Looking to get my family out of our current state. Were conservative, and like to be left alone so we have no intentions of bringing any of our states "culture" with us. Any locals that could chime in would be great. We like western Montana so far looking for a nice mountain town. Looking at Idaho too, but seems like we find more suitable housing and property in Montana.

Need to get up here and look around.  Start looking at websites like Zillow to see if you can actually afford what you desire.  Keep in mid that the photos are embellishing of what is actually there.  Any work related injuries that might come into play in the winter?  

Do your homework on the various counties and how they voted in the last election. Personally, Missoula is way to far liberal for me but the surrounding counties are conservative.  Missoula currently has a love interest in taking in refugees from places like the Congo and Syria.

I will be staying in Law Enforcement.  I'm heading up there this spring to test with Missoula PD, well see how it goes, Im used to working in a super fast paced shit hole in the Bay Area. We fell in love with the areas near Hamilton etc. We plan on paying for a large portion of the property we buy, were sitting good on equity with our house and have been saving. That really saddens me to hear about the refugees and liberal ideologies of Missoula. Those are the types of evils Im trying to get my family away from. Missoula looks like such a great city too, so unfortunate. Thank you gentlemen for the information thus far, my family and I truly appreciate it.

Yes, I do have some previous lower back issues from fights and car wrecks. But I keep in good physical shape through the year, big western hunter so I like to stay mountain fit. Hopefully the winter does not beat me up too much

Sent you an IM.

Sent you an IM

Only 27 Congolese (Christian) refugees have come to Missoula, and no Syrians.

While the population in Missoula overwhelms the rest of the County residents once outside the city limits Missoula county is just the same as any other MT county.

Soft Landing Missoula

Thanks for pointing that out Tayln.

might check out Butte, Property is a lot cheaper than Missoula and we have better fishing. Have a couple of friends from LASD that I hunt and fish with. one of them bought a place on Grasshopper Creek

Missoula isn't as bad as some of the doom and gloom we project in here. I mean, sure it's liberal, but it's mostly Montana liberal. So, while other states are responding with law enforcement to gun toters within a block or more of a campus, "liberal" Missoula is still hosting a gun show on the UM campus that is one of the larger shows that I have been to. Yes, they allowed a refugee resettlement group to set up shop in town, and that University was one of the first in the country to publish a positive study on marijuana that I'm aware of. However, I still get much less of the "liberal vibe" there than I have in other places.

Instead of allowing a liberal pocket to fester and eventually spread, maybe we should encourage a few more conservative votes to get in there?

Missoula Proper is very liberal, which is why they pass a ordinance that even the state Attorney General said would not fly, they basically past it, despite the fact that if you want to do a private sale face to face, you can pretty much drive 15 minutes in any direction and be legal to do it.

If you want to work in Missoula, then I suggest living just outside Missoula, anybody that wants to get a handle on Missoula should spend a couple of weeks reading through the opinion pages in the Missoulian News Paper, but as a University town, that is not unusual at all, I have lived in several of them over the years and when you find Universities, you find a very strong and young liberal population.  Also another thing to consider, the city government spends money like nothing I have ever seen before!  Take a look at tax bills in Missoula, they are running people out of town cause they can't afford to live there anymore and I am talking long time established families.

The City Council passed the background check ordinance. It was never put to a vote by the general population. When the issue came up earlier in the year and other cities were polled on BG checks Bozeman and Butte had a higher percentage of those in favor than Missoula.

BTW some heads-up info since you're an LEO.

Montana has one of the highest DUI rates of all the states. A lot of Montanans think its a birth right not to wear seatbelts with the majority of auto deaths result from ejections due to not wearing safety belts.  Folks with big 4WD pickups and AWD cars think they can drive like its July on icy/snowy roads just because they have 4WD. Lots of wrecks on Hwy 93 in the Bitterroot because of that, as well as elsewhere in the state.  Put real winter tires on your rigs not the crappy AW tires. On any part of a highway that doesn't get any sun or very little this time of the year can get and hold ice. One can be driving on dry pavement then go into the shade and you're on ice and spinning.

Also, most Montanans don't know what a turn signal is, think running red lights and speeding well over the speed limit is a birthright, and like cutting in and out of lanes if there's a half car-length space between rigs.  I could write moving violation tickets all day long.

MT has some serious meth and other drug problems, and a relatively high suicide rate regardless of the low population.

If you live in the woods create defendable space (clear off the brush and most trees) around your home.  Ask about the Roaring Lion fire just outside Hamilton this last summer.  This vid covered a 2-4 hr. time period.  Lots of homes lost.  Some of the ones that survived had defendable space around them. And put a metal roof on your house.

Roaring Lion Fire

That is fine Talyn,

But the AG already said it won't fly

And I said exactly that a long time ago (09/23 & 09/27/2016).

You were surprised Missoula polled 60/40 against while Bozeman was 50/50.

Still waiting for AG Fox to release the states' official opinion though. MSSA wants that so they don't have to file suit.

Talyn,

You know you and I actually agree, we both just have different ways of saying it.....

Dave

The part of this that doesn't surprise me is Bozeman. As I mentioned there are places where I get more of the liberal "vibe" than Missoula and Bozeman is definitely one of them.

I love the area around Bozeman, but nothing that comes out of the town itself surprises me, I worked with the government agencies in that area far to much to expect anything good!

Thanks for the info. Where I work now DUI and traffic enforcement is not much a priority. More focus on reducing gang violence, street robberies, human trafficking etc. Im sure if it all pans out it will be a different pace and type of busy. That makes sense about Missoula. The type of liberal I'm used to is extreme and the way people treat the Police out here in unbelievable. Any info on Billings area?

Billings is a good area; lots of good recreation opportunities about.

I don't know if the PD or SO is hiring - I'm up in the NW corner of the state.

MHP is hiring again this coming March - if you're into that - gives you lots of options around the state.

Depending on what kind of lifestyle you want, the MHP can be a pretty sweet gig - we get paid the same whether we're in an expensive area, or not.  So, if you're looking for something rural, it's pretty nice because you can live like a king on our wage in a lot of areas.

"That makes sense about Missoula."

The issues I described are pretty much state wide.

I work for the Sheriff's Office  in Billings. We have a guy quiting on the 1st of the year. We are looking at certified people first.

Lets not forget the 5 million dollar bicycle overpass Missoula just put on South Reserve to block the Mega loads from coming through.