GMU 133....just lost our private access due to trespassers!

[cem3434]

So I just got a phone call from my wife telling me that we don't have permission to hunt the area(s) that we usually hunt on eastside of Highway 21 heading down the grade towards Keller Ferry in the Roosevelt unit. One of the landowners called her today and reluctantly told her that he was closing it to everyone because its the only way to figure out who is trespassing. They ran several people out of the property during archery and muzzy season, so now they are completely closing it for modern season, thus leaving us without a place to hunt this weekend.
We have been hunting the area for the last 7 years and apparently the group of landowners and farmers that give us permission are shutting it down because of the amount of trespassers that seemingly increases every year. Our group drew 2nd deer tags this year, so I guess 4 does just got a lucky break because we don't have the time to try and secure additional property to hunt and I have never hunted or searched for public land in the unit. I know that one of the property owners has specifically taken note of a large group of hunters that camp out at the River Rue campground every year for modern because they have continually trespassed onto his property to hunt year after year. He warned us last year that if the trespassers persisted, he would probably close the property down to everyone within the next couple of years. 
He said they may open it back up next year, but that doesn't help us with our 2nd tags for this year. We called them before putting in for 2nd deer tags and had permission then, but the trespassers have pissed him off so bad that they are just closing it to everyone for the rest of the season. It's really chitty when you follow all of the rules, get written permission and are respectful of the property and owner(s), but you are locked out because the property owner(s) are sick of all jack wagons that dont respect them or their property.
I guess I will hit my old honey hole in Manastash and see how the deer popluation is there or hunt blackies on the wetside, but I'm just pissed that other "hunters" screwed it up for our group. I'm ranting a little bit, but  .....rant over.

[Mfowl]

That's a shame! Was your access on the "Hunt by Written Permission" land out that way? Nice country  out there for sure. Hope things work out for you.

[Taco280AI]

Why not help him out and take a day here and there, if you can, to help watch his property and tell people to GTFO?

[cem3434]

Why not help him out and take a day here and there, if you can, to help watch his property and tell people to GTFO?

We actually have went over early and posted all of the property the last couple of years trying to keep the trespassers out.  Many people think its part of Dreger's land, which is on the westside of Highway 21, so they just go wherever they want once have a permission slip from Dregers.  In the last 7 years, we have probably ran at least a dozen hunters a year off of the property that were trespassing. We used to have permission from Dregers, but it has been harder to get the last couple of years because they are restricting access and starting to charge.  I am not willing to pay to harvest a 2nd deer, so I will just eat my tag if I don't find some public land before Friday. 

[cem3434]

That's a shame! Was your access on the "Hunt by Written Permission" land out that way? Nice country  out there for sure. Hope things work out for you.

Yes, it was written permission.  The owner of the property is a cousin of one of my friends who is also in our hunting group and has a 2nd deer tag. My wife tried to get in touch with him over the weekend, so we could get the permission slips and he didnt get back to her until today with the bad news.

[zagsfan1]

There is some public land Near Creston and Davenport that always hold Does. PM me if you want more info

[724wd]

Do you have a boat?  surely you could find a doe on Roosevelt.

[JDHasty]

Talked to a guy a week ago who lost access because the property owners had an arrow shot into the side of their house.  Closed to everybody now. 

[BULLBLASTER]

Buy the on x maps app on your phone and go find some does! $30 and it shows public land. Should still be able to salvage the doe tags and maybe find a buck.

[pianoman9701]

Do you have a cute kid who can either smile or look pitiful? If you're able to go talk with the landowner face-to-face with a cute kid in tow, that might help. I like the idea of offering to keep an eye out for trespassers, too. If you go, dress nicely - not hunting clothes.

[Doublelunger]

Buy the on x maps app on your phone and go find some does! $30 and it shows public land. Should still be able to salvage the doe tags and maybe find a buck.

  there is public land in that unit. DNR and BLM shouldnt be too hard to find some does with a little work!

[de0827]

There is DNR land just west of Hwy 21 in Dreger's land, and there is a small chunk of BLM land on the east side of Hwy 21 next to Dreger's.  There are several other BLM chunks throughout the unit as well.  Bummer deal on your access, but go make it happen!

[cem3434]

Do you have a boat?  surely you could find a doe on Roosevelt.

No boat, but I have a few other leads.

[cem3434]

Buy the on x maps app on your phone and go find some does! $30 and it shows public land. Should still be able to salvage the doe tags and maybe find a buck.

I have the chip for my GPS and I started searching that last night.  Not worried about finding bucks because our group also has late whitetail tags for Blue Mountains West and we have a couple decent sized chunks of property to hunt.

[cem3434]

There is DNR land just west of Hwy 21 in Dreger's land, and there is a small chunk of BLM land on the east side of Hwy 21 next to Dreger's.  There are several other BLM chunks throughout the unit as well.  Bummer deal on your access, but go make it happen!

I know the property that you are talking about that is west of Hwy 21 in Dreger's land, but I thought it was landlocked by Dreger.  Not sure of the BLM land that you are referring to on the east side because that is the property that we had permission to hunt on the east side of Hwy 21, which runs from Eftner Road to the north where it ties back into Dregers land and back along Layton and Speigle Canyon on the east side. All of this land is owned by 3 different families and they have cut off access to everyone except their immediate family because of the continual issues they have had over the last several years. As far as I know, both sides of Hwy 21 are private from the top of the grade down to the state park along the lake. There were 5 or 6 bucks taken out of the park last year, but I have no desire to be in an area that has that many hunters because you are just asking for trouble IMO.
I know there is a small chunck of public land off of Speigle Canyon Road, but it is usually hammered with guys hunting in from the east and then back to the west into Dregers land.  Every year we run off guys that come all the way across the top to hunt the private property owned by the 3 families that we previously had permission from.

[de0827]

There is DNR land just west of Hwy 21 in Dreger's land, and there is a small chunk of BLM land on the east side of Hwy 21 next to Dreger's.  There are several other BLM chunks throughout the unit as well.  Bummer deal on your access, but go make it happen!

I know the property that you are talking about that is west of Hwy 21 in Dreger's land, but I thought it was landlocked by Dreger.  Not sure of the BLM land that you are referring to on the east side because that is the property that we had permission to hunt on the east side of Hwy 21, which runs from Eftner Road to the north where it ties back into Dregers land and back along Layton and Speigle Canyon on the east side. All of this land is owned by 3 different families and they have cut off access to everyone except their immediate family because of the continual issues they have had over the last several years. As far as I know, both sides of Hwy 21 are private from the top of the grade down to the state park along the lake. There were 5 or 6 bucks taken out of the park last year, but I have no desire to be in an area that has that many hunters because you are just asking for trouble IMO.
I know there is a small chunck of public land off of Speigle Canyon Road, but it is usually hammered with guys hunting in from the east and then back to the west into Dregers land.  Every year we run off guys that come all the way across the top to hunt the private property owned by the 3 families that we previously had permission from.

I don't know the area much and have never hunted there.  I was just looking at On X Maps like others have suggested.  I know just because there is DNR or BLM land doesn't necessarily mean you can get to it due to surrounding private.  I just wanted to point those pieces of public land out to you in case you were not already familiar with them.  Good luck and shoot straight!

[luteai]

BLM land off of HWY 2 north of Telford area aswell...

[TVHunts]

That really sucks that you got screwed out of your spot.  As other have said there is quite a few places you out to be able to harvest a doe easy enough on public land. I know of a spot near 2 Rivers where you can do easily get your 2nd tag filled. PM me if you would like info. It is surely on your OnX maps app.

Now I know why I'd didn't draw a second tag 

Have a great season regardless 

[JLS]

It makes no sense to me that you eliminate ALL access because of trespassing.  Is that going to magically make it stop?  I'm willing to bet that a lease of some sort is in the works and this was a convenient excuse.  I have several friends that deal with trespassers on a all too regular basis, but they don't punish the folks that are respectful and do it right.

[JDHasty]

the really irritating part of it all is is that the ones who were the cause of this are the same people you meet who complain because of lack of access.  The reason they lack access is for good reason, they would cause trouble anywhere they went and were allowed access. 

I used to run a very large retail hunting/shooting counter here ~ 25 years ago and I had lots of contact with people from across the spectrum and it was particularly easy to pick out "the type" who would be standing around complaining to anyone who would listen about no access. 

After doing that job for about two weeks anyone who is even a little bit on the ball could get to where they could spot them with 95% accuracy right off the bat. 

[cem3434]

That really sucks that you got screwed out of your spot.  As other have said there is quite a few places you out to be able to harvest a doe easy enough on public land. I know of a spot near 2 Rivers where you can do easily get your 2nd tag filled. PM me if you would like info. It is surely on your OnX maps app.

Now I know why I'd didn't draw a second tag 

Have a great season regardless 

Thanks for the offer. We have been looking at On 'X maps and we have a couple of areas we are heading over to check out Friday morning. Thanks to all of the members that offered advice.

[cem3434]

It makes no sense to me to you eliminate ALL access because of trespassing.  Is that going to magically make it stop?  I'm willing to bet that a lease of some sort is in the works and this was a convenient excuse.  I have several friends that deal with trespassers on a all too regular basis, but they don't punish the folks that are respectful and do it right.

No it wont make the issue go away, but they are keeping it to family only and calling the warden on anyone else that shows up to hunt. We have been fortunate enough to have access for several years and have seen the trespassing first hand, so I understand their decision. One of my Superintendents is family, so that is how we originally got access. I talked to one of the land owners today and I can assure you that no lease deal is being worked out. This is truly an act to try and stop the trespassing because it gets worse every year as one trespasser brings a buddy who brings another buddy and thus the situation they have now. Hopefully we will get access again in the future because it was not uncommon to see more than 100 deer a day when hunting there.

[SteelheadTed]

Sorry to hear this.  Make lemonade out of the lemons you've been served.  Hunt public land and get to know it!

[JDHasty]

It makes no sense to me to you eliminate ALL access because of trespassing.  Is that going to magically make it stop?  I'm willing to bet that a lease of some sort is in the works and this was a convenient excuse.  I have several friends that deal with trespassers on a all too regular basis, but they don't punish the folks that are respectful and do it right.

No it wont make the issue go away, but they are keeping it to family only and calling the warden on anyone else that shows up to hunt. We have been fortunate enough to have access for several years and have seen the trespassing first hand, so I understand their decision. One of my Superintendents is family, so that is how we originally got access. I talked to one of the land owners today and I can assure you that no lease deal is being worked out. This is truly an act to try and stop the trespassing because it gets worse every year as one trespasser brings a buddy who brings another buddy and thus the situation they have now. Hopefully we will get access again in the future because it was not uncommon to see more than 100 deer a day when hunting there.

That is a great attitude and it will serve you well even if you don't happen to get back on that property.   We have lost access we enjoyed because of things we had nothing to do with.  We sincerely thanked the property owners for the access we enjoyed while it was available and stayed in touch and in some cases that access has come back open to us... and for the very reason you mentioned i.e. the deer population was unmanageable, they simply could not tolerate that many deer on the property and not suffer losses that were unacceptable. 

 

[Elkterd]

Not to sound negative, but I live and hunt in the Lincoln area north of Telford, please stop sending people our way I already have my hands full with trespassers every year!!!!!!!!

[BULLBLASTER]

Not to sound negative, but I live and hunt in the Lincoln area north of Telford, please stop sending people our way I already have my hands full with trespassers every year!!!!!!!!

Want me to come patrol it for trespassers? I'll watch out for the 2 legged ones and the occasional antlered ones! Heck I'll even do it for free!
 
Sorry to hear you have those issues, I really wish people would be considerate.
That chunk of public has been pretty productive for yote a over the years for us.

[Elkterd]

we have kept it now to only family and if a kid has a tag we will work with what the land will accommodate to help fill the kids tags, seems to be working and as the parents we keep the riff raff out as best as we can

[BULLBLASTER]

we have kept it now to only family and if a kid has a tag we will work with what the land will accommodate to help fill the kids tags, seems to be working and as the parents we keep the riff raff out as best as we can

I was mostly joking on the patrolling... mostly... 

[jackmaster]

I would definitely be over there posting it with signs that say "this is not dregars property" keep your d&$&$&@? The hell out or get a load of buckshot up your a&$..it's pretty damn sad that people are so hard up to kill something they gotta trespass or any other number of things that they aren't getting caught at!! Stupid pitiful dumb humans!!!

[elkboy]

Sorry to hear that!  So sad.  Seems like trespassing is on the rise everywhere.  I helped post the property that I hunt on.  We put the landowners' name on the "No trespassing" signs so there could be no confusion.  That has helped with the accidental trespass cases at least.  I hunt muzzleloader season, and fortunately there isn't the same degree of trespass as in modern firearm.  Could that be a solution for you in the future?   

[splitshot]

   too many people.  mike w