This hunt was my main hunt of the year regarding total, unbroken, dedicated time with no weekend warrior bullshit like archery season, just pure backcountry living for over a week. This was in the Frank Church wilderness, which if you have read previous articles, the Frank is probably my favorite place in the lower 48 to hunt, simply because it’s rugged, unforgiving and guaranteed to separate the boys from the men. I had nine days to get it done and I split that time between two different locations. The first was about seven miles from the trailhead that proved to be a desolate area where I saw more wolf tracks than deer or elk themselves. In order o survive I depended on my Seek Outside redcliff pyramid tent with a titanium stove. The great thing about this area was there were 0 humans within an 8-10 mile radius. The ones that did exist were an outfitter that was camped up a different trail/direction from where I was at. Theoretically, when I hunt, this is an awesome scenario, I had miles to glass on both sides of a knife edge ridgeline I was camped on. Plenty of beetle killed trees for dry wood to burn and water in creeks still, although water was an 800’ elevation drop to get to, it was there. After going crazy for 4 ½ days of seeing 0 wildlife minus a few doe, I went back to the trailhead and relocated.

My second spot was about 4 miles back where I hunted a large burn that was stacked with deer and elk during the early mornings. The downside though, was in the morning you could see a line of headlamps headed my way with hunters that would walk light and fast for day hunts, then return to their confines of a warm camper after the sun set. For the first three days I saw a few smaller bucks, and elk on two of those mornings. On the second morning I was able to get within 100y of a spike but decided against putting a stop to my hunt for a two day pack out and instead continue looking for that older age class buck. Boy did I regret that. That saying that we all know as hunters, never pass an opportunity on the first day of the hunt that you would take on the last day. This haunts me almost daily and it’s been 5 months since that moment, there’s probably a more severe term for obsession that could apply here. Finally, on the second to last day of the season I got some meat on the ground. This came as a 1220 yards shot from the top of a ride line to the edge of a tree line (see red circle notating where I shot from). What’s interesting is he came out 10 minutes before sun setting and he caught maybe two minutes of sunlight on his hide. Sun was to my back and conditions were damn good, 1-2mph right to left wind. Given that I was shooting a 300g Berger Hybrid out of my .338 Lapua Ackley Improved launching the bullets at 2911fps, I had confidence of a good hit. Full transparency, I hit him but it was a gut shot. Not what I would have preferred but I watched him go 100 yards, lay down and die. No meat wasted.

Although it wasn’t the older age class I was looking for, if you add up the miles traveled, money spent, and sweat equity that comes with this type of backcountry hunting, shooting a small three was very satisfying. After all, it’s all about the journey, if I would have filled my tag in the first few days, I would have never experienced the lessons learned that come with sustaining oneself in the backcountry. Specifically the small tricks you learn about your gear, what sustains me nutritionally/what doesn’t, as well as the obvious tactics of glassing and the habits of critters like deer and elk throughout the day.