Sounds like your Grandad and Dad were very wise men. I live out West (Denver area) and own mountain property as well. Like you mention, I have seen a lot of “ranches” that were small homesteads plus a large government grazing lease. Actually, it is not all that uncommon.
A wise man once said, “posession is 9/10ths of the law” so whoever owns the land gets to make the rules. It is kind of like dealing with a land lord. If he wants quite hours at 9 pm ... you are going to have to sign an agreement to that effect or be kicked out when your current lease runs out. Sometimes you have good landlords, sometimes they are asses. But that does not change their right to set the rules for their property.
What saddens me is that so many conservatives so quickly gave up the foundations of owners rights or property rights just because the fight was between someone they liked and the government. That loss of principle is what we accuse the left of so often.
I think Bundy is a man that fell for the feds promises hook, line, and sinker and felt betrayed like a man that finds his longtime wife has been cheating behind his back. I do have sympathy for Bundy, he has been lied to and the government has certainly been cheating on him behind his back with liberal anti-ranching nuts for many years. I am mad at the government for doing this to ranchers after many years of promises when the tide turned in favor of liberals the fact is the feds came up with regulation after regulation on the leases until it became impossible for ranchers to comply in areas where they wanted to stop cattle grazing for whatever reason.
I can see both sides of this issue, from what I have found and read the feds do own the land so if they choose to keep ranchers out then they can do that. I also see the point of view of the ranchers that were led down the path of broken promises to financial ruin and the loss of a way of life that is more endangered than most of us realize.
Bundy is old enough to remember when the feds supported ranchers and bent over backwards to lease them land and let the rancher “use it like he owned it” including using the value of it to secure loans and grazing leases were and still are bought and sold with ranches as if owned by the rancher which was recognized by everyone at the time. He is a symbol of the changes that have taken place with the way feds do things and I see him that way as do many others. Bundy decided to stand and fight the changes and his support is based on that more than the legalities of ownership or lease or any other tangible thing.
My grandfather did not trust the government because during the Depression the feds bought his cattle (it was a program to help ranchers since there was no real market for their cattle) and after they paid for them they shot them and left them to rot on his ranch while people in cities were starving and giving up their children because they could not feed them. My grandfather had a deep hatred for the government after that, he felt the cattle should have been used to feed those that were starving. It was perfectly legal for the government to buy my grandfather’s cows and kill them and let them rot but it wasn’t right. It is likely perfectly legal for them to do what they have done and are doing to Bundy but that doesn’t make it right.