those great hunting opportunities.

Wyoming has a lot of things that suck about it. They have kind of always sucked.

Always been a disproportionate amount of crime against women. Not just the reservation. The reststop between Casper and Shoshoni has probably claimed the lives of 20 people.

When I was a young child in Riverton my father was the undersheriff of Fremont County. There were serveral incidences he investigated of men killing their wives (one in Lander I remember) and women dissapearing. This was in the 1970's. We eventually moved to Alcova and then to Casper and then to Montana when he became a federal agent. The "little miss" case in Casper was one my father investigated as a deputy sherriff in Casper.

Lil' Miss murder - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

This was during the time that the majority of everyone in Wyoming was white.

Two 15-year-olds identified and charged in Bobby Maher Jr.’s death

Affidavit details altercation that occurred at the Eastridge Mall on Sunday, leading to Bobby Maher Jr.’s death.

www.wyomingnewsnow.tv

This happened in Casper a few months ago. Wyoming is still tough.

A friend of mine used to own a bar in Sheridan or Gillette and was involved with a shootout a motorcycle gant in the 1990s.

Not saying this doesn't happen everywhere but Wyoming's small population makes it really noticable.

A Wyoming national guard sniper killed his x-wife in Casper about 15 years ago.

Wyoming is not Mayberry.

 

[Grizz208]

Idaho sucks! Go to Wyoming!

 

[WY SkunkApe]

Idaho, it’s definitely where you want to go.

 

[3325]

Wyoming is hard to beat for resident opportunities. The hard part is making it as a resident in Wyoming. It’s not the easiest state to move to and carve out your niche.

If Grizzlies are delisted, Wyoming will definitely have the best opportunities for residents in the Lower 48.

But one area where Idaho shines is black bear. If I ever go somewhere else to be the “dude,” it will be the Salmon River Lodge for a black bear hunt.