Looking to relocate. New Mexico or Texas as of now

[Luke S]

I lived in Midland, TX as a teacher. Never got around to hunting there. What I did do was backpack all winter in Big Bend and other areas out west. Great option when places like Colorado are covered in snow. Then I'd take my summer vacation and head for the Rocky mountains. Good system until I moved to Idaho then Alaska. Before all that I lived in the Hill Country for a year. That was nice (and I did kill a few deer) but it was a much longer drive to wilderness areas. Could I be happy there? Sure, but I'd want funds and vacation time to travel a bit.
And yes, I liked how Texas was run. Seems the attitude of government employees was more helpful overall then some other places.

 

[Keener22]

Live in SW NM now, and we’re currently in the process of moving near Uvalde, TX.

I’ll echo what others have said about NM- for outdoors specifically it’s one of the best places in the west. With research, you can draw archery elk and any weapon for deer nearly every year, and have better odds at exotics than most realize. OTC turkey, bear, lion, etc. Fishing is pretty good but obviously different than the coastal/bay fishing people are referencing in TX. Overall it’s a very diverse state in terms of terrain and species.

However- NM is damn near dead last in every other regard and pretty much sucks in every category.

Side note, lots of these responses have eased my mind about moving to TX because I was quite fearful of being miserable there without public land and archery elk opportunity. If anyone would be kind enough to PM me any leads regarding lease opportunities in my new neck of the woods, or just general info about TX hunting/fishing in general (minus the info put here) I would appreciate it.

 

[HairyScandinavian]

Live in SW NM now, and we’re currently in the process of moving near Uvalde, TX.

I’ll echo what others have said about NM- for outdoors specifically it’s one of the best places in the west. With research, you can draw archery elk and any weapon for deer nearly every year, and have better odds at exotics than most realize. OTC turkey, bear, lion, etc. Fishing is pretty good but obviously different than the coastal/bay fishing people are referencing in TX. Overall it’s a very diverse state in terms of terrain and species.

However- NM is damn near dead last in every other regard and pretty much sucks in every category.

Side note, lots of these responses have eased my mind about moving to TX because I was quite fearful of being miserable there without public land and archery elk opportunity. If anyone would be kind enough to PM me any leads regarding lease opportunities in my new neck of the woods, or just general info about TX hunting/fishing in general (minus the info put here) I would appreciate it.

Hit me up when you get moved in, you're pretty close to one of the places I frequent every year. You'll have some good hunting lease options around there, but I would wait until you're local and get some local contacts first. Trying to set that up without local knowledge is a huge crapshoot, there's a lot of bad leases around either having crazy restrictive rules or guys that are insufferable (usually from Houston, there's a pattern) but there's some good ones as well. Of course the good ones generally don't have any turnover and if they did it almost always goes to someone known to the group (hence the local contacts).

 

[Keener22]

Hit me up when you get moved in, you're pretty close to one of the places I frequent every year. You'll have some good hunting lease options around there, but I would wait until you're local and get some local contacts first. Trying to set that up without local knowledge is a huge crapshoot, there's a lot of bad leases around either having crazy restrictive rules or guys that are insufferable (usually from Houston, there's a pattern) but there's some good ones as well. Of course the good ones generally don't have any turnover and if they did it almost always goes to someone known to the group (hence the local contacts).

I will for sure do that, thanks for the info. I’ll definitely get some local contacts once I get over there.

 

[Weldor]

I agree with you about NM, Las Cruces is like a bad science fiction movie after covid. We hunt West Texas every year and would overnite there. Not anymore. Crime and homeless is crazy. To Bad nice country around there.