Land Owner Perspective on Western States

[CrypticEnigma]

Hello all. I'm looking to buy land somewhere in the western states. I love hiking and being outdoors and I like lack of population. I currently live in an RV and am starting migrations around different areas to find my place. My whole goal is to get back into having cows and just enjoying being back in nature again and removing myself from the system as much as I can. Part of this is getting my food intake to be as much from what I harvest as possible.

Through my traveling I've been able to outline states and areas of states that suit my particular tastes and have been writing out a spread sheet documenting things like income tax, land tax, laws that either promote or inhibit homesteading activities, and now am turning my attention more specifically to the hunting side of things.

I'm trying to rank out the states that I'm looking at in terms of what the land owner tag regulation looks like but its getting pretty confusing. I wanted to see if any more experienced people have any added context on these types of things. So far where I've gotten is:

Montana - Deer needs 160 acres, Elk 640 acres
Idaho - 640 for either but even that only gets you involved in being in a lottery, not automatically getting tags
Washington - very confusing, seems like there is no specified number of acres? Seems to just be "the more acreage the better"
Utah - same kind of thing as Washington kind of a "we'll just let you know" type of system
New Mexico - same
Oregon - seems to be the easiest to figure out 40 + acres for antlerless for both and 160 + acres to get 2 tags on all types

Does anybody know if I'm in the right ball park on these? I've lived in Colorado before and got to do the OTC rifle stuff and it was pretty miserable, a bunch of people driving around in trucks trying to harvest off of the highway and stuff. Having grown up in Texas we cannot fathom the idea of not being able to harvest game on our land. My main thing is just the idea of being able to harvest a deer or elk every once in while when the opportunities present themselves as extra meat. I don't care about trophy anymore at all, just meat. So my preference is really geared towards where I can just know I'm going to have tags and be able to harvest.

Thanks for any information. I'm sure this isn't a super fun topic but would be very grateful for any information people have or experience.

 

[HornPorn]

Heck of a first post. Definitely seems like a troll

99% of people can’t afford to buy acreage out west big enough to get landowner tags on, so I’m curious to see what responses you get on a forum centered around guys who backpack hunt public land.

Having said that, Wyoming has no state income tax, and a smaller population than Montana, and you only need 160 acres of contiguous deeded land there, but it does have to be used by the target species for a majority of the year. Surprised it’s not on your list.

 

[wind gypsy]

Resident OTC tags are available in much of MT, ID, and WY. No need to be a landowner.

Maybe your way of thinking about it would work out better in TX though?

 

[CrypticEnigma]

Hmm. Ok what is it about my post that seems like a troll? The only Wyoming had not been on my list is the small areas of the state in which I'd really be interested in living and the climate in the area being a little bit harsher that some of the western parts of say Montana up against the mountains being a little bit more moderate. I actually JUST added Wyoming back on the list just in case something does add up there as I'm doing all the property tax/income tax and expected yearly cost that will be for me based on budget for land.

Definitely not a troll. I'm sorry if I didn't pick a good forum to get onto. I haven't been able to hunt really for the last 15 years of my life, have just had way too much going on I never felt like I had the time and money. Part of that is because I'm just a habitual saver.

I'll also add Colorado - I forgot this one and just now found that it is also 160 acres.

Thank you for the response.

 

[Jason Snyder]

Might not be a bad idea to figure out how many acres it takes to support a cow in some of those states.

 

[yfarm]

https://www.nrcs.usda.gov/sites/default/files/2022-10/Determining%20Carry%20Capacity%20and%20Stocking%20Rates%20_ND.pdf

West Texas is one cow/ 50 acres, East Texas 5, all about quality of forage and amount of moisture.
The linked article reports a mature elk consuming the same amount of feed as a yearling calf.

 

[CrypticEnigma]

Resident OTC tags are available in much of MT, ID, and WY. No need to be a landowner.

Maybe your way of thinking about it would work out better in TX though?

I'm not sure but at least in Colorado everything that was OTC was per specific units which would then be loaded down with car hunters. Is that not the case in other states?

 

[jimh406]

I'm not sure what you think having a land owner tag is going to get you if your "whole goal" is to have cows.

If you want to be back in nature, I suggest you should also include land with dense tree growth. Of course, that and cows don't really go together that well.

 

[wind gypsy]

I'm not sure but at least in Colorado everything that was OTC was per specific units which would then be loaded down with car hunters. Is that not the case in other states?

Generally speaking especially in mt and wy, a general tag covers a greater area and longer season than CO. Where a lot of tags are issued you have a lot of hunters. Why are you worried about such a thing in relation to being able to shoot animals on your private land?

 

[CrypticEnigma]

Generally speaking especially in mt and wy, a general tag covers a greater area and longer season than CO. Where a lot of tags are issued you have a lot of hunters. Why are you worried about such a thing in relation to being able to shoot animals on your private land?

Only reason being that if OTC allowed me to purchase tags that allow me to shoot on my property then that solves my problem and I don't need any land owner specific tags.

 

[WTFJohn]

Colorado landowner tags are 160 or more contiguous acres for species that have all tags limited (aka no OTC), you can look up draw stats for any units you're interested in. They can be for private land only, or unit-wide.

There are also private land only tags available for anyone to purchase for each season. Sometimes the dates will coincide with seasons on public, sometimes they will run non-stop for a longer duration. Read and learn the Colorado Big Game Brochure, as you've already posted some incorrect things regarding OTC in Colorado.

If you want cows, that's going to be it's own thing depending on where you end up (stocking rate, health @ elevation, hay availability, etc...). You need to look up fence law, water law (does your property come with the necessary water rights?), right to farm/ranch, Cottage Foods Act (Colorado), and a couple dozen more things I'm not thinking of right now. A good buyers agent will save you lots of money and stress with these things, but you still need to know them for day-to-day life.

One extra thought - You can gain access to more land than you probably could ever afford to buy just by being a good neighbor, person, and friend. That starts with how you move into an area, and continues with how you carry yourself every day. If you're in the right area with the right neighbors, you can find yourself looking at fence lines like deer and elk do (aka get over them and get on with it).