What is a reasonable trespass fee?

[joshtepen]

Just curious what some have paid for trespass fees in Wyoming for antelope? I have got the Wy game and fish list and have gotten responses all over the place. From 50 to 500. With some telling me that 50 buck will get you on the ranch and saying a 50/50 chance at a buck. And some telling me that 500 will put you on 12-16" goats with very few other hunters. I was just wondering what others have experienced with paying trespass fees and with the Game and Fish list in general.

 

[Lien2]

That sounds about right. Actually, $50 sounds cheap these days, but maybe the hunting isn't the best. I found a lot of ranchers either leased up by outfitters, or already booked up by repeat hunters. Find one you feel good about and go for it, tons of antelope out there.
Good luck!

Lien2

 

[upmuley]

I paid $100 last year in NE Wyoming and had about 8,000 with just my dad and myself. Get a landowner list and really work the phone and you'll find a good spot. BTW it was my first antelope hunt and it was a ton of fun.

 

[RELH]

Joshtepen;
Lien2 gave you good advice, you are going to have too get your feet wet by going with your gut feelins on hunting a paticular ranch.
I had one rancher who wanted 350.00 a day to have his son drive us out and shoot a lope the kid would point out. Not our style of hunting. we already knew that the biggest lope he had was in the 13" range. we turned him down and his parting remark was that "the boys from Michigan would pay his fees".
Another rancher wanted 100.00 aday, his neighbor rancher told us the guy was suckering people into paying the fee when he had no animals on his ranch. this second rancher allowed us to drive on his property and we were able to confirm that there was no antelopes on both ranches.
We lucked out and found a rancher who charged us 250.00 bucks for the intire season and to fill all tags on his ranch. this was for both antelope and deer. He had antelope in the 15-16" class and very good 4-5 point mule deer. He only allowed 14 hunters per year on his property and we hunted that ranch three times. The rancher retired, his son-in-law took over and got greedy. He upped the trespass fees and allowed 20-30 hunters during the hunting season and the ranch was shot out the first year. He continued to sucker hunters in after he knew all the mature antelope and deer was gone.
I have taken antelope in the 13-14 inch range on ranches that gave me free trespass because they wanted the animals thinned out.
When you do find a good honest rancher, there is quite a few of them compared to the ones that will con you, and he has good hunting with a reasonable trespass fee, treat him like gold.
go out of your way to show your graditude by buying him and his wife a coupon for a nice dinner out, or take them a nice gift and he will remember you the next time you want to hunt his property. Good luck and good hunting.

RELH

 

[PronghornHunter]

I just have to say that there is too much other public land in Wyoming to have to pay a tresspass fee. I have never paid any and have taken many fine animals.

 

[RELH]

Pronghornhunter;
this is true for you as a resident hunter, but for non residents it is getting harder to draw a tag in areas that have alot of public land. the areas with a large amount of private ranches have far greater odds for a non resident to draw.
In the past I have also taken good antelope on public land, but this is getting harder to do with the amount of hunters applying for tags and most of them apply where there is large amounts of public land.
My father-in-law took a great goat on public land that made the B&C book, but the draw odds for that unit have gone sky high in the past 5 years.

RELH

 

[joshtepen]

RELH

Thanks for the info. This being our first hunt and wanting to draw this year. Paying a trespass fees is probably our best option. Everyone I talked with so far has seemed very honest and I understand a rancher with trophy antelope wanting 500 for a fee. We both really just want a great hunt and see a lot of goats. We dont need to get 15-16" goats. Just a nice respectable 12-13" goat. But we also dont want to be pressured with a million other hunters and that is what I seem to be running into. Thank you guys for the help, if anyone knows of a credible landowner as well please let me know.

 

[RELH]

Joshtepen;
Check the official Wyoming Game & fish web site for antelope draw odds for the past year. they are listed by hunting units,and you will need to print a copy of their map showing the locations of the hunting units state wide. You will see that your best bet for draw odds of 90% or better will lie in the Eastern part of the state. there are also a few else where, but the majority is East.
Pick the area you want to try for in the draw and make contact with the game warden in the area you picked, the main office in Cheyyene can give you his number. He should be able to assist you in finding a ranch to hunt. another option, check for cities in your hunt area and email or call the Chamber of Commence, alot of them also have lists of ranchers allowing trespass and fee amounts and phone numbers. If you have the time, you can go a few days prior to opening, and knock on ranch house doors. I have done this with very good luck.

RELH

 

[kilowatt]

You will notice though that Units 1-45 with the exception of a couple of these are all marked with an * stating that Difficult Public Access. Along with these there are others that fall in the same catagory, so do your homework and look at maps and hope that you can find a rancher that is honest with you about game.

Brian

 

[jims]

You never know what you are getting yourself into until you drive out and look on the particular ranch you are interested in. Obviously some ranches are larger in size than others and some have more and bigger antelope than others. I've hunted many ranches for free but have paid up to $300/day on other ranches that offered B&C size bucks. Sometimes you get lucky but many of the better ranches get leased out by outfitters and don't allow trespass hunters.

It usually takes lots of miles driving and hours pounding on doors talking to landowners to find the best ranches. I would think that most landowner lists would have lots of other hunters calling and asking permission. If there aren't many other ranches that allow access the few ranches that give permission may get hammered and could have smaller bucks available. If you are looking at $50 to $500 trespass fees that would be a bargain...especially if they are fairly large ranches with few hunters and nice bucks available. I would be somewhat leery of ranches that charge only $50 and are on some sort of list! You may want to see how many other hunters may be hunting and how many antelope and acres are available?

 

[joshtepen]

Jims

I agree with you. At first I thought 50-100 bucks would get us on a decent goat. But after talking with ranchers, most have said 50 bucks will get you on the ranch and you are looking at a doe or fawn with a buck being the exception. So I guess the old saying "you get what you pay for" comes in again. The rancher I talked with and priced me 500 was a 6000 acre ranch with only 5 hunters allowed. And very nice goats available. So with that being said, I believe that may be the way to go. I dont want to be pressured. And I want to draw this year. It still beats paying 1500 for a guided hunt. Thanks for all the help, any other thoughts are welcome.