i am looking at putting in for a party of 3 in area 56 for next hunting season no points as of now my question is how hard is the public land acess i have looked at the maps and it looks checkered boarded i am planning on buying a gps to help. just what worrys me is the web sit i have looked at say that acess is hard we are all very willing to walk. any input is helpful
Questions About unit 56
- Thread starter neb
- Start date
dan.kirkpatrick
Well-known member
what state might help as a starter?tell us a little about you and your hunt,,,welcome to hunt talk for starters.
Safe to assume you are asking about Wyoming?
yes sorry i am talking about wyoming was also looking at this area beause of a good chance for a mule deer tag we are coming from georgia and i have hunted both in the past with guides but will be the first time hunting the west for the rest of my party.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
You need to go back to the drawing board because that entire unit is checkerboarded and legal access to any of the public land is just about impossible, regardless of whether you have a GPS with a landowner chip or not.
boutdoors
Member
Might check The WY website for possible walkin's and for the hunter assistance list, also call in and ask for a landowner list for the area. 3 posssible ways to gain more access.
Yes but...........
Checker board yes, 46% of the unit is public though. With a chip any one of those square mile sections that touches a road is accessible. Couple that with 1.25 roads per square mile in 56 and there is definitely accessible public to be had. This might not sound ideal to everyone but we hunted a unit with far less public ground. It was a tough hunt but had success hitting the public "checker board" sections that touched the roads. By the end of our hunt we had a milk run put together of 8 or 9 stops where public touched the road. We would stop at each one, hiked in to check out the public parcel that we were on; if lopes were there the hunt was on if not we walked back and drove on to the next one to check it out.
Checker board yes, 46% of the unit is public though. With a chip any one of those square mile sections that touches a road is accessible. Couple that with 1.25 roads per square mile in 56 and there is definitely accessible public to be had. This might not sound ideal to everyone but we hunted a unit with far less public ground. It was a tough hunt but had success hitting the public "checker board" sections that touched the roads. By the end of our hunt we had a milk run put together of 8 or 9 stops where public touched the road. We would stop at each one, hiked in to check out the public parcel that we were on; if lopes were there the hunt was on if not we walked back and drove on to the next one to check it out.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
***Wow, you have it all figured out, EXCEPT for ONE big thing. ALL those roads you're looking at on your map are private two tracks that you can't legally drive on. The only public roads in that whole unit are two short BLM roads and they are close together way over on the east side within several miles of the unit boundary. Like I said before, he needs to go back to the drawing board because if he listens to you he'll be on here asking you to pay the trespassing ticket he gets!
Last edited:
Calm down Topgun; you act like someone just asked about your pet unit!!! Only TWO public roads in the whole unit? Well why didn't you say so the first time!!! 56 still looks intriguing enough to research more. From the looks of it a DIY hunter could be a friendly rancher or modest tresspass fee away from a real gem of a unit.
LCH
Well-known member
Last year was my first year out for antelope, did it on private land in a leftover tag area. Learned pretty quick that the road ownership / useage out there is a world away from what it is back home. Around here, if there's a road sign or it's on a map, you can drive it. Not so out there.
neb, just be sure to go to the WYGF website and look at the odds of drawing any given unit with 0 points, if it is low, then be sure to have a backup plan for a unit that has extra tags after the first choice applicants are filled. Good luck putting it all together! We did our first antelope hunt last year, and that was enough to try to learn as a rookie. I want to do a combo deer/antelope trip someday, but when I have 3 girls to take, we'd better have the antelope thing ironed out first 
Best wishes, you will love it!
Best wishes, you will love it!
Topgun 30-06
Active member
***Please tell me what those public roads are because my CD-ROM that was purchased from the G&F shows only part of a few being touched by highway 71 that is the western boundary of the unit and the two short BLM roads I mentioned that are on the east side of the unit. Other than those, everything else in the unit is a two track that is unlabeled and they go in and out of the checkerboarded squares. In my initial response I felt it was enough to say that there are not many accessible sections and didn't realize a member would need a comlete rundown of the unit, LOL! if you're happy finding an occasional square remembering that they are only 640 acres, which is very small to hunt out there, have at it! However, the G&F has it listed as a poor access unit for a reason.
Look up draw odds and write down all units you can draw with no points.Then go on G&F website and look into walk in and hunter management areas in all those units.Then pick one that has the biggest amount of those public access hunting acres.I could GIVE you a unit but then it would be too easy.A little research on your own is a fun part of the hunt really
dan.kirkpatrick
Well-known member
top gun is on it in wyoming,,,its not easy figuring what roads are "county",then on top of that ,its even harder to find out if certain roads have a blm" right of way" for public access,those are the trickyest to figure out unless you are right at that spot looking at the gate or posted signage.alot of those roads per sq mile charts dont reflect the public or private part of it.
JohnCushman
Well-known member
Topgun has never done me wrong, nor has he given bad information, in my opinion
If the amount of research done on a unit consist's of listening to just one post then take TG's advice and look else where.All I am saying is that 56 looks interesting enough to warrant more research before writing it off. 56 has a limited # of tags (75) in each of the past three seasons. A good amount of public ground. Are there challenges with access? Sure, but your going to find that with any 0 point draw hunt. According to eastmans a 41% chance of drawing last season with 0 points. Couple that with 2011 and 2012 success rates in the mid 90%'s the tag holders must be finding somewhere to hunt. boutdoors has a great suggestion to call the WYO G&F office to ask about a land owner list for 56 as long as your making the call ask to speak to the antelope biologist and game warden for 56. Alot of work for sure, but for me that would be the best way to know if 56 is a viable option to put in for the draw.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
***I've been hunting out there almost every year since 1992! How many times have you been there? If you call a completely checkerboarded unit with only a couple small public roads that barely access any square miles because "it has a good amount of public ground" interesting, then buy the friggin tag and go get disappointed!!! Units with a small number of tags and a good chance to draw with no PPs should tell you something more than it's interesting if you know anything about hunting out there, LOL! FYI a unit can be 99% BLM and be completely inaccessible due to private property in the units surrounding it, so I guess that one would really be interesting too!
ADDENDUM: Out of curiousity, and with some available time late this AM, I looked up last years stats for Unit 56 on the G&F website. There was only a total of 33 tags available to NRs in all the draws, not 75 that you stated! There were only five (5) tags available in the NR Random draw last year with 17 first choice applicants, 2 tags in the Random Special with 0 applicants, 18 tags in the PP Draw with 0 PPs drawing at 24.14% odds, and 8 tags in the Special PP draw with no applicants. In fact, there were only 59 tags issued to residents for that unit with 11 first choice, 30 second choice, and 31 third choice applicants, so only 18 of the latter drew a tag.
Last edited:
Wow, no reason to get so upset there TG. I may just research the unit a bit more and apply for a tag. Should I draw I really doubt I would be disappointed in any way as any hunt I go on I go with my son and that's always a great time. Who knows if we draw a tag we may even bump into you out there? If we do we can certainly compare notes. Take care there TG, and goodluck in the draw. Kevin.
Topgun 30-06
Active member
Nobody is upset, but I am wondering why you didn't answer any of my questions as to how many times you've hunted in Wyoming and how you came up with your tag numbers and percentages? If they were taken from Eastmans, it wouldn't surprise me as their stats are far from accurate a lot of times and I guarantee that none of them hunt the units they tell you are the top ones to apply for, LOL!!! In fact, a friend ran into Guy helping his wife fill her antelope tag in 2012 in a unit up north that isn't even on the radar on the Eastmans MRS pages! Also, if you end up with a tag in unit 56, you can bet your bottom dollar you won't run into me down in that or any of the other checkerboarded units. Have a good day!
Last edited:
