Close Calls and Predator Encounters - Donnie Vincent's Rules for Thriving in the Wild.

Facing the Wild: Donnie Vincent on Risk, Gear, and Going Deep Into the Backcountry

On this gripping episode of The Hunt Stealth Podcast, Ryan Uffens sits down with legendary filmmaker, biologist, and backcountry hunter Donnie Vincent to unravel the raw reality of what it takes to survive—and thrive—on some of the most remote hunts on the planet.

Donnie recounts harrowing moments from the cliffs of the Chugach Mountains to brutal seas off the Aleutian chain. From lightning strikes at 5,000 feet to navigating canoe-splitting storms in Northern Ontario, this isn’t your average hunting story—it’s a survival manual forged in real danger.

But it’s not just about close calls. Donnie shares a step-by-step breakdown of how to build a backcountry hunting system, from gear to mindset. He reveals the "system of systems" philosophy that every serious hunter must develop—covering clothing, shelters, clean water, food prep, layering, understanding terrain, and navigating grizzly country. Whether you're bowhunting moose or planning your first solo trip into bear country, this episode is packed with life-saving tips, hard-won experience, and mindset shifts to prepare for the wild.

For new hunters and seasoned adventurers alike, Donnie’s words are a mix of grit, wisdom, and reverence for nature. If you’re ready to stop romanticizing the backcountry and start preparing like your life depends on it—because sometimes it does—this is the episode you don’t want to miss.

🔥 7 Key Takeaways from the Episode

• You’re never tougher than the terrain – Whether it’s cliff edges in Alaska or chaos in the Bering Sea, nature doesn’t care how skilled you are. Respect it—or risk everything.
• Build a system of systems – Success in the backcountry comes down to dialing in your gear, food, water, shelter, and mindset into a repeatable, resilient framework.
• Know the laws better than your buddies – Don’t rely on campfire rumors. Study state regs yourself—one missing archery stamp can ruin a season.
• Predators aren’t monsters—but they are wild – Grizzlies, black bears, and mountain lions need to be understood, not feared blindly. Know their behavior and plan accordingly.
• Prepare for the “unkunks” – From volcanic eruptions to flash floods, the unknown unknowns are often the deadliest. Prepare like your life depends on it—because it might.
• Borrow brilliance, don’t reinvent – Study gear lists from guys like Aaron Snyder and adapt what works. Even seasoned hunters are always learning.
• Anyone can do it—but not without grit – Big, small, fit, or scrappy—if you’re willing to plan, adapt, and put in the work, the backcountry is yours to conquer.

Transcript

Ryan Uffens (00:00)
You're listening to the Hunt Stealth Podcast.

Ryan Uffens (00:02)
tell me have you had any experiences where you've been out there and it's been sketchy and you're going like what are we doing?

Donnie Vincent (00:10)
many man, that's a great question. I've had that happen to me a lot. I've had that happen to me several times on canoe trips I've had it happen to me. I've had it happen to me on the sides of mountains. I've had it happen to me in the middle of the ocean and I was hunting, doll sheep, bow hunting, doll sheep in Alaska a few years ago in October in the Chugach Mountains. It's a really young mountain range, a steep, dangerous mountain range and it was a lot of...

lot of snow, a lot of ice on that particular trip and I had to cross some cliffs to get in on a big ram that I had my eye on and it was just very little room for error. If I would have slipped or one of my guys would have slipped we would have certainly lost our lives. that was, you know, that's one of those things where you're just really, really paying attention at your boot leather and you're looking at the sole of your boot, you're looking at all the little edges and all the little nooks and crannies and everything is...

hyper -focused and you're doing everything one -handed because you have your bow in one hand, you're holding on to the rock with the other hand and then the photographer, he's got his camera in one hand, he's holding on to the rock with the other hand and then, you know, we've had times where we've been in the ocean, winds of ADAC comes to mind as we had some really scary waves, really disorganized waves and it just felt like if you look on a map, it's the entire Bering Sea to our north.

You look to our south, it's the entire Gulf of Alaska. There's a couple little pieces of land in the Aleutian chain and then the next piece of dirt isn't until Hawaii. And so it's this massive, massive area of ocean. You have deep water coming to shallow water. You have huge winds. You have huge currents and it results in very disorganized. You see the waves are kind of peaked out and it's not like a lake where they're just flowing like this. They're all over the place.

your boat is skidding down them and your boat's falling off the top and it's, you feel as small as you could possibly feel. And you know, like in the back of my mind, these waves sink or whatever it is, accidents, like these waves sink massive crab boats every year or every other year. And here we are in a 50 foot boat or whatever. So there's been a number of, I've been in lightning storms. I think being on top of a mountain.

or being in a boat or being in a canoe in the middle of a lake or the most revealing, most exposed you can feel during a thunder lightning storm. I've had them on the tops of mountains and somehow, somehow when you're at 5 ,000 feet, it feels like you're way closer to the lightning than when you're at zero or at 100 or 500. And when you're at 5 ,000, it's just like, is that lightning going through me? Like it feels like it's hitting the mountain. It feels like the thunder is.

It feels like you're standing in the clouds that the thunder's going off and I've had that before. I've also been crossing huge lakes. I was in Northern Ontario one time crossing this huge lake in a canoe and there was this really big swell of waves and I was paddling and my canoe was going up the wave and down the wave and I'm paddling and then I didn't even notice but the huge swell just kept getting smaller and smaller and I was like, I didn't even notice until all of sudden I was

canoeing and I was like, whoa, it's glass. It's flat calm. Like it's really nice. I was like, wow, it's really nice. Then I turned around and it was just hell was coming. The blackest storm had just sucked all the energy out of, you know, the lake that I was crossing. And then, that was, I think there were tornadoes that came down in that area. There were trees. And when I woke up in the morning, there were trees down everywhere. was, yeah, but many, many times I felt very exposed.

Ryan Uffens (04:01)
somebody that's gonna go out into a new area that they haven't been into, what preparations or maybe misconceptions would you tell people maybe don't account for as they're preparing to go out on some of these more remote hunts

Donnie Vincent (04:18)
Yeah, well first things like if you're gonna you know looking into an area the first thing I would recommend to somebody and this seems so obvious but it changes all the time and I've kind of tried to become an expert at the regulations right really what a lot of times hunters they'll talk to their dad or their uncle or a friend or the guy at the bow shop and they'll say yeah that's an over to the counter area you need a prairie elk tag for that and you can get a lot of rumor and a lot of misconceptions so one of the things that I would recommend is somebody they really

Understand the right rules and regulations and what tags they need what hunting licenses they need one time I hunted in Montana and I got to this outfitter at the milk River Eric Albus at the milk River and he's like I Had all my stuff. He's like you have all your tags I was like, yep, and he's like you have an archery stamp and I said, nope And he said yep the state of Montana requires an archery stamp and for some reason they don't sell you one when you buy your tag online so I had to go get my archery stamp, so it's just little things like that, but

you know picking an area apart via maps and understanding the weather and understanding what the extremes are like you said if a thunderstorm comes in Utah you might be from the Midwest where when a thunderstorm comes it's loud and windy and rainy it might spawn a tornado but in Utah it's not going to spawn a tornado but you certainly should probably know about flash floods and understand that

A little dry creek bed that you crossed five hours ago might be a raging torrent now that looks like something you could probably cross because it doesn't look real. It just looks fast, but it could be a life ending situation. And so just looking at things like that. And then when you're, when you're doing things like I do and going into the back country or caribou moose, grizzly bears, things like that, if you don't have a guide, like for black bear moose or caribou, you really want to start breaking down your system and understanding.

Okay, what does your camp look like? Okay, I need a tent, I need a sleeping pad, I need a sleeping bag. What type of sleeping bag do I need? What temperature ranges am I looking at? How wet is it going to be? And then you start looking at your stove and the type of fuel that you want to use and the food that you want to eat and how you're going to get clean water. Are you just dipping your bottle in a mountain stream or are you using a water purifier because your camp next to a lake that has beavers in it or a lake that just certainly has microbes in it?

And so then you break down your shelter, you break down your clean drinking water, and then from there you move on to your clothing and understand what layers you're gonna need, what level of reindeer you're gonna need. Are you gonna need something like Kuiu or Sitka? Or are you gonna need something that if you're in a true deluge, are you gonna need like a PVC reindeer, something like from Grundin's or whatever that's true plastic, that cheap stuff that's just truly, truly waterproof? And so you start breaking all those things down and then...

and then of course it's understanding the animals. Are you going to an area that has a lot of bulls, a few bulls, a lot of females, a few females? Would it be better to get a cow tag? Better to get a bull tag? And if there is a bull tag, are you buying like a five point side tag to where there's very few five points? So just really understanding all your little categorical things to make your hunt a success. And then understanding the, a friend of mine calls them uncunks, the unknown unknowns. So.

What do you have for weather in the area? What is really dangerous? Like I leave for Alaska next Sunday or a week from Sunday. And the area that I'm going has, I'm not going to say a lot, but experiences volcanic eruptions. It experiences earthquakes on relatively regular. There's massive, massive bears where I'm going. And so these are things that I kind of have to understand. I'm flying in little airplanes, so I have to prepare myself as weird as this is.

I have to try to keep my gear and my satellite SOS device. That's something I have to keep close to me when I'm in the airplane, because if get an airplane crash, I'm most likely going to lose my life, but if I don't lose my life, I have to have a secondary process of getting out of that. So it's literally just, I think people look at other people's hunts, my own, other people whose hunts are a little bit more public, and they look at...

you know, like a big set of caribou antlers or something. they, and they think like, ⁓ man, how do I get one of those? And really it's about a system of systems and really starting to break it down into digestible pieces. Anyone can do it. Even big fat guys, can do it. You just got to go take one step at a time or little skinny guys that are kind of, know, if they're weak, you have to just carry less gear and make multiple trips. Like anyone can do it for the most part.

And so it's just breaking down the system of system and it's really understanding and then being honest with yourself, right? If you have a crippling fear of bears, maybe this isn't the area for you that has giant bears because even though the bears probably aren't gonna harass you, maybe you're not gonna sleep at night. Maybe every little twig that snaps at night, you're gonna be like, what is that? What was that? What was that? I thought I saw that bush move over there. I remember the first few times I was in grizzly country. It didn't bother me, but I remember when I would...

Cross through valleys that were choked with brush Like I felt like I was gonna be just snatched down by grizzly bears So I would say that's what I would recommend to somebody is understanding the regulations understanding the animals understanding and then breaking everything down in systems of systems Google other people's gear lists Find out you know you take somebody like my friend Aaron Snyder from Kaffaru You know Aaron does a lot of backcountry hunts so Aaron might have

And I've done a lot of backcountry hunts, but does that mean I can't learn from Aaron? No, he might have... I might look at his gear list and he says, hey, for blisters, I use Leuko tape. And I sit there and I go, I've never even heard of Leuko tape. So I look up Leuko tape and then I look it up and figure out how to patch my blister with Leuko tape. And I've taken a little piece from Aaron. And so I would recommend that people kind of look at other people's systems and then start to formulate their own on what they can afford and then the type of gear that they're going to need.

Ryan Uffens (10:21)
awesome. You know you talked a little bit about you know being scared seeing grizzlies and stuff like that. Is there any advice that you would give to somebody as far as just being aware of like the wildlife and the habitat as they go into some of the backcountry type hunts and more remote things?

Donnie Vincent (10:40)
Yeah, think it's just understanding really what's there. Mostly in the United States, really your big animals you're really thinking about are mountain lions would be a significant one. Grizzly bears and brown bears. I guess if you're gonna be way up in the north, you're gonna be thinking about polar bears. But black bears are less of a significance. They do kill people and everyone likes to quote this statistic, whether it's true or not, I'm not sure.

Black bears kill about three times as many people as grizzly bears. But people also have to realize that there are black bears almost everywhere. And that people are around black bears a lot and black bears are opportunistic. They do kill and it's not just that they kill little old ladies and little kids, which sometimes happens, but they have, I know a couple of guys that are, were really, really strong mountain men. And I know one in particular that was killed by a black bear and killed on an archery hunt and a bear.

Consumed him a little bit, but but it's understanding like really what you have like where I'm going I've not hunted a ton in Montana and I'm not hunted a ton in Wyoming But I have friends that have and they talk all the time about hey, we're seeing a lot of bears We're seeing a lot of grizzly bears and we're seeing a lot of aggressive bears And so they were kind of talking to me. They said do you see a lot of bears in Alaska? And I said well depends on where I am. Sometimes I see a ton of bears

And then they said, well, how aggressive are they? And I've been around aggressive bears and I've been around bears that aren't aggressive. So you just kind of have to feel a lot all out. But for instance, where I'm going a week from Sunday is the biggest bears in the world. It's the northern part of the Alaska peninsula, very similar to the bears on Kodiak. And peninsula bears are very, very large bears. But when I'm there, the salmon are going to be running. So will I see bears? Probably.

If I have to go and cross some of these ravines and steep ravines, which I very likely will have to go through this brush choked and I mean, I do mean brush choked. It's head high, 15 feet tall, like impenetrable brush. Like you could, you can't even fall down, Ryan, because the brush catches you if you fall. Like if you stumble and fall, you just kind of go like this and then you stand back up and it's nasty, that's thorns. But those bears for the most part are going to be combing the beaches.

for dead whales, dead seals, kelp, salmon that have just washed up on shore, and they're also gonna be in the river systems catching fresh fish and eating them as fast as they can. So I'm not worried about these bears, even if I, I shouldn't say I'm not worried. I'm understanding that they are probably busy, and even if I run into them, they're probably very full. So unless I bump a bear,

which is an entire possibility and to where I scare him significantly enough that he attacks me. That's the one thing that I really have in my mind's eye and I will, this is a rifle hunt, so I will have a bolt action rifle with me. I don't believe there's gonna be any other weapons with us. Sometimes I've brought a shotgun to keep in the tent. I'll bring like a slug gun if we're archery hunting. I've never carried a pistol. I know some guys carry pistols, I've never.

I haven't been a pistol guy as of yet. know, I think somebody just killed a bear with a pistol, was recently attacked and shot a bear. So it's just understanding and then like mountain lions also, you're just looking at the biology of the animals. So if you're in an area with mountain lions and almost all of these animals like everything, like anything down from a child's fable up to what the grizzly old mountain man will kind of tell you, they get...

They these animals get turned into monsters, right? They get sensationalized into the blood dripping off their teeth and claws and he's a man eater. You hear those terms right man eater and once that bear tastes blood he's coming for you. Well, could be further from the truth. Most of these animals are just going about their business and even mountain lions, which do kill people occasionally. You just have to have your wits about you, right? And you have to be able to keep looking behind you and just understand what you're dealing with.

Ryan Uffens (14:32)
Yeah.