Originally Posted by
Jorgy
It's funny, I tell people the exact opposite about checkerboard land. I love it. A lot of guys avoid it, it's easy enough with a map that you understand how to read. You can get some large chunks of land all to yourself that way. An even easier way though is to buy a chip for a gps like this one
http://www.huntinggpsmaps.com
I don't work for them or anything but it's my favorite piece of hunting gear and use them year round to find new places to hunt.
So after that, the hardest part on antelope hunting is not shooting the first one you see. My buddies who come out west antelope hunting have such a hard time holding off the trigger and always limit out the first day (with rifles) then will comment over the next few days about how they should have waited because there are bigger bucks around.
Your use of the term "checkerboard land" is incorrect. Land like you're talking about doesn't come under that terminology. Checkerboard land is named that way because it looks exacly like a checkerboard game with one set of square mile sections that are dark being public and the other set of square mile sections (640 acres) that are white being private land. Unless the private property owner gives you legal access through their property or a public road hits or goes through the public section it is off limits and you're looking at an expensive trespassing ticket if you get caught. What you're talking about is bigger chunks of public land that might have a legal public road hitting part of it and in that case if you have the GPS and landowner chip you can find that piece to park and go into the public and hunt all of it as long as you don't have to cross any private land. Almost all of the checkerboard land is in the southern couple tiers of counties in Wyoming. The land like you're talking about is all over the state, but mostly east of the Rockies on over to the SD and NE borders.