Colorado State Land NOT PUBLIC!

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Brachii

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I thought I got lucky grabbing a late season pronghorn doe tag in CO's 112,113,114,115. Sweet, I thought, look at all this state land sprinkled throughout! Just found out today CO state land isn't considered public or huntable. What a bummer! I was gonna take my wife on a pronghorn hunt but now it looks like it won't happen unless I find a landowner.

Who has experience with blind calls to land owners? I absolutely hate that I have to do this-- I'm sick to my stomach thinking about bothering people at home to ask for hunting permission. No idea what to say/offer.
 
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Turn it in for a 125, 126 tag if all else fails. Not great, but there is public land in those units. As far as permission from landowners, you'll have better luck since it's a doe tag, but I'd knock on doors. Bring a kid with you and tug on them heartstring lol
 
And BTW, your post made me laugh. Coming from Az where all state land is pretty much huntable, I made the same mistake. It's so frustrating seeing all that "State of Colorado " land on onX, and not being able to access it. Good luck
 
IIRC not ALL Colorado State land is off limits to the public. There is some land open to hunting when the CPW leases access the land from the State Land board. Don't know how you determine which is open or not.
 
Its sucks don't it!

All the money this state makes off hunting you'd think they'd try to make it more accessible. Nearly 3 million acres of STL in this State and most (2/3) is off limits
 
kansasdad said:
IIRC not ALL Colorado State land is off limits to the public. There is some land open to hunting when the CPW leases access the land from the State Land board. Don't know how you determine which is open or not.
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It would be nice if they had some marking system, or even better, make the leasee's info public. I'm sure most ranchers would let you hunt does on their leases. I'd pay onX double if they could sort it out
 
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jlmatthew said:
Its sucks don't it!

All the money this state makes off hunting you'd think they'd try to make it more accessible. Nearly 3 million acres of STL in this State and most (2/3) is off limits
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To an out of stater, it's mind boggling. So it's public land thats private? Takes a bit to comprehend it
 
Bigjay73 said:
To an out of stater, it's mind boggling. So it's public land thats private? Takes a bit to comprehend it
Click to expand...

What's worse is when you find out that in order to allow hunter's to use the state land one department of the state government has to lease it from another.

That said you can lease state land to hunt on and I'm assuming that CPW pays the state at a similar rate to lease for public access. The state trust lands in CO were created to generate revenue and I'm sure leasing them out this way nets more money for the state gov than the systems in place in WY, MT, AZ etc. It definitely hurts the average hunter but the state is just following their mandate.
 
Looks like a couple of SWA's in Lincoln county but bet they get hunted hard. I would take as drive with your onx chip and make note of some landowners who have antelope in their pastures, then go home or to internet service and look up their phone numbers . Make a call or two mid morning, maybe get the wife to call for you, you'll probably get the ranchers wife and just ask if their family allows doe antelope hunting. Make sure you mention your wife being along if she doesn't make the calls.
 
Colorado isn't alone...

Utah specifically classifies as lands managed by the State of Utah as Trust Land as exempt from being "public land."

**(10) "Public land" means any land or land interest acquired by the state from the
154*****federal government pursuant to Section 63L-6-103, except:
155**********(a) areas subsequently designated as a protected wilderness area, as described in Title
156*****63L, Chapter 7, Utah Wilderness Act; and
157**********(b) lands managed by the School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration pursuant
158*****to Title 53C, School and Institutional Trust Lands Management Act.


IIRC, you can't camp overnight on state land in Wyoming either.
 
So I actually did find an owner nice enough to let us use their land. We’d like to bring something for them bc he said they didn’t need any work from us. Any thoughts on a good gift to say thanks? My wife will end up baking for them, I’m sure, but I’d like to get them something else.

As far as the state land goes, I’m slightly confused bc in my head, if state land is funded by taxes in any extent, it makes no sense that it can be privatized. It’s just really disappointing. These are the kinds of topics I usually fast forward through in randy’s Podcast but is now hitting home. I’d like to learn more
 
I'd say some need to brush up on why this land transfer stuff is such a bad deal.
Just for grins, imagine if the national forests across the west become "state lands".
 
Brachii said:
As far as the state land goes, I’m slightly confused bc in my head, if state land is funded by taxes in any extent, it makes no sense that it can be privatized. It’s just really disappointing. These are the kinds of topics I usually fast forward through in randy’s Podcast but is now hitting home. I’d like to learn more
Click to expand...

In a nutshell, in CO the state land has a mandate that it has to produce revenue (I think for the school system originally, but that may be wrong), which requires a lease. If I remember right, it can be leased for a variety of uses, including hunting. And, the hunting rights can be leased by either public, as in CPW, or private entities. There is a website that lists the leases run by the state land board.
 
Brachii said:
So I actually did find an owner nice enough to let us use their land. We’d like to bring something for them bc he said they didn’t need any work from us. Any thoughts on a good gift to say thanks? My wife will end up baking for them, I’m sure, but I’d like to get them something else.

As far as the state land goes, I’m slightly confused bc in my head, if state land is funded by taxes in any extent, it makes no sense that it can be privatized. It’s just really disappointing. These are the kinds of topics I usually fast forward through in randy’s Podcast but is now hitting home. I’d like to learn more
Click to expand...
That's great. Baking something is a good idea. Back home I always gave the rancher who let us hunt a bottle of nice whiskey, but that could go sour if he/she frowns upon it.
 
LuketheDog said:
In a nutshell, in CO the state land has a mandate that it has to produce revenue (I think for the school system originally, but that may be wrong), which requires a lease. If I remember right, it can be leased for a variety of uses, including hunting. And, the hunting rights can be leased by either public, as in CPW, or private entities. There is a website that lists the leases run by the state land board.
Click to expand...

Yup, and if you do your homework you can lease the land at pretty reasonable rates.

I'm confused by the title though, what made you, the OP, think that just because it's state land that it's public?
 
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.
 
Bigjay73 said:
Do tell. It all looks the same to me. Maybe Im confusing state trust land with state of Colorado land. I thought they were all the same.
Click to expand...

I'll have to pull out my GPS and double check, but I though there was some blue STL that had dots and some without and that was the difference. I'll try and look at it again tonight.
 
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