Home Forums Hunting & Shooting General Big Game Time for a change in latitude...

I'm beyond sick of the heat and humidity here in Texas. I can hunt on my Mom and Dad's 100+ acres, but that's about the extent of my hunting opportunities here.

The wife and I have been thinking South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, maybe Idaho. Any input from the peanut gallery?

Do it bro! With your background, check out central and northern AZ...

Wyoming winters are much longer and pretty grim by Texas standards, but If I was going, I would look hard at the Sheridan/Buffalo area or over around Sundance. I like a lot of Montana but if I was looking to move there, Lewistown would be at the top of my list--maybe the Three Forks area, too, because I have some good friends there. In South Dakota--the Black Hills country. In Idaho, most of the places that I like are summer home kinds of places--not where I would want to live year-round. I agree with Greg. You might like Flagstaff or somewhere around there.

Montana sux.

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I hear ya! I find myself secretly wishing to make the list for layoffs next week, but I keep doing to math to see how much I need to retire and come up short...depending on how long I live.

Idaho sux worse than MT.

Seriously, what's your situation? Still working, what kind of work? What are you looking for?

Married, three kids, oldest is my daughter and she's ten, then two boys 5 and 18 months. I'm a Professional Land Surveyor. I'd have to take and pass the exam wherever I went, but it's generally just a reciprocal exam so no big deal. Wife is a certified teacher, but currently stays home with the kids.

As far as what I'm looking for. Mainly a place where it's not 90-100+ for 7 months out of the year. I love being outdoors as do the kids, but the heat down here almost makes it intolerable. The ability to hunt public land would be great and to hunt big game species other than whitetail.

We were ready to move 5 years ago or so because we were fed up with Austin, but a move further out of town and to a house with a pool stalled that for a while.

Wyoming. If you don't mind 7 months of winter and 11.9 months of wind.....

We only had a few days of actual winter this past year.....breezy at times though.

Employment market in MT is good for your skills. I am a shareholder in a regional firm based in Western MT, and PLSs with good experience and solid work ethic can be hard to find.

Good luck!

Yeah...but Montana sux....

Full time wind is a no-go for me. I don't mind a breeze, but windy sucks!

Yup, so I guess that's why you're going back to Chicago, or was it Detroit...LOL

Then you might want to do some basic climate research to help narrow your choices. Here's the link to NOAA's regional climate data centers (NOAA Regional Climate Centers).

BTW, I've been to many parts of the western US over the last 40 years or so for work and play, and except for locations in the interior mountain valleys, my experience has been the winds blow 'relatively constantly' in most locations. Not sure how you define 'windy' but routine wind speeds above 5-10 mph are pretty common across much of the Rocky Mountain and Great Plains regions.

5-10mph doesn't bother me, that's what I consider a breeze. I'm talking about 20+mph constant winds like you get in some of the plains. We hunted southwestern NM several years ago and the wind about drove me nuts. Everything covered in dust, tarps blowing off, etc.

As much as it goes against our grain, to get to AK sooner rather than later, and get rid of this obnoxious heat, and just have fun, semi retire and ride it out.. once we are broke at age X, I figure its a long enough ride or the .gov can take care of us, God knows we've taken care of enough others over the years...

Thats a factor for us in AK. But while it blows at times like nuts, there are plenty other times it doesn't. And thats good.

We just wished we'd thought this through when we were 18 and had gotten jobs that would easily transfer... juggling hard now to end up at least as a paramedic in a couple of years and that should do well up there...

And it already has a lot of A-Holes...

The thread where your A-Hole was discussed at length might be too far back, or too much of an inside joke for many, I suppose...

John

Montana is my pick.. I have considered moving there in the near future.. My second pick is Idaho,with lower elevation, great bid hunting and outstanding fishing...