Looking at buying some land....

I really appreciate the comments from everyone. For sure a lot of things to think about and $800k is a LOT of money. I’ve been blessed with a very good job and we’ve lived well below our means so as I get closer retirement I’m looking at options to spend some of it.

You can’t take it with you and my dad always told me that “last I heard they quit making land a long time ago” so there has always been something for me about owning land.

I’m still looking...
 
mtmuley said:
Takes a lot of ground to be a viable hunting property. Don't take long to hunt 500 acres. Myself and two friends had two sections we hunted bordering FS. It was actually crowded. mtmuley
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100% agree. I would love to buy a bigger piece but it just isn’t in the budget right now. On my whitetail place I haven’t pulled the trigger on a deer in several years because there just aren’t enough to go around for both my son and I to shoot one every year and I occasionally let someone else shoot one as well.

I wouldn’t expect us to shoot more than one elk a year on 580 acres, maybe every other year.
 
Nothing is for sure nor permanent. Welcome to life.
IMG_0161 (2).JPGBut some things do work out in your favor,sometimes.
This tank is now full. And the water brings this...IMG_0032 (4).JPG
Elk on your own land. This was for sure never the plan. A pipe dream,maybe.
Working with NMG&F and a pipe full of water was all it took. Just sent in my application for next year in E-plus. Nothing is for sure.
I will be hunting my place with a draw tag again, for a cow this year. And I will not have to go anywhere else to do so. My choice.
But any day I want I can be in real wild places in 30 miles.

The down side,I'm hours from anything.Poor me.
 
That looks like a really nice property, and I bet it would be great to own. There is a surprising amount of bears, turkey, and elk in that country. Trinidad is a little freaky. Best of luck in your decision.
 
One thing to consider is the potential of forest fires and loss of productive land. I’ve personally seen a 30 minute burn destroy an entire pinyon/juniper forest and the animals never really went back into there during the daylight, and you lose about half your land value due to fires and the ongoing erosion.
I could never afford recreational land, and if I did purchase it my wife would kill me, bc she doesn’t believe in divorce. Make sure your wife is onboard is what I’m saying. Best of luck
 
Fire escape routes and plans.
Fire danger/threats knocked out half the properties I looked at.
The cabin I sold to get this place survived a real bad fire last year,but those around it did not. The whole area is changed now.
 
Buy a piece and enjoy it. Nothing I enjoy better than going to my property for hunting, hiking, camping and checking my cameras just seeing cool things that show up (besides hunting critters). Going next week just to get away. IMO there is no perfect property. You’ll always have a wish for this or that. I wish I had 390” bulls, but so far only 360”. It’s what YOU make it.
 
Yes, I very much enjoy the property we live on now. It is just 75 acres, but on the rim of a canyon and about the only topography around.

We regularly see whitetail and mule deer, coyotes, lots of dove, bobwhite and scaled/blue quail. I’ve seen a badger, skunks, raccoons, porcupines, bobcats, grey fox and some wild pigs and drumroll please..... this morning saw 2 Aoudad rams!

I normally go out on the balcony around first light and see what is out and about but this morning I didn’t look until almost sunrise and they were headed off to the east and I wasn’t going to have time to catch them before they got off my property. It’s open season on them 24/7/365 here so if they hang around hopefully I can catch up to one. They both looked pretty big to me, I saw them first at about 250 yards going straight away and then at 400 broadside. Neighbor got some trail camera pictures of a couple a year ago about this time so I’m guessing some younger rams out looking for girls. Was pretty exciting to see them though.
 
npaden said:
Yes, I very much enjoy the property we live on now. It is just 75 acres, but on the rim of a canyon and about the only topography around.

We regularly see whitetail and mule deer, coyotes, lots of dove, bobwhite and scaled/blue quail. I’ve seen a badger, skunks, raccoons, porcupines, bobcats, grey fox and some wild pigs and drumroll please..... this morning saw 2 Aoudad rams!

I normally go out on the balcony around first light and see what is out and about but this morning I didn’t look until almost sunrise and they were headed off to the east and I wasn’t going to have time to catch them before they got off my property. It’s open season on them 24/7/365 here so if they hang around hopefully I can catch up to one. They both looked pretty big to me, I saw them first at about 250 yards going straight away and then at 400 broadside. Neighbor got some trail camera pictures of a couple a year ago about this time so I’m guessing some younger rams out looking for girls. Was pretty exciting to see them though.
Click to expand...
Do they taste good?
 
Mudranger1 said:
This year we went down this road. not to your scale but ended with 35 acres south of Trinidad. The water stuff seems to be the real draw back basically anywhere south of Walsenburg. Man I had anxiety from looking so much. we had a max budget of 200k and realistically couldn't find anything that had any water on it. If its just recreational I would say go for it( I don't see land prices going down anytime soon in Colorado) They way I finally decided our place was when I took a trip to see it and the elk smell was so pungent I didn't really care anymore. Beautiful view of Fishers Peak with the possibility of killing something on it and a good price...sold! Most of the properties with POAs we looked were very lax mainly building sizes and a couple other little things but they are always good to know. It's been fun to see the animals come thru the place and weekend camping.
View attachment 202162
called this bull in during archery season (not hunting) and another nice 6x I have video of
View attachment 202163

I've got pictures of elk, deer, bear, turkey, mountain lion, fox, coyote and other UFO blurs where I can't say to what it is lol. It's only 2 hours from here so pretty close for us. Could be a retirement place or just a place to recreate on til we decide what we are going to do.
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How are you enjoying your property? I'm from Florida and I have been looking at buying some around Trinidad. I lived in Raton for a short time several years ago and loved riding around in that area.
 
Wilson748 said:
How are you enjoying your property? I'm from Florida and I have been looking at buying some around Trinidad. I lived in Raton for a short time several years ago and loved riding around in that area.
Click to expand...
We love it.
 
Well I'm still looking...

Keep coming back to this piece. They reduced the price by $15,000 this month. Got some pictures of some bulls using it this winter. Having seen anything better and I look pretty much on a weekly basis. Maybe I just need to settle on this and maybe could leverage it down the road for something else.
 
I own a couple of properties. One is mainly wooded and about 650 acres and the other is a mix and 220 acres. I enjoy the heck out of them but mainly because they are within a 30 minute drive (one is 15). I find owning land takes so much work to get it how I want it that owning land far off just isn’t practical for me.

When I hunt out of state I am hunting public. I would certainly love otherwise but life circumstances just don’t make that practical for me.

Buy something closer and have the best of both worlds 😉
 
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