Backcountry Float Hunt of a Lifetime

By Casey Richmond: Backcountry Float Hunt

This backcountry float hunt had everything you’d wish for in a backcountry adventure. Between backcountry flying, whitewater rafting, and a lot of hiking, it was nonstop action. I was lucky enough to go on this trip with the guys from Limitless Outdoors who I have been looking up to for years. If you’re familiar with Limitless Outdoors then you already know what I’m talking about, but if you haven’t checked out their YouTube channel, you’re in for a treat. Justin Gibbins, Colton Gibbins, and their friend Joshua each had deer tags and I had an elk tag, so we knew there was a good chance we’d be coming out of this trip with some animals.

We started off the trip by flying deep into the Idaho backcountry. Justin is a pilot and he, along with our friend Tim Freeburg, found a small weather window to shuttle us and our gear to an airstrip along the river.

Budget-Friendly Backcountry Float Hunt

Early the next morning we hopped into our economical “Intex Mariner 4” raft purchased from Amazon and set off for a six-mile whitewater adventure to get into the area that we planned on hunting. I had never whitewater rafted, so it was all new to me, and I was excited to try a new way to explore the Idaho backcountry. The water was higher than normal for November, thanks to the three inches of rain the day before.

Shortly after we began, Colton had one of the paddles get caught in some rocks and the paddle snapped off, leaving our raft with just a single paddle, which made things a little trickier. With two paddles you can slow your raft and steer through the obstacles, but with one paddle, you had to charge faster with hardly any control through the rapids. We had a lot of laughs while we rafted downriver, soaking wet but excited for the adventure. We had to make many different stops to dump water from the rafts, so it ended up taking a few hours to make it to the area we had planned on hunting.

Welcome Distraction

Our original plan was for all four of us to leave the river and hike up around 3,000 vertical feet to set up a spike camp, but plans quickly changed after Justin spotted a big group of cow elk with a single good-looking bull right after we had started hiking. Justin and Joshua pushed on up the mountain and Colton and I ditched most of our gear and started making our way up to where we could get better eyes on the elk.

I have made the mistake of ditching my pack many times and ended up miles away without any of my gear. I knew there was a good chance I would regret leaving my pack this time as well, but my focus at the time was trying to get into a position to shoot this bull as quickly as possible. As steep as this country was, I knew my pack and gear would significantly slow me down, so I started to climb up toward the group of elk with just one trekking pole and my rifle.

Over in a Moment

After a grueling 1,300-ft climb, we finally got a good look at the bull, and he was way bigger than I expected; we figured he was a mature 7x7. He was in a tough spot to close the distance, and we took our time getting into the best spot we possibly could, which still left us 685 yards away. With the cows beginning to get up to feed, we knew we wouldn’t have much time to get into a different position; we knew this was our only chance. So, we got settled in and ready for the shot.

The rain and fog had been relentless, which made us realize we had to make something happen before the fog rolled back in. After taking a minute to find a stable shooting position in a less-than-ideal spot on the mountain, I felt ready to take the shot. I was positioned on a steep side hill and used my bipod on top of my pack for a front rest and a glassing pad to help support the back of the gun and right arm. With Colton helping on the spotter, I was able to place a 175-grain bullet from my 7PRC Seekins Precision Element into the bull.

After the first shot, I had so much steam billowing off the suppressor that I had to take a moment to blow it off to be able to see the bull through the scope. I was quickly able to relocate the bull who was clearly hit well but still standing, so I put another round into him which hit him perfectly behind the shoulder. He started to stumble down the hill but dropped into a draw that was out of sight from us. The suppressed shots had the rest of the herd confused and they couldn’t tell where the shots came from, nor did they know why their big herd bull had fallen. The cows ended up standing around in the same spot for over the next hour. This is one reason why I love hunting with suppressors, especially SilcencerCo’s new Scythe-Ti suppressor.

I couldn’t believe we made it happen on the first day. This was the biggest bull of my life. It took a moment for it to set in that we had actually made it happen. I was ecstatic! The previous month I had struggled a lot on an elk hunt, and I was picturing this hunt would be similar. But there I was, not three hours into the actual hunt, and I already had a giant bull down. Most hunts don’t go as planned, and after many years of experience, you learn to not get too excited until the animal is down. I have never had a hunt go as perfectly to plan as this, and it took a while for it to feel real.

Cold and Heavy

Getting the bull down was relieving, but we still had so much work ahead of us before we could feel relaxed. We headed back down to the river and then a mile upriver to grab our packs, and then we went back downriver one mile and then up 2,000 vertical feet to where the bull was down. When we finally reached the bull, we quickly realized this 7x7 was really an 8x8! This bull also had the largest body any of us had ever seen on a Rocky Mountain bull elk. We nicknamed him the “Horse Bull” because of his horse-sized body. After taking some time to admire the bull and the country he lived in, we realized we had a lot of work ahead of us with some gnarly weather about to roll in.

We spent the next five hours cutting up the bull in some horrendous weather, including a lightning storm with hail and snow! Due to the conditions, we needed a fire because the wind was strong and the temps were dropping. Everything was soaking wet, which made starting a fire nearly impossible. Even with a lot of fire starter, it was one of the most difficult times I’ve ever had trying to start a fire and keep it going. After almost an hour, we were finally able to get a ripping fire and warm our numb hands from time to time while laboring over the bull.

Late that night, we finally made it back down to the river with the first load of meat where we hung the game bags under a tree. We still had a decent hike back to our gear, and we found a place to set up camp and start another fire, which took another 45 minutes. We ate dinner after 1 AM that night and then tucked into our sleeping bags, the only dry piece of kit we still had left. The next day, we had two more grueling trips up the mountain to get the rest of the bull back down to camp.

The trip had many elements of success. Around the same time I killed my bull, Joshua ended up killing a nice four-point buck. It was his first ever mule deer buck, and he was happy to get one down. The final day of the hunt, however, was probably the most memorable. The morning started off with Colton killing a monster buck right before we had to head back down to the rafts.

Sink or Swim

While Colton was packing his buck down to the river, Justin had to head to the plane. This meant he had to go down to the river and then make the eight-mile hike back upriver to the airstrip where we started the float on day one. He flew his plane to the next airstrip, about ten miles downriver from us. Joshua hiked the ten miles along the river down to where Justin would pick us up. Colton and I were the ones tasked with floating all the gear and animals down to the same airstrip.

We had a huge bull elk, two big muleys, and a whole lot of gear. Saying we were overloaded would be an understatement. Colton and I each got into the rafts, and the first thing we noticed was how much the water level had dropped during the week since we started hunting. There were rapids at almost every bend in the river, and each set of rapids had many exposed rocks. In the area that we were in, the river was full of rocks that were more shale-like and sharp instead of typical, round river rocks.

With shallow water and super heavy rafts, we were ping-ponging and scraping our way down the entire way. For the first couple of hours, we were taking our time to pull off the river and bail out the water after each rapid. Each time we did this, we would both have to unload and load hundreds of pounds of meat and gear, and it was very time-consuming. Eventually, both rafts started tearing bigger and bigger holes, and they were taking on a lot of water even without us in them. When looking at our maps, we realized we were taking way too much time getting down the river, and if we didn’t pick up the pace we would be floating in the dark. By the halfway point we were both completely soaked head-to-toe and freezing. With darkness setting in, we had to force ourselves to just keep going because we had to make it to the airstrip before sundown. It was mentally exhausting and frustrating navigating the river. With both rafts completely flooded, we had almost zero control to paddle and we were constantly getting high centered in the middle of almost every set of rapids. There were multiple times when we had to get out of our rafts and dislodge them from a set of rocks while standing in freezing water up to our waists. By the time we reached the airstrip, we were both shaking from being in the water for so many hours. We made it down to the airstrip just in time to grab what we could carry and fly out before it was too dark. Tim and Justin flew us about an hour to a town where we were able to get a hotel and a warm meal. That felt amazing after a freezing and grueling day on the river. Both Colton and I had numbness in our toes even hours after the hot shower, which was pretty telling of how cold we were. The next day, we did multiple flights back in to shuttle out the meat and remaining gear we had left on the river the night before.

This hunt turned out to be nothing like I had expected. I still can’t believe how this hunt worked out for us, and I couldn’t thank Justin and Colton enough for inviting me on this hunt. It will truly be a hunt I will never forget.

You can check out the full filmed hunt on the Limitless Outdoors YouTube channel.
@LimitlessOutdoors

Gear List:
Rifle: Seekins Precision Havak Element 7 PRC
Suppressor: SilencerCo Synthe-Ti
Clothing: Eberlestock Trinity Peak Jacket 2.0, Eberlestock Pioneer Hoody
Pack System: Eberlestock EMOD (Mainframe, Vapor 5000, EMOD Lid, EMOD Gamebags)
Bino Harness: Eberlestock Recon
Knife: Montana Knife Company Mini Goat
Boots: Crispi Briksdal Pro
Headlamp: Peax Equipment Backcountry Duo
Supplements: Wilderness Athlete Energy & Focus, Hydrate & Recover