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

One place, owned by all us taxpayers, we've elk hunted north of Pagosa Springs, Colorado borders a large ranch owned by some rich fellow in California. He hates hunting and has armed security guards patrolling the fences. One of our group watched them herd the elk back onto that ranch as they were trying to leave. They were chasing them with UTVs. I mentioned that in a conversation with one of the elk hunt planners and he said next time get some cell phone video and let them know.

That road in my picture is a county road on most maps. About a mile or so in it turns to the left and crosses into a private section, cuts the corner of it, and then back onto a few sections of BLM land before it hooks up with another improved county road. Folks drive in from over that way and I see folks go in here and not come out. I've walked thru the gate there, it's just another barb wire gate. Word around here is if you're on the county road it';s not an issue. Don't get caught hunting off it though.

Have to be careful though, as sometimes a county will let a road revert to the landowner, giving up the right of way. Happened up in WA where there was a section of State land that became landlocked that way. It had turkeys on it I wanted to hunt too.

A rancher told me in the western part of the state à wealthy doctor chases Antelope onto his land with a helicopter even if someone is hunting them.

Another time coming off public land it was impractical to go back through the way I had come and there was a two track going from the public out towards where the road should be. It was crossing private land but hopefully it would lead me to a road, it was dark so it was hard to tell. Well the two track led right up to a homestead, lights on in the house and I had to drive through a horse corral to get through to their driveway. I opened the gate and the horses got out of the corral, I quickly drove through and luckily the horses went back in easily instead of heading out cross country.
Any minute I was dreading someone coming out of the house in an unfriendly state of mind. Nobody did and I quickly moved on out of there.

Indian reservation does that to elk in NM.

[quote=Valsdad
That road in my picture is a county road on most maps. About a mile or so in it turns to the left and crosses into a private section, cuts the corner of it, and then back onto a few sections of BLM land before it hooks up with another improved county road. Folks drive in from over that way and I see folks go in here and not come out. I've walked thru the gate there, it's just another barb wire gate. Word around here is if you're on the county road it';s not an issue. Don't get caught hunting off it though.

Have to be careful though, as sometimes a county will let a road revert to the landowner, giving up the right of way. Happened up in WA where there was a section of State land that became landlocked that way. It had turkeys on it I wanted to hunt too.[/quote]

Where's the picture?

I had a hunter try to kick me off my on land! Didn't work out too well for him.

Western ND too. Pull out the map, point and say "I'm right here and this is public."

The typical response was always "well my stuff is on the other side of this stuff so make sure you stay on it!"

Where's the picture?
[/quote]

In this post on the first page:
https://www.24hourcampfire.com/ubbt...hunter-vs-rancher-yesterday#Post16560459

Yeah,
Not my first encounter. The first cost me $100 for being on a public road.

Same thing happened to me. Outfitter (not rancher) pitched his camp in the middle of a public road blocking access to BLM and National Forest land. BLM office told me they can't do anything about it....not enough law enforcement people...only one guy for 60 gazillion acres or something. So I mentioned all the No Trespassing signs on the BLM fences. Told me they just get put back up as soon as they get removed. So now they don't bother with it. Meanwhile there are three Parks and Wildlife officers for every fisherman at Pueblo Reservoir. Truth is, they are afraid of the redneck land managers that oversee the properties and want to keep their jobs and scalps.

I had the Rancher that had the Free Range Lease up in the area I have property in Arizona try and tell me that he had all of the rights to my property.

That went over me like a Lead Balloon
I told him the only rights he has on my property was to come and get his cattle off of my property when they came on it. and that was it.

He tried to tell me that I was not allowed to fence my property off unless he said I could fence it.

That went over like another Lead Balloon with me.

I told him that I hold the Title to the Property Registered with the County he does not.
And I will fence my property any time that I want and at that point the only rights he has on my property is in the easement areas that the County has given him.

We went round and round for several years.
He has hired a person who actually owns property up were mine is to do his free Range Cattle business for him and has moved out of the area .

Some Hunters think that they have more right to others property than they do.
Some Property Owners think that they can tell others what to do on adjacent property's to theirs
And some Ranchers think that they can do what they want on others property because they have been doing it for years.

When you get 2 stubborn SOB's going at it some time sparks fly.

So what happened?

Did you drive through it?

Mike

I miss an old rancher named Bud in Southern Idaho. He always let us hunt his land. I asked him once why he was so good about letting hunters on his ground. He told me that as long as the public let's him run his cows on blm ground he would let the public hunt on his.

He put up signs saying public welcome and said after that he never had a problem with anyone tearing up his ground. He hated government agents and environmentalists though so his sights told those types to keep out. You can still see his signs sometimes down along the southern border near goose creek.

Bb

I saw a lot of that in NM when I lived there. You report it and they tell you that you are just a visitor and they had to live there

Much land access has been lost to the public, because of vandalism and failure to leave gates as they were.
Many out here are spread too thin to babysit every hunter.

Happy birthday.

Yeah, for every story a hunter has about a rancher, there's a story a rancher has about hunters...

Gates left open.

Windmills and water tanks shot up.

Trespassing.

Littering.

Fences driven over, or cut.

Cattle or other livestock shot.

And on and on.... Respecting the rights of others goes both ways.

Many many years ago in Alpine County CA. we went up this road where we knew Deer were mi9grating out of the high country. Got there but there was a gate blocking it. We checked our forest service maps and sure as heck it was blocking a public access road. We went back to the little local grocery store and talked to the owner about it and how we were going to open it up. He was a nice guy and advised us not to do it as the locals put the gate up to keep outsiders out of the prime area. He also said the sheriff would give us a bad time and being elected he did what the locals wanted he to do. So we went to the nearest forest service office and complained and they just shucked us off. To my knowledge, that gate is still up today.

Political corruption at the lowest level.