Why would he think any different?
If he isn't engaged, reading on hunting forums or listening to less than a handful of guys doing podcasts he wouldn't know any better.
Ya being from Texas, the concept of public land is new to me. I’ve been hunting Wyoming out here which does allow state land hunting and bc the state trust land page of Colorado says something to the effect of “state land is leased and used for a variety of purposes including hunting”. I didn’t realize only some of them are leased for that and the majority are for cattle grazing and such. I was listening to an old randy podcast when he mentioned it and that got me thinking. I called parks and wildlife to clarify and I’m glad I did! I was talking to a game warden and he said it’s a common mistake but they unfortunately have to write trespassing tickets all the time if the leasee presses charges.
On the onX, state land will be the same blue color and the state wildlife area is an even lighter blue and will indicate “state wildlife area”. If you don’t see them next to eahother, you may not even notice a difference in color.