Category Archives: The Henninger’s

Henninger’s 2013 Oregon Warner Pronghorn Hunt

Reason why Mapping and GPS are important!

This is not much of a story, but it is an example of wanting to know where to hunt.

I have known J. Henninger for a great deal of years, along with his brother Brian Henninger the PGA golfer.  John use to hunt with his brother Brian a great deal when their children were young.   I had lined up Brian to hunt on old ranch in the Grizzly Unit for Elk and Deer, so John had the privilege to be able to hunt the Old Smith Ranch outside of Antelope, Oregon for a number of years.

Last year I get an email from John that he had gotten an Oregon Warner Unit Pronghorn – Antelope Tag for rifle hunting.  Wanted to know if I had spots for the Warner Unit.  Sent back an email that I had it dialed in for hunting Lopes for the unit.

John's Oregon Warner Unit Rifle Pronghorn Buck!
John’s Oregon Warner Unit Rifle Pronghorn Buck!

Told John I would send him waypoints and what GPS does he or does he have a GPS and any mapping for the area.   After a number of emails, John did have a Bushnell GPS.   Hmm!  This will take some work and I sent him TXT file that he would have to hand input into the Bushnell GPS.

Of course I said to John, now get yourself a colored Garmin GPS and get the mapping from the Montana company which now is called Hunt onXmaps.

I get text message from John in the field that the file won’t load to his Bushnell GPS.  Great I tell myself, why hadn’t he call me sooner and get this straight?

I then printed out the TXT file and send a JPG picture of it to John to hand load to his GPS.

I did later get a text message from John that he had harvest an Antelope in the Warner Unit of Oregon.  Hmm!

In closing on this short blog of the Oregon Warner Rifle Antelope Hunt in Oregon, is that you wait from 10 to 20 years for a tag, why not spend a little bit of the gas money that I have saved you and buy a good Garmin GPS and the proper mapping to go with it…

 

 

 

The above picture of John’s Oregon Buck is a great picture.   Very clean and setup well!

Bwana Bubba aka Frank Biggs

 

Hunter Henninger – 2009 Oregon Mule Deer Hunt

A great father and son Mule Deer hunt in the Breaks of Pilot Rock – Oregon

Looks like to me that Hunter Henninger has become quite the shooter, following his dad’s footsteps in using the 257 Weatherby.   aka “257 BAD” 

Many years back when I was working for Fisherman’s Marine & Outdoor in Portland, OR, Brian Henninger called me and said “Frank I think I need another Weatherby” “What do you think about 257 as hunting caliber?”

I of course told him that is a great round that can be used for anything in North America for hunting.   Sometimes you might even wanted to tag out a gray digger at 500 yards and see them fly!

The amount of big game that Henninger’s Weatherby MK V 257 has or will have taken at any range shooting will be history and future!  One of the finest rounds that Weatherby has produced for big game hunting.

I remember a big Mulie buck Brian himself took in the Antelope, Oregon area one year.   350 yard downhill running Mulie that was anchored with one shot!

As said by Brian Henninger, Hunter’s Dad!

“This deer was huge…Hunter from 250yds! 257 mag!”

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Hunter Henninger’s 2009 Mule Deer – Pilot Rock – Oregon

Hunter Henninger & Brian Henninger Pilot Rock – Oregon 2008

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        Hunter Henninger with his 2008 Pilot Rock Buck

I do have to share the story that I got from Brian Henninger after his 2008 Oregon Deer Hunt with his son Hunter in the Pilot Rock area of Oregon.  

Brian had set this hunt up for Hunter a couple of years back for Oregon Deer in 2008.   Hunter has taken big game before in Oregon and Texas before, proving his capabilities to shoot on the run.

I do love it when a father is able to teach their son or daughter to be able to shoot instinctive and make a great shot at a running animal. “Blink”

It was no different on this hunt for Hunter, he and his dad had spotted the deer from a distance and made a stalk on the buck, only to have him jump out of the draw on a dead run.   As you can see from the picture Hunter made the running shot and put the dandy buck down.   I can only wait to see Hunter take his first elk, which will most likely be in 2009.

Brian rounded up take a buck later in the same area.  From what I understand that these bucks were the best of the lot.

Deer numbers have been down in the area from the information I have gather from other hunters this year.

Great Shot and Hunt – Hunter Henninger.

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        Brian Henninger with his 2008 Pilot Rock Buck

1998 Grizzly Unit Oregon Elk Hunt – Henninger Bros.

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The Henninger Group 1998 – Hunting the Oregon Wild West

It is Brian Henninger and John Henninger’s first hunt for elk at Earl Smith Ranch.  I had been able to line up Brian Henninger to hunt Earl’s place after I mentioned that Brian was a PGA Tour Pro and that he was very trustworthy and spent a lot of time on a ranch growing up.  Earl and his wife Ann when they had time would play golf in the old days.   Earl has since past away and Ann has move into a Central Oregon town next to a golf course.  

Getting on with the hunt that Brian and John had going on at Earl’s Place.  Most of this has been relayed to me from Brian of course as I was working the high ground in the unit north of the ranch.  I was able to view much of the ground that the two of them hunted. Knowing exactly where Brian and John were hunting made it easy for me to understand the story.  They had been hunting the most Northern part of the Grizzly Hunt Unit, near Hastings and Maupin Butte.   It’s fairly easy to get into the part of the ranch.   On any given day there could be 200 plus elk utilizing the rim rock top of Maupin Butte.   Earl really never liked elk being a cattle & wheat rancher.  If he had his way all elk would be gone from his ranch.  He just hated to feed them all the time on his dime.

Prior to harvesting the two dandy bulls, I remember a story about how the hunt had gone the day before with hunting Earl’s Place.   Brian and John could see a large herd making their way to the fence line, surely going to go over or through the fence.   There were many branch bulls in the herd.  The herd was moving from the Washington Family Ranch which Young Life ran.   Young Life allowed hunting to perspective hunters that would donate money to them. 

The following is my observation of the happenings.  As the herd was moving to the fence to my surprise wranglers on horse pack were in pursuit of the herd.   They were able to turn the herd back before going over the fence.  A couple of bulls escaped the pursuit by the Ranch Patrol.

Later the next day Brian Henninger and John Henninger spotted about 5 bulls near Maupin Butte.   Brian and John could see a real dandy in the group leading the herd.
Brian had the first shot and would catch the bull coming out of the Junipers.  Little did he know that the biggest bull pulled up and the 5X5 moved up front?   Brian got the 5X5 and John got the big 6X6 bull.  About two years later Brian Henninger was able to get the monster bull and John Henninger would take a smaller bull.

I did have a little fun with this picture and had to put it back in history.   Hunting Earl’s was like hunting the old west.  The fences seem to be a hundred years old!

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Brian Henninger – 300 Weatherby MK V

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John Henninger – 300 Weatherby MKV

2007 Silvies Unit Antelope – Brian Henninger PGA Tour Pro

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 Hunter Henninger with Dad’s Silvies – Antelope

Hunter Henninger already accomplished hunter:  http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080203/SPORTS02/154881907/-1/SPORTS02

I do believe that this was the first Big Game Hunt for Brian Henninger with his son aboard in Oregon.   What a hunt for Hunter Henninger to go on, but an Antelope hunt with his dad.   He would have the chance to see game and of course watch his dad harvest a nice Pronghorn – Antelope buck.

As with the two Frank’s in another story, I loaded up a Garmin E-Map GPS for Brian with what I thought were the best waypoints for him to hunt the Silvies Unit.   Brian had waited some 12 years with his collective gathering of preference points to materialize into a Antelope hunt.   This was Brian’s first Antelope hunt in Oregon.

Once hooked on Antelope hunting one wants to hunt them forever.  Only problem it does take a long time to get a tag in Oregon.  You have a great chance in Oregon to take a Boone & Crockett Pronghorn.   You just have to wait it out and not get anxious! 

I do remember Brian’s comment to me after he harvest his dandy buck and got it pack-out to the truck.   “Frank after I left and went down the road about a 1/4 mile, I saw the biggest buck ever standing by a fence line.”   This is the typical case when it comes to Antelope hunting, especially in Oregon.  It has happen to me a number of times while archery hunting for Pronghorns.

 Hunter assisted his dad with the GPS and was an expert in a very short while, giving directions to dad in the field.  I also understand that Hunter Henninger could spot the Antelope better than dad in the field.   Kids are always quick when it comes to spotting animals once they have been trained to spot for something out of the ordinary.

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Brian Henninger with his 07 Silvies Antelope & 300 Weatherby

Check out Brian’s Children’s Foundation:

 http://www.brianhenninger.com/

http://www.brianhenninger.com/index.php