121553

I am really lucky. I have no neighbors and live 3 miles up a mountain.I see deer, bear, the occasional moose and even a cougar twice on my property. I only have 21 acres that I take care of but I have a million acres to play in the Kootenai National forest. I pinch myself everyday and make sure I'm not dreaming. It comes with scarifices though as the wages are very low. The county I live in is the last county in montana as far as economic develope goes, their is just hardly any money to be made here. A person may be able to make ends meet here but it seems like you have to make your money esle where then come here as this ain't the place to get rich.I have seen families come out here on their new endeavor and then after a year or two they go back to where ever. I am a building contractor so I bust my arse making peanuts as to what I was use to be making but I like working my own hours and shut down and huntalmost everyday from sept to the end of nov.and winters are another storyto deal with so you kinda learn how to hibernate like the animals and wait for spring.
Some people need the concret jungle and thats where the money is I guess, but it all depends on what your motivater is in life and what your content with. Good luck.

Bobby

younggun308

So, if I move to Colorado Springs, and get a job there as a bank teller, will I get to do it? Or will being a bank teller be too much hours? I like learning finances in school, it's about the only math thing I really like, my dad was the cheif bank teller in a Bank of America in Costa Mesa, Cal.

usa

bank teller.. hmmm, well if you like being inside all the time that will probably work , you would get weekends and holidays off .

hinkleid

AND... the banks are alost like the federal gov't... any holiday or anything resembling a holiday then they are off.

tschaef

Its all about your job, even if you don't get alot of vacation some jobs allow you to be flexible. As an environmental consultant we can be buried in work all putting in 60hr weeks one month, and have people sent home the next. We bank time worked over 40hrs so some of us can take a few weeks off with pay (hrs that we've already worked) every year, problem is we can only take the time when we're slow.

When I started my job I got 2 weeks vacation, at 5yrs it went to 3 weeks, I just recieved a watch for 10yrs service and my vacation went to 4 weeks.
4 weeks =
1 week turkey
1 week deer (archery)
1 week deer (gun)
1 week for a trip (moose or bear or caribou)

Add a week of banked time (fridays off for long weekends) and I can get'r done. Of course this will change if I get married and have kids, but right now vacation time is hunting time.

DANTHEHUNTER

I work at a power plant, and we work 12 hour shifts. So I get every other weekend off. and I only work 15 days(avg) a month. So I get lots of time off. and it is great. They have 10,000 acres land for us hunt and fish with a 5000 acre lake for the plant that is stocked with some of the best crappie,Hybrid strippers ,large mouth bass ,and catfish fishing you can find. With the water being heated from the plant fishing is extended all year long.Now back to the deer they use to mine coal there but have stopped and are now buying it from wyoming,so the reclaimed all of it and it is now in the regrowth period.So there is alot of young trees growing and it makes for perfect deer cover, Man am I lucky or what.We also make great money there. IBEW all the way.

dayna0306

Self employment is the way to go ,you bust your butt all year then hunt as much as you saved for,in the fall . The diy hunts are very cheep ,It's only gas and tags . Take 3 buddies from Pa. and hunt montana national forest the tags are $650 the gas is about $350 each that is $1000 for a huntthat is aslong as you can stay away from work . you should be able to rathole that much away every year,if you are a tightass like most biggame hunters .Now when it comes to hunts like diy in alaska it takes me 2 years of ratholing but well worth it .The hardest parts of the equationare the buddies and drawling the tags in some states, and lets not forget the much needed support and understanding WIFE.


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charlie brown

I am a detentions deputy at the Sheriff's Office. I accrue 10 hours of vacation per month, which comes out to 120 hours per year, or 3 weeks. I can carry up to 240 hours into the next year, and after 5 years, it comes to 12 hours per month, then 14 per month after 10 years I think it is. I also live close to the areas that I apply for to hunt for deer, elk and antelope, so I can take a couple days off with my regular days off and hunt and still get paid for the vacation time I take. I also just go out on my normal days of and camp, etc during the summer, and chase lions in the winter. It works out pretty good.

Bob H in NH

The job is a means to a living and fun, however doing a job you don't like can suck the life out of you. If banking/finance is what you like, great, there are opporatunities in that area that should suite you just fine. Aside from bank teller/manager (not sure what the financial side of this is), you can get into investments and accounting areas as well. These make good money and should provide the flexibility to take some time off for hunting.

Realistically you are not, in most jobs, going to get to take hunting season off, more likely a week here or there, then extended weekends with a Friday or Monday off.

It's also a journey. Most of the people I run into at the 2 guided hunts I've been on, have worked up through there careers, they are usually not the fresh out of school type, but the been working 15+ year type and have built up the career and finances to be able to take these trips.

I am a software engineer and in the beginning of my career, with a new wife and saving for a house and kids etc. Not a chance could I have afforded the occassional hunting trip. However planning at that stage set up things for my family now, 20 years later. We have the financial setup to allow us to afford a family vacation every year, me and the wife a hunting trip every other year or so and soon college tuition.

It takes planning and patience and setting priorities. Decide how important it is to have $8-$10K/year to take a hunting trip and what it will take for sacrifices to accomplish that, then set a plan and follow through. It may be 1 year, it may not happen for 10+. But make a plan to get what you want and follow through.

"Fun" side jobs are also an option, assuming you have the time. My sons and I ref soccer games 8 months a year, I also became a ref instructor for the state, this pretty much covers a hunting trip a year, almost, without sucking to much family time away.

huntnmuleys

i started my traveling by doing swap hunts. that really opened a lot of doors for me in this department, of course, living in wyoming i had plenty to swap. i always swap a muley/antelope hunt because i can get high odds of success for my swappers. you have some decent hunting where your at, give em a try.

i dont do many swaps anymore, i havea better job with more days off and better pay.

like the others said, pick what you want to hunt and research the hell out of it. and look into unguided options too. you can come here to wyoming and hunt muleys and antelope without a guide, and probably fill both tags (the antelope is easy). spot and stalk black bears takes no guide, look to idaho, or better prince of wales island alaska. how cheap these hunts can be done would surprise you. hogs in texas are way cheap, and a lot of fun. colorado and idaho have over the counter archery elk tags. not an easy hunt, but ya get to hunt elk!!!! arizona coues deer is tough to hunt, but the tags are as easy to come by as going to the store and buying one. beautiful country and way fun.
lots of these trips areway cheap. it just depends on what ya want to chase.

and my hunting is the reason i quit pursuing a teaching job. it wasnt gonna work for me.