THE TACTICAL HUNTER Long-range shooting is all the rage, but it will never replace old-fashioned fieldcraft for stalking big game. Here are one rifle hunter's tricks. STORY AND PHOTOS BY JASON BROOKS
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When glassing for big game, break up your outline to blend into the landscape and stay hidden from the animals you seek.
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American Shooting Journal // August 2022
limbing up out of the steep drainage overlooking Idaho’s Salmon River, I took a quick glance to the far hillside and confirmed the elk were still there. Earlier that morning we had planned to check a spot that is known to hold elk when they get pressured from other hunters. Sure enough, the bench and open slope above were being used as a safe haven by a herd with a few bulls in it. It was time to make a plan and close the distance. I had killed a bull on this very same hillside three years earlier and have been hunting this mountain for nearly 30 years, so when my hunting partner Russ McClellan asked me for my thoughts on how we were going to get within shooting range, my answer was simple: “We need to be tactical about it, as they can see us coming from below, the wide-open slope means we can’t stalk directly to them, and it’s too far of a shot from here.”
