This is the second article in a series about my bighorn sheep hunt in the Frank Church Wilderness of Idaho. In part one, I discussed the background of drawing the tag and the area that is the Frank along with my decision to hire an outfitter. It was not an easy call but it was the sensible one and I believe I will have a more full experience this way.

In this article, I will discuss my training and preparation for this hunt. Of particular focus is a practical, no BS way to think about fitness and shooting in the field. I’ll touch a little on gear but plan on going more in depth on my loadout after the hunt. I am prewriting this article and by the time it publishes, I will be in the field.

Physical Fitness

To be honest, I don’t know if hunting fitness deserves the hype it gets. The whole industry around the “mountain athlete” feels weird to me. I blame the rise of social media influencers and Crossfit culture but that’s a discussion for some other time.

Bottom line up front. You’ve got to be in shape for this kind of hunt. Mountain hunting is rough and the Frank Church is known to be brutal. But far too many people hurt themselves in the process.

I’ll caveat the following by saying I am not an expert. I’m just a guy who loves to be fit and push himself. I also want some longevity in these bones and ligaments and saw way too many joes in the military permanently damaged because they didn’t train correctly.

My Issues

Starting around 2017, I started getting severe back spasms and issues in both knees. Even sitting in my truck for my commute would hurt.

I can trace this to a couple of issues. First, I didn’t allow enough for full recovery. At one point, I was dead lifting every other day and pushing heavier and heavier weights. The years leading up to that, I would work out at least twice a day. Swimming, running, and lifting. I also started rucking regularly with 60+lbs. I would get aches periodically but would push through. Eventually, the aches stopped going away and I couldn’t ignore them.

Issue number two. As my obligations and issues started to pile up, I slowed down. Around 2020, my weight got up to 200lbs on my average height frame. I managed to arrest the weight but couldn’t seem to get below 190lbs. I was being counterproductive, I continued to hurt myself with no progress whatsoever. That’s when I started physical therapy in 2022.

My Solutions

What I learned through the physical therapy process was how to work out in order to heal and improve for longevity. It isn’t at all about how much weight you can move or how many burpees you can do. Instead, I started focusing on three basic factors:

• Flexibility
• Stability
• Balance

Flexibility is what allows us to move through a full range of motion. That range of motion is very important when navigating uneven terrain and makes tasks like throwing a leg over a deadfall over and over again much easier and more efficient. It also helps to keep going when our muscles start to tire. Light stretching and going through the entire movement on an exercise can help to improve flexibility.

Stability keeps us upright and centered. But it’s more than just keeping us standing. It’s also keeping our torso aligned to avoid undue strain on our hips and lower back. It’s keeping our knees tracking correctly to avoid one side from becoming overused. Isolation exercises, such as single leg Romanian dead lifts, can improve stability because they engage those stabilizer muscles in ways that compound lifts might hide. Core strength is key for stability as well. Mix in core work throughout the week and keep your core engaged during your normal lifts. Front squats are an easy way to simultaneously engage your core while taking pressure off the spine.

When I say balance what I mean is balancing out the various muscle movements. Try to alternate movements between front and back or push and pull. Alternating tricep and bicep exercise is an easy example. I like to alternate a quad exercise with a hamstring exercise. Strive for the same relative effort for both sides. Isolation movements are good here too. Single leg squats with one foot elevated on a bench keeps your strong side from compensating for your weak side and thus throwing you more out of balance.

A few words on pack work or rucking. It’s not necessary to carry 60lbs for 10 miles five days a week for a workout. Starting 3-4 months out, I’ll throw on 30lbs and do about three miles. I’ll do that once or twice a week at first with maybe a heavier session once a week. If you have small kids, a good backpack carrier can help kill two birds with one stone. As my trip gets closer, I’ll work in more pack work. Three miles is still the average but now I might be doing 3-4 days a week or doing heavier weight.

I separate cardio from weights. Rucking falls under cardio along with a stationary bike (I use a Peloton) and running. As the timeline progresses I start replacing or shifting cardio events. My body seems to respond pretty well to cardio and those three allow me to mix it up with different focuses and impacts.

My knees and back still flare up but I know how to mitigate and prevent further damage. Coupled with diet, I’ve also dropped down to 172lbs and can perform better than I’ve been able to in years. Steady progress over a long period rather than searching for quick results is key to maintaining health and performance for the long haul.

On Shooting

I love to shoot, but I have so many things eating away at my time that I don’t get to the range near as much as I’d like to. I grew up shooting in the thick woods with mostly iron sights. I’ve had very few opportunities to take game beyond 100 yards and even fewer beyond 200. To keep things simple, I’m sticking with a .30-’06 and a 3-9X40 scope. It’s sighted roughly 2 inches high at 100 yards and I practice field positions normally out to 200. This includes prone, sitting unsupported, and sitting supported. I use my trekking poles in an X as expedient shooting sticks for sitting shots. This is quite a solid setup when prone might be impractical.

Overall, my shooting philosophy can be summed up by “get as close as you can, then get closer.” In some of his later writing, Jack O’Connor even mentions how if you can’t hit an animal with a flat shooting rifle and top-of-shoulder hold then you are too far away. I hold on to this even as technology is constantly questioning what an ethical distance is. For me, it keeps things clean and simple and keeps it hunting instead of sniping.

Best advice I can give if you aren’t a precision aficionado is focus on shooting good groups from actual field positions. Having to go from a bench to a tree or rock or pack is what I believe messes up a lot more hunters than are willing to admit it. Being a good game shot is dependent on making good shots from less than ideal positions. It’s also about practicing temperance and knowing that not every shot should be taken.

In Closing

So there it is. Months of intentional and years of unintentional preparation distilled into less than 1500 words. Perhaps I may one day go into greater detail. Though that may not be necessary because there’s more than one way to skin a cat and no one person has the magic recipe. I know what is currently working for me but I’m constantly tweaking my process to address different issues and circumstances. Whatever your next big adventure, you have to figure out what works best for you.

As I said before, I’m prewriting this and when it publishes, I’ll already be in the Frank Church. Hopefully all this wasn’t just bullshit but either way, I plan to write about what worked and what didn’t in a future article.