Camping on sd school & public lands?

S

small munsterlander owner

Banned
hey guys just got a question on if it is legal to camp on the SD school & public lands marked in BLUE on the SD public hunting land atlas???

i know i can camp on BLM lands & NTL forest & grasslands free of charge & not be bothered by the wardens is the same true for the SD school & public lands?

i know i can not camp at any WIAs GPAs WPAs CHAPs or CREP lands but the rules are really vague for camping on the SD SCHOOL & PUBLIC LANDS it just says they have to be accessed legally & you cant hunt with in 660 ft of livestock & buildings but says nothing about CAMPING???

anybody have any info on CAMPING on these PUBLIC & SCHOOL LANDS???
im planing a turkey hunt out on the SD prairie units & that is the only place camp & hunt from the same place my style of hunting the only other option is to drive a long ways to a town to get a hotel every night witch i think is what the SD GAME & FISH wants to bring $$$ to these small town hotels diners & bars ETC...???

thanks guys any info will help i will also call the SD GAME & FISH the were not working today so???
 
Here is some good info on the SD School & Public Lands site but it doesn't specifically answer your question. http://www.sdpubliclands.com/publichunting/index.shtm

After reading this, if I had to guess I'd say you probably cannot camp on these lands. Most of these lands are leased to area farmers/ranchers for grazing. That's why most of these lands have very poor pheasant hunting.

I'd give the Office of School and Public Lands a call tomorrow to get the proper answer.
 
Last edited:
thanks guys called & got the answer from the school & public lands office lady...

it was kind of grey area if legal accessed from public road way we should be good??? if its leased we may have to get permission from the lease holder & make sure we can stay there & not interfear with his day to day farm/ranch operation or it would be a good idea to do so if in doubt so???

any body ever done this & caught flack from a game warden??? i just dont want trouble with a warden ETC...

wish me luck lol
 
If you we're the guy leasing the land what would you want a guy wanting to camp on your ground do?
 
to be honest i hunt & camp on national forest land all the time & all of the national forest land i hunt is also broke into units & leased to cattle ranchers to graze there cattle on & i dont have to ask them a thing as it is NTLF land same goes for NTL grasslands...

i talked to another man at the SD school & public lands & he said no need to ask permission to camp as its state owned only reason i would have to ask a rancher or farmer anything is if i have to cross his private lands to get to the SD school & public lands i want to camp on... if thats the case then i should ask the farmer/rancher if its ok i camp there on the lands or it would be a good idea to let him know im doing so but dont have to...

if i was a private land owner LEASING PUBLIC LANDS i would assume that people would use the PUBLIC LAND as its PUBLIC LAND & if i did not want people on the lands i would LEASE a landlocked SD public & school land & not allow access threw my private land...??? i would also want the guy camping to leave NO TRACE when camping on the LEASED lands... that is the rules LEAVE NO TRACE while camping on SD school & public lands...
 
there will be no fires at my camp no need...

thanks for the heads up i know they shut down a bunch of BML lands in MT because they didnt want hunters starting fires... that was not the case in SD but i will be cautious no doubt!!!
 
small munsterlander owner said:
there will be no fires at my camp no need...

thanks for the heads up i know they shut down a bunch of BML lands in MT because they didnt want hunters starting fires... that was not the case in SD but i will be cautious no doubt!!!
Click to expand...

I think you will find the there is no camping aloud on any public type land in South Dakota. Any C.O. that were to come along would promptly evict you. South Dakota isn't like Minnesota.
 
onpoint with all due respect why would 2 people at the office of SD public & school lands tell me the total opposite??? that there is no laws/rules against camping on SD public & school lands & that its just NO trace camping NO fires & NO dig n holes to poo in lol ???

my cousin even called to make sure as all his friends said i was wrong he got the same answer i did that its fine & there are no laws/rule against doing so??? so i think i got i figured out well enough...??? i hope???

if i caught flack from a CO after hearing that its ok to camp there 3 times now from the horses mouth the SD office of SD public & school lands i would feel the need to tell him to go call the SD public & school lands & hear it for his self & or i would tell/ask him to show me that law/rule in any kind of rules & regulations book that SD publishes & i would leave ASAP... its not in one so i would be fine...

its the only type of SD public lands i found except NTL forest or grasslands that will allow camping all others say it out-write NO CAMPING allowed...

i understand its not good ol MN thats why i maid it a point to make sure im OK in doing so... unlike MN SD wants to make a buck on the hunter any way they can the state of SD even make it hard for a hunter to find a place to camp for free???

thanks for trying to help me out thow i appreciate it & i hope i dont have to get into it with a CO as i hate telling a COP or CO that they are wrong it never goes well as they know it all... lol
 
Last edited:
Hey I wish you the best

I have never seen anybody camped out on any piece of public access land in South Dakota.

You need a state park sticker to even get close enough to the Missouri river to swim. You can't use any boat landings with out one. It's a pay to play state period!!
 
small munsterlander owner. I would have the people you talked to EMail you a statement to that affect. Might save you an but chewing.
 
onpoint said:
Hey I wish you the best

I have never seen anybody camped out on any piece of public access land in South Dakota.

You need a state park sticker to even get close enough to the Missouri river to swim. You can't use any boat landings with out one. It's a pay to play state period!!
Click to expand...

True but--some of the boat ramps are owned by tge FEDS so they get part of the blame.
 
hey onpoint couldnt people just use one of the many GPAs along the MO river to go swim??? i know it would be a pain in the but or a long walk to from the GPAs to the MO river... id buy a stamp if that was the case lol...

the hole PAY TO PLAY for every thing in the state of SD is the main reason i have not hunted SD for anything yet been to WI NE KS NE WY MT FL OK & a few i forgot??? but avoided SD as they have lots of hunters & the PAY TO PLAY thing just sucks & takes the fun out of it for me & my father at least... ran out of close states to turkey hunt so i have to give SD a try this yr hope all goes well...???

i have to wonder if the reason why you have never seen anybody camped on any public & school lands is because they thought or think the same way you & about 90%-98% of the other hunters that read the regulations & or sd public atlas land rules & that there is NO CAMPING ON SD PUBLIC LANDS period... except the NTL grasslands & NTL forest lands...

i dont think there will be any butt chewing going on??? hope not??? there mite be a heated discussion & somebody telling somebody else to read the regulations & or call the SD office of sd public & school lands...???

to be honest i know that that CO would be dead wrong in telling me i cant camp there & would not fall for any lies he would tell me or what he THINKS the laws are i KNOW i can camp there if he dose not know that its ok & its NO TRACE camping i would tell him to go make some phone calls B4 he talks to me any longer that would be only fair i did my research a payed CO should know the rules also...

i always seem to find a grey area in laws also happened in the MN prairie chicken hunt the law states that a UN-LICENSED prairie chicken hunter can not assist a LICENSED prairie chicken dose not say anything about being licensed for the same hunt area just you have to be licensed my brother had a tag for the unit north of us but was a LICENSED prairie chicken hunter he brang his llewellen setter over to work with us he did not carry a gun we got some birds & we at the truck & a CO came by to chat he asked if we were hunting looked at the birds & asked for license he didnt notice my brother had a tag 4 another unit... so we asked if it would be OK for my brother to help us out he said its ok he is licensed we told him it was for another unit he just looked confused & said he cant help you then!!! we asked him to show us that law in the books he could not & said i think you guys know you are doing something wrong & maybe dont do it any longer as another CO mite have other thoughts of doing such & give us a ticket??? he pulled off & came back 5 min later & said read this it just said to HUNT A PRAIRIE CHICKEN UNIT you have to be licensed for that unit we agreed & stated my brother was not hunting he was working his dog he then went back to the UN LICENSED hunter can not help us on our hunt even to work a dog... we then went on to say my brother is LICENSED just not for that unit & hes not hunting but he is a licensed hunter that is helping the CO just said man you got me with a good question & maybe just dont do it any longer not that it was illegal to do so...??? so he had no clue on that grey area law??? hope its not that way in SD lol

i also got into it with a red neck NE sheriff last yr we were camped with another nice MN hunter we met at the WA for like 3 days on the 4th after our friend had left a fat old sheriff pulled up & called me over for a chat he asked wear i was from & if i was camping WITCH IS LEGAL damn near all WAs in NE i said yes we were camping & he said hey do you think you could pull on down the road & camp some wear else??? i said yes sir i could do that but why is this not legal to camp here he said yes it is but you are kinda out in the open & the land owners would like it if you moved down the road... we were turkey hunting directly behind wear we were camped & seeing birds plus it was a good camp & could see for a long ways i told him my father was out hunting & could not walk very far & that we were seeing turkeys there so we would most likely stay at that camp till we left a day or 2 later he just gave me a dirty look & said well i would rather you move your camp on down the road if its ok with you guys i told him that i doubt that would happen as this is public lands & we can camp here... he just threw the truck into gear & pulled out fast??? drove off down the road & then came write back & said i found you a nice spot just down the road that would be better to camp so i will expect the camp to be moved i laughed at him & said have a nice day officer & walked back to my vehicle man he was red faced!!! lol i would of been more friendly with that sheriff but a day B4 while i was gas n up in a very very small NE town he pulled in with another sheriff & i waved to him & he just looked lat me like who the hell are you & cant you see im talking??? i thought wow what a dick guess who came to my camp & gave me S*** that day the same fat old sheriff with nothing better to do... so we butted heads that afternoon my dad missed a bird & i had 1 skirt my set up so we ended up leaving that night also there was many other out of state hunters driving around...

any way thanks guys for the thoughts & suggestions i hope that that same type situation dose not occur again but this time on the SD prairies with a CO

wish me luck
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top