Gary I

We sold our house there. Didnt really think i would ever move back. Hunting here isnt a whole lot different than there. The general season for archery starts in early september. Its still plenty warm, much like Arizonas archery season. The general rifle season usually starts about October 20th and runs until the sunday after Thanksgiving. There is normaly a little snow by then but not real cold. The worst winter ive seen here it didnt snow at all until December 6th. Then it got a little out of hand. I wear most of the same hunting clothes here that i did there. Ive upgraded a few things but not much. The biggest upgrade is hunting boots. Waterproof is crucial. Not just for wet weather but crossing streams. You will also have to stock up on hunter orange gear. Its required during the general firearms season. Some of the coldest times ive had was sitting on a ridge glassing for Coues deer in December down there. I miss doing that. Not a lot of glassing around here so you tend to move around more.

At one point of my life, about 20 years ago, i was asking myself the same questions about where i wanted to go. I had lived my whole life in Az. 44 years of it in Payson. Had a great life there. No complaints, just wanted something different and cooler. Through a strange set of circumstances i ended up buying 20 acres in Trout Creek, Montana. I drove from Payson to my place here 41 times getting my house built. 8 years ago my wife and i decided to pull the plug and move up to the Montana place permanently. It was the best decision we ever made. It is a great place to be. Although my first winter here had me questioning what i had done. But once i figured out how to handle the winter it really became easy. Havent had a winter like that one since. Actually the hardest thing we have had to adjust to is the length of days. Not the short days of winter, which arent all that short, but the long days of summer. It stays light until 11:00. You can work yourself to death. Or you can work a regular job and get off and go fishing for another 7 hours. We rarely get to bed before 11:30 in the summer. The elk hunting here is alittle harder than it was there. Not a lot of bulls but buying a tag over the counter and getting to go every year is nice. I've managed to kill 2 5x5s in 7 years. The deer hunting is great. Whitetail deer are everywhere. Not hard to kill a nice buck if you spend a little time at it and dont shoot any of the first 75 bucks you see. Lots of other hunting opportunities as well, turkey, grouse, bears, wolves, etc, all over the counter tags. Fishing nothing short of spectacular. Never know what you might catch. Could be a 5 lb smallmouth or largemouth. Or it could be a 30 lb pike or a 5 lb walleye. Or anything in between. And license and tags are cheaper here. I was a little worried about the job situation up here. Although i had semi-retired from my job there, i knew i would need to work. It seems that it is just as hard for employers to find decent workers here as it is anywhere. There are lots of work opportunities here. Cost of living is just about the same as there. Although taxes are much cheaper. Income tax is about the same, no sales tax on anything and property taxes are lower here. Before i left i bought a lifetime hunting license in Az. Great decision. Ive drawn better tags since i left than i got when i lived there. All in all we havent regretted leaving Az not even once. It was great for me but it was time to move on. Since we moved both of our boys have followed us up. They are doing very well at making their lives here and love it almost as much as we do. Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and take a chance. In the long run you provably wont ever regret it. And if you do, Az will still be there.

At one point of my life, about 20 years ago, i was asking myself the same questions about where i wanted to go. I had lived my whole life in Az. 44 years of it in Payson. Had a great life there. No complaints, just wanted something different and cooler. Through a strange set of circumstances i ended up buying 20 acres in Trout Creek, Montana. I drove from Payson to my place here 41 times getting my house built. 8 years ago my wife and i decided to pull the plug and move up to the Montana place permanently. It was the best decision we ever made. It is a great place to be. Although my first winter here had me questioning what i had done. But once i figured out how to handle the winter it really became easy. Havent had a winter like that one since. Actually the hardest thing we have had to adjust to is the length of days. Not the short days of winter, which arent all that short, but the long days of summer. It stays light until 11:00. You can work yourself to death. Or you can work a regular job and get off and go fishing for another 7 hours. We rarely get to bed before 11:30 in the summer. The elk hunting here is alittle harder than it was there. Not a lot of bulls but buying a tag over the counter and getting to go every year is nice. I've managed to kill 2 5x5s in 7 years. The deer hunting is great. Whitetail deer are everywhere. Not hard to kill a nice buck if you spend a little time at it and dont shoot any of the first 75 bucks you see. Lots of other hunting opportunities as well, turkey, grouse, bears, wolves, etc, all over the counter tags. Fishing nothing short of spectacular. Never know what you might catch. Could be a 5 lb smallmouth or largemouth. Or it could be a 30 lb pike or a 5 lb walleye. Or anything in between. And license and tags are cheaper here. I was a little worried about the job situation up here. Although i had semi-retired from my job there, i knew i would need to work. It seems that it is just as hard for employers to find decent workers here as it is anywhere. There are lots of work opportunities here. Cost of living is just about the same as there. Although taxes are much cheaper. Income tax is about the same, no sales tax on anything and property taxes are lower here. Before i left i bought a lifetime hunting license in Az. Great decision. Ive drawn better tags since i left than i got when i lived there. All in all we havent regretted leaving Az not even once. It was great for me but it was time to move on. Since we moved both of our boys have followed us up. They are doing very well at making their lives here and love it almost as much as we do. Sometimes you have to throw caution to the wind and take a chance. In the long run you provably wont ever regret it. And if you do, Az will still be there.

Thanks, JLG is exactly who i was thinking of. I reached out to him and guess we'll see. A good tent camp might be kind of fun too.

I have looked at Christopher Creek Cabins and airbnb and will go that way if i dont find anything else. When i lived in Payson there was a guy on here that had a house somewhere up there that rented to hunters often. Just cant remember who it was.

I Got lucky this year and drew a unit 23 late rifle bull tag. I will be driving down from Montana with my sons and a couple of friends for the hunt. Was wondering if anyone knew of someone that had a house or cabin that they might rent for about 10 days for us. Not looking for fancy or expensive, just somewhere to crash for the nights and cook dinner. Somewhere around Christopher Creek, Tonto Village, Star Valley, even Payson would be great. Also open to trades for time in my Cabin on the lake in Trout Creek, Montana.

Are you willing to ship these? If so i will take them.

Didnt see any wolves but they were close. A pack was seen in the drainage where we got the cat a couple days before. Dog owner was worried about wolves killing his dogs.

Got lucky and drew one of the 22 trophy lion tags in my unit. A friend of mine had the dogs. Hunting in 3 ft of snow made it a real challenge but super fun. Big Tom weighed in at 157 lbs and was 8 ft 5 inches long. Super excited to take a cat like this.

Cant say i blame you for wanting to hunt Montana. I was an Az native for 53 years and moved to Montana 3 1/2 years ago. The hunting here is definitely different, but i love it. I am in the northwest corner of the state in Trout Creek. 20 miles from the Idaho border. All of the bull tags for this unit (unit 121)are general tags. A draw for you and over the counter for me. The elk numbers and bull size is suffrering due to a variety of reasons, mostly wolves. The deer hunting however is great. I have managed to kill bulls the last 2 years on opening morning of rifle season. Not big bulls, 5x5s both of them, but bulls. The best deer hunting is late in the season because the rut is so powerful then. Muledeer up high and whitetail down lower. Being a lifelong whitetail guy i hunt them. If a guy wants to work hard there are enough bulls to make a good hunt. Just dont expect to kill a big bull. If you want a great bull, apply for the hunts in the eastern part of the state. If you just want to hunt elk and deer in really buautiful country, apply for a general tag. Not too hard to draw, alittle spendy, but worth it. But be prepared, if you visit here you will want to stay. You wont be disappointed.

I'm not sure if I need these or not, but they might be kind of fun to have. I moved to Montana this year and there is 30 inches of snow outside and last night it was 19 below zero. That being said, what would you take for these snow shoes shipped to Trout Creek, Montana?

I have a complete OEM front bumper with fog lights, OEM front coil springs and complete turbo back OEM exhaust for a 2003 thru 2005 Dodge Cummins crew cab short bed truck. All are in good shape. Bumper is off a black truck so plastic is black. Not sure what its all worth but I am sure I don't need it any more. Make me an offer, Open to trading for something smaller Located in Payson. 928-951-2627

I knew Brian as a good friend for 30 years. Hunted bears with him a couple of times, hunted shed antlers with him lots of times. He had a passion for what he did and was one of the best at it. I always thought I was a pretty good shed hunter but he always managed to kick my butt every time we went out. Condolences to his family. He definitely left too early. At least he was doing what he loved to do more than anything, enjoying the outdoors. May you Rest in Peace. Enjoy today because you never know what tomorrow may bring.

I hope someone that caught the entire post reported that boneheaded POS. I only saw the pics with the rabbits, evidently the fish pics had already been taken down. Dumb arses like him will be the death of the sport. Hunting is one thing, killing just for the absolute heck of it is aother. Then to be stupid enough to post pictures of all of it really proves his mentality. I hope he gets what is coming to him if he really did what the original post insinuated... A nice big fine and about 5 years of no hunting or fishing would be a good start.

How about this; Open up the on-line draw and give no deadline. just tell everyone that it will be shut down sometime in the next 3 weeks, better get in early. LOL