Considering Moving to North Dakota

[stillwell]

I am a CNC machinist/programmer living in Illinois about 100 miles southwest of Chicago. I am looking into buying a house on 10-20 acres out in southeastern North Dakota with my wife and 18 month old son. Is there anything anyone can tell me about hunting, gun laws, and cost of living? We found some information, but it wasn't very good.

[runfiverun]

other than you'll be hunting on your parcel of land which will be flat and covered in grass.
not much.
the gun laws are gonna be wide open compared to Illinois, but you'll have to find a range to use them on.
ND is 90+% privately owned land.

[GhostHawk]

Cost of living is one of the lowest in the Nation.
Jobs are available if you are willing to work.

There is a LOT of public land available to hunt, but pretty much everyone knows the good spots.

Private is the way to go if at all possible. But you have skills so that should not be hard to work out.
Just be prepared to give some time to pursue your passion.

Most good agricultural land near Fargo ND is expensive, 1 to 3 thousand per acre. What you want is just west of the valley on the old shorelines of Lake Agassiz, soil is sandier, more likely to have dips, gullys, ravines which makes it harder to farm with big equipment.
35-40 miles out the price drops dramatically.

Consider the other side of the border, over in Minnesota. Taxes are higher, but there are a LOT more tree's and water within an hours drive of Fargo. Little towns like Hawley, Ulen, Hitterdahl, Audabon, Sabin are closer to the trees and water, and lower cost of living. Yet still close enough to drive into town as needed for groceries.

The beaches on the Minnesota side are a bit more pronouced, prevailing westerly winds push bigger waves, move more sand and gravel.

I was born on the Minnesota side, little town back then of 2,000 called Ada, moved to village of 135 souls counting dogs, grew up there.

Give me a yell if you drop into Fargo, I'll put the coffee on and you can pick my brain all you like.

If I was you I'd fly in, rent a car, spend a couple of days driving, getting a feel for the place.

Winters CAN be brutal. Isn't so bad with the right tools, and prior planning. On the flip side, spring has more shades of green than you can describe, and on a sunny day it can be so green that it hurts.

[MaryB]

One word of caution, make SURE the house is not in the flood plain of the Red River or tributaries!

[stillwell]

Thanks, I'm still looking into what there is for work out there, as well as wages.

[Tenbender]

Wear your ear muff's. It is cold up there !

[dakotashooter2]

I know Ghosthawk suggested MN but they have more complicated game laws than ND. They have claim to fame of a lot of lakes but ND has a few that compare to MNs best and an non res Mn fishing license isn't as much as ND non resident hunting licenses. A large percentage of MN waterfowlers come to hunt in ND but very few vice versa so that should tell you something. MN has better deer hunting and license availability right now. I also find that sporting goods supplies are more expensive and of less variety in MN. Even land isn't as cheap as it used to be in MN and I'm not sure it is much cheaper than in ND. The way Fargo is growing I suspect that your skills are probably in demand there.......

I spent part of my youth living in MN and while I liked it there I like ND more.