Amazing week+ in SW chasing Mearns, Scalies, Gambel’s quail w/ ex-fiancé, some friends and hardest working dog in the biz. Shoutout to @jchotz for the hot tips. He’s right, SW quail hunting is enchanting. Crazy weather: Tshirts one day, blizzard the next Some takeaways 👇:

Ha, like clockwork 2x elk herds open morning, both safely on private surrounded by public in limited draw district. Whitetail/mule does everywhere on public, 1 small buck on private. Didn’t have the heart to tell birddog in the backseat about the covey of Huns in a driveway 🤷‍♂️

There are many patriots doing amazing things in and for this country. Stocking native cutthroats in high altitude lakes is definitely one of those amazing things.

We now have an updated flyover schedule for the Fourth of July.

A Casper man says his wife is making him sell his beloved Bigfoot-hunting rig — a lifted 1984 AMC Eagle wagon with 150,000 miles he says attracts too much female attention. "I knew this day would come, but that doesn't make it hurt any less,” he said. cowboystatedaily.com/2026/06…

Big Sky, Bozeman, Missoula, Billings

The Idaho constitution requires the state to mange state public land for “long term financial return.” What that means is a 5th generation Teton ranching family will get the boot from their lease when well connected billionaires ask the Idaho Land Board to sell, like what happened with this Tetons Driggs 160 case. The Mike Lee thing failed, so the next move in the playbook is transferring public land to the states who will then say “we can make more money off this land so we are selling it off.” They’re saying he won’t build a subdivision here, but there’s nothing stopping him as it’s private land now. The billionaire who bought the parcel is a New York movie producer and tech investor with a lot of financial interests in AI and data centers. He lives full time in Pittsburgh. When we carve up the American West like this, and make something that once was public private, the possibility for development of open land increases. What made conservation of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem possible as one of the only fully intact ecosystems left in America was the scale and connectivity of public land for seasonal migrations of elk, mule deer, pronghorn, and bison. Herds follow green waves of grass with the season. Suburban development has stopped these migrations almost everywhere else. Public land prevents fragmentation into housing developments that would end these migrations too. Ranchers are a big part of this as ranch lands are often some of the most productive low elevation habitat for herds or they fall along migration corridors. Ranches maintain these large open spaces that allow migration to continue. If the buyer keeps the land undeveloped, that would be great, but now that it’s private and the 5th gen family who had a grazing lease there into the 2030s is gone, there’s no guarantee. Another part of America sold off to the highest bidder because the line must go up.

Two hilarious things about this tweet that Rocky Mountain people see all the time. First, it’s very common for NYC/SF/DC beltway people to spend several *days* on vacation on Western public land. Shortly after, they fancy themselves policy experts and proudly proclaim their “love” of public land but then go home and go out of their way to advocate for its privatization and sale. They return to their cities and condescendingly explain to Westerners that we must privatize public land or sell it off to foreigners/investment funds/billionaires/out of staters because line must always go up and BLM land isn’t as “pretty” as the NPS parcel where they vacationed. Second is BLM land, from a conservation perspective, isn’t set aside for recreation or aesthetic value, and he’s displaying a complete lack of knowledge in our land portfolio that disqualifies him from weighing in on its sale. What the National Park tourists don’t understand (because they don’t live here and their knowledge of the issue is quite shallow) is the BLM land that he disparages for not being pretty is “multiple use.” This is a particularly brilliant and uniquely American management classification that allows large swaths of land to be wild and working landscapes that permit livelihoods and conservation. Oil and gas operations can share their parcels with sensitive sage grouse leks. Mining operations can occur, with regulations, on migratory game corridors for some of our biggest deer and elk herds. Recreation and hunting can still occur right next to a seventh generation small family run cattle operation. There’s also a big 2A connection here. Near my university, the only place the kids have to go to zero in their rifles before elk season is BLM land. They couldn’t do any shooting sports while away at college be it not for our local BLM parcel that Andrew wants to sell because it’s not as pretty as Yosemite. BLM as an agency isn’t perfect but their scientists have been instrumental in collaborative efforts to restore the Bonneville Cutthroat trout (a symbol of the West, beloved by westerners, and endemic to the waters of Utah, Nevada, Wyoming, and Idaho) as well as Colorado’s iconic greenback cutthroat. Migration corridor habitat protection by BLM for Mule deer, bighorn, and elk has been instrumental across a number of states in the Rockies for keeping herd numbers where they need to be so we can fund wildlife conservation work with hunting tags. If members of the America first coalition want to partner with rw people of Western states, they shouldn’t be so prideful and think that a vacation qualifies them to advocate for the sale of public land that they woefully misunderstand in terms of both the purpose and how we manage it. Public land enables a unique heritage, culture, people, ecology, and set of livelihoods that make tourists like Andrew want to come and spend time out here. Once you put a fence around it all, and lose access to things that American legends like Teddy Roosevelt set aside for us and our children, you’re just advocating to further strip America for its parts so long as that sacred line goes up. East coast conservative think tankers and GOP staffers should learn fast that the rw under 50 high elevation crowd isn’t Orrin Hatch. We are led by Hunter/angler groups and GWOT vets like the guys at @Sagebrush_Inst who embody servant leadership and stewards of our beloved American commons. We follow ranching families like @caseymurph1 who safeguard our land from foreign land grabs. This issue is very serious to us.

Dave Gavitt was my college coach & the visionary founder of the Big East. He not only shaped a conference—he shaped my life. He opened the door for me to become a head coach in 1977 & again in 1986. Some words never feel like enough. I’ll always be grateful for knowing him. TBT

Squirrels in Montana either dip Copenhagen or smoke Marlboro Reds (except in Bozeman and Missoula)

“If you ever wanna question my recruiting abilities… just look at my wife” Providence struck gold in Bryan Hodgson

MT has 3:1 ratio cows to people. Leads to surplus of tongue. Here’s 3+lbs of grassfed tacos for $6 from a local ranch and butcher shop. Braised then seared right it’s as tender as filet As the French say when kissing “More tongue please” @MiamKitty @RhodieHouse

Taking a breather here after surprise visit from a Bull moose. Bumped a sharpie. Friends ran into some Huns. Another hen flush… lots of walking… no birds in the bag

Four flushes during a 30 min walk and a half dozen mule deer. Unfortunately arrived just before sundown and couldn’t bring down any birds. We will be back

Montana ain’t too shabby either

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