Knock on the doors. I grew up in Casper and unless landowners have become total a-holes over the last 20 years, I think I was turned down twice for hunting due to my plates at one place and just because they didn't allow any hunting at another. I was never turned down for fishing. Most folks just wanted to know that someone was on the land and about where they were.Originally Posted by huntnmuleys
I met some fantastic people asking to hunt or fish.
30 years ago, I went to the Teapot Ranch north of Casper about a month before deer season. Billy was nearing 90 at the time and had a brand new bride of 85, also named Billie. Now, everyone had told me that the old man never let anyone hunt on the ranch and he had close to 500,000 acres either owned or leased. That's a lot of deer country and a lot of deer. I had my 16 county plates on my truck and I stopped, introduced myself, and we talked a bit. He told me he didn't usually let folks hunt because he was so close to Casper and all the hunters from Casper just had no respect for the gates or stock. We talked a bit more and he signed my tag to indicate he gave his permission. We talked a bit more and I told him that I lived in Casper and didn't feel right hiding the fact from him. "But you have 16 county plates!" he said. "Yeah", I replied. "I got those so guys like you would talk to me and not just throw me off the ranch right off." "I suppose you aren't gonna let me hunt now." Well, he was still OK with it because we had talked for close to an hour and he figured I was going t be OK. And he allowed that I was right in that he would have tossed me off the place if he had seen Casper's 1 county plates on my truck when I pulled in the yard.
For those of you not familiar with deer hunting in Wyoming, it's a matter of fact thing. While a big production is made of a week of elk hunting and Elk Camp is planned starting the day the previous season closed, when deer season opens, it's a day trip. You pack a sack lunch, load up your stuff, go shoot a deer, bring it home, cut it up, and stuff it in the freezer.
I showed up at his door at 3am Opening Day, just as I was told to. He welcomed me in for coffee and Billie fixed breakfast that was fit for kings and plenty of it. We were drinking another cup of coffee when the sun started to poke it's way up and Billy said it was about time to go get our deer. Said he knew just the spot. We put on our blaze orange vests and headed out the door when Mrs Billie scolded us, "Don't you DARE shoot from the porch!" I kind of chuckled and looked across the yard to see that the haystacks had been opened up to let the deer into them. 25 yards. Take your pick.
2 minutes later we both have our deer and the backhoe has been fired up. The deer get hauled to the downwind end of the yard and dressed. Then back to the old cabin which had been converted to a fully outfitted butcher shop. By 9AM., both deer are cut up, wrapped and on their way to being frozen while we had some more coffee. I was home by noon.
I went out once a month from then until I moved back to Denver. He was a true craftsman in wood and his bride baked fresh bread for him every day. Store bought bread just was not good enough for her Billy. He was 96 the last time I saw him and still ran the ranch. He didn't need to. If some of you recall the Teapot Dome scandal involving the Naval Oil Reserve back in the '30s, that oil reserve sits square in the middle of the Teapot Ranch. Between the leases on that and the other two or three hundred oil wells on the ranch, Billy had more money than he could ever spend.
My point to this whole story is that 99% of the landowners you talk to are not a lot different from Billy. You will probably not get fed breakfast and have the fish corralled for you, but permission can be had. All you gotta do is be polite and ask.
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