The Back 40 Journal

The night before my first bird hunt, I decided to clean my shotgun. It was at least forty years old and presumably needed a tune up. I took it apart in the garage following a YouTube tutorial. That, it turned out, was the easy part.

There’s a juniper on the edge of a hillside in the Pioneer Mountains that was never going to make it into a lumberyard. It grew too slow, too crooked, too stubborn—the kind of tree that land managers mark for removal because it’s crowding out the grasses and forbs that the high country depends on.

Fields of golden wheat flicker through the window as the car speeds down the county road. Along the fence line, meadowlarks perch, taking flight as we cut through the quiet morning. 

We’d like to share this beautiful video created by our friends at Brickhouse Creative, called “Last Light,” shot here in Montana on one late fall evening.

Cooking steak—or wild game—in a cast iron skillet is one of the most reliable ways to achieve a rich, flavorful crust and a tender interior. Whether you’re cooking beef or leaner meats like venison or elk, success comes down to a few key techniques...

Periodically we like to do a little profile of small towns across the Northern Rockies that make for great road trips. Why? Well the reasons vary, but usually we want to go to experience a combo of cool scenery, outdoor recreation, nice folks, and just that unique small Western town vibe that makes this the last best place.