'Lawless and dangerous': DNRC weighs closure of Gallatin Gateway parcels over unregulated shooting

The Montana Department of Natural Resources and Conservation has until July 1 to decide whether to close two state trust land parcels near Gallatin Gateway to recreational shooting.

At a June 3 public hearing at Gallatin Gateway Community Center, not a single person showed up to oppose the closures.

Two separate petitions are asking the DNRC to permanently close parcels along Axtell Anceney Road and High Flat Road for recreational shooting. Both cite years of unsafe shooting practices, property damage, dead livestock, wildfire risk and a near-total absence of law enforcement presence on land the state holds in trust.

On March 31, Bozeman attorney Robert Baldwin filed a petition on behalf of David and Melissa Hatter, who own 174 acres directly south of the Axtell Anceney parcel. At the hearing, Baldwin emphasized that his clients’ petition for closure is motivated only by the unregulated shooting, not a desire to bar all public access.

“They don’t want to prevent people from hiking, walking their dog, riding their horse, recreating — even hunting,” Baldwin said. “Because of the way the law is written, we were funneled into seeking a closure.”

The Hatters share a fence line with the state trust land but, according to the petition, that boundary is largely treated as irrelevant, with shooters trespassing onto their property and using their fence line and signage for target practice.

“My husband and I are afraid to even walk the property due to the constant threat of stray bullets,” Melissa Hatter stated in the petition. “I truly believe it is only a matter of time before myself or a guest on the property is struck by a stray bullet.”

The Hatter petition also includes a declaration from Morgan McReynolds, who held the grazing lease on the Axtell Anceney parcel until relinquishing it in 2024 due to the constant shooting making the land unworkable for ranching. At the hearing, David Hatter suggested his family could be next to go.

“If I was going to build a home on that property, I would need to use bulletproof glass on my house,” David Hatter said. “So what about my grandkids playing in yard? How can I put my family in harm’s way? Making our home there now is just impossible.”

The Hatters’ petition describes shooters conducting military-style drills with semi-automatic weapons, firing in all directions, shooting at night and abandoning sharpened metal spikes in the ground after using them as targets.

Baldwin wrote that as many as 80 people have been shooting on the parcel at once, and that without any meaningful oversight, shooters have come to treat the state land as a free-for-all.

“Shooters do not stop for others when placing targets and continue to fire with people clearly in the line of fire,” Baldwin wrote. “Essentially there are no range rules that would exist at a traditional and functionally safe shooting range. The State Land is not that.”

A separate petition covering both parcels was filed by Arthur Wittich, attorney for Spur Cross Ranch, which also borders the trust land. Wittich first raised concerns with the DNRC in September 2022, and the department responded the following month with a narrow shooting closure on a portion of the land.

Alleging that measure proved inadequate and the situation had only worsened, Wittich filed the formal petition on Aug. 8, 2025.

“The state’s inaction has also led to more negligent discharge of firearms, and dumped garbage, litter, shell casings, and metal debris,” Wittich wrote. “All impacting legitimate livestock operations and safe public recreation.”

The Spur Cross Ranch petition also includes a letter from Gallatin Gateway Fire Chief Jeremiah Hillier, written after a 6-acre wildland fire broke out on Spur Cross Ranch property in 2025. The fire started from shooting activity on the adjacent state trust land parcel, the letter states, and muddy road conditions prevented fire engines from reaching the site.

Firefighters had to be transported in the ranch manager’s pickup and extinguish the blaze with hand tools.

“If the state land is to remain accessible for public use, the road must be upgraded to county standards and consistently maintained to ensure emergency crew access,” Hillier wrote. “While I do not advocate for the closure of public access to state-owned lands, I am concerned about the potential for future emergencies in this location.”

Both petitions allege that repeated complaints to the Gallatin County Sheriff’s Office, Fish, Wildlife & Parks, and the DNRC have gone largely unanswered. A public records request included in the Hatters’ petition found that FWP conducted just 29 proactive patrols on the parcel over seven years, averaging about four per year and amounting to an enforcement presence on roughly 1% of days annually.

“Calls to the Gallatin County Sheriffs Department and FWP at most end only in a warning issued if personnel respond to the call at all,” Baldwin wrote. “Because there is no proactive agency response or enforcement of relevant regulations, the State Land has effectively become a lawless and dangerous place.”

FWP Game Warden Capt. Josh Leonard, who oversees Region 3 covering southwest Montana, spoke at the hearing, noting that FWP serves as an enforcement arm of the DNRC and that his Bozeman district operates with just three wardens and a sergeant.

“It’s a pretty large area that my staff has to cover and be responsible for,” Leonard said. “When certain calls come in, we have to prioritize. We do the best we can to get to the call that requires our attention right there, right then.”

Leonard said he did not have the total number of calls to the area readily available. Gallatin County Sheriff’s Sgt. Mike Anderson, who also spoke at the hearing, said his office received roughly five calls to each parcel last year, related to noise complaints, shooting at improper hours and general disturbances.

Greg Clemon, a certified National Rifle Association range safety officer who spoke at the hearing, recognized the unsafe conditions on the parcels but argued that more enforcement or even the permanent closure will not solve the root problem.

“Gallatin County has a severe shortage of safe places to shoot,” Clemon said. “Simply shutting down one area is going to push the problem onto another.”

Acoustic monitoring technology installed by the Hatters recorded 1,961 gunshots on the parcel over just nine days in late October and early November 2025, including 633 on a single Sunday and nighttime shooting on three of the nine days.

For Clemon, that kind of volume underscores the need for alternatives, and he urged the DNRC to work with local sportsmen’s groups to identify safe parcels elsewhere in the county for managed shooting.

“You’ll be hard-pressed to find someone more pro Second Amendment than I am,” Clemon said. “But the dangerous abuse happening on this specific parcel is shocking. As an RSO, I was sickened to look at the evidence of dead livestock, property destruction, extreme fire hazard.”

No one at the June 3 hearing spoke in opposition to either petition. DNRC representatives did not respond to testimony, as the purpose of the hearing was solely to collect public comment.

Those who submitted comments will be notified directly when a decision is reached by July 1. Jessica Hoag, the DNRC’s recreational use and public access coordinator, noted the outcome is not necessarily binary.

“The decision doesn’t have to be close it or don’t close it,” Hoag said. “There’s some space to consider factors and maybe some kind of modified decision there.”