Utah or Alaska

[Buffalobob]

What I would recommend is go to Alaska and get your degree and have some fun hunting in the spare time with the thought in your mind that you will move elsewhere afterward. Then when you have your degree find a job in the next place you wish to live.

I do not know where in Utah nor the circumstances of your encounters with the LDS but for us, once the neighbors had gone through the required rituals concerning taking us to their religion, life settled down and they were extremely nice neighbors.

The draw for deer in Utah is now only once every three years so don't expect to be doing very much deer hunting. When you were in Md you were in deer hunting heaven if you don't mind them being small and bald.

 

[284stak]

Most important is getting into a PA program if that is what you want - it can be competitive in the public programs so let that be the determining factor, odds are you should/will be busy for several yrs so that hunting trips will not be as likely, but short endeavors will and Utah has a lot to offer for year-round outdoor activities.

I am not LDS, and have not ever felt out of place in UT - have lived on the Wasatch front the majority, but am now in a small town in Summit county.. I moved here from MO 18 yrs ago, am prior military, in the medical field and Catholic. I have several LDS and non-LDS friends --- the only difference is their consumption of alcohol. The only negative I have seen was with our son in elementary school - quite often he and other nonLDS children were left out of overnight activities when the parents hosting were LDS - guess that could happen with other religions/race as well.

Have only been to Alaska once - loved it, but personally think UT and the surronding states have more to offer for the average outdoorsman - and in the long run, if you do well as a PA, you should be able to afford to go back.

The draw program in UT does limit your ability to hunt trophy sized game, but there are a opportunities for general seasons and anterless.

Good Luck

 

[crowman]

Utah dont have no silvers or 10+lb rainbows or oil money, but Alaska dont have many women with a full set of teeth. Should be a no brainer Alaska for the next 2-4 years.

 

[goodgrouper]

Utah dont have no silvers or 10+lb rainbows or oil money, but Alaska dont have many women with a full set of teeth. Should be a no brainer Alaska for the next 2-4 years.

I don't know of any 10 lb rainbows but we have monster lake trout. ANd actually, our basin area is thriving from the booming oil business. Dang near every motel room in every town is rented out or was this summer. The Ute indian tribe has sold almost every right to the oil on their property and the BLM ground has oil rigs dotting the landscape from HWY 40 to the Book Cliffs.

That's sad to hear about the ALaskan women! I think I also heard awhile back that the women to man ratio was like 10 to 1 or something. That would stink too if it's true!

 

[goodgrouper]

The hunt draws are pretty tough here but it's gettin that way for every lower 48 state with maybe the exception of WY.

But it's no matter, there are plenty of varmints to scratch your itchy trigger finger and most of them don't require any sort of license.


The only real big downside to Utah hunting I've experienced is the division of wildlife services and their bad mismanagement of the deer heard the last 20 years.

 

[goodgrouper]

Oh yeah, one other problem here with hunting. Our tags are so cheap and easy to put in for that you have every swinging Tom putting in his neighbors, his second cousins, his dogs, and his goldfish in on the draws. That kinda hurts your chances of drawing.

 

[Fitz]

The hunt draws are pretty tough here but it's gettin that way for every lower 48 state with maybe the exception of WY.

But it's no matter, there are plenty of varmints to scratch your itchy trigger finger and most of them don't require any sort of license.


The only real big downside to Utah hunting I've experienced is the division of wildlife services and their bad mismanagement of the deer heard the last 20 years.

Hmmm... 338 Lapua versus jackrabbit.

 

[crowman]

Goodgouper- what I ment by oil money is that every resident of Alaska over 12yrs old gets an oil dividen check every year like 1200.00 or something like that, depends on how much gets pumped from the state and what the price of oils is. But after 2-3 years up there you would most certainly want to come this way just to find a good woman.

 

[LRSickle]

I'd move to Alaska in a heartbeat if I were single. I'd hunt some of those animals that we in the lower states only dream about. But alas, I'm stuck here in Utah with too good of a job to give up. I still get to hunt here and the neighboring states so life is good.
As far as the LDS go, I live smack-dab in the middle of a subdivision full of them. There're the greatest neighbors you could have. They keep an eye on my place and they're all friendly to me. I've only had to send the missionaries packing a couple times.
Oh and the Utah women, I've been all over this country and there are no finer women than right here in LDS central. I just wish they'd show a little more skin .

 

[Fitz]

I'd move to Alaska in a heartbeat if I were single. I'd hunt some of those animals that we in the lower states only dream about. But alas, I'm stuck here in Utah with too good of a job to give up. I still get to hunt here and the neighboring states so life is good.
As far as the LDS go, I live smack-dab in the middle of a subdivision full of them. There're the greatest neighbors you could have. They keep an eye on my place and they're all friendly to me. I've only had to send the missionaries packing a couple times.
Oh and the Utah women, I've been all over this country and there are no finer women than right here in LDS central. I just wish they'd show a little more skin .

lol, I would have to agree on the women. I have lived all over the world and Utah still has the best.

 

[brentc]

I've lived in both places for extensive amounts of time and both places have their pros and cons. The Alaska winters are definitely something to reckon with, but the wildlife aspect is outstanding if you have the money to pay a transporter to get you into the remote places where most of the best game resides. Plus, being a resident of AK definitely has it's benefits when it comes to the Permanent Fund Dividend. The PFD is a portion of an oil royalty portfolio that is given back to every qualifying Alaskan resident, but you won't get it until you've lived there for at least one calendar year.

Utah is a great place to live as well. There is lots of different terrain, lots of great critters, and as a resident you have a higher chance of drawing good units and it doesn't cost you near as much money to travel out of state to hunt as it would if you were flying out of AK.

 

[Chas1]

LRSickle and Fitz-I just wish they'd show a little more skin. Sounds like you guys need to move to Florida where the further south you go so do the clothes. Heck we have bikini car washes, food stands, bait stands on and on and the trophy fish shooting is outstanding.

 

[HUAINAMACHERO]

Fitz,
IMHO: if I was single as you are, and looking where to study and live, I would definitively go to ALASKA. While you are single, young and active, hunt all you want for the first years, make your hunting dreams true, and then move somewhere else(Utah) for a living, if in those years you are not convinced of living in Alaska for the rest of your life.
I am about to finish my Plastic Surgery Residency, and since I started studying I have been very busy the last 14 years, with only very little time to hunt. WHILE YOU CAN CONQUER YOUR DREAMS, and then settle down. You have all of your life to do the other way around. The only thing I regret in life, is not having hunted more before.
Now I have to work a lot to try to pay for the hunting trips I dream of. Yours can be achieved much easier.
Hope this helps. Good luck, and keeps us posted.