Poor access units.

[beginnerhunter]

On one of the podcasts they were talking about going after units with poor access that were often overlooked. What sort of ratio are we talking about? What features are you looking for when it comes to poor access units? Maybe they cover this in another podcast. It's an interesting concept that seems like a difficult thing to suss out. But given how often I hear the YouTube hunters reference private property lines I would suspect many of you seasoned folks are doing this a lot. Just curious...

 

[Backcountry Hunter 2]

One unit I often hunt does have very few access points. I try to use that to my advantage as far as setting up a game plan as to where the elk will be once people push them. I consistently see elk in what I like to call the sweet spot. Which is in between the two access points. Now getting an elk out of that particular sweet spot is somewhat difficult as it is quite a far hike to get to there.

 

[LCH]

I'd much rather hunt a unit with 30 half section chunks, than a unit with one contiguous 15 section chunk.

 

[beginnerhunter]

I'd much rather hunt a unit with 30 half section chunks, than a unit with one contiguous 15 section chunk.

So you would like it somewhat distributed amongst the private land? Would create a lot of boundaries where people tend to think game likes to be.

 

[LCH]

So you would like it somewhat distributed amongst the private land? Would create a lot of boundaries where people tend to think game likes to be.

Well, that, and in a lot of areas it's entirely possible that little chunks like that may be overlooked and rarely get hunted. A skinny finger of public extending into lightly hunted private can be a good thing.

*Clarifier- this is assuming that little piece is not the only accessible public in the unit. In that case it'll be hammered. You need plan a, b, c, on down the line.

 

[beginnerhunter]

Well, that, and in a lot of areas it's entirely possible that little chunks like that may be overlooked and rarely get hunted. A skinny finger of public extending into lightly hunted private can be a good thing.

*Clarifier- this is assuming that little piece is not the only accessible public in the unit. In that case it'll be hammered. You need plan a, b, c, on down the line.

Makes a lot of sense. Multiple public land fingers or areas so folks don't concentrate there. Of course it's probably not easy to know how much pressure there is on the private.

 

[ImBillT]

You can definitely go too far looking for the most limited access.

 

[Pucky Freak]

Some considerations

Is it poor public access or poor any kind of access? Poor public access is usually exploited by those who have adjacent private access via road, ATV, etc. via outfitter, lease.

I focus on moderately low game densities on moderately hard to access spots and am often rewarded by being the only person there. The best looking habitat is obvious to avid scouters and probably targeted already

A lot of people avoid areas with complicated property lines because they don't want to be checking their GPS or map all the time, and don't want to be limited when they see game. However, if you don't mind the sometimes tedious work of sorting through all this, it can pay off.

What is everyone else overlooking? Maybe 100 animals get pushed on to private, but I can stake out a spot for one of them to wander back on public, no matter how small the tract, or if I have to walk a couple miles to get there.

Dumb luck and adaptability. Trophy animals cross roads/trails all the time. Be ready to take an easy animal 5 minutes in on your way to the hard to access place.

 

[duckhunt]

Ive been to Wyoming a couple times, and what game and fish calls limited access is like a gold mine to me. Being from Iowa I had no idea how much public there really is out west. I used to think I needed a great unit to hunt, but now realize a limited access unit can be awsome.

 

[Coop]

I don't exactly think it is a ratio thing that we are looking for as much as it is an ease of access thing. What I mean by this is that some of the most access limited units that I hunt are absolutely hammered because hunters all use the same one or two trailheads. This means you have to work your tail off to find where others aren't going. However, there are a lot of other units (typically further from populated areas) that have an access up every drainage that spreads people out a lot more evenly on big tracts of land. On the other hand, some of my favorite and best hunts have been on single half/full sections with county roads cutting through them. It is incredible how overlooked these can be. I will say that it does get pretty frustrating if you're a weekend warrior and the animals seem to know the property lines during hunting season.

 

[beginnerhunter]

I don't exactly think it is a ratio thing that we are looking for as much as it is an ease of access thing. What I mean by this is that some of the most access limited units that I hunt are absolutely hammered because hunters all use the same one or two trailheads. This means you have to work your tail off to find where others aren't going. However, there are a lot of other units (typically further from populated areas) that have an access up every drainage that spreads people out a lot more evenly on big tracts of land. On the other hand, some of my favorite and best hunts have been on single half/full sections with county roads cutting through them. It is incredible how overlooked these can be. I will say that it does get pretty frustrating if you're a weekend warrior and the animals seem to know the property lines during hunting season.

I see what you mean. The reason I immediately thought of "ratio" is because when I am looking through unit stats, I'll often disregard units that have, say, only 40% public land. The assumption being all the animals are hanging out on private and the public hunters are going to be crammed into a smaller area (which may happen, or maybe not). Don't really know how to figure that out e-scouting either way.

 

[AvidIndoorsman]

I think that particular conversation was centered on the general idea of "poor access units." To rip off some Tolstoy; All great units are all alike; every poor unit is poor in its own way. I think the overarching ideas is that when you sit down with the regs + draw odds for any state there are going to be a bunch of really hard units to draw, some medium, and some easy units. Great units are all going to have lots of public land, good habitat, and strong populations of animals. The easy/poor/ bad whatever you what to call them units are going to have some hurdle or group of hurdles to overcome, low animal density, mostly private land, tough access either because of terrain or landownership, etc etc.

The point of the conversation is that a lot of hunters will just say meh screw it I'm not hunting this year I'm going to wait till I can draw a good unit or they will hunt a less desirable season on a "better unit" in both cases they are overlooking a poor quality unit because they are unwilling to put in the time to 1. figure out why a unit is undesirable to hunt and 2. Over come those issues.

I think the advice is, don't let having no points or bad odds keep you from hunting. Find a tag you can draw this year and then do your homework to solve the problem of how to hunt that unit.

 

[ImBillT]

As mentioned, percent public is not the only factor used to define “limited access”, however, I consider 40% public to be well within the excellent range, and if access is limited, then it’s based on some other factor, like how it’s distrubuted, public roads, topography, private land blocking access etc.

The units I hunted last year had roughly 16% and 10% public. I would estimate that less than half of that was legally accessible. When chunks of public sit within the boundaries of a mostly private ranch, what percentage of hunters and land owners say “my tag is only valid on private, so I’m not going to hunt that piece of public even though I can hunt all around it”, particularly if that piece of public has no public access? Those units were less desirable than others for a multitude of reasons(some of the least desirable in the stare)but to me, they were still better than nothing. To others, they weren’t worth the time and money as long there was a better option somewhere else. That’s why they were easy to draw.

In a state that doesn’t “punish” drawing a tag, then it’s more worth it to me to take an “opportunity” hunt. Whether that means it’s a random draw, OTC, allows retention of points for drawing second choice, leftover etc. On the other hand, if points are involved and drawing that tag means that I’m going to loose my points and/or have a waiting period before applying again, then I’m more likely to be cautious of units with the very highest odds in the state and hold out for something more in the middle range of desirability.

 

[Deleted member 20812]

One caveat to throw out there: even if there’s a lot of public land you can access, if the outfitted hunters are driving to their glassing spits and you have to hike it’s going to be tough to compete.

 

[Irrelevant]

If there more than a dozen accessible sections, that's enough. There, you want black and white, line in the sand. 12 square miles.

 

[ImBillT]

If there more than a dozen accessible sections, that's enough. There, you want black and white, line in the sand. 12 square miles.

Contiguous or divided into 500 equal parcels all surrounded by private?

 

[beginnerhunter]

Thank you all for your input! I maybe unintentionally asked several different questions with my OP (low public land vs poor public access vs difficult access).

wllm1313, wow so you're a russophile? I've not read much Tolstoy, just the most well known stuff. A little Dostoevsky and Pushkin as well. But yeah I'm definitely going somewhere this year. Probably OTC or leftover CO when I don't draw NM.

Seems like most of you folks are ok with hunting lower % public land as long as there is enough to hunt.

Another thing though, would you guys look at it differently for OTC hunts? Or would that not factor into the equation any more than LE hunts?

 

[WapitiBob]

I would disregard the public/pvt stats, they mean little in my opinion.
Either use onX with ownership layers or use toprut's ownership layers in google earth and look at the visual distribution of public/pvt. 20% public can be more than enough if it has a good distribution.

 

[THINKIN6X6]

I'd make sure there is good public road access to whatever limited public grounds are in the unit. Take a look at the county highway map to see what roads are considered public and then make sure you can legally get to the public land. A lot of public land in the limited access units can be hard to get to because of this but you don't need a ton of land just make sure you can get to it.

 

[Trial153]

Just be cognizant that sometimes poor access actually means does mean poor access.... I been that guy that that found out that out the hard way.