hypothetical which state to live in the USA

[hjl]

Hi to all,
I have a hypothetical question for all.
If you were moving to the USA which state would you go to for the best shooting?
My target shooting interests are : 22 rimfire benchrest ,100 & 200 centrefire benchrest possible 500 &1000 yard benchrest.
My field shooting interests are: varmits all ranges, deer & elk?
Thank you for your help.
Regards
hjl

 

[meathead]

Western Montana

 

[screech]

If you're not looking to be close to competitions, Montana and Idaho would be my choice. Live in Idaho and love it other than the fish and game have everything screwed over and the 16lb rifle restriction.

 

[goodgrouper]

Well the elk basically shoots down most the eastern states although a few are starting to reintroduce elk back to their former habitat.

1k matches are more prevalent back east but are still around in the west.

100,200 br is also more prevalent in the east although plenty are now out west.

Varmints are evenly distributed with maybe a slight edge going to the west (chucks, ground squirrels,coyotes, bobcats, raccoons, and the all important prairie dog are in big numbers).

Rimfire br is also everywhere.

As far as locations to shoot, the west has her by a landslide. Far less people and vast open expanses make shooting very easy.


In the west, Utah is of course the prettiest /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif but is geographically the farthest from an NBRSA sanctioned 1k match anywhere in the country. This is scheduled to change by the end of the year with a state of the art, multi-million dollar, multi-purpose shooting facility outside the town of PRice. Can't wait. We have all the other things covered easily.

Nevada has it all, although if you move to Las Vegas, you will be farther from their closest 1k br range than people living in SLC, UTah! It is in Reno which is on the other side of the state from Vegas.

Wyoming has it all but 1k which is rumored to change soon.

COlorado has it all for now, but with the massive infestation-err migration of Californians moving there things could get shut down.


Idaho has it all and is also very beautiful.

MOntana is COLD but beautiful and has it all.

Oregon and Washington have good halves (they know which side is good and it isn't the west half) but not sure about 1k matches there.


Arizona is a truly great state as long as you're in the desert and not in the overpopulated urban jungles. They have everything you want including summertime temps in the 110-120 degree range! Makes it hard to cool a barrel down in the middle of July.


New Mexico is a pretty place and also has it all.

Texas is good but mostly private property. Finding a place to shoot is tough until you talk to a few landowners and then you are set. Texas has all the shoots you want and then some but unsure about elk down there? If they don't have elk, they have plenty of varmints to make up for it!

HOpe this helps.

 

[speedbump]

IMHO, take a good look at New Mexico. All you ask for with elk, pronghorn, deer, & varmints; sparsely populated outside the major metropolitan centers, plenty of shooting opportunities (including the NRA Whittington Center), plus good people & GREAT food!!! /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Sasquatch]

There are a couple 1K ranges in Wyoming. Casper and Ft. Douglas both have 1k range that I know of and there is a summer state games where they shoot the 1k targets in Casper.

 

[Meister]

Midwest has a great deal of 1000y clubs as well as nra shooting competitions. Not much in the way of elk, there are elk farms here but it's like taking a shotgun to the grocery store. I travel 1000 miles to South Dakota every year to kill a slew of prairie poodles. Can't even shoot deer with a rifle in the state of Indiana.

 

[Buffalobob]

What I did when interested in the same question was build a table of data that included what I wanted. I would cut and paste it here but the forum software eats up tab spacings.

My parameter were:

State population - is it crowded?
State land area - people per square mile
public land area - availble land to do your thing
cost of living - retired
Animals availble to hunt - enough elk and deer
Birds to hunt - a sweet swinging 20ga and a fast flushing bird
Average January temperature - Alabama genes just don't tolerate too much cold weather

Four states stand out - Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho

 

[gonehuntingagain]

[ QUOTE ]

My parameter were:

State population - is it crowded?
State land area - people per square mile
public land area - availble land to do your thing
cost of living - retired
Animals availble to hunt - enough elk and deer
Birds to hunt - a sweet swinging 20ga and a fast flushing bird
Average January temperature - Alabama genes just don't tolerate too much cold weather

Four states stand out - Colorado, Wyoming, Montana and Idaho

[/ QUOTE ]

This definately sounds like Idaho - just about anywhere in the state (except the larger cities like Boise, even though it is a short drive to do all of the above activities).

 

[Buffalobob]

Plus a toasty 39.4 degree average temperature in January. Thats ten degrees better than Montana. If you live in Lewiston then you can get a few more degrees of winter heat from the lower elevation and the winds from the west.
80% public lands. Population of about 2 people per sq mile of public land in Idaho compared to Colorado which has about 10 people per square mile of public land. Good variety of birds - pheasants, grouse, quail, chukars.
No draw on elk and deer-permits every year.

now then if you would just get rid of the speed limit we would be talking about utopia.

 

[ColonialBuff]

BB,
Having lived in CO, and visited all the other states in the union save AK and ID, I am a CO/AZ/WY fan. When I moved to MD, I had to choose Frederick just to have some kind of scenery to look at.

 

[Coyoter]

So close and yet so far....
Wyoming has tons of public land, BLM, State, National Forest. You can hunt Deer (white tail or mulie), elk, antelope, moose, coyotes, prarie dogs, and with a lot of luck at the draw, sheep.
Population density is the lowest in the country. Where I live there are 750 people, it's 12 miles to another 200, 20 miles a different direction to 320 more and 45 miles to the nearest "real" town. 80 miles to Walmart.
I paid 55k for 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 1/2 car garage although prices are going up lately.
Then there's the weather. Right now it's a balmy 54 degrees with a day time high of 62 anticipated. It should warm up to 80 later this week though. Shooting long range is an early morning pass time. By mid day the wind gusts can exceed 30 mph virtually any time of year which makes those -10 January days rugged to say the least. Most of us hunker down from December - May and dream of spring time. There's a nearby town named Saratoga that may be worth looking into for you. Housing prices aren't bad and it seems to be in a valley that shelters it from much of the wind, although low temps are low temps. You can look on Weather.com for annual average temps, highs and lows. Lander is pretty temperate (but not as cheap) with more in-town shopping and it's at the base of a major mountain range. Casper and the afor mentioned shoots are about 2 hours from me, 3 hours from Saratoga and 5 from Lander. I think it may be faster to go to Salt Lake for long range shoots from Lander.
Hope this helps.
Coyoter
I should have added that General Elk and deer tags are available over the counter to residents and available if you don't draw in a limited quota area. Antelope are virtually all limited quota (draw) tags, but early after the draw there are many leftover tags that can then be purchased over the counter by residents.

 

[Fotis]

[ QUOTE ]
So close and yet so far....
I paid 55k for 4 bedroom, 3 bath, 2 1/2 car garage although prices are going up lately.

[/ QUOTE ]

Where in Wyoming are you??????????? /ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[ol mike]

I went 75 miles north of casper ,wy and could not believe the prices of real estate there.

A trailer on 2 acre was $100,000!
Any decent house was $150-160K.
I couldn't believe those prices out in the middle of nowhere.
My vision of the the old west wasn't what i had pictured.Having grown up in the midwest -i had no idea the west was basically covered by stickers ,thorns and cactus.
It's a rugged place for sure and i don't suspect it will be crowded for many years to come.
While i was there the wind blew 25-35mph for hours on end.
If you open the door of the truck everything in the truck will be blowing across the praire.We couldn't lay anything on the hood ,even binos and guns would blow off.
And i have no idea how animals can live off of what they graze on there! Mike