Relocation recommendations

PA if you want to stay close or head out to Idaho for great hunting fishing and not quite the absolute bitter cold the Midwest gets. I spent two looooooong winters in ND where we had a month that the high temp for the day never got warmer than 5 below; where one day the actucal temp was minus 63 and the windchill made it minus 112 - and we were working on a process plant.
Northern NV is still gun friendly, and with ~85,000 square miles of public land, there is a LOT of hunting area. Lake Tahoe is beautiful.

If you move to any of the states that border Illinois you'll do fine....but I'd advise steering clear of our mess-in-the-making. Current gun laws are actually pretty decent here contrary to common folk wisdom, and whitetail hunting is excellent--- but the economics are moving backwards and we are always one election away from having some crazy gun ban sprung on us. LOTS of folks live just across the lines in Wisconsin, Indiana and Iowa and often work here...often a winning idea for taxes and cost of living. Good Luck!

Cross Oklahoma off your list. The economy here stinks. Since moving here in 1985 i've worked a total of <three years in OK. During that time i worked overseas and in 17 different states.

OK is not hunter friendly unless you spend big bucks for a lease. Only 4.6 percent of OK land is public owned.

https://www.summitpost.org/public-and-private-land-percentages-by-us-states/186111

Click to expand...

Thanks for that Alsaqr. I am hoping to sell my house by the end of the year and Oklahoma was one of the states I had my eye on. In Tx we don't get much snow which is OK with me. Messy crap. My other ideas are Arkansaw and Loisiana. I like both of those states along with New Mexico. Its hard to decide where to go. I have lived in Tx all my life and would love to give someplace else a try. I am sorta tied down because of my 80 year old mother who counts on me to fix and repair her almost endless list of stuff that needs working on.

I like to read the Backwoodsman magazine and the owner gets asked this on a regular basis. He always recommends staying away from Colorado and western states because of water supply problems. He lived in Colorado and moved to the Tx coast. He got wiped out in Hurricane Harvey and moved inland to the San Antonio area but I don't remember exactly where. But away from the coast.

Dallas Texas. Got it all but the snow and you will not miss the snow.

Stew0576 said:

Hello all, the wife and I are thinking of moving out of new york state next year, we are looking for something that is gun friendly, good hunting with public land, snow in the winter and a good chance of finding work. I'm a industrial mechanic and there wife is a nurse. Any recommendations?

Click to expand...

Man, I'm in the same boat as you. Plan on buying a house in the next few years, I'm a John Deere mechanic, my woman's an OTA, and we both want out of the state. Both want more mild winters ,yet still have snow, hunting,hiking and fishing centered area,yet still have plenty of job opportunities. Tell ya what if you find an ideal place send me a message! O yea and gun friendly obviously!

Rembrandt said:

Upper Midwest.....plenty of opportunities with Agriculure related equipment, manufacturing, etc. Shortage of Nurses, good whitetail hunting......stay away from Illinois, high tax and spend liberals will take your earnings, FOID gun restrictions another negative.

Click to expand...

Illinois is a crap hole. People are leaving in droves.

I’ve lived in Indiana and Michigan my whole life. As noted, there are tons of jobs here. I’m 68 and I could get three or four jobs before noon tomorrow. Companies are trying to find people with no luck. Tons of jobs.

But, I’d really love to have moved out west back in my youth. If I were younger and knew what I know now, it would be Montana, Idaho, Wyoming, maybe northern New Mexico or Arizona. Not Colorado.

This kind of thread will ordinarily garner too many responses based solely on certain subjective factors. I'd still recommend Washington (although depending on where you live, you have to drive to the snow, but not normally more than an hour or so from anywhere). Yes, we have three counties that are solidly blue and could be considered anti-gun, but go east of the Cascades and the state is solidly pro-gun. Every state has its liberal pockets, even Arizona and Texas. Even states such as Wyoming and Montana are selling a lot of land to liberal corporations and California liberals (especially the celebrities); witness Colorado.

If you're gonna strive for somewhere to live solely based on the state's current gun laws, good luck with that. As far that goes, Idaho, Arkansas and Tennessee are looking good to me; I'll never return home to Midwest, much as I love my Great Lakes State, because I simply don't like full-time winter or the biting flies and mosquitoes anymore ... but every paradise has some warts and unpleasantness.

ontarget said:

Go a bit further north into West MI and you got it made. Miles of beaches in summer, all the snow you could ever want in winter, tons of public and private land open to hunting and about 1% unemployment. What's not to love?

Click to expand...

1% unemployment? Didn't know about that. Yes, western Michigan is a really great place. Are you thinking Holland, or a little farther up?

First year we were there, I kind of walked right past the fresh bulk apple cider in the local grocery... figured I knew what that was like. The next year, I brought some home. Oh. My. Goodness. It's outstanding. And the best blueberries you ever socked a tooth into.

Old Dog you forgot to mention that you have Bigfoot. Bigfoots er... Bigfeets? Hum... gotta think on it a bit.

denton said:

1% unemployment? Didn't know about that. Yes, western Michigan is a really great place. Are you thinking Holland, or a little farther up?

First year we were there, I kind of walked right past the fresh bulk apple cider in the local grocery... figured I knew what that was like. The next year, I brought some home. Oh. My. Goodness. It's outstanding. And the best blueberries you ever socked a tooth into.

Click to expand...

A little north and east of Holland. Dont quote me on the 1% unemployment but as a small business owner I can tell you that anyone that wants to work already is. I can't get any help to save my life. I can't even sub contract any of my work out because everyone is so busy in construction and service.

There are many gun friendly places in the USA. I have moved around the country some and still tend to find my way back to the Downeast/central Maine area. Not so much public land as other states but lots of private land owned by paper companies with public access/hunting/fishing/etc. They are crying for people to work the jobs but we do have some state taxes. Get above Augusta and 20 minutes gets you in the woods and out of the public hustle easily. Snow? Yeah but not like NYS has it and not nearly so cold either. PS I don't want to make it sound too good either.

No idea about public land in IN (or elsewhere), but my brother spent eight years in Evansville IN, and it has an old-fashioned, all-American atmosphere about it. At least that was always my impression.
The work ethic and values seem to be solid and I would gladly live there.

Kansas has everything you want and many of the record whitetails in the last decade have been taken in Kansas. Jobs are plentiful and companies compete for employees. Sales taxes are a bit higher than surrounding states, but cost of living is low. Some snow, but not as much as states north of us. Don't know how Kansas compares to other states in terms of public land, but we do have an extensive Walk-In program that is free and open to the public. Some of it looks good, but I don't hunt there because I have plenty of access to private land. Lots of turkeys and deer, I'm talking LOTS of deer and turkeys. I'm also a squirrel hunter and believe Kansas just may have the best squirrel hunting in the world!!

Stew0576 said:

Hello all, the wife and I are thinking of moving out of new york state next year, we are looking for something that is gun friendly, good hunting with public land, snow in the winter and a good chance of finding work. I'm a industrial mechanic and there wife is a nurse. Any recommendations?

Click to expand...

Have you considered Wisconsin or Northern Indiana? Both have snow and are gun friendly.

Robert said:

New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Utah, Idaho. All would be great. I love it here in Colorado, but we have our problems. DOW has made hunting a pain with the draw, though it's not as bad as people make it sound. And as a resident it doesn't cost me $600 for an elk tag. The election in November will be very telling, and honestly, I'm not very hopeful at this point. Denver/Boulder runs the state. But we have tons of public land and some beautiful country.

Edit:
I will say this, we have a stupid mag capacity law. But, you can move here with everything you own now. And no one is seriously enforcing this law. It is on law enforcement to prove you didn't own the mag before the ban. That's too much of a pain to do so no one cares. All of the states county sheriff's came out against the law and have said they will not enforce unconstitutional laws such as this one.

Click to expand...

It's the same situation here in WA. We got a UBC here a few years ago but people just ignore it including LE. They don't have the resources to enforce it. It was an unfunded mandate by initiative. Occasionally some one will get charged for not transferring thru a FFL but that's usually just an add on to other more serious charges if they can link a weapon to a crime. I was using an FFL's to transfer before I-594 went into effect anyway so no big deal.

I've always liked CO. I worked in the state a lot in the 70's. We travel thru there every fall on our way south. Has about everything a person could want, four seasons, public land, mountains, dry climate, snow, and lots of game. I'm partial to the southwestern part of the state myself.

I can see why you like it.

I would also like to warn people about AZ. The population increases dramatically every year and they aren't coming from the east coast if you know what I mean. I lived there in the 60's and 70's. I wouldn't move back there on a bet.

I've seen Ohio mentioned a few times, and while it is gun-friendly and has a very strong manufacturing economy for an industrial mechanic to find work, keep in mind that the lower half of the state doesn't see much snow. Indiana is pretty similar. I love snow, but living east of Cincinnati I can remember about 4 times in my 36 years that we received 6" of snowfall at once. Typically 1-2" is the most we get and that will practically shut the city down for a full day before it melts away within 24 hours.

Also, public land is great for hunting small game but IMO Ohio is too populated to safely hunt deer on public property. There's just too many stupid hunters and there is one behind every tree during gun season. The good news is it doesn't take much private property to hunt because there's deer everywhere.

Well, as long as you don’t bring along any liberal ideas (throwing that out as a blanket disclaimer for anyone wanting to come to Free America), you might want to check out North Dakota. We do have the snow (got 13” here last week), we got the hunting be it pheasant, duck/geese and of course deer. Matter of fact, around here opening day of deer season has for decades been a day they call off schools around the state since its so ingrained into our culture here. It’s also a gun-friendly red state that thanks to our cold winters has seen extremely little of the blight of Californians moving here like they have already done in other states. Like they say, 40 below tends to keep the riff-raff out.
Of course there is the job situation here. While things have calmed down out in the Bakken oil patch west of Minot, there are still jobs out there to be had out west. Speaking of Minot, both Minot and Grand Forks are home to both Air Force bases if a GS job is something you are looking for. We also have 2, Class 1 railroads in the area, BNSF with terminals in Minot, Mandan, Grand Forks and Dilworth and CP with terminals in Enderlin and Minot and I know that both are hiring for conductors if that floats your boat. There are also plenty of places that build agricultural equipment here with Case/IH making their large 4-wheel drive tractors on the old Steiger tractor plant in Fargo. There is also Bobcat, the original manufacturers of the skid-steer loaders made in Gwinner and there is a John Deere manufacturing plant in Valley City where they are making planting equipment. Those are just a few of the manufacturing plants I can think of off the top of my head.

Montana is where I would go if I hit the lottery or something.

Minnesota/Wisconsin is great if you like snow and plenty of lakes if your a fisherman and land for hunting. Dakotas are boring. They should be one state.

Good luck.

Another non-vote for Colorado. Pretty scenery, great economy, good outdoors pursuits abound. It is turning blue and is getting crowded on the front range. We just got our first snow last week, and it will snow and melt until April or May. The high country is expensive to live in. Look at Utah if you want to move out West.

Ed4032 said:

Dallas Texas. Got it all but the snow and you will not miss the snow.

Click to expand...

Yep, ice storms, tornadoes, horrific traffic, high cost of living.........

IlikeSA said:

Another non-vote for Colorado. Pretty scenery, great economy, good outdoors pursuits abound. It is turning blue and is getting crowded on the front range. We just got our first snow last week, and it will snow and melt until April or May. The high country is expensive to live in. Look at Utah if you want to move out West.

Click to expand...

Besides Utah, (and northern NV I mentioned earlier) add in Idaho, northern AZ , Montana and Wyoming.
Back East, besides PA, there is north GA, north AL, and the areas where GA, NC, and TN meet near Smoky Mountains Park; great area, good gun ownerships; close enough to a major city for major stuff like medical, but far enough not to have to deal with the day to day crap of big cities.

Wisconsin has 5.7 million acres of public land. Of course not all is hunt-able. The gun laws a good. There is snow .Sometimes lots of it. In fact it was snowing yesterday.
Between Eau Claire, Chippewa and Clark county there is 220000 acres of public hunting within 40 miles of me.