The other day a friend from down in the Hills called to let me know he would be in the area hunting. They had located a Walk In Area where the public is allowed to hunt. He and his father in law planned to pack in with his horse and mule, set up camp and spend the next few days hunting. I told him I’d try to get over to their camp and visit and that they were welcome to drop over here if they needed food or a shower or even a place to hunt for a couple if they didn’t fill their tags.
Yesterday I was out in the corral training on a horse and some calves, enjoying the nice day. Cindy came out to the corral to tell me my hunters were on the way. Hmmm….
When they got here they explained that they had run onto the guy who manages the land where this WIA is located and he had told them they were not allowed to ride or hunt the WIA land, they had to do everything afoot. And they were not allowed to camp there. There is BLM land nearby, but he said they couldn’t access it except afoot. He was polite and not a jerk about it.
As I understand it, there is a section line around every section of ground in this western half of the state. A landowner can not stop anyone from access, thru’ the section lines. Section lines can be closed, but also opened back up. They can make you stay on the section line and if they are unfenced you’d have to have a map and/or GPS, but in this day and age with cell phones, it’s not too difficult to find where anything is if you have the coordinates.
Walk In Area’s are privately owned ground the the Game Fish and Parks pays a fee to the landowner and then public hunting is allowed. You can not use a motorized vehicle of any kind on it. But as far as I can see, no where does it say you can not use a horse or mule. Or even an oxen if you had one and were so moved.
So they stayed here and we went on a hunt yesterday afternoon and again this morning. Other than having the father in law, not listen to my advice and being too much of an eager beaver and not following the plans on how to hunt this place, it went well and they got 5 does. They had tags for 6. So we thinned out the doe population pretty easily. Glad they got their deer and that I could help. But this WIA deal really turns my crank.
If your going to take the money, allow the hunters. And know the laws and rules. You can not deny access to anyone on property they are allowed on. And anyone nd everyone is allowed on BLM land. It is PUBLIC land. We are the PUBLIC.
All of US.
Makes me want to go over there and test the waters, so to speak, but I do not have a tag and hate to get in an argument wit a person who is managing land he does not own. But I will have a discussion with those who do own the land and see what the deal is.
At least I had fun training on my horse and the calves!
Dennisranch 
Make ’em show you the regulation. If they’re legit about their jobs, they’ll be happy to do so, because part of their job is to educate people on the laws we all have to obey. We aren’t the ones getting the hours of training learning the laws to be enforced, they are.
…hmm…I guess I would have told him that mules & horses don’t ride motorized vehicles, so how else were they going to get in. Down here you can ride most any animal on Public Hunting areas. Those folks that ahve land surronding the are can restrict what kind of traffic goes thru. I haven’t heard of anyone not allowing horses, mules & oxen or anything else…
Talked to a game warden about hunting WIA and public areas he said a lot of the rules are “grey areas”. Open to how the warden looks at the rules. So that makes lots of sense.
At least you got some thinned out! We have lots of trails marked..no motorized vehicles. One marked No horses..not sure why? So if you had an ox or a mule you could give it a whirl. I would try it IF I had one of those critters..probably end up in jail. I would sure ask around and see what other people say about the walk in areas:(