all right folks welcome to today's show we're in the back country
it doesn't get any rougher than this this is some of the roughest country in the lower 48.
we're hunting trophy mule deer and elk back here on public land do it yourself
howdy folks i'm guy eastman publisher of eastman's hunting and eastmans bowhunting journals
so let's start out by going to the high country of western wyoming where i grew
up and my father outfitted 20 years ago into the 10 000 foot peaks in search of trophy mule deer
on a backpack hunt it's going to be a lot of fun and a great adventure so let's head to the back
country they got a big snowstorm we waited it out it's going to be knee-deep snow back there
but those bucks should be up and moving as the weather's clear and we're going to get our packs
on and head back 13 miles into the wilderness after trophy mule deer on a backpack hunt
the real back country we're in western wyoming in the wilderness
it doesn't get any rougher than this this is some of the roughest country in the lower 48
general license for a resident like i am and we got hit by a heavy snowstorm here in
the middle of september on opening week we just waited out the storm and waited for a
opening as you can see we got beautiful weather storms broke it's going to be nice for six
six to eight days here so come along with us let's go in the back country in eight inches of
snow backpacking after big bucks you won't see anything like this anywhere else come on folks
you know these high mountain bucks they'll spend their summer way above here clear at the tops of
these peaks way up at 10 11 000 feet but uh once you get a snowstorm like this that accumulates a
pretty good amount of snow we've got eight inches down here and up top they probably have 20 inches
those bucks will move off those peaks and down in these slides
and pockets so well we're going to glass this real good there's been a lot of buck tracks in here
but i think this is where they were when the storm came they fed they're starting to move their way
back up so we're just kind of kind of glass move glass move real slow take our time all the
way up through this country and get up to the top glass those big basins and stuff and kind of just
follow the bucks back up they're a little tough to spot in here but we're gonna glass this real good
before we move on through and glass each one of these slides we move our way up the mountain
you know when you're hunting in this back country you gotta really pay
attention to your water supply as you can see it snowed this year so we had plenty of water
melted snow or whatever we needed to do but a lot of this high country is pretty dry
especially in september before they get storms so you want to fill up on your way up through
the creek bottom or make sure that you have a spring or seat nearby uh one thing you want to
do is purify your water and take it from my dad he had got giardia up here in this same
country 15 20 years ago it's here so you want to purify your water or use iodine or chlorine
tablets you could do it either way this is a little heavier but the water tastes better
well here we are folks on the second day of our hunt in the backcountry we're setting up camp
we've hiked up about as far as we want to go we're going to get everything all set up so when prime
time comes we can glass do what we need to do hunt till dark and come back to camp and it's
all set up and ready for us so uh we'll get all set up let our stuff kind of dry out it's pretty
damp and frozen uh from last night you can see it's ice on it so we're gonna let it dry out and
kind of eat some lunch and kick around here and get all set up and then about three or four we'll
work our way up into these basins here and glass all this country and see if we can't spot a buck
up in uh in the snow there so we'll see how it goes
it's really dry up here so we're pretty
concerned about water and until the storm came and now we have plenty of water so we're just gonna
melt some snow here make some more water we used a lot of our water coming up you know making sure we
didn't get dehydrated on the way up so we're just going to melt some snow and refill our
bladders and water bottles and make sure we have plenty of plenty of water to last the rest of the hunt
okay folks we found a buck finally he's looks up like he's by himself
bringing the ice buckets about he's about 26 inches wide got cheater on one side
it's about 320 yards i'm just going to ease up to one of these rocks get a dead rest
get a shot in on them so we're going to leave our packs here
we're going to kind of ease around up to that boulder
stop
he's down now
ooh!
what a hunt in the high country
oh man that is a high country mule deer folks what a buck we uh
we're about 10 miles back here and uh we just did the evening hunt popped up right here on this
ridge i glassed over there and uh saw this buck feeding he's a pretty nice buck about a 170. he's
got a cheater on one side about 26 27 inch buck just a real nice buck i tried to sneak up to this
boulder here for a dead rest but he spotted us so i had to kind of make an offhand shot there on him
i'll tell you what folks that buck was 312 yards away there's no easy 300 yards in this country
we're uh back in a big rock pile high mountain basin in wilderness wyoming look at this i can
honestly say i've never killed a buck in a more scenic place than this this is gorgeous
what a nice buck man that's awesome it's pretty heavy got that cheater
in the mid 170s
nice buck
look at that buck snow basin buck here boy
look at this guy
well folks here we are on the uh fourth day of a five-day hunt here in the back country
and we finally were able to connect with this high mountain mule deer right here it's about
27 inches wide with the cheater almost 28 inches just a really really nice high mountain mule deer
and i'm real happy with them and we hunted hard this is public land do it yourself
in the back country here in the wyoming wilderness so it doesn't get any better
than this we got about an eight mile pack out with this guy tomorrow we'll load him up and
pack on out of here and we'll be done i'll be done hunting in wyoming
well folks there's three stages of hunting bucks in the high country
finding a buck killing a buck and then getting a buck out that's where we're at now we're gonna
we're gonna uh have some lunch here i'm gonna keep this buck out then we'll pack up camp
and head down we're gonna be loaded heavy good thing it's all downhill eight miles out of here