Pros/Cons of where you have lived

[mtwarden]

Western Montana (70's)

Pros: good paying jobs (logging/mills/construction/more); reasonably priced housing (and land); low crime; great hiking, hunting and fishing; not a lot of folks

Cons: can't really think of any

Eastern Montana (80's-2000's)

Pros: good paying jobs; reasonably priced housing (and land); low crime; great hunting and fishing; not a lot of folks

Cons: have to travel to get to the mountains

Western Montana (2000's to present)

Pros: plenty of low paying jobs; great hiking (but not as great as in the 70's!); hunting and fishing OK (far from great); mountains are close

Cons: not much for higher paying jobs; housing (and land) prices are past ridiculous; medium crime (it's on the rise); hunting and fishing fair (far from great); too many folks!

The moral of the story- invent a time machine, travel back ~ 50 years and move to Western Montana

 

[Wingnutty]

Well said MTwarden. I love the guy(s) who’ve moved to western MT complaining about other people who are moving to western MT.

Western MT is very rapidly disintegrating in outdoor recreational quality. Still good but gosh the past 2 years alone has been devastating.

 

[Zsyacsure]

Far West Texas -
Pro: Low population density, variety of terrain, great weather year round, low crime for the most part.
Con: Dry, limited hunting opportunity unless you own land, limited opportunity for employment, questionable border with Mexico

Houston Tx -
Pro: 4th largest city in the US, tons of opportunity for employment, great food, close to the gulf coast with unlimited fishing opportunities, some public land but limited big game hunting
Con: 4th largest city in the US, crowded, crime on the rise, becoming expensive, weather is either hot and humid or wet and cold 10 months of the year, limited hunting opportunities

El Paso Tx -
Pro: City conveniences, relatively cheap, great food, close to NM,CO ect..., pretty good weather
Con: Getting crowded, very dry, Juarez.

Coeur d'Alene ID -
Pro: Close to public land, Has conveniences of a city but still feels small
Con: Winter a bit harsh for a Texan, Employment somewhat limited

CDA. Very crowded for the size.

 

[fngTony]

Northwest Ohio.
Pro- relatively affordable, scenic fall
Cons- depressed economy, grey skies, unless you like jet skiing not much to do outdoors. It’s a drug trade route=crime

Colorado
Pros- economic opportunity, weather, outdoors, people
Cons- (see above)

 

[MuleyFever]

Lived in South Central WI until 2011.
Pros: Its beautiful country. You can live in the woods. Great fishing year round. Amazing whitetail hunting if you can get the right access. Mississippi flyway. Lots of turkey and some upland.
Cons: you have to have the right access for the best deer hunting. Limited public.

Moved to Southern UT in 2011.
Pros: Easy access to all the great western states. In 8 hours or less I can be hunting in 6 other states. Good hunting, if you can get a tag. Lots of places to explore.
Cons: Limited hunting opportunity. Fishing is not that great compared to other areas. High cost of living with generally low wages.

 

[Roksliding]

Central Wisconsin

Pros: no poisonous animals, and nothing is going to maul you.

Cons: Winter seems like it’s 13 months a year

 

[Scottyboy]

Jacksonville, NC.

Pros: you get to say you have lived in the butthole of America.
Cons: it’s Jacksonville, NC.

Oceanside, CA.

Pros: seemed like the sun was shining 365 days a year and the weather (temperature) was great.
Cons: i couldn’t stay longer and moved to NC.

Northern MN.

Pros: no people for 3 seasons. Good hunting and really good musky/walleye fishing.
Cons: tourist traffic (“cabiners”) every weekend starting Memorial Day and ending Labor Day. Fall leaf color change watchers, not sure how else to explain them…but it’s weird.

West Central, MN,

Pros: little people, jobs are plentiful and no crime. Ice fishing is awesome.
Cons: public land is bad at best.

Overall MN ain’t that bad. If it wasnt for the twin cities metro area, it would be significantly better and maybe, just maybe worth sticking around here. We have the highest population of a certain migrant crowd (starts with a S and rhymes with omlia) which is interesting on its own. ohh and ’we’ just passed a law around “peaceful protesting” and what the cops can do, so if you ever want to burn down a business, drop me a line!

 

[philos]

Upstate SC

Pros: I live here.

Cons: There is only one me

 

[deepinthewoods]

Jacksonville, NC.

Pros: you get to say you have lived in the butthole of America.
Cons: it’s Jacksonville, NC.

Oceanside, CA.

Pros: seemed like the sun was shining 365 days a year and the weather (temperature) was great.
Cons: i couldn’t stay longer and moved to NC.

Northern MN.

Pros: no people for 3 seasons. Good hunting and really good musky/walleye fishing.
Cons: tourist traffic (“cabiners”) every weekend starting Memorial Day and ending Labor Day. Fall leaf color change watchers, not sure how else to explain them…but it’s weird.

West Central, MN,

Pros: little people, jobs are plentiful and no crime. Ice fishing is awesome.
Cons: public land is bad at best.

Overall MN ain’t that bad. If it wasnt for the twin cities metro area, it would be significantly better and maybe, just maybe worth sticking around here. We have the highest population of a certain migrant crowd (starts with a S and rhymes with omlia) which is interesting on its own. ohh and ’we’ just passed a law around “peaceful protesting” and what the cops can do, so if you ever want to burn down a business, drop me a line!

As a Minnesotan... yup... could not agree more.

 

[Marble]

I've lived in CA all my life. From the Mexican border to the far northern portion. For the southern parts of the state, I hated it. There was some great dove hunting, scenery and a bunch of hot chick's. But it was over 100 degrees, April through September.

For where I live now:

Hunting has lots of opportunities. Not high quality or even high success for those that won't put in the time, but we fill our tags.

I live 5 minutes from one of the top 5 wild trout streams in the world.

Agriculture based community, very family oriented. A lot of really nice people.

I'm surrounded by mountains on three sides.

Home prices are reasonable.

Schools are good.

The bad...

It's california. We deal with utter idiots daily in politics. I would say on a weekly basis a new law is passed that has nothing to do with anything making life better. Just crazy lefty rules.

A lot of Marijuana, homeless etc.

I doubt I will permanently move anytime soon. Both my wife and I have a large family, we have three adult children and one in high school, my parents are in great health and in their early 70s.

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[grfox92]

Southern NY (Suburbs of NYC)

Pros;

Lots of Job opportunities for someone with a good degree.

Used to be high deer densities and really big bucks. There are no longer really big bucks, but deer densities are still high.

The Adirondack mountains, which is the largest block of public land in the lower 48 coming in at 6+ million acres.

Cons;

You are surrounded by assholes and idiots 365 Days a year.

Property taxes on a modest home an hour outside the city is minimum of $14k a year. Nicer houses in exclusive communities are over $50k a year.

You get absolutely nothing for paying all those taxes. Roads are full of potholes. No amenities within the towns charging those tax rates.

NE Wyoming

Pros:

Everything you could ever ask for in hunting.

Firearm freedom.

Unlimited public land.

Cons:

Real estate has become more expensive then it should be.

Have to drive 2 hours to good shopping.

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[Michigander]

Lived in rural south east Michigan my whole life.
Pros:
-Best walleye fishing in the world a 20 minute drive away
-Big local whitetails
-OTC 2 buck tags and as many does as you want
-Millions of acres of public land to hunt in the northern lower and U.P
-It rains here and has very fertile land. I don't know how you guys can live in barren deserts
-Rural enough I haven't replaced my lost house key in 10 years yet close enough to decent sized cities for good work opportunities. 20 minutes to Toledo, 45 to Detroit.
-Fairly affordable housing and land

Cons:
-State politics controlled by big cities
-Besides whitetails not much big game variety
-Far drives for western hunts

 

[nam1975]

Ohio (everywhere except Cincy)
Pros - Deer hunting, great walleye fishing in Lake Erie and streams for steelhead. Pretty cheap cost of living. Most suburbs have good schools. SE Ohio is very scenic with lots of public land.
Cons - deer hunting is becoming pay to play. A lease is big bucks. Lots of shady outfitters. So so job market. Pills and meth used to be terrible. Just as worried about getting your car broke into in rural vs urban.

SE Michigan
Pros- Great summers, tons of inland lakes with good fishing.
Cons - Crummy deer hunting for a decent buck. If it’s brown it’s down. Terrible roads.

 

[540-Virginian]

Small town in Virginia: pros: grew up on a farm, amazing life of hunting and fishing and field parties. Everyone knew everyone and willing to lend a hand. Never locked front door. Cons: people with small brains, everyone knew everyone, cops were grade a assholes.

East coast Florida:
Pros: best fishing of my life, beautiful woman, nightlife, weather
Cons: beautiful woman were all out of my league, weather, and the reason you can google “Florida man ….”

Northern Virginia/DC:
Pros: job opportunites, big money to be made, national museums and monuments etc to see, food.
Cons: traffic, people with small brains thinking they had big ones, overpriced beer, no real outdoor stuff

College city/town:
Pros: Cushy secure academic jobs, housing more affordable, public school system, more food options, my town is close to national forest and parks so can get hunting and finishing in less than 40 mins. Overall family friendly.
Cons: Crime, housing can also be expensive depending on what you want (single houses are a fortune, townhomes not so much), more extreme hypocrite liberal left thinking, lots of snobby no-it-all professors.

 

[JVS]

East central Mo 40 miles south of STL
Pros
low cost of living
tons of work and investing opportunity
great turkey and whitetail hunting
Fishing awesome
many beautiful lakes and rivers
Lots of public land
Great small town community feel
Some of the best hospitals in the world
Cons
humidity in summer time
meth heads
land prices have shot to the moon but I think thats a nation wide problem

 

[Pony Soldier]

Montana
Pro: Grew up in the west. Lots of jobs in the woods and at the sawmills. Housing reasonable as well as food. Hunting was fair to good and had lots of choices.

Con: Forest Service changed the management policies and butchered it to the dirt in the 60s and 70s. FWP mismanaged the seasons and the game and hunting became a question of how far will you drive.

The logging went away with the jobs. Fishing was marginal and hunting was forced to surrounding counties and in a steady decline. The Californians started moving in and the quality of neighbors declined quickly. Even bird hunting started to decline.

Eastern Washington

Pro: There were more jobs and land was affordable.

Con: Heavy winter snow, limited big game and dense brush. Spring had lots of bugs. Politics was very liberal off the west coast and an emerging environut population.

North Dakota

Pro: Really nice people in Fargo but I only lived there in the winter. On a clear day I think I could see Texas.

Con: Snow, wind, cold and in the spring there was only two days between the last blizzard warning and the first tornado warning. Restrictive hand gun rules. Too much private land.

Western Montana

Pro:
Moved east of Missoula and west of Bozeman. The land nobody wanted. Freedom ! Hunting limited to your investment in exploration. Stream fishing pretty good.

Cons: Bring your own jobs. Land affordable until recently. Long winters. Extremely cold. Everything is about 100 miles away. Energy is expensive. Limited services - count on taking care of yourself.

 

[Blackcats06]

Michigan 40 plus years ago, good hunting and fishing then, looks like it is still pretty good. bad politics
Southern Cal. early 80's good fishing, hunting limited lots of private property. nuff said about politics
Southern Arizona, housing was nice as well as hunting. now overflowing with new comers from west of here, going down real fast. time to re-locate. AZGFD all about the money, very crowded unit to unit with back to back hunts, critters never get a rest. Oh and traffic is really bad just like SoCal.

This “animals never get a rest “ thing is retarted. They are hunted 24 7, 365 days a year by predators.

 

[jrbarnes9972]

Eastern Panhandle WV

Pros: Good amount of public land within an hour. Including mountains and bluff country near rivers . Waterfowl is better than most other parts of the state due to higher prevalence of Ag and multiple rivers. Fishing is also pretty decent due to the rivers and a large lake. High deer density, and high number of available tags. No baiting allowed due to CWD concerns. Can be in 3 other states within 45 minutes for different adventures (including pheasant in PA).

Cons: Higher population that is just continuing to grow due to DC commuters. Public land and streams can be crowded. Especially during rifle. I have found a couple of mature bucks, but they are definitely fewer than where I grew up in IN. CWD


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[Will_m]

This “animals never get a rest “ thing is retarted. They are hunted 24 7, 365 days a year by predators.

Oh, the irony…

 

[TCUHunter34]

This “animals never get a rest “ thing is retarted. They are hunted 24 7, 365 days a year by predators.

Add an extra several thousand predators at one time for months, I’m sure that won’t have any impact…