Questions about frank church wilderness

[khart_6882]

Howdy

My buddy and I are planning our first mule deer/elk hunt into the frank church wilderness this October for roughly 8 days, I’ve got some questions and was hoping to get some advice here. We’re not positive on exactly where we’re gonna go but we’re thinking somewhere in the vicinity of pistol creek. We are both experienced horsemen who ride 4-5 days a week. We’re gonna take the horses on a scouting trip in July to hopefully find some possible spots to set up camp.
I’ve read lots that game isn’t the most plentiful and you’ve gotta work for it and find the critters but that isn’t really my top concern right now.
My main question is how tough is it to find a good grassy meadow to camp with water for the horses? I know the amount of grass can vary with how dry of a summer we get. On the maps every drainage shows a crick in the bottom of it but I’m aware a lot of those are seasonal. We’re taking in 5 horses and the last thing I want to happen is to ride into where we planned on camping and find that the crick dried up and another group camped there in September and all the grass is gone.
Sorry kind of a strange question I guess but my horses going hungry because I didn’t bring enough feed would be a serious problem for me. And bringing in enough feed for 5 horses for 8 days would be tough

 

[PNWGATOR]

Your July scouting trip will give you a better feel for things. Plan on taking supplemental feed and allow time for hobbled or hot wired grazing time. We grazed our four a couple hours a day and supplemented with compressed alfalfa and senior feed. Grass wasn’t great, but the horses didn’t starve. You’ll get an idea of what the water situation looks like and we generally get moisture in October.

 

[Mike 338]

As PNWGATOR stated, water can be ok that time of year except up high but grass is usually rather poor. The scouting trip is the ticket.

 

[khart_6882]

Copy. Thanks for the intel guys. I was planning on bringing in 3 bags of sweet cob, sounds like there should be enough grass to make it through on that

 

[JaredJ]

Im interested to follow, as I am still a year or two our from doing a similar trip.

 

[idahohikker]

Do a fun pack in during the summer and hunt elsewhere. After years hunting in the Frank pretty deep and talking to countless guys and bios about their experience, I've found there just isn't many animals there. Why pick one of the worst hunting spots in the state when you have a ton of options for backcountry horse hunts?

There will be grass along the creekbottom areas of all the main drainages. The Frank is real dry so I wouldn't expect much for feed quality. The scouting trip won't tell you if guys camp there in September and expect multiple horse camps along Pistol Creek and the larger sub-drainages. Not an easy thing to plan.

I'm happy to advise on the area you're considering but you really should use your horse advantage on a decent area unless you are just completely enamored with that specific wilderness. Hunter numbers have exploded there (2x growth in 5 years) and an outfitter hits Pistol Creek area pretty hard.

Again, the Frank is great but hunting is really difficult with all the hunters in there now. I've moved on from that vicinity, just trying to help a fellow Rokslider out.