BRETT FRENCH | bfrench@billingsgazette.com
Horsepacking was the main means of outfitting and guiding hunters in the Absaroka-Beartooth Wilderness Area when Jack Atcheson Jr. entered the region in the mid-1960s.
The Forest Service, which oversees permits for outfitters, authorized horsepackers’ fixed base camps, usually tied to one area where the tents would be set up and feed hauled in for horses. Atcheson, however, wanted to offer his clients a different experience.
“I wanted to get a progressive travel permit where I could move around and low-impact camp wherever we happened to be at when the sun went down on any particular day,” he said.
Luckily, the forest supervisor he pitched his idea to was a Butte High graduate and had hunted bighorn sheep. The supervisor authorized the permit and Atcheson Jr. launched his business touting the uniqueness of the outings.
“There is no hunting opportunity in the entire world that is quite like that,” he said.
That’s partly because it’s not easy. Atcheson Jr. would spend 10 days to two weeks in the mountains in search of a ram while carrying 75 to 80 pounds in a backpack, yet he called it the “purest form of hunting” due to the challenges involved and the Spartan-like environment.
“You’ve gotta nut up, basically.”
Since bighorns have a “nasty habit” of leaving, Atcheson was an advocate for sticking with any rams he located.
“If we saw a ram right at dark, and we were 10 miles from camp, we made a nice little nest for ourselves, and that’s where we spent the night.
“Sometimes we got sheep, but sometimes we just got cold.”
Although a Butte, America, native, Atcheson Jr. is a world traveler.
According to the Jack Atcheson & Sons, Inc., website, Atcheson Jr. has visited Africa almost every year since 1971 and has hunted on six continents. At age 23 he completed the North American sheep grand slam, bagging all four species — Dall’s sheep, Stone’s sheep, Rocky Mountain bighorn and desert bighorn.
