Montana Law?

[SWMontana1]

Corner hopping? Is this illegal?

I'm confused....

 

[CabinFever]

I'm pretty sure it is illegal, but have nothing to back that up, just what I've been told. I certainly wish it was legal though.

 

[SWMontana1]

Sorry for the amatuer post... called FWP, it's ILLEGAL.

 

[belly-deep]

Corner hopping is illegal. I think there was a MT Supreme Court case on it...

 

[wingman1]

I talked to the head Fwp warden and he said it was grey. Looking at the state travel plan it says that corner crossing is not recommended. That to me is saying it is legal.

 

[JMG]

Exactly what Wingman1 stated.

No one really knows, so no one really wants to pursue it. It depends on the County and the County attorney/prosecuter in that particular County. You would be better off contacting the County attorney to seek his "opinion" on the matter. Choose your words wisely when asking the question.

 

[THWAK1]

I've always been told it is illegal because when you cross/hop from one corner to another you are essentially breaking the plane of the two adjoining pieces of property to the sides, thus tresspassing. If anyone can find something different, please post it.

 

[Lawnboy]

Corner hopping is illegal. I think there was a MT Supreme Court case on it...

Have a friend in Park county who was called in by the landowner for corner hopping . The warden comes out escorts him back and gives him a ticket. My friend calls the county attorney and tells him what has happened and the attorney says they will not prosecute corner hopping. He gets off scott free and has continued to do it for the last few years.
I also know a guy who supposedly has something in writing from the FWP saying that it can't be enforced. I still need to physically see this document.
If it truely is illegal and just "not recommeded" it would be in the regs you would think. I'm with Wingman on this one. If they say not recomended then that doesn't mean illegal.

 

[Straight Arrow]

I guess you gotta do what you gotta do to go where you think you just have to go, regardless of potential consequences. For me, I don't have a problem finding places to hunt with clear boundaries and easy avoidance of "corner-crossing" paths. All that hassle with upset property owners, FWP wardens, other law enforcement folks, or legal authorities would surely mean losing many days of hunting. Why go down that trail?

Incidently, there are those who are working on getting the issue resolved and hopefully working out a clearly legal means of "corner-hopping". But meanwhile if you want to be a court test case and you already have an attorney on retainer ... heck, go for it! We'll thank you if it turns out well.

 

[SWMontana1]

200 head of elk and only a corner between me and them......... I think I'll cut and go up there until someone calls me out on it. Then I'll play stupid and never go back! Definitely sounds illegal, just by what I'm saying and what's running through my head..... don't have to make excuses when you are at places completely legally, I guess.

 

[Bambistew]

200 head of elk and only a corner between me and them......... I think I'll cut and go up there until someone calls me out on it. Then I'll play stupid and never go back! Definitely sounds illegal, just by what I'm saying and what's running through my head..... don't have to make excuses when you are at places completely legally, I guess.

This post oozes ethics...

 

[belly-deep]

200 head of elk and only a corner between me and them......... I think I'll cut and go up there until someone calls me out on it. Then I'll play stupid and never go back! Definitely sounds illegal, just by what I'm saying and what's running through my head..... don't have to make excuses when you are at places completely legally, I guess.

You'll play stupid until an attorney digs up this post, you mean....

 

[fishing4sanity]

The Wyoming warden I talked with about this issue said that it was not legal in Wyoming because personal GPS units aren't accurate enough to positively make certain you step from one corner to another without touching private. He said they are trying to consolidate some of the checkerboard pieces through land swaps so that more public land is in fact accessible to the public, I hope they get it done, but government bureaucracy usually moves at glacial speed. In Montana I was told by a warden that some of the BLM that bordered BMA property I was legally hunting was still off limits, which seemed strange to me but he made it clear that I wasn't to go out there. It can be very confusing.

 

[Ben Lamb]

I talked to the head Fwp warden and he said it was grey. Looking at the state travel plan it says that corner crossing is not recommended. That to me is saying it is legal.

Technically Not being illegal is not the same as being legal. You can and will still get ticketed for trespass, and unless you want to spend the time and energy fighting that ticket, then it will remain a grey area.

It's better to avoid the situation and look for better ways to resolve the issue. Corner crossing should get it's day, but I doubt anything good coming from the MT legislature. It's better to let tis sleeping dog lie rather than force the issue.

 

[belly-deep]

Don't forget you guys are only discussing criminal trespass.

There's civil trespass out there too. Most LOs probably wouldn't bother with, but I think you'd be pushing your luck to go corner hopping on, say, Ted Turner or David Letterman's places. They would probably pursue you in civil court even if it cost them 50K.

 

[SWMontana1]

Water under the bridge!!!! Talked to an adjacent land owner (next to, not a corner) and got permission to cross at the corner, which I already had access (corner hop), from a friend. I will be the only one hunting a land locked 320 acre parcel of public land! I have seen 200 head of elk up there the last 5 years!!

 

[jryoung]

You'd be cooler of you "Finned" it and chartered a helicopter.

 

[SWMontana1]

You'd be cooler of you "Finned" it and chartered a helicopter.

It was a big enough shock the guy even said "yes"!!

He started off the convo by telling me that he had lived on his property for 50+ years and has NEVER let a single hunter cross his land to the public land (and neither have any of his neighbors that land lock this parcel!), and he has never hunted a day in his life nor have any of his friends or family (4 sons). He said he wasn't completely against hunting, just has never been around it and didn't really care for it, BUT he really, really loved fishing.

So as an avid fly fisherman, I started BSing with the guy about fishing and rods, etc. His garage was open and he showed me a couple really, really old and sweet bamboo and Winston fly rods. By then it was around 8PM and you could really hear the elk starting the bugle and talk. I told him him that he must love living up there and how cool that must be. And if he even was going to sell the place to let me know!! haha. He then pointed off into a field off his front porch and said keep looking out there. In a span of about 10 mins, 200-250 elk came down from the thick forest to this guys alplafa field!! (about 250 yards from his house!) You could hear then jumping the barbwire fence and clipping in it the silent night and the bulls continued to bugle and chase the cows the entire time I was there. He must have seen my jaw drop because he said, "Yep, they spend the night in that field, every night then go into the mountains (the public land!) during the day, bed down... there's a natural spring/creek up there, and come back down at dusk to feed all night... they have a pretty good routine."

His wife came out to see if he was doing ok and he took her to the side and talked to her for a couple mins with their backs to me and then she went back inside.

He then started asking me a lot of questions about hunting.... asked me what I hunted (everything!), asked me how I hunted (walking or by horse), what I did with the meat (eat it! And it tastes GREAT!!), where I got it processed (do it myself), asked me what I use (bow or 300 WSM), asked how I retrieved the animals (pack it out myself or horses). BSed with him for quite awhile about stories, failures, successes... I think the guy was VERY surprised that it is actually about more than the kill (for me anyway!!) and how hard it is to outsmart elk in there elements!

It was getting pretty late, his wife then came out with a piece of paper, and he went over and signed it, she then went back inside with that paper- I thought nothing of it. I told him that he probably had better things to do than to talk to me all night, and that I better let him get back to his wife and he stopped me and said "Now you hold on sir, Nancy will back outside here in a second, we have something we want to show you."

I am not going to lie.... I was pretty weirded out at this point. Had a great convo with this guy, and now him telling me I can't leave because him and his wife wanted to show me something (I hadn't even met or talked to her yet!!).

She came about a couple minutes later with an envelope in her hand and handed it him... He then handed it me and said "you have our permission to cross at that corner down by your friends house... we just have a couple rules"

Basically, I have to leave a voicemail before I go up, I am the only one that can harvest an animal- can bring a family or friend to help hunt and/or retrieve, no motorized vehicles anywhere, when/if I get one he wants me to stop by the house so he can take a look at it, I can only hunt during archery season- didn't give specifics BUT it sounded like he thought archery was a lot more ethical than rifle and he made it sound like no one has ever asked to bow hunt up there.

I left there in COMPLETE SHOCK!!!

I am going hunting up there tonight!!!!!!!!!!! taking this afternoon off!

 

[Pagosa]

On another note, does anyone know about accessing Forest Service lands in checkerboard parcels via designated numbered Forest Service trails? It seems it should be legal, since access was granted to FALSE.

 

[Pagosa]

On another note, does anyone know about accessing Forest Service lands in checkerboard parcels via designated numbered Forest Service trails? It seems it should be legal, since access was granted to FS.