Colorado to Michigan (Detroit, Ann Arbor, Jackson: transplants, real estate, how much)

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by Coldjensens

There are outdoor ranges. I know one is at Island lake. Another near my Brother who lives in West Bloomfield. There are also private gun clubs around. The only one I know of is Detroit Gun club. The law firm where i used to work helped sponsor several shooting events at various outdoor ranges. Trap and skeet shooting mostly. One the would release bags of birds and people would try to shoot them as they fly away. Sorry, I never know where the places were, I just followed GPS blindly. Not were much more than an hour from Detroit, maybe an hour and a half in one instance. We used to shoot in our back yard when I was a kid. Probably still could with a shotgun, not a rifle. There is a subdivision through the woods maybe 3/4 of a mile or a little less.

Ann arbor =not likely to have any. Ann Arbor is liberal extremest territory. Best you not even mention having seen a gun before when you are in Ann Arbor.

I didn't mean to suggest there weren't outdoor ranges. Sorry if you thought that. My point, and again I'm not sure about Colorado in particular, but out west in general, there is a huge amount of public land under the BLM where people go to shoot rather than at a range, indoor or outdoor. They just go in to the wild's and shoot. In SE Michigan its very hard to do that. There is no federal land, most all state land confines shooting to hunting season only and even if you have a few acres of private land chances are pretty good there will be local ordinances about shooting outside of hunting season. That was my point. Here in SE Michigan shooting is very "structured" (go to a range) and in a lot of the great west it is very "unstructured" (just head to the boonies).
I'm just trying to let the OP know that if he likes to shoot his options may be limited compared to where he comes from.

As to Ann Arbor, it certainly is liberal and certainly liberal folks generally are "anti-gun" but not all liberals are anti-gun and not everybody in Ann Arbor is liberal. I know plenty of folks who own guns and I know several who have their CPL's and may very well be armed in Whole Foods or Kroger or the dog park.
Also Ann Arbor Arms has a gun range and while its not in the city limits it carry's the Ann Arbor name. I will be there later today cracking off 50 rounds through my 9MM M&P 9c. I got the gun from my liberal daughter who used to carry it until she became a cop.

[MZMpac]

Thank everyone for your detailed replies, I really appreciate it. You guys are a lot nicer than the Denver forum!

My wife and I read over them and she said she agrees with pretty much everything, haha.

I think we will look at Dexter, Saline, Grass Lake, Howell, Fowlerville, and Webberville...those are the ones that come to mind. I've been to Howell a few times and liked it, especially in summer.

Actually I've been impressed with Michigan summers in general. So green...like Geo-Aggie said the sheer amount of trees is amazing to me.

Regarding shooting, you guys are correct that here in Colorado there is a huge amount of BLM land and National Forest land that you can shoot on. Near the city, obviously, things are getting more and more regulated and due to the sheer amount of (irresponsible) people who want to drive up to the mountains and shoot guns, bad things have happened. Land gets destroyed, safe shooting isnt practiced and there have even been some deaths due to irresponsible firearm discharge.

I shoot rifles primarily so I have an outdoor club with a 600 yd range I go to and a good spot in the national forest.

[Coldjensens]

Good. Keep your wife away from Chelsea.

[GoBlueA2]

Brighton has grown into a nice place to live, and has just about everything that you need.

If you have comparable options, I highly recommend NOT taking any job in Ann Arbor, unless you live in town. Commuting is terrible and the city is pretty much anti-car if you look at all the efforts the put into discussion of busing, carpooling, and a commuter train (which will likely not see the light of day). The Univ is not much better. They highly push alternative commuting options which for many commuters are not feasible.

You'll discover what lake effect weather is pretty quickly...different winters than CO. Some bearable, some downright miserable. I take a couple trips to Fla in the winter to manage. If you can deal with mosquitoes and humidity, the summers here are amazing. There is much to do and see.

I happen to be job hunting out west for health reasons. If you are from a low humidity area and older, I recommend considering keeping your CO house for a year or so in case you decide to go back (assuming that you can get what you need renting it out).

[Mr_Klister]

Deer hunting is huge. When fire arms deer season opens we have more armed hunters in the woods than the United states Army and Marines combined.

Just curious - for those of us who just want to get out and roam around (hike, trail run) in the woods and on the trails, especially in the Fall, are there places where we can do that, without becoming mistaken for game? I'm also coming back to the Midwest from Colorado (although I was born and raised in Northwest Ohio), and I've grown accustomed to the gun-free Open Space parks along and in the foothills of the Front Range.

As I've stated before, I'm not anti-gun; I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns. At this point in my life, however, I have no interest in hunting or shooting sports. I just want to recreate quietly and peacefully, not interfere with other's enjoyment of the outdoors, and stay alive!

[Coldjensens]

Originally Posted by Mr_Klister

Just curious - for those of us who just want to get out and roam around (hike, trail run) in the woods and on the trails, especially in the Fall, are there places where we can do that, without becoming mistaken for game? I'm also coming back to the Midwest from Colorado (although I was born and raised in Northwest Ohio), and I've grown accustomed to the gun-free Open Space parks along and in the foothills of the Front Range.

As I've stated before, I'm not anti-gun; I grew up shooting rifles and shotguns. At this point in my life, however, I have no interest in hunting or shooting sports. I just want to recreate quietly and peacefully, not interfere with other's enjoyment of the outdoors, and stay alive!

Yes, there are many places hunting is not allowed. Any metro-park like Kensington has very strict laws against hunting. Still - wear bright orange in the fall. Not everyone follows the rules (most do).
Hunters used to stand a few feet outside the border of Kensington, because they knew it has a huge deer population (the deer seem to know it is safe there). It is not worth the risk of encountering an overzealous hunter while wearing a brown coat on your run. It is extremely rare.

State land is a different story. Hunting is allowed in many state owned areas. My brother lived in a house at the edge of state land popular with hunters for a while. He and his friends were surprised by how cheap it was until the first fall when a bullet came out of nowhere through the wall and hit their TV set. The hunter was far enough away they never heard the report from the rifle. Further invesitgation revealed a number of bullet holes in the house. After that, they moved away for the first two weeks of hunting season and took their TV with them (and other valuable items). It was still worth it to them because the place was so cheap. That is extremely unusual though. I have never heard of anyone else having that issue. Mistaken shootings occur once in a great while in the hunting areas. They are pretty rare though, or at least rarely in the news. It is more common hunters ahve heart attacks. Lots of desk jockeys seem to go out tromping through the woods and end up having heart attacks during hunting season.

I knew some people who painted bright orange "COW" on each side of their cows during hunting season. Not sure if they really needed to or were just being funny/making fun of how overexuberent or dumb some hunters are. They were sort of "character" types.

I also know a person who used to go out into the woods before hunting season and set up plywood cut outs of deer and other animals and then see how many bullet holes he found in them. He thought it was funny. Too bad he did nto ahve a trail cam to catch their expressions when they ran up to collect their "kill" He did find one with about a dozen bullet holes and "f-you" spray painted on it.

Seems like people like to play with hunters.

My sister lived on 10 acres of mostly wooded land surrounded by wooded land in Jackson. they frequently had to chase hunters off their land. They put private property no hunting and no trespassing signs on almost every tree, still they had idiots coming in once in a while. One neighbor put up signs saying "We shoot back!"

Most of the hunters I know are extremely responsible, carefully select what they do/do not shoot to benefit the overall wildlife population and are super careful about their surroundings and properly identifying the animals. However there are also drunken yahoos blasting away at any dark shadow that moves.

Most hunting is up north. I wish there was more here. We have way too many deer where we live and they collide with cars fairly often. Every now and then they have the police or a professional hunter go out and thin them out some. Lots of communities have deer problems that could use some thinning. Even populated areas like Livonia, but there is absolutely no hunting allowed, not even with bows in populated areas. Several years ago a contractor working on a house in our town kept seeing a beautiful buck with a huge rack visit the yard. He could not resist, on his last day of work he brought his bow. The police caught him loading the buck into his truck and he tried to claim he hit it with his truck. To explain the two arrows sticking out of it, he claimed he shot it to put it out of its misery after hitting it. But there was no damage to his truck. The scuttlebutt was he got sentenced to five years (probably probation, it that is even true). I find that hard to believe.

[craig11152]

Its also worth noting that fire arms deer season attracts by far the most hunters and that only goes from November 15 to Nov 30. Certainly other small game and birds are hunted at other times but that is the big thing that you may want to stay out of the woods for.

[michmoldman]

Northern lower Michigan and the U.P. are like a totally different world then Southern lower. This is where most people go to get their "life in the great outdoors" fix. The possibilities up this way are endless as far as outdoor activities. Maybe the best part about MI is the U.P. once you go across the bridge and experience "the Yoop", you will dream almost everyday of going back. This is the land of endless forests, lakes, rivers, waterfalls, wildlife, bigger "mountains" than the lower, and of course the crown jewel...Lake Superior.
If you get out and travel around Michigan you will be amazed at the beauty.

[MZMpac]

Just an update on this thread, I ended up taking a job at U of M. We'll be moving in a month!! We definitely felt it was the right thing for us. Spent some time up there recently looking at towns, villages, etc. Really liked Dexter, Webster, Chelsea, and surrounding rural areas. Did not get a chance to see Saline but those were at the top of my list.

Really a beautiful place in the summer. Much different pace of life than here in Denver, and I always forget how genuine and friendly mid-westerners can be. I've no doubt winters will probably wear on me, but overall a net positive transition.

[craig11152]

Originally Posted by MZMpac

Just an update on this thread, I ended up taking a job at U of M. .

Coincidentally since this thread started my wife went to work for the U a couple months ago. But she isn't on campus. Her office is out Plymouth Road in front of Domino Farms.