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If you could live anywhere...

Mengle

New member
Joined
Feb 8, 2015
Messages
14
Location
Texas
First time post.
My family and I are interested in moving and need advice.
We currently live in Houston, TX. As most of you know, Texas has almost no public hunting land. We would like to move somewhere where resident odds are in my favor for elk and deer with reasonable public land availability. I have a job that is relatively mobile. I would need a city of 150,000+. As a final caveat, we would need to live somewhere with a more temperate winter. Snow is fine, just not brutal cold.
If this was you, where would you move?
 

roadhunter

Banned
Joined
Jul 28, 2013
Messages
719
There are places to hunt public land in Texas. I archery hunted the COE land around lakes many times and can only think of one time I saw another hunter but that was driving by in a boat. Plus ther are some pretty nice pieces just across the border in OK.

As far as your questions my recommendation is somewhere around Denver such as Colorado Springs or Ft Collins. Only places I know of North of there that are close to your size requirements are Rapid City and Billings and both would probably be a disappointment coming from Houston as far as winters and things to do.

Colorado Springs would be my recommendation.
 

VanHook

New member
Joined
Dec 22, 2014
Messages
78
You "need" a city of 150,000 or would "like" a city that big. I think Wyoming is awfully tough to beat. Over the counter deer and elk tags and plenty of antelope tags to draw with no shortage of public land. No cities are big enough there though so like roadhunter said, you'd probably have to go to Colorado.
 

Joe Hulburt

Well-known member
Joined
Feb 23, 2012
Messages
1,239
Location
Oregon Coast
Oregon is a mecca of public land and opportunity hunts. We are not necessarily known for a lot of trophy quality hunts but my family has been able to subsist on venison, fish and bear for many years.

We have a greater variety of species to hunt than any state in the country I would say. Draw tags are not easy to come by but west side hunts are mostly all OTC so you can always hunt.

Salem and Eugene are both nice cities that meet your requirement. You can be hunting deer, bear and elk in 30 minutes of either.

Winter is moderate, temps are mostly in the 40's or 50's with 20 being really cold. Lot's of rain though!
 

Kiwi

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 12, 2014
Messages
1,839
Location
New Zealand
+1for Oregon. Only lived there for 12 months but a beautiful state with so many hunting options.

Alternatively, you could move to NZ - plenty of public land and no tags :)
 

Gr8bawana

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 14, 2013
Messages
4,978
Location
Nevada
One place I would NEVER live is Texas for the reason you stated among many others.
 

Tom

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2001
Messages
4,985
Location
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Albuquerque, NM has over 500K people. They have elk and mule deer and other game on public land and its a little farther south than the other spots to consider.
 

Tom

New member
Joined
Jan 22, 2001
Messages
4,985
Location
San Antonio, Texas, USA
Albuquerque, NM has over 500K people. They have elk and mule deer and other game on public land and its a little farther south than the other spots to consider. Salt Lake City, Utah has 180K plus people and they have elk, deer and public land.
 

ccc23454

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 22, 2010
Messages
2,997
Location
Wyoming
Wyoming is out since it doesn't have population requirement with a state population of 584,153. as a matter of fact the 3 largest cities combined in state equal just about 150k (Cheyenne, casper, Laramie). southern colorodo and Utah are decent and NM and AZ have areas you may consider and what might be the best option is Nevada! no taxes, lots of land, great deer good elk and even some pronghorn and system favors residents it seems. in the end everywhere is better than TX for what your looking for...
 

dcopas78

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2013
Messages
1,771
Location
Decatur, OH
I really like both Wyoming and Montana. I don't know how many people live there but I like the Missoula area a lot. That being said, I full intend to relocate to Montana or Wyoming in several years. It is just according to what area I can find a little bit of land and some "convenience " of a city or town relatively nearby.
 

OriginalOscar

Active member
Joined
Oct 27, 2011
Messages
944
Location
Riverton UT
Grand Junction, CO - very nice town

St. George, UT - Southwest Utah. Weather is great. General Utah tags easy but draw odds are getting harder each year.

Boise, ID - Nice town.
 

Baerman

Well-known member
Joined
Oct 3, 2008
Messages
1,461
Location
Boy-see
Nobody has mentioned Boise, Id. But we have wolves so there aren't any critters left here. :)
 

SFC B

Well-known member
Joined
Mar 2, 2013
Messages
4,365
Location
Colorado Springs
From a Springs resident who has lived all over the world....Colorado Springs is pretty hard to beat if you want the good stuff along with the big city stuff. The climate here kicks ass, OTC elk tags, RFW tags (a great resident benefit) and a decent cost of living.
BTW, all of these critters were in my yard at one time or the other :hump:
 

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