Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Elk Hunting So You Want To Hunt Out West

Yea, you ain't doing nothing cheap in Texas as far as and elk goes. Wyoming can be done for the money, but access is the problem, obviously. Landlocked blm or checkerboard blm will remain as an outfitters or adjacent ranches extra hunting ground. Best thing you can hope for is a 2 track that runs into or along side blm or public. NF is cool too, once again, if it has access. So how does access become available? Deep pockets boys. Court adjourned. Way it is. Way it goes. But hey, all you can do is buy a tag, work your azz off, enjoy the views, and hope you see elk. Way I look at it.

I would expect that it would require a compelling interest to a large amount of people to use eminent domain. Like they cannot put a bike path over your land

for a few people. Property rights are some of the foundation of why we do not have a king. It is mine and I do not want the world spoiling it.

Not having access to landlocked public will soon be a thing of the past. Already drones are carrying hundreds of pounds. How long until you can get delivered by drone to your hunting spot? I'm serious, in less than 5 years, outfitters will be trying to outlaw this.

I am not sure if I am reading some of these responses right, but a federal land management agency such as FS, BLM, USFWS, etc. doesn’t necessarily have a ROW to access the lands they’re charged with management of.

Sometimes there are formal or even informal agreements with landowners for work related access of .gov employees, but that is not always the case. Many, many of the landlocked pieces of federally managed lands are inaccessible to even the land management agencies. I know of a few places in Montana and Wyoming where the only legal way for FS or BLM to access some of the public parcels—-even for legitimate work related reasons—-is by aircraft as landowners absolutely refuse to allow road access. I believe this has even been held up by courts (which I agree with) but am unsure as to what court level.

To be clear: this is a different issue than corner crossing. I am referring to 100% landlocked public parcels, not checkerboarded areas.

State can't do anything in terms of making access better. Land locked blm must be accessed through private. What if a river runs through private up to the blm/fs? Can it be accessed then? Talking large rivers here not trickles. Rafting and fishing guides float them without a care and get to fish private water this way. So could one float a canoe down to private and access it that way? Highly doubt it, but you never know. Interesting thread.

I'm at a loss as to how about 24 million acres of public land equates to little or no access.

This varies by state but for the most part, yes.
A boat can be used on navigable rivers and streams to access landlocked public land with no legal road access. Even a pair of waders can get you access if the water isn’t too deep and you stay in the water or below the high water mark, again depending on the state.

Specifics vary, but generally all water ways—-at least surface water—-are state managed. I am not sure how private ponds work, or where the line is drawn between private ponds and other water bodies.

Don't know about now day's but back in the 60s in Colorado if you put a boat or raft on a navigable river you could float thru private land but put one foot on the bank and you were trespassing on private land, and subject to arrest. Rio7

What I gathered.



If there isn't a 2 track, road, easement, and it's landlocked, it's not accessible. Checkerboard is cool if you can access that one section. After that your done and back to the truck for some drive time.

Our group has a tougher time getting tags than we do places to hunt and take elk. If you can get a general or cow tag in Wyoming you can generally get on elk if you can hunt a mile or so from the road.

Which is why I got the hell out of Texas! Hardly any public hunting land and unless you're willing to pay ridiculous fees to play, it is very unfriendly to sportsman.

Idaho has a recreational easement on all navigable waters up to the normal high water mark. Exactly where that mark is can be very questionable sometimes. In the fall, during low water, sometimes you have a lot of land accessible along rivers. Hiking along it, though, is often a miserable job - steep banks, rocks, logs, thick brush, etc. It's often blocked completely without crossing or at least getting wet. Packing out meat can be misery x10.

That 24 million acres I mentioned is accessible public land in Wyoming, not landlocked. We have about 8 million acres of landlocked land.
24 mill is plenty for hunting.

Some fold commenting and they don't even know what they are commenting on.

Yes navigable rivers are legal access in many states, just don't anchor or touch the bank or stream bed through the private lands. Wyoming allows portage onto private to go around obstacles in the streambed or across the river such as fences.

Think how nice it will be when you stick it in the drone and fly it away.

Terms like navigable and meandered and non-meandered have specific legal meanings. Make sure to fully understand them before exercising your rights.

Few things tick me off more than the way WY outfitters have locked up wilderness there from non residents. Theft.

Several units have plenty of land. I agree. Some are not so. Will be one access point to a checkerboard that's 20 miles deep. But, your only limited to the portions along the road. So now you have hunting ground along a major highway or county road, and past 1 mile often times your done. So the outfitters and land owners pretty much have the ball in their court when it comes to the checkerboard. Now wyoming is going to issue like 2000 elk tags for area 6 and 7. Lots of public ground, little access. They claim they are over run with elk, but if you ain't on private it's gonna be tough. Doable, but tough. I will soon find out.

Yep, outfitters got their way on that for hunting. Still open for everything bit big game hunting unless you have a guide and you can have a resident guide for free.

Plenty of access in area 7 with that public land, area 6 has little public land, you'll find out.

Pretty easy to not apply for an area with little access, leave those licenses to those that have access maybe.
Apply in area with good access, solves lots of problems.

The checkerboard is not the whole state, hunt elsewhere, and the fed gov't made that problem not Wyoming.
By the way lots of that checkerboard is open to hunting, you just have to call and ask. One small area caused a stink and it is getting remedied we hope by the courts.

Maybe I haven’t bored you enough so think about this. When we talk about navigable waters there are two definitions used by two branches of the federal government. The first deals specifically with waters that are subject of tidal flows and used for interstate or foreign commerce controlled and regulated by the Army Corp of Engineers. This is defined in the CFR ( Code of Federal Regulations ). This actually has nothing to do with this discussion. The second definition deals with Waters of the U.S. which is defined and controlled by the EPA under the Clean Water Act. This gives the EPA control of all rivers, streams, creeks or tributaries and lakes in the U.S. This act is all encompassing and controls waters and vital resources supporting public health, environmental protection, agriculture and economic growth. Closer reading reveals that the EPA and other associated agencies may not have clear cut authority for rivers that form state or territorial boundaries. The above noted laws and provisions have been challenged almost continuously since its inception so as of today it’s as clear as mud.

As for access through private lands the EPA specifies that the public can float or transport through private lands on these rivers, streams, or lakes if they are deep enough and wide enough for a floating conveyance or boat to travel on most of the year. Frozen water is not clear on this. But here is where it gets legal and binding for trespassing violations. According to the Public Trust Doctrine which is defined in the US Constitution allowing the public to use waterways for navigation, commerce and fisheries. It has since been broadened to include, right to swim, boat and engage in other forms of water recreation. It basically establishes that nobody can own the water and that it must be accessible to the public. So private land owners have no title to the water but they do have riparian rights or the land associated with the banks of a body of water, river, stream or lake or high water marks on the coast. However here is where it gets technical. The private land owner has ownership of the banks and bottom land to the middle of the river or stream. If he owns the land on both sides he then has ownership of the entire river or stream bottomland but he doesn’t own the water or use of it nor can he build on it and impede movement by water. Think about that for a while.

Rick

In Idaho, 'navigable' is defined as any water big enough to float a 6" x 6' log or any kind of boat, including a float tube. That takes in about anything bigger than what you can step over.