Hunting Laws & Policy6 min readJul 11, 2026by Mac Sage

Corner Crossing in 2026: Legal in Six States, a Crime in Montana — Here's Where Things Stand

Corner crossing is now legal in six western states and officially a crime in Montana — here's where the fight stands and what it means for your next hunt.

If you hunt the West, you've seen the problem on your mapping app: a checkerboard of alternating public and private square-mile sections, with millions of acres of public land locked behind corners where four parcels meet. Stepping diagonally from one public section to another — without ever setting foot on private ground — is called corner crossing. And right now, whether that simple step is legal depends entirely on which state you're standing in. Here's where the fight stands in 2026, and what it means for your next hunt.

The Case That Changed Everything

In 2021, four hunters from Missouri traveled to Elk Mountain in southern Wyoming to hunt public land surrounded by the sprawling Elk Mountain Ranch, owned by pharmaceutical executive Fred Eshelman's company, Iron Bar Holdings. To move between public sections without touching private ground, they used a specially built ladder to step over the shared corner.

Eshelman pursued criminal trespassing charges. A jury acquitted the hunters. Then he sued them in civil court, arguing the hunters had trespassed through his airspace and that losing exclusive access to the public land woven through his ranch could strip up to $9 million from its value.

He lost that fight too. In March 2025, a three-judge panel of the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the hunters could corner-cross as long as they did not physically touch private land. The court leaned on the Unlawful Inclosures Act of 1885, a federal law passed to stop landowners from fencing off access to public land.

Eshelman appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court. In October 2025, the Court declined to hear the case. That refusal left the 10th Circuit ruling standing as the law of the land — but only within the 10th Circuit.

Where Corner Crossing Is Legal Right Now

Because the Supreme Court passed on the case, corner crossing is currently legal in the six states covered by the 10th Circuit: Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

That's a massive win for public land hunters. Onx has estimated that millions of acres of "corner-locked" public land exist across the West — land you own as a taxpayer but couldn't legally reach until now.

But "legal" comes with a big caveat: the ruling protects crossing at the corner without touching private property. Put a boot, a hand, or arguably even a swinging pack strap on private ground, and you're back in trespass territory. The Missouri hunters used a ladder for a reason.

Montana Is the New Battleground

If you hunt Montana, stop before you step. Montana sits in the 9th Circuit, not the 10th, so the Elk Mountain ruling doesn't apply there.

In January 2026, Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks issued a memo to its game wardens declaring that "corner crossing remains unlawful in Montana." Lieutenant Governor Kristen Juras defended the memo, calling the Wyoming case "unique" and arguing Montana precedent allows the state to treat corner crossing as a crime.

Public land groups didn't take that quietly. In May 2026, the Montana chapter of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers and the Public Land Water Access Association sued FWP in Lewis and Clark County District Court, arguing the agency's position violates the public trust doctrine and was adopted without public participation. That case is now working its way through the courts, and its outcome could decide access to roughly a million corner-locked acres in Montana alone.

Meanwhile, Wyoming lawmakers tried to write the court ruling into state statute this year. A corner-crossing bill advanced to the Wyoming Senate in February 2026, though both hunters and ranchers testified it needed more work before becoming law.

What This Means for Your Hunt

Until the dust settles, treat corner crossing as a state-by-state question, not a settled right. A few practical rules:

Know your circuit. In Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, Kansas, and Oklahoma, corner crossing is legal under federal appellate precedent. In Montana, the state's official position is that it's illegal, lawsuit pending. Everywhere else, the law is unsettled — you'd be testing it at your own risk.

Never touch private ground. The 10th Circuit ruling protects a clean corner-to-corner step. It does not protect shortcuts, fence climbing on private posts, or "just a few feet" around a marshy corner.

Trust your GPS, then double-check it. Mapping apps are good, but corner pins can be off by several yards. Look for survey monuments — the brass caps that mark the true corner — before you cross.

Document everything. The Missouri hunters won partly because they could show exactly how they crossed. If you corner-cross in a 10th Circuit state, photos and GPS tracks are cheap insurance.

Expect confrontation anyway. Legal doesn't mean welcome. Some landowners remain openly hostile to corner crossers. Stay calm, don't escalate, and let the facts protect you.

The Bigger Picture

The Elk Mountain case is the most important public land access decision in a generation, and it happened because four ordinary hunters refused to fold when a billionaire took them to court. The principle at stake is simple: public land belongs to everyone, and a property line that meets at a corner shouldn't function as a private gate.

The next chapter is being written in Montana right now. If the courts there side with FWP, the West stays split — legal south of the state line, criminal north of it. If the access groups win, the momentum from Elk Mountain keeps rolling.

Either way, 2026 is shaping up to be the year corner crossing moves from gray area to settled law, one courtroom at a time. We'll keep tracking it.

Sources

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