Bwana Bubba

Days of past with this hunt outside of Pilot Rock, Oregon up East Birch Creek and up near Little Pearson Creek and Foggy Knob.  Yes these were famous places of days past for elk and deer hunting.  I once wrote a short story about “Wild Bill Campbell” and what it was like hunting his ranch.   Well this short story was an interesting one that left many people wondering about each other.

I had invited my taxidermist Jim August, Richard Shipe (S&H Green Stamp Regional V.P.), Doc, Ben Olson on this hunt.  Richard and I knew each other via Burns Bros., Inc. with him taking care of our company on the S & H Green Stamps, an item that we gave out to truck drivers that bought fuel.  His brother-in-law DOC was always invited on hunts.

It was a crazy hunt with Jim August trying to slip in Rocky Mtn. Oysters at dinner one night and me going ballistic with him.   Richard a once professional big league ball player grabbed Jim’s arm at the table.  All ended up well on the hunt.

Doc,  what a shot he was on this hunt, with him emptying his BAR 270 twice on branch bulls that came up out of the bottom of Little Pearson Creek.  Missing all of the bulls at 150 yards, I am sure that he thought his hunt was over!  How ironic that another branch bull came up and he made this shot.

On the way back to camp one evening with Richard I had made a comment that I had never ever had a bull run across the road in front of me.  Ben had been in the bottom of Dark Canyon and had driven a small herd from out of the bottom.   This Dark Canyon really was dark, with old growth timber that was dense.  Elk would hold up in here when the pressure got strong.  Most elk hunters that ventured into Dark Canyon would start from the top and come out on Pearson Creek Road.  It has since been clear cut-ted and just not the same.

Anyway with Ben pushing the herd out of the timber they cut right across our path at about 100 yards.  We were on an old logging road.  The truck had come to a stop with the emergency brake, but I was already on one knee after running a short distance to get a clear shot.   As I pulled down I could see horns and pulled the trigger hitting the only bull in the herd with a 210gr. Nosler Partition from my trusty Weatherby 340 Custom.  That trusty Weatherby 340 had taken a great number of bulls from Pilot Rock.  A number of bulls were seen by all of the hunters and we should have tagged out on the trip.  Some need to learn to shoot and not count points first.  The Hurly group that camped this trip at 4 Corners did tag out.   If I remember they made the trip every elk hunting year and came from Merlin, OR.  They were always successful and I know that Bill Campbell enjoyed their company during the season.

I love to hunt the whole Pearson Creek Drainage and do miss the area.

7 x 6 Bull – Did win the pot on this bull though!

Years ago I loved to hunt for elk in the Snake River Canyon.   I had a couple of horses that were great riding and pack horses.   It was nothing to see bulls at long range during the season and try to find a way to get to them or shot long range shots.

The picture in this post, was one of those long range shots.  I wish that I had more pictures, but can’t find them.   I had hunted the year before and missed a big bull as I hastily taken the shot without getting setup properly.

I had trade hunting spots with a fellow named Randy.  He wanted a place to hunt in the Steens Mountains and wanted the hot-spots.  So I got the hot-spot near Tee-Pee Springs in the lower part of the Snake River.

I had found a great observation spot to glass for elk.  This spot I had found the year before and I knew I would have to hustle to get this shooting rock and got there about an hour before first light.

As usual when dawn is breaking and your sitting there waiting, you have tendency to fall asleep as the temperature drops.  Kinda weird how this happens!  I had spotted a couple elk prior to this, but they were cows on the move.  I told myself as I slapped myself that I could not fall asleep and not get the first lick in.   Well this did payoff, but barely.

About a 1000 yards off, or three ridges off in the distance, I see the flash of horn.  I quickly use the spotting scope and could see a branched bull.   He is broadside in a down timber patch.   I say what the heck, can’t kill them if you don’t take the shot.  After the first shot, the bull turns and heads uphill and stops standing straight away from me.   I figure at this time I need to aim between the horns and hold about 48 high or so.   There was no wind and I had a great rest.  I also know that my 340 Weatherby with the 210gr. Nosler would get there.   I have loved this caliber for long range shots.   As the distance was great, I did lose sight of the bull.  I felt that I had hit him and I would need to work my way over there.  It took about 40 minutes to hit a game trail that would allow me to get into the patch.   As I approached the area and was about 150 yards away I could see the bull bedded on the steep hillside in the down timber.

The bull’s head was up, but he could clearly see me, but wasn’t getting up.  I was able to get a clear shot and put him down the rest of the way.  Under inspection, I found my original bull hole in the neck.  It had touched the just about everything in the neck.

Getting the bull out is another story about working my old horse Czar and almost losing my other horse on the pack-out.

First Elk – Shot at 50 yards from the prone position

In the days when the Warnock’s own a very large partial of land between Bake Oven Rd and Hwy 197 The Dalles-California Hwy, Randy would give access to first time hunters.  I had called Randy Warnock in September and asked him if it would be alright for my son who turned 12 the day of the opening cow elk hunt for the Maupin Hunt Unit to hunt for a cow elk.  Randy Warnock said no problem at all for Frankie to hunt for his first elk. Randy was great host and allowed us to hunt the whole ranch, giving us some of the spots to hunt.  Linda, Frankie and I would camp down at Spring Hollow.  Looking at this country from the road one would never think that any elk would live there or even migrate through. The road isn’t called Bake Oven Road because it’s a nice place to be. Anyway the first day, all we could see were bulls and plenty of them.  Some were as close at 50 yards.  What a sight for Frankie to see and have the opportunity to experience.The next day things came up a bit better as we were venturing down into Deep Creek via Johnson Draw.  All of a sudden I spot about 400 elk up in the Power lines.  How were we going to get close as we had to go down a long road in the open?  I would have to get Frankie close to the elk for him to make a clean kill shot. We had closed the distance to about 300 yards when the gig was up with the elk.  There just were too many eyes covering the canyon with little chance to get closer.  We could only watch as the elk busted out and ran down into the bottom of Deep Creek.  Later in the day we decided to hunt an area called “The Watermelon Patch”, a spot the Randy said would be great for an evening hunt.  “The Watermelon Patch” was down in the bottom of a canyon that Deep  Creek went through on its way to the Deschutes River.  After getting to the bottom and not seeing any elk, I told Linda and Frankie to wait while I ventured up a draw that had the feeling of elk present.  It just looked like there should be elk harboring in this spot with water, cover and feed being plentiful.  Having traveled about 500 yards, I caught sight of about 25 elk with 5 bulls and 20 cows.  I quickly backed out of the area and ran down to Frankie.  I grabbed Frankie and carried him up the draw with his rifle.  We got very close to the elk which was about 50 yards.  We were on a very steep hill side with an uphill shot to a cow elk.  I lay down on the ground and had Frankie take a rest on my side, setup and take a deep breath.  Frankie made a great one shot kill on the cow elk! We were very thankful that I had a Quad and about 1000 yards of aircraft cable.

The following year Frankie, Becky and his mom had tags again for the same area and they harvested 2 elk on that trip in a blizzard.  Linda’s comment was “stop shooting it looks like a massacre.”  Two elk was enough elk to kill on this trip and then have to quarter them and pack out in the blizzard with everyone having a cold.

P.S. “The Watermelon Patch” got its name from the Warnock’s planting Watermelons there!

Dad will get it out of here, no worry!