Western Hunting Journal, Premiere Issue whj001_premiere | Page 65

Glassing for bucks is addicting in the Frank
Church, even when packing out a heavy load
back to camp, as deer seem to be everywhere.
and Hollywood personas. Now
an outfitter has set up opera-
tions at the ranch and one of
their hunts they offer are for
wolf with a season that lasts
most of the winter. Elk have
also learned that by staying
close to the ranch they are safe
from wolves. Each morning the
hunters that are tagged out
and hanging around camp line
the runway and glassed for elk
as they made their way back up
the mountain above the ranch
leaving the fields from a night
of feed ing.
Finding mule deer out feed-
ing is easy along the south fac-
ing slopes. The wide open sage
hillsides allow one to glass for
miles. Preferring to hunt the rut
I opt for the late season. On my
most recent trip into the Frank
Church we arrived a few days
early just as the rut was kick-
ing in. Our first afternoon was
spent glassing the hillsides and
finding pockets holding deer.
The mornings don’t need to
come too early as deer are often
found close to camp so most
hunters wait for daylight before
heading out so not to walk past
bucks. But those that want a
chance at a mature buck often
head out in the pre-dawn to get
ahead of the crowds.
After a few days of hunting it
gets harder to pass on “average”
bucks. The three and four-year
old class bucks with antlers of
four points and around twen-
ty-inches wide are plentiful
so when you find one that is
around twenty-four inches
wide it is almost impossible
to pass as you know the next
hunter will fill their tag with
that buck. Kyle Hurst, a friend
since childhood, found a nice
four-point with that magical
twenty-four-inch frame. The
buck was above the trail when
first spotted and I told Kyle
that we were at the top of a box
canyon and try to put the buck
down quickly so it would not
run down into the deep ravine.
The buck stumbled at the shot
but it held its strength long
enough to cross the trail and
finally come to rest fifty-yards
downslope in some tall sage.
The next few days were the
same, glassing bucks and de-
ciding if they were the one we
wanted. Kyle’s brother Chad,
someone I have known since
the second grade, found a deep
forked four-point with sever-
al other bucks in the group. It
was the largest so far in camp
so Chad made the shot. This
time the buck didn’t need to
cross the trail as it was already
below it by a hundred yards.
The steep hills remind me that
my age is not of youth anymore
and that packing deer meat is
rewarding only if shared with
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