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Last day Madras Deer hunt!

December 20, 2009 Frank Biggs Leave a comment

It is hard to remember the year and since I never got this buck mounted to hang on my wall, I would have never remembered the actual year. Ok! I do remember the year, same year that I went to Adak, AK for special assignment with the Naval Security Group in Feb. of the same year. The hat helped me remember the time frame…
What I do remember about this hunt is that Ben and I were going to hunt the Pine Creek Ranch outside of Clarno, OR. The problem being that we were not going to be able to hunt until Monday, yet we paid the same as the opening weekend groups.

Hay Creek Ranch Mule Deer – Last day of the season!

So we hunted near Ashwood, OR, most likely on Darrel Friends Ranch, as he would give us access to hunt. We had a lot of fun on the hunt, but never connected on anything at Darrel’s place.

We arrived before daybreak on the Pine Creek Ranch and worked hard to harvest a buck, but were pretty picky and never connected here either on the hunt. It was extremely hot on the opening weekend and the week.

Ben had to leave and get back to work at Darigold Dairy and I would be on my own for the rest of the hunt. I got a wild hair to call a rancher that I knew outside of Madras at Gateway, OR. Well JR said that he wanted to hunt with me and that we could work the back country near Hay Creek Ranch off the county road. We did not even get to his gate in the ridge country when we started to see lots of deer, including a number of bucks.

Now you have to remember that JR and his local buddies and family had already hunted for deer and had taken their limit. I would be coming in to do clean-up and hopefully get in on a buck. This was the last day of the hunt and I would shoot almost any buck now, but I wanted it to be a good long range shot to have some challenge on the hunt. I had my 340 Weatherby with 225gr. Sierra Grand Slams (got them free from the rep) on this hunt. JR thought I was a bit on the over kill and I assured him that it would just put a hole through the boiler room, it would though drop the buck in his tracks. A few years later JR would start to use a 338 Win. Mag. with Barnes X to kill deer and elk…

We were cruising around the bare ridges in an old Willys Jeep of JR’s, it made it much easier to cover the ground and steep ridges on a hot day. We spotted a number of bucks, mostly being forked horns and past up on a number of them.

All of a sudden JR spots an ok buck at about 500 yards standing broadside on a bluff. I was able to get out and take a rest. Taking a breath in and moving down to the target, with the set trigger set, I touched off and the buck fell in his tracks. Yes! The pack-out was easy as I knew that JR could get that old Willys Jeep to the deer. Quickly we headed back to a line shack that JR had on his ranch and cleaned the deer.
I would have love to stay for the evening just to see how many bucks we could find, but I had been gone a long time and needed to get back to Portland.

I have had the privilege to hunt deer, elk and exotics on this ranch over the years.

Successful Hunters 2009

Ruppel Owyhee Unit Archery Antelope Hunt

December 20, 2009 Frank Biggs Leave a comment

Scott Ruppel’s 2009 Oregon Owyhee Unit Pronghorn

I had gotten an email from Scott asking about Archery Antelope hunting in the Owyhee Unit for 2009, he had been successful in drawing the tag. I asked him what he had done already to prep for the hunt.

Scott is a great success story; he had already talked with the local biologist for the area and had mapped out the area. He also did a scouting trip for two (2) days just after the rifle season.

Scott also would dedicated if he had too the whole season which is 9 days to get his buck. He gave the spot he was going to work and I told him a previous trip that that area looked really good and to trust the biologist.

Here is the short version that I have on the hunt from Scott. Hopefully I will get a little more detail about the hunt.

“Frank, I killed a nice goat 14 1/4 and 14 3/4 just short of 70 inches. I sat at a water pond for 10 hours and made a 30 yard shot.”

Scott.

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Pine Grove, Oregon Archery Deer Hunt

December 20, 2009 Frank Biggs Leave a comment

It is now always the size of the harvest, but the hunt and story!

Pine Grove, Oregon Blacktail on Opening Day

It is not always about hunting for the largest rack of antler on a deer. For the most part having harvest a number of dandy Mule & Blacktail bucks of the years, I have become pretty picky. Finding it easy to past up on smaller deer and sometimes just take a picture. Maybe I just don’t want the work afterwards that means a pack out.

Now that is not to say that I haven’t harvested some small bucks over the years, I have done so. A couple of them have been Blacktail bucks in more recent years than the past.

On one such hunt I had my son Frankie and another old hunting partner with me. We had gain access to a section of land up out of the town of Pine Grove on the way to Maupin, OR.
Now the rancher/farmer was a tough old bird and pretty picky who he would let on his place. He raised wheat, alfalfa, cattle and of course lots of deer.

My equipment was of course my Martin Pro Series Scepter II, Easton Arrows XX-75’s, Thunder Head 120gr. Broadheads, Mel Stanislawski’s Sight and Superb Arrow Rest. Ya! Know a bit of olds school on shoot aluminum arrows, sight and rest. I had been a shooter for Martin in the past on the word of Mel that I could get the job done.

Martin Scepter II Bow in the field 2011!

Having been in the area before during scouting trips, it was pretty easy to get a lay of the land. On this hunt there where only two (2) people hunting, Frankie and myself, with MM coming in later from a scouting trip for a future rifle hunt in the Grizzly Unit. Frankie and I would hunt slightly different areas, as I wanted to explore and he could work the gravel pit on the property. In remembrance, I should have stayed with him, as he got close to a number of good bucks (No Blood, just rocks). I saw my share of bucks, but could never close the distance on the morning hunt. It had to be about 90 degrees from first light to late into the evening!

It was extremely hot on this hunt and even though I would use the trucks going by and the running canal water used for irrigation, I could not be that quite and there were a lot of deer in the area making close stalking difficult.

Frankie and I regrouped in the afternoon and the old hunting partner came by for the evening hunt. We only had one day to hunt on this opening weekend of deer, as I had to be back to Valley RV in McMinnville on Sunday.

We had about 1 ½ of light left and we started to work a spur road on the property. Frankie and I got glimpse of the buck at the same time to our left; I was already up at full draw and heard the call from MM that he was at fift———y yards as the arrow left my Martin\ Scepter. The arrow hit the buck right in the boiler room, even though he flinched a bit and he went straight up in the air and came down in where he had been bedded. The arrow went completely through the deer and never to be found again.

Not sure if Frankie and MM could believe the shot, as I had released as the range came out of MM’s mouth. We did have to Hawaiian field dress the deer out and make a short pack, the owner of the ranch did not want any kind of vehicles on the place due to fire hazard.

He was a small 3X3 blacktail buck, not much to hang in the garage, but a great shot made on the buck, reassuring my son that the old man can still judge distance and make the shot happen. It was a good hunt with lots of game seen and it was the second time that I have harvested a Blacktail with him along.

Successful Hunters 2009, Youth Hunts & Stories

2009 Oregon Alsea Elk Hunt – Jr’s Hunt

December 6, 2009 Frank Biggs 2 Comments

Frankie and his 583 yard shot Coastal Bull 2009

I would like to say that I was down at Waldport for the 2nd Season Rifle Elk Season this year to watch Frankie, my son shoot his bull at long range, but I was not.

My son Frankie, Jim N. and his hunting buddies down at the coast hunt for different reasons, one being filling the freezers, two for the pleasure of the hunt with friends. It is not always about hunting for the big racks and at the coast, the hunting for large racks is not even close to the eastern and central part of the state. So when these guys are out hunting, they are hunting hard for game to harvest and put in the freeze. The coast can definitly be more difficult with the terrain and plant growth than the other parts of the state.

Jim N. with his Retrival System for the Coast Elk

This has been a tradition of Frankie and Holly of hunting down at Jim & Cindy’s place down near Waldport off of the bay for about three years. It is a great place for the two of them to go as they have a house to say in while down there during the course of the year and during the elk season.

I do believe that Frankie has grown accustom to hunting with the older locals around the area, they have taken a shine to him and know that he will get in there and work when an elk is down or he needs to do some game driving.

Linda and I gave Frankie and Holly the opening weekend to hunt together as we had Addison for the weekend and brought her down Sunday evening.

The weekend would have proven a winner for Frankie if trespassers had not driven into the private farm they were on. Frankie was letting the cow elk pass in front of him at 40 yards expecting the rest of the herd with two (2) bulls in it to pass along also during his ambush of the elk coming out of the pasture into the timber. This was not going to happen as the non-invited hunters drove their pickup into the long driveway and into the remaining herd. The rest is history and they were left empty handed on what should have been a successful opening morning hunt.

John, Frankie and Jim during retrival and getting a rest.

Talked with Frankie on Tuesday and he was pretty depressed about hunting down at the coast and I told him maybe next year we can use the preference points and draw a great eastside tag for Oregon. Sounds Great Dad!

I get a call on Wednesday early on and Frankie tells me he has a bull down in the same place that Jim had gotten his elk in 2007. Wow! Do you need some help in getting him out, from my past memory of getting Jim’s elk out of the marsh? NO Dad, we will be all done by the time you get here.

Not a bad way to gut and skin your elk.

Later within about 1 ½ they had the bull out of the marsh area. I did not remember that Jim had gotten a retrieval season down with a capstan style unit with 2500 feet of heavy rope. Frankie took the line out the bull which was about 600 yards out direct line of sight. Once he got the rope around the head, he made comment that he could not keep up with the speed of the removal.

View from the shooting spot to the elk.

From Frankie’s account of the kill, he had been in Jim’s front area of his property watching the timber across the way and watching to see if any game was going to move out and across the marsh. One of his buddies was on the edge of the timber area moving or pushing the ghosts of the forest. Frankie said that a really big Blacktail buck came out within 300 yards. Within minutes he spots a lone elk at about 500 yards, takes a close look and could see that it was a bull (spike) and knew what to do. The bull was moving right long and he takes the shot, hitting the elk unknown to him in the lower rear leg. Having remembered from training never stop shooting until the elk goes down he makes another shot and this one is right on target in the boiler room. The elk goes down within 15 yards and into the deep part of the marsh. The 1980 vintage 340 Weatherby with 225 grain Barnes X bullets did the job. The range for the shot was range finder at 583 yards. Great shot!

During the rest of the week, Frankie was the brush or timber as beater (driver) and the group was able to get a couple more bulls and one cow elk. So they went 5 for 7 during the Coast Elk Hunt.

I was informed that he had GPS some hotspots and added the waypoints to my Garmin GPS. Maybe this next year I will check it out for archery on elk and hold onto our preference points. Hmm!

1/3 of the way back to the barn

Bwana Bubba Adventurers

Monthly Archives: December 2009

Last day Madras Deer hunt!

Ruppel Owyhee Unit Archery Antelope Hunt

Pine Grove, Oregon Archery Deer Hunt

2009 Oregon Alsea Elk Hunt – Jr’s Hunt

Infamous Bwana Bubba