Might be leaving an Elk State to live in Sacramento for a couple years. Punishment from my agency for getting promoted.

[Rob5589]

For real. My buddy bought a place “outside of town” in California, thinking he scored and is happy to have no neighbors, etc... Only one company would insure the place for fire, to the tune of $650 per month.

Ouch! Fire insurance in the hills has to be insane any more.

 

[SouthPaw]

That being said, east of Sac in the foothills is probably the best you will find in the area.

This.

Sac proper sucks, frankly any major city in CA sucks and the people in them are horrendous. I live in the foothills east of Sac on some land and its quite nice. Fire insurance is a pain but its out there with some effort. I can be deer hunting high country an hour away, fantastic duck hunting, great fly fishing, winter sports, etc. just don't go downhill into the (sh)city... All that said, a future exit plan exists and I'll jump for the right opportunity when the time comes.

 

[ptmn]

I get all the dorm and gloom, most of it is correct to some degree. Good thing is that Sacramento isn't as bad as the San Francisco Bay Area when it comes to the liberal, Democratic, woke, social justice warriors. I'm not saying that it's good in Sac, I'm just saying for a built up metropolitan center in California it's not the worst place.

Traffic is going to be pretty bad in Sacramento proper, so I'm assuming you are planning to live in one of the surrounding towns. I've seen a few suggestions posted which are very reasonable. If you are even considering McClellan due to the affordable housing...change your mind immediately. The crime is out of control and will end up costing you more than you will save on rent or mortgage. Rancho Cordova would be a better choice.

Living in the Sacramento area puts you in close proximity to a lot of good fishing lakes and you won't have too far to travel for hunting (more fishing than hunting close by). Hunting ammo is expensive, since the whole state requires leadfree bullets, leadfree buck shot, leadfree birdshot for hunting. This includes shooting varmints with a 22lr rimfire, that ammo needs to be keadfree too. You can save a lot by picking up an inexpensive Lee Challenger reloading kit to load up leadfree pistol and rifle ammo and also standard lead ammo for range and plinking.

Also, you can't just walk into a Wal-Mart to quickly buy a box of ammo. This state requires you to jump through hoops and do a background each purchase. No internet ordering ammo either, must go through an FFL dealer. Reloading is the way to go here...until the liberals go after reloading components.

Magazines over 10rds are illegal, so store them out of state with a friend. So called, "Assault Weapons" are also illegal, so store them out of state with friends or family before moving here.

If you bring any handgun, you will need to register it in California within I think 30 days. There's also this ridiculous roster of safe handguns law that you should read up on.

If the work promotion is a good step up in your company with lots of financial incentives and your move to this ridiculous state is temporary (5 years or less), your move may be a viable option. Only you and your family can weigh out the pro's and con's to come up with your decision.

Do understand that in this state criminals have more rights than you (and they know this and capitalize on it) and self defense by law abiding citizens (aka responsible gun owners) is frowned upon by District Attorneys in the bigger metropolitan areas (San Francisco, Los Angeles, Sacramento). The majority of criminals I've arrested are out of custody either the same day or the following day...and a few times I've arrested them again in the same week they were released. Put that into consideration, since you may be able to deal with crime, but you may not want to expose your wife and kids to it.

I'm not discouraging you from moving here and obtaining career progression, I just want you to have relevant information to weigh things out and make a good decision that you and your family can be satisfied with.

 

[JBrown1]

Mojave, don’t you know better? Unless I’m mixing you up with someone else, haven’t you lived in California and witnessed what a sh** hole it is?(you are The military contractor guy who lived in Lone Pine Ca and Barrow Ak, correct?). California has gone even further down hill since you left.

Anyway, I dated a gal from Woodland for a while and I had a positive impression of that town. Not that I’d ever willingly live in Ca, but if I had to....

 

[evergreenethos]

My in-laws live in El Dorado Hills, right near Folsom. Very nice area. I don’t think I’ve ever gone to their house without seeing deer and almost always turkeys too. Last time I was there I spent a lot of time hiking around lake Folsom and saw the biggest jackrabbits I’ve ever seen in my life. Monsters.

If you need a realtor I would love to refer you to my father in law, he is very conservative and just the nicest guy.

 

[Wags]

Galt, Herald or Wilton.

 

[Shawn_Guinn]

Few years ago my job took me to Lincoln NE. Less than a year in they offered me the spot in Sac. After visiting the area with the wife the only areas we felt safe to move to were so expensive that when they offered I asked for so much more money they refused. Waited a year and landed Boise where I lived when I started chasing leadership jobs. So glad they did not pay me what I wanted a year prior. Not sure what business your in but sometimes the job not taken is the best path.

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Lost me at "leaving an elk hunting state." Life is too short to spend half your time in traffic.

 

[riversidejeep]

Lost me at "leaving an elk hunting state." Life is too short to spend half your time in traffic.

And the other half of the time is spent chaining and locking all your possession's and sweeping up your busted out car window. Sacramento is a shit hole.

 

[2rocky]

4th generation Californian here. Anyone who tells you that it isn't an Elk State is lying. Maybe not a hunt every year elk state but there are elk here...Draw odds are about equal to AZ or UT LE hunts too...Odds are getting better every decade.

It is up to you to make the best of the move. Good advice to look outside of Sac. Galt, Herald, Acampo, Auburn, Folsom, Woodland, Winters, Madison all have as much charm as many other small towns in America.

Wanna meet other hunters? Plenty of hunting and Big Game Foundations and associations dinners all around whichever side of Sac you decide to settle down. Lots of archery clubs. Start thinking about what 2 deer tags you want to get OVER THE COUNTER...Pick one of 20 National forests to hunt Public land in or join a private land club....

Might have to look into waterfowl hunting at one of more than 24 wildlife refuges, although like the rest of the West, Drought is going to impact those opportunities. Or maybe do some deep sea fishing trips out of Emeryville, Bodega or Monterey.

Travel to San Diego? Get a Southwest Rewards card and hop on one of 20 daily direct flight from SMF to SAN for as low as $69 each way. Grab a charter trip out of there and fish off the shore of Mexico too...

Folks love criticizing CA and our overzealous gun laws, liberal politicians, homeless populations, but that is mainly confined to cities over 250,000 people. If you are going to be here you have to find the good opportunities that do exist. Let me know if you need me to show you some elk....

Edited to add..if you bowhunt, you can start July 9 hunting deer through the end of the month , take a 2 week break, and then hunt from August 13-October 23 for deer on 2 OTC tags. The last weekend if you aren't tagged out already you can hunt ducks until the end of January. Then in November and December you can hunt upland game too. If that's not enough opportunity for you feral pigs are open year round.

FWIW 16% of all deer hunters reported success in 2019. CO elk success was 17%

It is what you make it..

 

[Ucsdryder]

4th generation Californian here. Anyone who tells you that it isn't an Elk State is lying. Maybe not a hunt every year elk state but there are elk here...Draw odds are about equal to AZ or UT LE hunts too...Odds are getting better every decade.

It is up to you to make the best of the move. Good advice to look outside of Sac. Galt, Herald, Acampo, Auburn, Folsom, Woodland, Winters, Madison all have as much charm as many other small towns in America.

Wanna meet other hunters? Plenty of hunting and Big Game Foundations and associations dinners all around whichever side of Sac you decide to settle down. Lots of archery clubs. Start thinking about what 2 deer tags you want to get OVER THE COUNTER...Pick one of 20 National forests to hunt Public land in or join a private land club....

Might have to look into waterfowl hunting at one of more than 24 wildlife refuges, although like the rest of the West, Drought is going to impact those opportunities. Or maybe do some deep sea fishing trips out of Emeryville, Bodega or Monterey.

Travel to San Diego? Get a Southwest Rewards card and hop on one of 20 daily direct flight from SMF to SAN for as low as $69 each way. Grab a charter trip out of there and fish off the shore of Mexico too...

Folks love criticizing CA and our overzealous gun laws, liberal politicians, homeless populations, but that is mainly confined to cities over 250,000 people. If you are going to be here you have to find the good opportunities that do exist. Let me know if you need me to show you some elk....

Did you write this with a straight face?! I disagree with everything you wrote. It isn’t an elk state, it’s barely a deer state unless you want to go to d3 with 15000 of your best friends. Waterfowl will be gone soon due to drought and the fight for water. You can hunt bears for now, but those will be gone soon.

You couldn’t pay me to live there, coming from someone that grew up on a ranch in Northern California and went to UCSD in San Diego.

Take the pay cut, take the demotion, find a new job, get a divorce!

 

[BucksNBulls]

Galt, Herald or Wilton.

I'd take Galt off that list. LOL.

Wilton, Loomis, Auburn, Eldorado Hills, Shingle Springs, Maybe Folsom. I wouldn't consider Elk Grove anymore either. It's a $hithole these days.

 

[BucksNBulls]

Did you write this with a straight face?! I disagree with everything you wrote. It isn’t an elk state, it’s barely a deer state unless you want to go to d3 with 15000 of your best friends. Waterfowl will be gone soon due to drought and the fight for water. You can hunt bears for now, but those will be gone soon.

You couldn’t pay me to live there, coming from someone that grew up on a ranch in Northern California and went to UCSD in San Diego.

Take the pay cut, take the demotion, find a new job, get a divorce!

Nor Cal is a whole different world than the rest of the State.

Plenty of deer to hunt as I take 1 or 2 here every year. If we don't get rain soon, I'll agree the duck hunting is going to go downhill fast. The Bear will never be gone, there is one behind every tree these days but the bear hunting might go away. There are a lot of Elk in California and they are expanding their range and numbers daily. It just takes an act of god or a bunch of money to get a tag.

 

[PHo]

Well…it seems like some guys really HATE California.

 

[Ucsdryder]

Nor Cal is a whole different world than the rest of the State.

Plenty of deer to hunt as I take 1 or 2 here every year. If we don't get rain soon, I'll agree the duck hunting is going to go downhill fast. The Bear will never be gone, there is one behind every tree these days but the bear hunting might go away. There are a lot of Elk in California and they are expanding their range and numbers daily. It just takes an act of god or a bunch of money to get a tag.

There are plenty of bear, just wait until predator hunting gets banned. It’ll be less than 5 I’d guess. I agree on elk, but it’s not “an elk state”. It’s basically a once in a lifetime if you’re lucky. I loved ducking hunting rice. One of my favorite memories. I used to give them hell, but I’d bet you won’t see many flooded rice fields this winter! And deer, the majority of people aren’t killing a deer every 3-4 years unless they have access to private. X tags are getting Harder to draw and the quality is decreasing yearly.