David Martinez has built his life around wild places.
Known to many as @inthesemountains, he’s a big game guide in Alaska and Idaho and a renowned wildlife photographer whose primary pursuit is wild sheep. His work isn’t about chasing trends, it’s about documenting animals where they live. Steep cliffs. Broken rock. Wind-cut ridgelines. The kind of country that demands effort just to stand in it.
Before guiding and photography became his profession, David spent time in the Marine corps with multiple combat deployments and was medically retired. That chapter shaped the way he approaches risk, responsibility, and preparation. Discipline, attention to detail, and the understanding that equipment has to function when it’s called upon, those lessons carried over directly into his life in the mountains. There’s no separation between who he was then and how he works now.
His career has been shaped by time, not shortcuts. Years spent packing into remote camps, learning terrain from the ground up, understanding animal movement through seasons, not just through a viewfinder. Guiding sharpened his instincts. Photography refined his patience. Together, they’ve built a reputation rooted in authenticity. Brands, publications, and hunters follow his work because it’s real. The country is real. The effort is real.
At the beginning of 2026, he joined Team Bushnell.
David doesn’t guide sheep hunts, he studies and photographs sheep in their element. Sometimes that’s during a hunt. Often it’s not. It’s just him climbing before daylight, picking apart terrain through binoculars, and waiting for a ram to step into clean light. That kind of repetition, hours and hours behind glass, creates a high standard for the tools he carries.
His guiding career demands another level of accountability. In Alaska and Idaho, clients depend on him to read country, manage risk, and make decisions that matter. Weather shifts. Terrain punishes mistakes. There’s no room for ego, only preparation and awareness. That responsibility shapes how he approaches everything, including the gear he trusts.
Optics get knocked against shale. They ride in rafts and Super Cubs. They live in packs that get dropped on rock. They sit in sleet, dust, and snow. In that kind of country, durability isn’t a feature, it’s the baseline.
In grizzly country, David carries a Marlin lever gun for protection from dangerous game. It’s a tool, not a prop. When you’re guiding in Alaska, your rifle has to work without question. His life can rely on it.
On that rifle, he runs the Bushnell R5 1–6×24 riflescope.
Low power for speed. Enough magnification when distance stretches. Compact and balanced on a lever gun meant to move quickly. Most importantly, it holds zero, handles abuse, and performs when it needs to. No drama. No second-guessing.
David is also a husband and father of three. The mountains are where he works, but reliability isn’t abstract for him. Gear that performs in the moment matters, because the work is real, the terrain is unforgiving, and coming home is part of the equation.
In many ways, David is the testing point for optic durability. His daily reality, rough travel, unforgiving terrain, and constant exposure to the elements is exactly what our optics are built to handle. Not the bench. Not perfect conditions. The moment when things are cold, wet, steep, and real.
Bushnell builds workhorse optics. Tools meant to be used hard and trusted completely.
When someone who spends this much time behind glass chooses what he carries, it comes from experience and from knowing that performance in the moment is what counts.
