What State

[muledeerarea33?]

Sounds like your staying here.

[krash73]

For me it would be Northern Idaho, I know it wasn’t on your list. It would be a low maintenance home so that we can travel but still have a great place to call home.  Home would be near a river that gets salmon or a lake so I have something to do while enjoying adult beverages. 
 

You are on the right track though, debt free is the key. 

[thegunsmith2506]

I was in MO for  year when I was 18. Horrible place to live if you like public land and being outdoors. Unless you own 500+ acres you cant do much.

[Edge]

24 minutes ago, thegunsmith2506 said:

I was in MO for  year when I was 18. Horrible place to live if you like public land and being outdoors. Unless you own 500+ acres you cant do much.

Ticks and twisters

[thegunsmith2506]

1 minute ago, Edge said:

Ticks and twisters

and chiggers

[Outdoor Writer]

32 minutes ago, Edge said:

Ticks and twisters

Amen. I contracted Lyme disease after a bout with a tick on a Missouri turkey hunt in the 1980s with Ray Eye. Luckily I recognized the red circle and got treated with antibiotics even before my positive lab results came back. 

[Edge]

Amanda knows about tick emergencies.

For a couples years, a friend of ours was slowly wasting away from an unknown ailment till they diagnosed Lyme Disease.

4 minutes ago, Outdoor Writer said:

Amen. I contracted Lyme disease after a bout with a tick on a Missouri turkey hunt in the 1980s with Ray Eye. Luckily I recognized the red circle and got treated with antibiotics even before my positive lab results came back. 

 

[Outdoor Writer]

5 minutes ago, Edge said:

Amanda knows about tick emergencies.

For a couples years, a friend of ours was slowly wasting away from an unknown ailment till they diagnosed Lyme Disease.

 

Yup. Effects can be pretty devastating on all body systems. When I had it, the only lab doing accurate testing was in NJ. Results took about a week to get back. So my doc put me on doxycycline immediately and did another test a few weeks later that came back negative. 

[trphyhntr]

I would live in round valley somewhere 

[goinhuntn]

23 hours ago, muledeerarea33? said:

Yeah but your biased because of your time in California! Any state would look better!! 😂

That is true, but AZ is pretty hard to beat!!😀

[yotebuster]

I’m surprised to see so many suggestions of the SE.  Besides dirt cheap cost of living I can’t think of much benefit there.  I think a lot of people who grow up out west in public land don’t realize just how awful the private mess East of the Rockies is.  We have 6000 acres here in ND in one block which is a giant piece for ag land and it still feels constricting sometimes compared to being out in the mountains.  Most people here have access to 200-400 acres at best and ND is way way way better then further east where guys consider a 40 to be a place they can hunt all season on.  That would make me sick!!  I make multiple trips out west each year to stretch out on the public land and love every second of it.  Unless you’re a multi multi millionaire and can buy a big place you won’t be happy East if the Rockies.  If I had that kind of money to burn I’d just buy a way bigger ranch in NM that I could get a landowner elk tag every year on!!  

[bojangles]

I’d check out somewhere near Smokey mountain national park in north or South Carolina.  I’ve been thinking about somewhere near Hendersonville, NC.  Access to mountains, to too far from the coast.   Not too cold, either.  

[knothead]

1 hour ago, bojangles said:

I’d check out somewhere near Smokey mountain national park in north or South Carolina.  I’ve been thinking about somewhere near Hendersonville, NC.  Access to mountains, to too far from the coast.   Not too cold, either.  

Oh my gosh!  All you guys that live in places I would trade my left nut to live at and you want to move?!  Payson is in my top two or three places I would like to move to.  What Yotebuster said  about taking all the public land for granted we have out west is no small thing.  I never really knew until I moved to Texas how much free land we have to roam in here in AZ.  Seriously, you don't know what you got until it's gone.

Now that grand kids are starting to be born, I don't think there is anyway I am going to get my wife to leave the valley for a small town some place in AZ.  Probably die right here in Peoria.

[longbowpilot]

On 8/1/2020 at 8:01 PM, yotebuster said:

I’m surprised to see so many suggestions of the SE.  Besides dirt cheap cost of living I can’t think of much benefit there.  I think a lot of people who grow up out west in public land don’t realize just how awful the private mess East of the Rockies is.  We have 6000 acres here in ND in one block which is a giant piece for ag land and it still feels constricting sometimes compared to being out in the mountains.  Most people here have access to 200-400 acres at best and ND is way way way better then further east where guys consider a 40 to be a place they can hunt all season on.  That would make me sick!!  I make multiple trips out west each year to stretch out on the public land and love every second of it.  Unless you’re a multi multi millionaire and can buy a big place you won’t be happy East if the Rockies.  If I had that kind of money to burn I’d just buy a way bigger ranch in NM that I could get a landowner elk tag every year on!!  

I grew up hunting In tree stands back in VA.  Sometimes hunt on a small 10 acre tract.  Only have to walk 100 yards and you’re at your stand.  While we did kill a lot of deer, it wasn’t much of an adventure compared to western hunting.  I agree you cannot beat the open land, challenge and sense of adventure when you go on a hunt in Arizona.  

[muledeerarea33?]

8 minutes ago, longbowpilot said:

I grew up hunting In tree stands back in VA.  Sometimes hunt on a small 10 acre tract.  Only have to walk 100 yards and you’re at your stand.  While we did kill a lot of deer, it wasn’t much of an adventure compared to western hunting.  I agree you cannot beat the open land, challenge and sense of adventure when you go on a hunt in Arizona.  

But growing up in az and hunting here, sometimes it would be nice to walk 100 yards and kill a lot of deer!! It’s a give and take type of thing here. Better hunting experience with a harder hunt. Opposed to meat every year with a somewhat boring experience. I’d love to hunt both ways every year if time and money were no issue!