DIY HORSEBACK ELK HUNT

In the spirit of western hunting and the DIY ethos of hunting on public land, we join Hunter McWaters of The Hunter's Quest YouTube channel on a DIY horseback elk hunt. For Eastern hunters, the allure of the West is all-encompassing. It's the untouched landscapes that seem as if time has stood still. It's the horizon, disrupted only by a mountain peak rising from the earth. In the East and parts of the Midwest, hunters must scrounge for every morsel of available land to savor nature's bounties. Out West, it's different. It's a place where hunters can lose themselves in God's Country. It's here that Hunter McWaters and his friend, David Merrill, find themselves. A DIY elk hunt is one thing, but doing it on horseback harkens back to the days of cowboys and settlers. It's fitting, then, that Hunter is attempting such an adventure in the western lands of the Cowboy State.

For the hunt, McWaters uses a rifle equipped with an MDT HNT26, an MDT bipod, a Leupold optic, and a 5-round AICS magazine. (Hunting Tip: always confirm zero at camp. Travel with elevation changes can shift a rifle's zero.) After that, it's time to trailer the horses and trek to a point to shove off into the unknown. From there, nature's fury is unleashed upon you—weather, the moon cycle, forest fires, wolves, grizzlies, and inevitably, humans. Even in the vast lands of the West, during the opening week of Wyoming Elk Season, scores of hunters flock to BLM land, ruining those moments meant to be shared only between you, your buddies, and God. It's why so many resist any thought of selling these precious resources.

How do Hunter and his friends fare? Do they survive a dozen grizzly sightings, a faulty canister of bear spray, or a 22-year-old Coleman that finally met its end? Well, tune into the video to find out. Watch The Hunter's Quest w/ Hunter McWaters on YouTube for more epic hunting content.