Trespassing / Posting Public Land Stories

[Elkdreamer]

I hear you Rangerpants it rubs me wrong too.

In another area I ran into a metal gate across a 2 lane gravel county road. The road cut through a corner of a ranch. I guess one day the rancher says its his and puts up a gate. My map shows the county road.

What does a guy do with that?

 

[Bravo 4]

I have deer hunted a small piece of property (almost 100 acres) not far from my home for the past few years almost exclusively. Great little place that lies between a large deer camp and city property (no hunting there). One of those places that though small, has lots of deer and I see at least one wall hanger a year. I run people off this place almost every time I go out there. There is one guy in particular that I have seen more than once. He never wears orange (hat and vest required), vapes like a freight train, and actually postured up on me with his AR one time. Funny thing is that the county judge owns this place.
I attempt an out of state elk hunting trip every year when the military allows. 5 years back I had some locals try to run me off a piece of public land while hunting solo. Half a dozen of them came to my little camp (a single man tent), and told me that was their hunting area. The next day they had opened my tent when raining and all my sleep system and gear was soaked. Hiked back to my truck and they had opened the large cooler and compression bags I kept all my change of clothes and such in. There was a freeze expected that night and there after so I waisted a whole day getting my gear off the mountain and to the nearest town to wash and dry. Went back up that night and hunted the rest of the week. Have been back to that place on the last two trips since and haven’t seen them there. There is also an outfitter that likes to think he has exclusive rights to some of that area, had a run in with him once too. I’m fully aware that locals don’t like nonresident hunters in “their areas”. Also met some really good people that would check on me from time to time and even invite met to their camps for dinner. I stay in contact with them and let them know when and where I’ll be.

 

[Rangerpants]

Elkdreamer, I would start with the local warden, but it varies a lot by state and even county in some places. If the road is a county road, the sheriff and/or local roads department might also be an avenue. If the county actually maintains the road, it might be a relatively easy fix.

 

[Bubba94]

In cases where I’ve encountered it game wardens will not get into those types of disputes. They defer to the sherif etc. In some places we’ve looked into some large ranches have secured their private county roads by well funding the sheriffs dept.


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That sounds like a lawsuit just waiting to be filed.


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[Bubba94]

I have deer hunted a small piece of property (almost 100 acres) not far from my home for the past few years almost exclusively. Great little place that lies between a large deer camp and city property (no hunting there). One of those places that though small, has lots of deer and I see at least one wall hanger a year. I run people off this place almost every time I go out there. There is one guy in particular that I have seen more than once. He never wears orange (hat and vest required), vapes like a freight train, and actually postured up on me with his AR one time. Funny thing is that the county judge owns this place.
I attempt an out of state elk hunting trip every year when the military allows. 5 years back I had some locals try to run me off a piece of public land while hunting solo. Half a dozen of them came to my little camp (a single man tent), and told me that was their hunting area. The next day they had opened my tent when raining and all my sleep system and gear was soaked. Hiked back to my truck and they had opened the large cooler and compression bags I kept all my change of clothes and such in. There was a freeze expected that night and there after so I waisted a whole day getting my gear off the mountain and to the nearest town to wash and dry. Went back up that night and hunted the rest of the week. Have been back to that place on the last two trips since and haven’t seen them there. There is also an outfitter that likes to think he has exclusive rights to some of that area, had a run in with him once too. I’m fully aware that locals don’t like nonresident hunters in “their areas”. Also met some really good people that would check on me from time to time and even invite met to their camps for dinner. I stay in contact with them and let them know when and where I’ll be.

Holy crap, man. Those guys could have gotten you killed if the weather had turned on you! What a bunch of dicks.


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[Rangerpants]

That's another option. I think a lot of these problems snowball and end up either getting ignored or only partially resolved precisely because no one sues. It's a lot of personal trouble and likely expensive because you would almost certainly need a lawyer.

These kinds of issues really need an advocacy organization that's willing to do the dirty work of keeping renegade landowners honest and holding public entities accountable for keeping their lands and roads accessible when bad actors try to cheat. Seems like a good project for an arm of SCI or RMEF.

 

[Amasaback]

This is a real mess and getting worse in Utah as the state has been kind-of very quietly selling off pieces of their school trust land. You can easily find that land that had been accessible forever, literally, all of a sudden is private and no longer accessible. Or can block a canyon access with new fencing or a gate.

 

[Bubba94]

This is a real mess and getting worse in Utah as the state has been kind-of very quietly selling off pieces of their school trust land. You can easily find that land that had been accessible forever, literally, all of a sudden is private and no longer accessible. Or can block a canyon access with new fencing or a gate.

What part of Utah is this in? I know that out west in Box Elder county there is a TON of checkerboarded land that is useless to the public.


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[Amasaback]

Yes, There is that school trust land peppered throughout the entire state and most of it is currently inaccessible. I think it is like 1 section for 6 or something like that. We have bumped into the issue around it suddenly being private in the Abajos and a couple places around Moab (IE Johnson up on top, Jackson hole and the behind the rocks area). I have heard a few stories that go back to the 90s about the same issue issue in the wasatch up by Snowbasin and Midway/Heber which was publicly accessible land is now private homes or subdivisions. Also outside of Torray.

 

[cnelk]

I got permission to turkey hunt some private land in Nebraska several years ago. The landowner also mentioned his hired hand likes to thinks it’s his property, so if you see him let him know I have permission.

One morning after the morning hunt, my buddy and I were walking out of the property and here comes a truck.

They roll up to us and start giving us grief.
It happened to be the hired man the landowner mentioned. After a bit of jawing, and him saying we were trespassing, I put my finger in his chest and told him that I have just as much permission as he does. And walked off.

My buddy still laughs about that.

 

[canyonhunter47]

New Mexico unit 32 used to have ranchers/outfitters that acted like the whole land was theirs, posting public land, locking gates across public roads, and hassling hunters on the roads (especially if you had a decent buck in the bed). Not sure if it’s still like that, haven’t been there in years. Best to have maps and tell them to pound sand

 

[isu22andy]

Setting up camp in Eastern Montana on some public in November, rancher pulls up - " Hey I know your on public ground but Im gonna let some bulls out here tomorrow morning I just dont want your stuff to get destroyed " . Us " oh okay well stop back for a beer later we will be here " ..... We get to looking around at the grazed down ground thinking , ya theres no way hes kicking cattle out here in November. Rancher did come back drank beer with us and was an awesome guy but he admitted he was just jerking our chain to see if we were abunch of city kids at first lol .

 

[Huntindog45]

a long time ago my father, who is a state game warden and I drew pretty coveted tags in northeastern california. we were hunting an area very well known to be public land and a group of men approached us and started telling us we were on private property. My father was in plain clothes as we were hunting. he played it coy for awhile and listened to them. asked for them to show us on the map where we where and just kind of went with it for awhile. He politely pointed out where we were on the map and how that we disagreed with their evaluation of our location. They started to get a little more aggressive and threatened to call the game warden. At that point my father pulled his badge, told them they already had the warden and my dad pulled out his handheld radio and called the local game warden who we had already been in touch with earlier that morning. The guys tried to back peddle pretty quickly and got very scared. I remember my father actually telling them they were at that point being detained. which for a 13 year old kid got pretty nerve wracking. My dad was pissed. The local warden showed up and new the men well and they knew him. I was very relieved when he showed up because up to that point it was my dad and I faced off with about 6 guys. Turns out these guys had a high paying client who wanted a specific deer that had been living on their private ranch and this client had bought a Private Land Management (PLM) tag from them. That deer had apparently wandered off the property and we were close to him. (we never saw it) I cannot remember everything that happened after that but these guys were prosecuted and I think that ranch lost their PLM tags over all of this.

 

[WCB]

I hear you Rangerpants it rubs me wrong too.

In another area I ran into a metal gate across a 2 lane gravel county road. The road cut through a corner of a ranch. I guess one day the rancher says its his and puts up a gate. My map shows the county road.

What does a guy do with that?

I ran into something like that in ND. Drove west down an old marked road (actually a two track) that was also a section line...It was private on both sides for about 2 miles. Come to another section line road that headed north and ended into a washed out damn or bridge from way back about 1/2 mile down. Either way section lines are open for travel and the NW side of the "intersection" is national grass land that I was planning on hunting.

Well about 20 yards before I could take a right, one of the ranchers put up a shitty pig wire fence/gate and wired it shut pretty good (no posts just sections of pig wire spanning 40ft or so across the section line) and had a homemade "no trespassing" sign zip tied to it. I knew where I was but double checked every thing. Then a little work with the leather man opened it right up and would make it pretty hard for him to close considering when I was done there may have been a couple feet missing. I drove up and closed a gate just beyond where I needed to turn for good measure in case he had stock in that pasture...all the fences were in perfect condition so nothing could have got out once I shut that gate. Continued on my hunt and shot a pretty damn nice buck less than an hour later. Had a couple local ranchers, who were hunting, pull up to me and ask if I was hunting that spot and I opened my tailgate to show them my buck. I asked them if they were the ranchers that put the gate up (which they didn't see since I moved it off the road). They quickly said F@Ck no! and asked "Did that d!ck head do that again..." and" was it up when you came through"...I said yeah but I cut it opened and moved it. They laughed and said that guy tries to block section lines and even posts some other people's land trying to keep people out all the time.

I'm not saying cut the guys gate open but I would definitely get CO or county confirmation on it...then game on if it is indeed illegally gate. I would assume though the county would find out because they would have to maintain the road.

 

[Dos Perros]

I love those spots where they inaccurately post. It keeps folks that don't know any better out of there.

 

[WCB]

I love those spots where they inaccurately post. It keeps folks that don't know any better out of there.

I kind of do to...but when they try to push the issue when you are face to face with them is like a two year old with chocolate on their face shaking their head no. It's like come on we both know just give up.

 

[Billy Goat]

I know how that feels. People can be so cocksure when they think they are right and then boom! you burst their ass real good.

If you don't come in guns blazing you normally get more information. Plus it really embarrasses them, tho probably 20% really don't care. Those, well those have just gifted me treestands.

 

[Billy Goat]

I did take this thread off topic.

Did the title change a bit? I didn't think the initial title had public lands. But my reading comprehension is low, apparently that's a thing around here.

 

[JLane330]

This is a real mess and getting worse in Utah as the state has been kind-of very quietly selling off pieces of their school trust land. You can easily find that land that had been accessible forever, literally, all of a sudden is private and no longer accessible. Or can block a canyon access with new fencing or a gate.

Same thing is happening here in NM and it's incredibly infuriating! The solution I can see IF land is sold this way is that any established roads existing at the time of sale must remain an open through-fare to the public.

New Mexico unit 32 used to have ranchers/outfitters that acted like the whole land was theirs, posting public land, locking gates across public roads, and hassling hunters on the roads (especially if you had a decent buck in the bed). Not sure if it’s still like that, haven’t been there in years. Best to have maps and tell them to pound sand

This seems to happen all over NM, especially down South. Some of the ranchers are reasonable, but many are acting like this.

I love those spots where they inaccurately post. It keeps folks that don't know any better out of there.

This is certainly a positive, but still have to deal with the antics of these ranchers. The consequences for illegally posting or blocking access needs to be more severe. Hit them where it counts and reduce/eliminate their private tags.

Another big issue here is guys with private tags hunting public land! They are supposed to only hunt private if the rancher does not allow public to hunt their private land. NM Game and Fish will kick you out if they find out, but it's pretty hard to figure out (it's doable though in a lot of units).

 

[Where's Bruce?]

In Arizona there are a lot of trespassers on sprawling cattle ranches...many from Mexico and armed with drugs or other contraband. The generally accepted reality is...you cannot keep trespassers but but you can keep them in. Cadaver dogs cannot smell anything buried below 10'. Some wars are unspoken.