public access

werre300

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I noticed on Colorado G N F website they have a program for obtaining access for hunting without paying a fee. I also noticed after getting excited about it that its only for non-residents........Does anyone know any different? Montana has millions of private acres available at no charge and wyoming has some too....any experiences to share?..... One thing i see that would be nice that is lacking is a portal for landowners who do charge weather it be a 500 fee or 2000 there seems to be nowhere to find them.... Or a collective .com location......Where i am from going to the farmers house and asking permission is usally enough. God i hate seeing what fee hunting has become but i guess you have to pay to play sometimes.
 
"Montana has millions of private acres available at no charge"

Where?

I can't find a place to turkey hunt that doesn't want money. Forget pheasants, whitetail and other upland birds. It would be nice to start a forum or website on all these things you mentioned. If you ask 10 different people the same hunting question then you get 10 different answers.
 
block management guides check out montana g nf site.......they have one for each region 1 to 7. They come out aug 15th every year. I dont' know about turkey but if you want to hunt mule deer, whitetail and if you can draw an elk tag there are millions of acres to hunt.
 
LAST EDITED ON Apr-05-07 AT 03:42PM (MST)[p]Zigga,

If you can't find a place to hunt turkeys in Montana you aren't looking very hard. There are even places on public land that don't get pressure from turkey hunters.

I don't pay to pheasant hunt either and usually get access no problem. It is changing but I can still average 40 to 50 pheasants a year without paying any more then a couple of 5th of Pendletons.

Nemont
 
I guess sw montana is a little different. First of all there are no turkeys to hunt so you basically have to drive a couple hours in a random direction and knock on doors or start dialing phone numbers. I was quoted $75-$150 for turkey hunting. Places north of the Park wanted $75 to shoot a cow elk for God's sake. I called to get other people access. I hunt public land and am happy with it. I've heard good things about Block management but apparently haven't spent enough time working on it.
 
In my experience with block management, there are two types of ranches you will find:

1) The shittiest, most over-grazed, most worthless, gameless, piece of barren wasteland you will ever find. A nuclear test site would probably have more living critters on it. These are the ranchers that enroll in BMA because no outfitter will lease their land, and I have found that many BMAs are like this.

But there's good news; the second type

2) These are much harder to find, especially in S/SW MT, but they do exist and are gems if you can find them. Usually, they are never great, but have enough game to be worth it.

Just do your homework

---------------------------------------
This is my post

I've just pissed in my pants.......and nobody can do anything about it.
 
If a person can find the BMAs that are walk in only, you are way better off. Some of those don't get pressured much at all if you get more than 1 mile away from the parking area or less. I do like "the old mans" description of some of the BMA areas though and he is very accurate too. The BMA has decimated the hunting on some awfully nice places around eastern Montana.

BlueLeader
 
LAST EDITED ON Apr-06-07 AT 09:06AM (MST)[p]There are some bad BMA places but just like public lands there are also some great BMA's as well. I rarely hunt on Block Management and rely on friends, family and clients of mine for access.

It is amazing how many people will give you access if you are a decent human being. I have hunted right up to the fence of the place that leases to the Real Tree boys just by knowing how to ask and who to ask.

It isn't all doom and gloom in the access area.

I don't know what is worse for the future of hunting: access to poorly managed lands or no access because Outfitters and wealthy have locked you out? I guess in my mind at least you could hunt on the poorly managed stuff and get lucky once a while.



Nemont
 
In North Dakota we have Plots land but it is far and few per deer hunting unit. You could probably hunt pheasants forever on it in the western part of the state though. We are seeing similar woes in eastern north dakota for land access. We are now down to tw0 landowners for accesss where we hunt. About 80% of what we hunted over the past 20 years has gone to pay hunts in the last 3 years. It took us many years to make those relationships and maintain them and they produced many nice bucks over the years for our parties but now worthless CRP land has become prime whitetail hunting land for people from Minniapolis...Its sort of strange to think that two years ago the place where my 4 year old and i shot a nice 8 point buck is now reserved for 1500 a head. The problem is now the people that allow hunting to those who ask are overwhelmed and say its a matter of time before they too will have to say no too.....You are right though. There are still oppurtunties out there...but i think for a non-res they are very tough to develop....Many of the lands we now hunt border the pay hunting lands and consistently produce better deer. We all knew this was coming and its only going to get worse.........i know it will be a cold day in hell when i pay someone to shoot a whitetail......
 
If you are referring to Colorado's ranching for wildlife program, the public draw tags are for residents only. If you want to buy a private hunting license from the landowner - greenbacks are the only qualification measure - not residency.

For most ranchers who enroll, 90% of the buck and bull quota goes to the landowner to sell as private licenses. 10% of the buck and bull tags go to public resident hunters. 100% of the cow and doe tags go to public resident hunters.

This program is not without controversy, some hunters love it - some hate it.

Colorado is also piloting BGAP this year in the Southeast. It will lease private lands for public hunting hunting access. You must buy a $40 access stamp prior to hunting, but is open to all regardless of residency. Lets hope it gets quality lands enrolled, and is popular with the public at large so it can grow. This pilot is starting with pronghorn and deer, lets hope they add elk and other species down the road after the trial.
 
yeah that is great news for colorado........I certainly dont' aggree with the landowner tag business....what a fricken shame. I know the sale of tags is illegal in this state.....
 
Ziggy,

As you were "knocking doors" you didn't by chance discuss
politic's with the landowners did you? I am sure if you held
your tongue, the price (trespass fee) would decrease by huge
amounts.

The only bobcat happy to give advice to all his MM friends; liberals included!!!!!!!!!
 

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