Ive hunted antelope in wyoming two years in a row now and I'm still confused on the road closures. I used a gps with the wyoming hunting map loaded so we always knew where we were. There were roads marked as closed for access to hunting(I assume oil & gas) that crossed private land but entered huntable land farther in. We never used these roads instead we hiked into those areas using all the adjoining blocks of BLM and state lands, but there were a lot of hunters using these roads to croos private land. Is it common for hunters in wyoming to ignore these "access closed" signs or are the signs not legal? I'll have to do more research because I'm hooked on antelope and will definately be going back.
If it is an oil/gas road and the intersection is located on private land, yes it can be closed. Many times the Game and Fish themselves, along with BLM and USFS close roads during hunting season.
Yes it's quite normal for folks to ignore road closed and foot traffic only signs and proceed along their merry little way. And it's also quite normal for GF and county sherriff to completely ignore trespass complaints even when detail on the vehicle is given right down to and including license plate number and vin number. It's also not unheard of for a summons to be issued via us mail or local authorities for such offense.
Any "landowner" that is purposely posting public roads/land is opening themselves up to loose any leases they may have on that land, so it's not done very often, and sometimes it's done by "sportsmen" attempting to keep some place to themselves.
Best if you are hunting someplace where there is a lot of private lands to have a GPS unit with the land ownership maps downloaded onto it.