Corner crossing

[sasquatch1]

If you can't find a marker, and feel onx isn't good enough

Tell me how the land owner can be so precise on where his line is also??? Guess what, HE CANT.

Put forth a good effort using the maps available, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[GobbleNut]

I have already had the experience of a landowner (actually a landowner/outfitter) here removing the benchmark post at one location.  Don't put it past landowners to start doing that in other places if they haven't already. Unless there are significant deterrents put in place (large fines, loss of public land grazing leases, etc.), mark my words, removal of those benchmarks at these corners will be the next step landowners take to keep the public out.   

[Dtrkyman]

I guided a ranch for deer and elk, how do suppose you post 200k plus acres?  Posted along public roads and locals remove the signs, catch poachers, call warden they play dumb and get away with it, have seen it more than once!

Half of dozen guides watched 3 guys shoot an elk from their truck over the roof while moving!  We blocked them in and called the sheriff and warden, told us we could not keep them there!  They stayed anyway, kept their mouths shut and drove away!

Laws make a difference.

[mcw3734]

Many states have programs to increase access for hunters. In Idaho it's Access Yes!, in Montana it's Block Management Areas. While these largely pay landowners for public to access private lands, maybe some of that funding could be directed towards identifying and marking critical corners for hunters to access the larger or more desirable public lands currently inaccessible?

As mentioned earlier, property rights is absolutely a two-way street and the laws should be upheld for both. And we should be respecting both. I'm very much in favor of this court decision, but maybe in order for this to work better the state should figure out a way to make those prioritized corners easy to identify and allow folks to 'do the right thing' with ease and confidence.

That is, of course, once this decision applies to those states.

[Turkeyman]

If you can't find a marker, and feel onx isn't good enough

Tell me how the land owner can be so precise on where his line is also??? Guess what, HE CANT.

Put forth a good effort using the maps available, I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Bingo. In the past landowners qualified their claim that you were in their "airspace" as you crossed the corner. That has now been nullified. So...if there's a marked corner, who's to say it's not the "real" corner...the rancher or whom? Ranchers erecting a fence at the corner so you can't cross it? Nope...illegal, that's blocking access.

I bow hunted elk in CO for a number of years. Encountered this exact scenario whereas we didn't dare crossing a corner to get at some very excellent habitat. Not an issue now.

Without knowing for sure I imagine there are a number of private landowners, out west particularly, whose value of their property will drop somewhat. Why? Because they have, say, 3K acres but "private" access to quite a few thousand acres more. Gone.

[POk3s]

Just as long as everybody knows to cross at the corner marker. Don't cross where onx says is the corner, don't cross "kind of close". Cross right at the marker. 

And where might that be. Some may be visible/obvious but I would think most aren't. Then you have to walk around looking for it. Then you have to be careful not to step on the private that you don't quite know where it is at. Fence (if there is one) is just a fence, not a marker.

It won't be easy but it's the way we all get to enjoy corner crossing without it becoming a fiasco. Yes there are supposed to be markers at every corner. If you can't find it, be sure you are correct that there's not one there! It should be close to the corners on the map, but can be odd quite a bit!

I track myself the entire time I'm even close to private so that I can show anyone who wants to bother me, which sadly has happened a couple times here put west, while I've been on blm land.

[eggshell]

I doubted I'd ever say this, but reading this thread makes me somewhat glad I live east of the Mississippi River. I imagine there's a few places this might occur, but over all it is not an issue that I know of. Every eastern state I have hunted has so many roads and access gates that I never even knew this existed. I have only found a couple pieces of landlocked public in my life. In both those cases a knock on a door and I got permission to cross private land. This did jog my memory. Several years ago I was invited to hunt Montana with a friend. We went to a ranch he had permission on. I asked the rancher where the boundaries were and he laughed. His reply was, "if you walk that far your a better man then me". He then explained he owned X number of acres, but he also controlled 11 sections of NF that he guaranteed me no one could get on. He grazed open range cattle on it too. I thought he had a lease or something, but I bet he just claimed the corners. They had cut roads all over that land and treated it like they owned it. Now I know what he meant. I wish this scenario surprised me, but sadly it doesn't. Human greed is quite common in our world. Someone could fix this if they really wanted to. This all smell like B.S. and someone is getting paid to leave it alone. It may not always be cash, but selective access to officials and favors get blind eyes. The friend I spoke of in Montana was a forest Service Officer and wallah, this rancher graciously gave him access that wasn't available to the public, yeah that's getting paid!

[joey46]

Having lived in both Ohio and Kentucky I have seen this problem come up in both the Wayne Nation and Daniel Boone.  Mostly it is just fake No Trespassing signs.  Abutting landowners are often very happy to pretend what land they own. 
Question - even if I knew I was corner crossing legally why would I feel comfortable leaving a vehicle parked where I crossed? Has to be a problem. 

[eggshell]

Having lived in both Ohio and Kentucky I have seen this problem come up in both the Wayne Nation and Daniel Boone.  Mostly it is just fake No Trespassing signs.  Abutting landowners are often very happy to pretend what land they own. 
Question - even if I knew I was corner crossing legally why would I feel comfortable leaving a vehicle parked where I crossed? Has to be a problem.

I am in Ohio joey and I have seen the fake signs too, but I have never known of a case where someone was actually arrested for crossing. I have always found access somewhere. Maybe I just haven't gotten around enough. I know of several landlocked pieces in Daniel Boone NF, but each of them have easements for fire control from public roads. Sure landowners post signs, but if you stay on the easement (fire road) your fine. In one case a landowner lived right by a fire road gate and would try and buffalo hunters. He'd come out and tell you that it was posted land, but if you said, "I know I am just walking the fire road and you can call the game warden if you want" he'd just admit you were right and go back in the house. I actually became friends with him over the years and got permission on his land. I just started handing him a little gift as a toll when he came out. For years he'd just see my truck and wave, I'd leave his gift sitting on the hood and it was always gone when I came back. There's ways around this.