Relocating for the bird dog (and me)

[mporter012]

The GSP and I continue to ponder a relocate in the next year or so. I'm a carpenter here in N. CO. The bird hunting mostly sucks here (blue grouse , and i want to either buy/build/remodel a house on the cheaper side of things, and im not spending the 550k nonsense you have to spend here to live in a development with a 6' long backyard. If you have a GSP, you know that aint' good. So long as i can find suitable work and get a house, i think we are outta here next year. You can't have it all, but i do have an particular obsession with fly fishing, so we've pondered maybe the Billings area, prob good work there, and i have a buddy that's done some work in the Rapid City area, so considered there, Casper... but if i ended up 5 hours from a trout stream, i may not survive, not sure. I tend to think towns in the 50k plus population will have enough work demand to keep the checking account full, but i could be wrong there. Where would you guys go? Or would you stay put, and travel when you can. I know this, the dog would prefer to move. I told him about the public land hunting in MT and he went berserk.

 

[go_deep]

Life is to short

 

[mporter012]

Life is to short

Yea it sure is...

 

[Muleyczy]

I’d imagine you couldn’t go wrong with Montana

 

[Dmann]

Montana would not be a bad choice.

 

[jmez]

Rapid City

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[WRO]

Pocatello or twin falls idaho should be on your list.

Great brid hunting and fly fishing.

 

[Mt Al]

WRO is right about Pocatello, Twin Falls and Idaho Falls areas. IMHO, if a person was really putting fly fishing and bird hunting as priorities that's where you'd land.

Sheridan, WY - awesome....

Billings is a great choice. Trout are there, meh, but you can drive to the Beartooth front from Red Lodge to Big Timber. Birds, birds and more birds to the East and North East.

 

[Mojave]

Casper is below average for upland but ok for waterfowl. Blue ribbon trout stream.

Riverton is a lot better, but only for sage grouse. Lots of lake fishing.

Sheridan is small and super expensive. All the Jackson Hole billionaires ran all the millionaires off to Cody and Sheridan in the 1980's. It has always been expensive.

Butte, MT is a pretty good choice and cheaper than a lot of other places in Montana. There is tremendous upland and waterfowl hunting near Deer Lodge, MT. Mountain grouse, Huns and Chukars on the foothills and waterfowl in the Valley.

Eastern Montana probably has the best bird hunting, it will all be prairie grouse, chukars, and huns. Billing is kind of big, but there are not any 50,000 person towns in Eastern Montana. Maybe Miles City?

Rapid City would also be good.

 

[Mt Al]

Casper is below average for upland but ok for waterfowl. Blue ribbon trout stream.

Riverton is a lot better, but only for sage grouse. Lots of lake fishing.

Sheridan is small and super expensive. All the Jackson Hole billionaires ran all the millionaires off to Cody and Sheridan in the 1980's. It has always been expensive.

Butte, MT is a pretty good choice and cheaper than a lot of other places in Montana. There is tremendous upland and waterfowl hunting near Deer Lodge, MT. Mountain grouse, Huns and Chukars on the foothills and waterfowl in the Valley.

Eastern Montana probably has the best bird hunting, it will all be prairie grouse, chukars, and huns. Billing is kind of big, but there are not any 50,000 person towns in Eastern Montana. Maybe Miles City?

Rapid City would also be good.

Good point on Butte, outstanding for trout, not crawling with newbies like Bozeman and south towards Dillon for birds on public land.

The only chukar hunting region and season in Montana, last time I saw, was South of Billings between the Beartooths and Pryors.

Miles City is small, roughly 8000 people but like anywhere, if you're good at what you do you'll find work. Eastern MT will have Sharptail grouse, huns and sage grouse. Even in a down year your GSP will find birds. Bad weather during nesting and hatching can sometimes be only regional.

It is sad how expensive Sheridan has become. It's another place where people from Bozeman cash in on home equity.

You'll find a place!

 

[mporter012]

Casper is below average for upland but ok for waterfowl. Blue ribbon trout stream.

Riverton is a lot better, but only for sage grouse. Lots of lake fishing.

Sheridan is small and super expensive. All the Jackson Hole billionaires ran all the millionaires off to Cody and Sheridan in the 1980's. It has always been expensive.

Butte, MT is a pretty good choice and cheaper than a lot of other places in Montana. There is tremendous upland and waterfowl hunting near Deer Lodge, MT. Mountain grouse, Huns and Chukars on the foothills and waterfowl in the Valley.

Eastern Montana probably has the best bird hunting, it will all be prairie grouse, chukars, and huns. Billing is kind of big, but there are not any 50,000 person towns in Eastern Montana. Maybe Miles City?

Rapid City would also be good.

Thx for the thoughts. I hadn't really though much about the towns in the mountains like Butte/Deer Lodge in MT. Yea central/east montana really has it all, but it's sparse out there. Not sure where you would work, but if it's drivable that is great. Rapid City in interesting just because there is good work there. I talked to a real estate agent there and apparently that place is getting expensive too. There is so much BLM in WY, esp n and w of casper, but i guess there just isn't the habitat for the birds.

 

[mporter012]

Good point on Butte, outstanding for trout, not crawling with newbies like Bozeman and south towards Dillon for birds on public land.

The only chukar hunting region and season in Montana, last time I saw, was South of Billings between the Beartooths and Pryors.

Miles City is small, roughly 8000 people but like anywhere, if you're good at what you do you'll find work. Eastern MT will have Sharptail grouse, huns and sage grouse. Even in a down year your GSP will find birds. Bad weather during nesting and hatching can sometimes be only regional.

It is sad how expensive Sheridan has become. It's another place where people from Bozeman cash in on home equity.

You'll find a place!

Yea Bozeman is a strange place. Median home price is 850k. E. MT has sharpies and pheasants too. I don't know how great the pheasant hunting is consistently in MT, but if youtube videos are any indication, it's aint bad!

 

[mporter012]

WRO is right about Pocatello, Twin Falls and Idaho Falls areas. IMHO, if a person was really putting fly fishing and bird hunting as priorities that's where you'd land.

Sheridan, WY - awesome....

Billings is a great choice. Trout are there, meh, but you can drive to the Beartooth front from Red Lodge to Big Timber. Birds, birds and more birds to the East and North East.

I picked up a book awhile back called Idaho Ruffed Grouse Hunting, and the author discusses how amazing Idaho is for birds. I grew up in PA so I def have a soft spot for Ruffies and it's depressing how few birds i run into back in PA nowadays compared to when i was learning to hunt in the mid to late 90s. My first day hunting when i was 12, we flushed 18 birds without a dog. You're lucky to see a handful anymore. So in that S. Idaho region, we are talking Huns, Sharpies, and Chukar? Are there wild pheasants in Idaho?

 

[WRO]

I picked up a book awhile back called Idaho Ruffed Grouse Hunting, and the author discusses how amazing Idaho is for birds. I grew up in PA so I def have a soft spot for Ruffies and it's depressing how few birds i run into back in PA nowadays compared to when i was learning to hunt in the mid to late 90s. My first day hunting when i was 12, we flushed 18 birds without a dog. You're lucky to see a handful anymore. So in that S. Idaho region, we are talking Huns, Sharpies, and Chukar? Are there wild pheasants in Idaho?

Yes all of the above plus blues, sooties,ruffs, sage grouse, and valley quail..

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[mporter012]

Yes all of the above plus blues, sooties,ruffs, sage grouse, and valley quail..

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I just looked at real estate in Idaho Falls...Bozeman prices!

 

[WRO]

I just looked at real estate in Idaho Falls...Bozeman prices!

Pocatello or twin aren't that bad..

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[Mt Al]

I just looked at real estate in Idaho Falls...Bozeman prices!

Yeah, I don't get that and I didn't realize how high they were. Nutty! A good friend moved from Bozeman to Pocatello about 12/15 years ago and mentioned how much better the outdoor stuff is there, all of it: fishing/bird and big game hunting/etc.. He remains very happy that it's not on the map as much as other places.

Idaho has chukars, quail, mountain grouse (ruffed, dusky, etc.), sharpies, etc. as far as I know.

 

[2ski]

Thx for the thoughts. I hadn't really though much about the towns in the mountains like Butte/Deer Lodge in MT. Yea central/east montana really has it all, but it's sparse out there. Not sure where you would work, but if it's drivable that is great. Rapid City in interesting just because there is good work there. I talked to a real estate agent there and apparently that place is getting expensive too. There is so much BLM in WY, esp n and w of casper, but i guess there just isn't the habitat for the birds.

Really if you wanted to you could commute drkm Butte to Bozeman. I did the opposite for a year. If you did go the Butte route, let me know. My griff and I are doing our first season around Butte this fall.

Great Falls is another option. Downstream of Holter is blue ribbon trout waters. Plenty of land for birds. And not far from the rockies or little belts dor mountains and all that entails.

 

[mporter012]

Yeah, I don't get that and I didn't realize how high they were. Nutty! A good friend moved from Bozeman to Pocatello about 12/15 years ago and mentioned how much better the outdoor stuff is there, all of it: fishing/bird and big game hunting/etc.. He remains very happy that it's not on the map as much as other places.

Idaho has chukars, quail, mountain grouse (ruffed, dusky, etc.), sharpies, etc. as far as I know.

Yea man it's nuts. I tend to be a right of center guy politically, but with over 30% of houses being bought by wall street funded corporation, we're gonna have to pass legislation to get the bastards out of residential single family homes. It's deeply unamerican. I know people in the fort collins area that own homes here and have 3 others throughout the country, and you can't pass legislation for that, but do you really need 4 homes?

Anyway,.... yea Pocatello seems afforable, i guess Idaho Falls got the fallout from Jackson? It's the billionaires pushing out the millionaires.

 

[mporter012]

Really if you wanted to you could commute drkm Butte to Bozeman. I did the opposite for a year. If you did go the Butte route, let me know. My griff and I are doing our first season around Butte this fall.

Great Falls is another option. Downstream of Holter is blue ribbon trout waters. Plenty of land for birds. And not far from the rockies or little belts dor mountains and all that entails.

Sweet, yea if i end up there, i'll let you know. I've never been to that part of Montana... so are you we talking mostly mountain grouse?