I’m thinking aabour moving away from this God-Awful cold her in Northern MN Life w/o,archery can’t happen. Where do I go in New Mexico Or Arizona. The largest town I’ve ever lived in was about 7000 people. What’s out there??

Arrowchucker out

live w/o

Prescott Az. Don't tell nobody else.

If I had my way it would have been Prescott instead of Phx area. There’s a great club up there that has a great range. Also a decent lake for fishing. Your not to far from decent Elk hunting as well.

There’s a lot of places I’d rather live than NM but Arizona isn’t one of them. Silver City NM is a nice smaller town with good hunting, fishing and archery opportunities.

Been a lot of places, but there's no place like home. Plenty of hunting opportunities out here.

Silver City is nice, but very isolated (unless that's what you want). AZ is getting a might bit busy IMO but they do have better archery opportunities. When I lived in NM, it was an archery black hole. If it hadn't been for O.L. Adcock living down the street from me, I might not have known anyone who shot a bow.

Be ready for a major culture shift moving from what I call " the bubble " of the upper midwest to the Southwest. Some people love it, but many feel very uncomfortable being around so many folks from different backgrounds and political views.

My top pick for the SW is not quite as far SW - Durango CO.

Yep, Durango or Telluride

If the liberals hadn't taken over CO it would be a nice state.

I would go but I'm afraid of summer heat. Dry heat is still heat.

I lived in Durango for a few years. I love that area. Telluride is great too but terribly expensive. Plenty of snow and cold in both of those places but that doesn’t bother me. Silver is nice if you’re looking for small but it is too small and isolated for me.

I agree, Prescott is nice but getting crowed. But anything above the rim is good. Flagstaff sucks in the winter with all the skiers. Stay out of the Phoenix valley unless you like the heat. We have some good hunting in Az but it's getting crowed with non resident hunters. We have non permit archery only hunting for some game.

Whatever you choose you should spend a winter and summer there before laying down your cash. There is a place in New Mexico I liked. Reodoso (sp). Almost bought land there back in the 70’s. Very much like Flagstaff, Az. Used to be lots of Bears and Deer to hunt as well.

Ruidoso. And yea, it's a nice little town. But I wouldn't compare it to Flag. Flag is a college town with a lot of conveniences. Ruidoso - at least 15 years ago - was pretty limited and isolated, although you can make the 1 hr. trip to Roswell or 2 hr. trip to the suburbs of Albuquerque to get most of what you need. If you like quiet, Cloudcroft is pretty nice.

But not much in the way of archery.

JusPassin, fortunately all the liberals in CO are East slopers. The West slope is still good conservative mountain folk as long as you stay away from the resorts.

Durango and Telluride is extremely expensive to live in. Both are tourist towns and Durango is a college town. In New Mexico, Santa Fe is a great place, great location. I moved to phoenix a year ago, and regret it!! It takes you 30 minutes to go 17 miles, on an interstate. If you don't like traffic, police sirens and helicopters, don't move to Phoenix. And yes, I live in a great part of Phoenix.

Archery range in Tucson, AZ.

The above are practice bales. This is one of the targets.

I like Tucson much more than Phoenix, and it's usually 5 degrees cooler because of the altitude difference. Having said that, Tucson is a big city IMO and too much crime and traffic.

I would never in a million years live anywhere near Phoenix.

Yes, Durango is expensive but there are more affordable places to live nearby.

bwallace, I never thought I'd say this but the dope smokers in CO don't bother me as much as I thought they would. Being in law enforcement for 16 years, I dealt with both DUI's who were drunk on alcohol and high on dope. The alcohol DUI's were 10:1 over the dope, and it's still legal. Alcohol has killed more people and broken up more families than drugs as far as I know. And having worked on the border and seen that mess, if legalizing marijuana cuts down on the demand for illegal dope from Mexico and S. America, that's a good outcome. But I still have mixed feelings about it.

I go to CO to elk hunt every September. I have yet to see dopers where I go. LOL

i live in alamogordo nm . everything you want from starbucks to home depot. 1 hour ride to el paso to airport easy in and out. they have a new archery shop in cloudcroft now 20 minutes up the hill.home prices are cheap .taxes are cheap at least where i came from ( mass.). winter are very mild summer is hot but not unbearable best part lots of big elk

Lamb... shhhhh. ;)

I see the comments about NM but what about tags & public land ???? Can you get tags w/o a bazillion year wait ????

Limbwalker, I had to be at the Colorado Supreme court this past summer, and had to walk around passed out dopers and homeless on the sidewalks right next to the capital. That is not the kind of state I'd want to live in and raise kids in, and I was a cop for 37 years.

I agree juspassin. I was a cop for 25 years 3 days and 6 hours. A detective for 10 of those years.

Elk tags are difficult in NM..it's virtually all public except for purchases of private owner tags ($1000 up). Colorado means droves of Texans with ATV. IMO AZ and NV would be a lot better for hunters but NM and especially the Navajo Nation has weekly 3Ds.

JusPassin, for a second there I thought you were describing Austin. LOL

I find it hard to criticize dope smokers when there are 11,000 people a year killed by drunk (alcohol) drivers. Seems a bit hypocritical to me - being a beer drinker.

Back to the topic...

Desperado, I was a NM resident for four years and NEVER got drawn. It would have only cost me $64 for an elk tag, and my wife had O.L. make me a longbow for my 30th birthday, just to hunt elk.

In my past life, stationed in Tucson, we had three ranges,best one was on DMAFB,Great state to hunt.Good dear,Mule and Coues also much else.

I drew NM elk 3 out of 4 tries, great units, but that was years ago. Odds depend a lot on which unit you apply for...Game & Fish announces historic odds. Colorado's dope thang is infecting surrounding states legally as well as illegally. Can't get away from that. If you've visited CO, NM, AZ, and NV during season you've seen who hunts here (license plates).

Living in each of those states is a different reality from hunting there. Hard to beat life in NM, but I'd consider Tucson (not PHX). #1 question is, will you find work or do you have big enough savings.

I can't recommend New Mexico for bowhunting. Some of the info given here is outdated -- things have changed. Mule deer are sparse. It's nearly impossible to draw an antelope tag -- I haven't been successful in nearly 20 years. Javelina are fun but not nearly as plentiful as in AZ. Elk hunting is good or bad depending on the unit. The tag lottery is screwed up . Some people draw easily, others don't. I haven't drawn a decent unit in 16 years. For the first 8 of those years, I couldn't draw a tag even though my third choice had 90-100% drawing odds. Meanwhile, the two guys down the hall draw very high demand units every year. Poaching is rampant, and no one is interested in stopping it. ATVs are everywhere, mostly tearing up the countryside off the roads. It's illegal, but no one cares. Most units are overcrowded (for archery elk) due to huge numbers of landowner tags (but they're very expensive). Ranchers routinely close public roads and public land. There are other problems too, but I've said enough. Good points include the weather and green chile.

Squirrel, the general lawlessness of NM (compared to surrounding states) is one strike against it in my book. Such a shame for such a beautiful state.

By that I mean much of what you just described (poaching, illegal use of ATV's, ranchers closing public roads on public land, etc).

I once had a group of friends come out and hunt mule deer with me NW of Roswell on BLM land. I hunted with them on the weekend and went back to work during the week while they hunted. A rancher from a place about 5 miles from their camp got wind they were camping and hunting on BLM land ("his" BLM land according to him) and he went out to their camp mid- morning when they were out hunting and poured out all their water. It was an hour's drive on rough roads back to town to refill. When they went back to town, they spoke to the game warden and he paid the rancher a visit. Apparently this guy had been doing that for years and the GW knew about it.

My buddies were all successful and ended up having a great hunt, but nobody should have to deal with a horse's a.. like that on public land.

Nothing like NM chilies. Hatch and Chimayo to be exact.

JusPassin, don't rate a whole state by what you saw in one big city. The western slope of Colorado is very different from the east side with its big cities it should be a separate state. Wish it was!! Sad to say but Colorado has been Californicated.

Colorado is a beautiful state but your right Sailor it has been Californicated. I use to go there and hunt every year and had many good times elk hunting. Now the liberals and marijuana free roaming I don't care to go back. Some troopers there told our family members traffic deaths are really up since the passing of marijuana laws. The western slope is still a great place but for how long? I hope things change to the better.

I agree Sailor.

As in many states (unfortunately) there really are two states within a state. Colorado, New Mexico, Illinois all come to mind. The urban folks can give the rural folks a black eye at times.

I lived in Las Cruces NM for a couple of years in the mid 1990's. I drew the elk unit near Cloudcroft 2 years in a row, taking a nice bull with my bow the second year. Only an hour and 45 minutes from my house in the desert and I was high in elk country. The quail hunting around Cruces was great, and I thought the area in general was beautiful: White Sands NM, the Organ Mountains...pretty places. As others have stated above, I have heard drawing tags is now very difficult, and even when I lived there the deer were not plentiful. No surprise to hear that it is worse now. Everything changes. OP, I wish you good fortune wherever you decide to move.

I lived in NM for 17 years, hunted elk and mule deer in some of the better units, started hunting mule deer when tags were otc. After they made unit 2 a draw unit, we could still hunt deer otc down by Pie Town. I remember the true Gila Monsters... but now, you can't draw tags because of the increase of outfitter preference, LO permits and depredation tags. When F&G started allowing people to shoot those huge bulls in the alfalfa fields around Reserve in August, I was done with NM.

Phoenix sucks!!! I can't shoot outdoors in the summer time in the evenings, so I shot from 5:00 am till 6:00 am before work every day. As far as decent places to live around Durango, guess you haven't priced houses, if you can find em. Head north towards Purgetory and the houses almost double. Hespresus is just as bad as Bayfield now.

Norwood, Colorado, winters are mild and Mule Deer and Elk..

drew a tag in new mexico 2nd year putting in . drew the gila the next year. no elk tag last year. 2 out 4 ain't bad. i believe you could draw every year if you were willing to travel in the state (bow). the unit i live in is crushed with elk. found a shed yesterday almost 10'' at the base. saw 3 other bulls still with there antlers and one of them was scary big bad place don't move here lol

Yeah, never mind. New Mexico sucks. Probably best just steer clear.

Originally a Wolverine, and was a snowbird for many winters. Tried living in AZ. for 4 years. Love and miss the Superstition Mtns. But alas I'm just a grass, trees and water kinda guy. Enjoying OK. with very mild winters and a lot more lenient hunting regs. AZ. had too much lottery hunting for me. Just my two cents. John

Stoner, you mentioned water. Made me remember how much I missed running water when I was in NM. LOL It's hard to find!

WA and OR have a bit of everything. The west side is rainy but still mild. YOU want 4 seasons, snow , cold high desert nice rivers. Just drive over the passes to the East side. On the west side you still get branch tags over the counter how ever hunting in thick areas.Lots of deer. However I cannot stand the liberal pot smokers. the state became the drug dealer to collect more taxes. Now that pot is legal if you want it just go to your old dealer as he cant be arrested anymore and cheaper. Makes me sick. wont go to Seattle anymore as in the evening that is all you smell (pot smoke). I guess elk hunting could become more easy with elk getting stoned from the smoke

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