Montana Big Game Season Opens...

...and for me opening day was somewhat strange and more than a little disappointing. Strange in that all day in the Medicine Lodge area (I hold a mule deer buck tag and an elk B tag in Unit 302)I saw but a handful of hunters. This was after all opening day in a pretty popular area. What gives probably has a lot to do with my disappoint (has nothing to do with not punching a tag and I did see a fair number of elk just not on public that I could legally get to) in finding nearly all of the upper part of 302 and the part of 328 which borders it all but shut down to public access. This probably should not have come as a surprise since I read earlier Paul Hansen had dropped out of the Block Management program and leased hunting rights to a rich bastard (sorry the bastard's name is somehow gone)who now owns or leases tens of thousands of land in the Medicine Lodge and, worse, owns or controls most of the land along the road so... Bottom Line: Almost no public access to even more tens of thousands of acres public. And yes I realize if you own it you can do just about any damn thing you please just as I have every right to damn sure not like it. And yes I do realize this is nothing new just seems to be more rampant with each passing season. Almost gives one pause to consider joining the crowd--the ATV crowd that is--just kidding.... Anyway I had a long conversation with a local BLM Ranger and learned that BLM is considering punching a road or two to help alleviate things but "there really isn't all that many good spots which would give access to prime hunting territory."