Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Hunter vs rancher yesterday

I’ve seen it, it was mostly on state land. We tried not to cut the locks if we could get through without it. I don’t know how many fences we’ve fixed and phone calls we made when they had a water leak or cows out.

Always causes a few run ins with the rancher threatening to call the law and us saying ok, we’ll be out here somewhere but we’re not wasting time here. Never once did they call, they knew they were wrong.

For some reason around here, a lot of 'new' landowners try to run a bluff, tacking up no trespassing signs a long way from actual property lines, closing roads to public land that have been public easements since gold rush days when the first surveys were done. I had a run in with a guy who closed a road that accessed about 10 sections of BLM land. I backed down and took my beef to BLM district office in Medford, the BLM rep told me, "Yeah, we are aware of it, legally he can't block that road, but we just don't have the budget for legal proceedings against him." Not knowing anything about legal stuff, I asked if the BLM could take the pertinent documents to a Federal District judge and just get a 'cease and desist' and get the damn gate unlocked. BLM guy got pissed at me, long story short, that road remains locked to this day, and now it is called the "Pilot Rock Wild Area" or something, Obama's expansion of the the Siskiyou Natl Monument, a land grab of historic proportions. The bottom line being the public land hunter gets screwed again.

My favorite is "this is private property now", well if you bought it it was private property then too, and this is a public road.

"RICH" homeowner with a 7Acre RANCH! surrounded by BLM land.

But I don't care if you go out behind the house to my "backyard". Just don't shoot within 1/4 mile of occupied building, mine or the neighbors across the street. About 1/2 way up the ridge back there you'll hit a section or two of private land, but you'll see the cross fence first. And close the gate going in and coming out damnit:

LMFAO

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I carried a big pair of bolt cutters in my truck for probably 15 years. My load out is a bit more pedestrian nowadays.

My father was a land surveyor, registered in 4 western states. I learned map reading and compass from him, also watched him stop more than one arrogant "rancher" in his tracks with "on whose authority are you claiming public land as yours?"

Had a Boy Scout leader try to prevent my access up a signed USFS road once- his reasoning? "We planned this event months ago." I invited him to call the county sheriff.

I am all for private land ownership- I have a few acres myself. It is important to know the boundaries and law.

Usually, the offer to involve law enforcement is enough to shut down the claimed land grab- but you better be sure you are in the right.

Fuggin cops don't care if you burn down a city but they'll drive 37 miles out on two track to settle a dispute between a couple of hicks?

That sure is a purty gate there.

I was hunting a piece of state land once and was trying to get on a nice buck a few coulees over. I was glassing the buck when all the sudden this guy came around the bend in his truck honking his horn and scared off the buck. He said I was trespassing and he had called the game warden. Warden shows up, I show him my tracks in the snow and where I was hunting (300 yds into public land) and he agreed the buck and I both were well within state land. The warden then checked both our licenses, the guy was wearing orange and obviously hunting. He ended up writing the guy a citation for road hunting, as he had a loaded rifle in his truck. Haha.

Absolutely !

OSP and Sheriff Deputies in my neck of the woods love that stuff.

A dispute over who shot a bull. So & so is blocking road access with their rigs, Give em an hour and someone with a badge is gonna show up.

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Encountered a public road that had a cattle feedlot over it. The yard covered the road but there was a gate at each end. I had driven past a couple times as the road was access to public land and this was a blatant attempt to keep the public out. You could access it from the other end but it was miles around.
Finally I decided I’m driving through the feedlot, the rancher met me at the other end on his Atv as I was opening the gate. He was not impressed, I showed him on the map that this was a public road, it didn’t escalate beyond flaring tempers but he told me not to come back this way. As it turned out it was well after dark when I drove out the other end as I had to drag a deer out in the moonlight. An that night there was a lunar eclipse while dragging out.

Had a farmer try to kick me off my friends land. He was renting land next to it. He texted me a doctored map, showing the land border
I jacked on him and then sent an onyx map pic. That was the end of that. Said he farmed like 26 quarters and it wasn't easy to find a placé to hunt after I told him I didn't own any land. What an ass. Don't get me wrong I have good farmer friends. Some really have a high opinion of themselves though. I never want any trouble but I can be à hard case when needed.

Sounds like Montana?
Ranchers love pulling that schit

There is a state section next to our farm/ranch, and the best, but not the only, access to this state section is through our place. I've always been polite about letting folks use our road as access, but I'm usually clear that they not hunt our place. Likewise, I've told hunters on that state section if they wound a deer on the state section and it makes it to ours, they are free to retrieve it on foot. And most hunters are pretty good about things...but....some out of staters who hunt on our place each year for the past 50 years (we're on the third generation of them, traces back to a friendship with my fathe) had permission to hunt during opening weekend. The opener was thick, pea soup fog, so thick the renter said he was very careful turning off the highway to do the fencing he had planned for the day. He heard shots.....it was those hunters....and encountered them later and asked how they knew what was behind the deer they were shooting at. They gave him a puzzled look. I may rethink their permission if that is the extent of their good judgement.

Montana was à différent place 35-40 years ago.

It was western but if you knew someone you could hunt alot of land.

There's a rancher in Hamilton, Colorado that put a fence across County Road 179 right off Highway 317 blocking access to a large plot of BLM. I hunt a private ranch but if I wanted to hunt that area, I would. Some people have balls.

Ain't my gate. BLM came out a couple years back and put a " Keep Gate Closed" sign on it. Rancher neighbor with the allotment has since fixed the center stick and it's a little tighter now, but even in that pic take years ago it kept the cows in. Doesn't even have the tensioner used on it.

If you think that's bad, I should get you a close up of the corner posts on the left there, out where the yellow grass starts. I have to prop them up from my side to keep them from falling in. Probably take a three person review to have BLM come out and fix it, or they'd try to get rancher neighbor to do it.

This ain't the Bluegrass, we don't need purty gates, just functional ones.

I've seen public land posted - no trespassing- and have yet to see a game warden get involved .

I proved to one game warden that a public section was posted - he said ''well there's a house over there'' he was on the lawbreakers side .

This stuff goes on everywhere , Idaho was bad .