Idaho/Frank Church Outfitter Questions

[Deputynrc]

Looking for anyone who has been on a Drop Camp hunt into the Frank Church Wilderness with Wild Idaho Outfitters out of Challis. Booked a hunt in late October and we are super excited for it. Specifically looking for anyone who might be able to tell us about thier experience and if you have any pictures of your hunt. This will be the first backcountry hunt for two out to the four of us and just looking for your experiences. Thanks.

 

[DoubleDropMuley]

No info but sounds fun!! Good luck hope to see some success pics

 

[Deputynrc]

No info but sounds fun!! Good luck hope to see some success pics

Oh yes, I have been waiting my whole life for something like this. I will post picks for sure.

 

[PanhandlePilgrim]

Hunt high. Does and small bucks will be down low, the mature deer are up high on the ridges where they are hard to get to and there is limited/no water.

 

[nphunter]

I’d ask the outfitter for pics. We hunted elk in the church several years ago, saw more wolves that deer or elk. We saw a couple bucks, my buddy killed one of them, a small 3 point.
A co-workers husband is a seasoned deer hunter and has killed several 170-190” mule deer. He went to the church and hunted from the river last fall during the rut and didn’t kill a deer.
I’m sure there are giant deer left in there somewhere but finding one and killing it will be a tall order. The Frank is beautiful and makes you feel very small and overwhelmed. Someday I’ll go back for another elk hunt in Sept and will hunt off of my back if I do. The country is too big to try to hunt any of it and make it back to a base camp consistently.

Good luck and take a camera!

 

[Deputynrc]

I’d ask the outfitter for pics. We hunted elk in the church several years ago, saw more wolves that deer or elk. We saw a couple bucks, my buddy killed one of them, a small 3 point.
A co-workers husband is a seasoned deer hunter and has killed several 170-190” mule deer. He went to the church and hunted from the river last fall during the rut and didn’t kill a deer.
I’m sure there are giant deer left in there somewhere but finding one and killing it will be a tall order. The Frank is beautiful and makes you feel very small and overwhelmed. Someday I’ll go back for another elk hunt in Sept and will hunt off of my back if I do. The country is too big to try to hunt any of it and make it back to a base camp consistently.

Good luck and take a camera!

Thank you for the info. Its going to be fun either way.

 

[Customweld]

I’ve never hunted with an outfitter back there but spent plenty of time in 20a and 26. My uncle used to run one of the outfits out of Big Creek and Cold Meadows. I’ve killed a handful of elk in both units, but haven’t done very well on the muleys. Take lots of pictures, so your buddies back home will believe you when you tell them how miserable/awesome it is!!

 

[nphunter]

Thank you for the info. Its going to be fun either way.

I agree, I had a great time. Beautiful country and great habitat. It’s been like 8 years since I was there and I know they killed a lot of wolves since then. Hopefully it’s great for you, we were on the opposite side of the wilderness near yellow pine.

Here’s the buck.

 

[Doodle]

The frank church is a great piece of wilderness. Is it like shooting fish in a barrel? No, definitely not, but there are good deer to be found if you’re ready to break out the glass and put a few miles under your boots. However, those muleys are usually migrating, so you may go days without seeing something and then wake up and find a group of bachelor bucks moved in overnight. The reverse can also be true: I’ve seen nice deer and thought “eh, I’ll go find him in the morning”…… wrong. If you see a nice buck and you can get to him if you put on a hell of a hustle, do it. Taking the lazy route will not get you an animal in these mountains.

There are elk - I took the one in my avatar back in there. As others have mentioned, there are also a lot of wolves and they haven’t done the elk population any favors. I was out there last year and heard them howling maybe 300 yards from camp two nights in a row. Even saw one, but didn’t get a chance to get a shot off.

You’ll have a great time. Even when you’re not seeing animals, you’re still sitting on a mountainside gazing at beautiful country and munching on jerky in the fresh air.

Bring a WARM sleeping bag. I’ve been there for 65 degree days and for -5 degree days. It is the Rockies, after all.

 

[Shayman]

How'd your hunt turn out? Would love to see pics and hear about your experience.

 

[Shadow Illude]

How'd your hunt turn out? Would love to see pics and hear about your experience.

Same here.

 

[Deputynrc]

Well, there were four of us that spent a whole year preparing for this and it was a first backcountry hunt like this for myself and one of my hunting partners. It was certainly a tough hunt. As far as the Outfitter, they emailed us the camp coordinates about a month or two before the hunt so we based all of our prehut e-scouting off of those coordinates. Once we got there, they actually dropped us at a different location approximately 1.8 miles up the creek. While that in itself was not necessarily a big problem, it did place us in an area where we had to change our whole hunt strategy. Other small issues were things like the camp facilities did not match their "Drop Camp" description their website. This was taken directly from their site - "Propane Lanterns (you provide the propane), propane cook tops (you provide the propane), cooking & dining tables and latrine facilities." There was only a small 2'x2' square table with a beat up old cooktop but none of the other stuff such as Lanterns, dining tables or latrine facilities assuming they meant a pit style bathroom area. We are grateful there was at least a wood stove because the temps were in the low teens at night.

As far as game, we never saw a deer in the unit (Unit 27), yes you read that right. In fact we only saw two deer tracks in a combined 70+ miles (4 of us) of hiking/hunting/glassing. It snowed 3 out of the 7 days. We did see a couple sets of elk tracks and a ton of wolf tracks. We did find two deer carcasses (possible wolf kills?) but only one seemed to be a recent kill since it still had a few maggots under it. The wolf tracks were fresh each day. Two of my hunting partners jumped a small bull moose but we didn't have tags for them. We eventually hiked back down the drainage to the location the outfitter had originally provided the coordinates too and glassed up a couple does and small spike across the creek (Unit 28 - not our unit). At that location, we also glassed up what we believed the same bull moose and two elk, one cow an one small bull in our unit at the end of the second to last day of hunting.

For me, I had a great time in some of the most beautiful but rugged country I have ever hunted. I loved the trip. It would have been a big bonus to see more deer or elk but I was grateful to get to spend a week out in the wilderness with my buddies. It was a much needed break from the rest of the world. I also understand the Outfitter doesn't have control amount of game, but I would have appreciated more transparency about the camp location and supplies.

One tip I would give is to spend a couple weeks riding horses if you are going to do this. 8.8 miles (3 1/2 hours) on horseback when you haven't ridden a horse in 42 years is not the best planning on my part (and I was warned ahead of time - just didn't listen).

 

[Shadow Illude]

Thanks for the write up and pictures.

 

[iseebucks]

Thanks for the story. Glad you had fun but that's really too bad you didn't even see a deer. Unit 27 was my first choice for the Dec 1st sales event but it was sold out by the time it was my turn to buy a tag. I am not too disappointed about not getting the tag after hearing your story.

 

[Deputynrc]

Thanks for the story. Glad you had fun but that's really too bad you didn't even see a deer. Unit 27 was my first choice for the Dec 1st sales event but it was sold out by the time it was my turn to buy a tag. I am not too disappointed about not getting the tag after hearing your story.

Yea, not sure about unit 27. It was the first time hunting in ID so we had no experience. We did see some deer across the creek in unit 28 both while we were packing in and that day we hiked down to the original camp location. One interesting bit of info we heard on the way out, the outfitters son mentioned he had guided another group prior to us being in there and they didn't see any deer either. Like I said, the outfitter can't control the amount of game in the unit so that part isn't their fault. Overall, for me, it was a great trip and I can't wait to try another trip but maybe another unit next time. We will be doing a lot of research to find other options but I did like the Drop Camp type of hunting. So if anyone on here has any recommendations, feel free to message me. Thanks for checking back in on our hunt.

 

[Shayman]

Appreciate the write up and the pictures, bummer to hear that you did not see much game.

 

[Andrew12gauge]

Sounds like a crap outfit, if they had guided in there previously without seeing game and still took you in there. There are not deer behind every tree in that country but there are deer in there and taking you in there anyway seems pretty low, especially when they likely knew of other areas with game.


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[sneaky]

Sounds like a crap outfit, if they had guided in there previously without seeing game and still took you in there. There are not deer behind every tree in that country but there are deer in there and taking you in there anyway seems pretty low, especially when they likely knew of other areas with game.


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Sorry, but outfitters aren't going to run drop camps on top of their guided clients. It's big country, but there are multiple outfitters operating in the Frank and they have to stay in their concessions. There's a reason drop camp hunts are cheaper than guided hunts.

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[Broomd]

Sorry, but outfitters aren't going to run drop camps on top of their guided clients. It's big country, but there are multiple outfitters operating in the Frank and they have to stay in their concessions. There's a reason drop camp hunts are cheaper than guided hunts.

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Yep, was going to post the same thing.
The OP was warned about this outcome, kudos that he went anyway. That country is 95% vertical and it's punishing.
I drew a sheep tag in an adjacent area a decade ago and saw no sheep in the unit, saw a few in another unit.
The only tag soup I've ever tasted, but in truth the forest fires were horrible and glassing was all but impossible. All of the surrounding units tagholders were able to roll their tags over to the following season due to fire. Me? No such luck.

I did kill a muley buck similar to the one posted above, slightly bigger. Kayaking it back across the Salmon paddling upstream was work!
Was blind luck to see that buck, and given that wife and I were both sick as dogs with flu (we were giving it hell with a OIL sheep tag) figured it was a blessing from above given the smokey season and ridiculously rugged unit--one practically void of game.