All posts by Frank Biggs

2018 Warner Unit Pronghorn Hunt – Rick N.

                       Having the Right Tools for the Hunt bring success! @onxHUNT
            All 3 tag holders were successful in the 2018 Warner Unit Hunt in Oregon           

Frank,

I wanted to follow up with you regarding my 2018 Antelope hunt. My family finally drew three tags for the Warner unit second season rifle hunt. We have waited a very long time building the points necessary to receive these tags. Quite frankly too long. Nearly three years ago my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. The effects of Parkinson’s cause a steady decline in motor skills among many other conditions. So, by the time my dad drew the tag this year he has went from an in shape active person to a frail man who has lost most of his mobility. He was able to obtain a disability permit which allows someone who is hunting with him to harvest an animal on his behalf. My dad did draw a tag along with myself and my brother in-law and we all wanted to make the best out of this hunt

Our goals for this hunt have changed considerably since we began acquiring points nearly fifteen years ago. I have taken up archery hunting and now spend most of my hunting time with a stick and a string these days. My brother in-law and I used to hunt with my dad and has considered giving up the sport due to the fact he has lost his hunting partners. My dad has continued to “hunt”, which consists of taking a drive through the woods a couple days a season with either my brother in-law or a close friend my dad has. The three of us agreed we were not setting out to take trophy’s, at least in the sense that most people think of when they hear the word trophy. We instead wanted to create good memories and share a good hunt together. If we managed to fill a tag or two we would be happy with that.

Great that dad was able to make the Hunt with the two sons. Getting to have great memories of a great hunt is important…

None of us have ever hunted Antelope before and this hunt would likely be our only time we would ever hunt Antelope. None of us had ever hunted in the Warner unit either and the only knowledge we had of the unit was from me passing by on the highway. I did some work in Nevada for a couple years and would pass through the area. I saw many Antelope in the fields along the highway as I passed through. When we were notified we had received the tags in June I knew we needed to do some research if we were going to have a successful hunt.

Rick, as many of the hunters I help, did everything right to have a successful hunt, especially wanting to harvest 3 bucks…

One of the first things I came across while looking for information on the internet was your web site (bwanabubba.com) and Ken Dixon’s story of his 2014 Warner Unit Antelope hunt. It was quite the story and I must say Ken did a fantastic job writing. By the end of the read I was feeling very optimistic about our chances. Ken detailed the information he had gained by contacting you. After my initial contact with you I purchased a onX Hunt subscription (which I had been contemplating anyway). After getting hooked up with onX you sent several waypoints which I was able to sync into onX. I then created “off grid” maps as onX Hunts calls them so I could still utilize the maps even without cell service. At your advice I contacted the wildlife bio in the Lakeview field office of ODFW, John. I mentioned the areas near the waypoints you supplied, and he indicated they were all good areas to focus on. During ODFW’s recent fly over counts of the Antelope in the unit there were groups of lopes in near all the waypoints.

One concern of ours was where to stay with my dad due to his mobility issues. After a few more calls we settled on a hotel near Lakeview. We would have to drive out to hunt each day but we felt this accommodated my dad the best. At this point we were set. We had done all we could remotely do to prepare for the hunt. None of us had the means to put boots on the ground or time behind a spotting scope but we were still hoping to do well. I had to work the night shift of opening day and make the five hour drive from east of Portland, so that meant my dad and brother in-law were on their own for day one.

A great hunt is when you see lots of game and are successful in getting what you are looking for…

I got my brother in law set up with some of the off line maps with waypoints on them so he and my dad could hunt on their own before I arrived. I told them to hunt an area Near Fish Creek Rim south of the Plush cut off road. I had been told the roads were better in the area and did not want them having vehicle troubles. They decided to go north out of the Freemont NF into the BLM country with water holes and more of the waypoints you gave to me. After a rough 6 hour ride through the dessert they decided to take my advice and head for better roads. They had not seen an antelope all morning.

Once they reached Plush it was easy to find the Fish Creek rim road . They went about half way through the rim road where they found themselves on some higher ground. They started glassing and soon found a couple groups of Antelope. One group had a nice buck trailing the herd. My brother in law thought if they continued down the road for another mile or so they would be within stalking distance of the buck. Once they dropped off the high point of the road they could no longer see the animals. They stopped where they thought the group would be just over a rise and my brother in law struck out in their direction. After a few hundred yards he spotted the group and the buck. He used shooting sticks and made a long shot and harvested a nice lope! My dad reached me while I was in route to the area. We met at the Adel store where a local offered cold storage. We had about two hours of daylight left so I hopped in with them and off we went.

As soon as we reached the area where the first animal was harvested we started seeing more animals. Soon we came over a hill and there was a buck only 100 yards from the road. This was perfect for my dad. My brother in law and I got out and moved off the road. The buck ran for a short distance then stopped at about 200 yards to look back. One shot and my dad’s buck was on the ground. The best part was my dad was right there and saw the whole thing happen. He was all smiles. We had two animals tagged and in the cooler on the first day.

The next morning we were in the same area. We spotted several bucks and more than 100 Antelope but none that I felt were worthy of my tag or were in a hunt able location. I can’t believe I was being a bit selective on my animal, but after taking two in the first day I felt much more confident we could close the deal. At about 2:00 pm We were on the move to a new area when I spotted a buck moving through some juniper. It did not appear to be aware of us so I thought it was the perfect time to put a stalk on him. I slipped into the junipers and made it about 100 yards when the buck turned and started heading my way. The wind was in my face so the setup was perfect. I watched as the buck raked a couple small trees and fed his way in my direction. He traveled about 300 yards until he was about 150 yards from me when he turned and gave me a good broadside shot. He dropped right where he was and it was done.

We had done it! Three goats in two days. We could not be more pleased with our hunt. Thanks to you Frank for all the valuable information you provided, it placed us in just the right locationto have success. I doubt my father will go on many more hunts and the three of us together, filling all three tags makes this hunt even better. It means the world to me to have shared this time with my family and to have these memories.

Thanks again,   Rick Norris

Bwana Bubba’s Thoughts – Hunting Federal Refuges

William L. Finley National Wildlife Refuge

Oregon

Great hunting opportunities are available at many of the State and Federal Refuges.   In Oregon we are very fortunate to have many of both.   The O.D.F.W. has setup the opportunity of applying for a tag for a specific hunt and refuge, such as Hart Mountain.   As I am directing this article of a specific Federal Refuge, the application process has to be done via the website of the refuge.   There are two (2) different O.D.F.W. tags that can be used for the hunting of elk at the refuge and the over-the-counter general elk tag for the area.

      Though you can not shoot bulls, there are a great deal of them to look at and call for fun…

The Federal Refuge that is mentioned is the WILLIAM L. FINLEY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, located south of Corvallis, Oregon off of Highway 99.   The refuge is approximately 5400 acres, with many ponds, creeks and trails.  It is well known for the birds and waterfowl that live there and migrate through.  The Roosevelt Elk that dwell there -in good herd numbers- is unique, in that the majority of the land near the refuge is flat farm land to the east, south, and north, plus being close to a large city.

The hunting of Roosevelt Elk at William Finley is for cows only, mostly an archery hunt, though, in Zone 1 a shotgun can be used during certain time periods.   So there are two (2) zones for hunting the refuge with Zone 2 being the largest.   Zone 2 is intertwined with Scrub Oak trees, Douglas Fir, Cottonwoods, Beaked Hazelnut, Big Leaf Maples and grasslands.   Very diversified land profile for sure.

I believe it could be a great hunt for anyone that wants to work hard and do some pre-scouting, although the elk will travel many miles and even venture off the refuge into Weyerhaeuser properties that are to the west of Zone 1.  I have found the elk to be quite habit forming in movement.   Elk can work extremely large areas in their feeding routine.

In the past month, since we are now into April,  (Closed to foot traffic November 1st-March 31st) we allowed to go past the gates in most of the refuge, I have found the well-worn trails made by vast herds.  In my opinion, I would hunt Zone 2 since the area is so much larger with a greater opportunity to find Elk.

          There are a number of herds working the Refuge. This being the largest with 100+ 

In a recent scouting trip, we spotted a very large herd of elk with at least 100 head.   It took me about an hour to close the distance of a mile out, give or take a few yards, getting to within 100 yards.  It took so long to get to them because I was wading in water from 2” to 20” over uneven terrain. When the herd finally decided to move out, there was a single file of elk that was about a ¼ miles long. It was simply an amazing sight and the camera did not do justice to what the eye saw.   There were still a couple of spikes with their antlers, and a few new-growth antlered bulls.   It was fun to use my onX HUNT mobile APP and Garmin GPS and mark waypoints of trails and sightings.

I have attached a link to WILLIAM L. FINLEY NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE  (Note: 2018 hunting applications will be available in May 2018. If you are interested in hunting for elk, there is still time to get an application in for the 2018 Hunting Season.   Make sure you have plenty of time to scout, have a good set of boots, and, just in case, a roll-up pair of stocking chest waders for crossing creeks.

                                          Bedded down earlier in the Oaks… Roosevelt Elk

A small tidbit, Blacktail Deer hunting is also available at the refuge, either sex in this case.  One could maybe have a two (2) species hunt…

Bwana Bubba

Mark D’s 2017 Oregon Spring Bear Hunt

Oregon Spring Bear

                       The tool  to know where you are always!

Frank, I am 58 years old now and hunted Spring Bear for about 8 yrs.

         Hmm! That boar was capable of tearing up Roar & Hayden…

I have been to Hell’s Canyon and hell canyons with no luck, though have seen them 2 miles at the bottom.   So I decided to stay close to home do an easy hunt.

We decided to put in for a unit that is only 125 miles away from our home base, which is a lot closer than 300 miles. 

                                                  The Boar & I
                       We got into 3 bears, with one harvest…

Scouting, the area we found fresh bear scat was everywhere. GREAT!  We will come back when the snow has receded a bit more.   At least bears have come out of hibernation.

                              A Black Bear can do some real damage to you and to trees…

So I my hunting buddy Roar and his son Hayden (the flat belly) always good to have a young flat belly along.  Hayden is 6’1″ and 190 lb. 20 yr. old fireman.  We hiked 4 miles into NoTellEm Canyon to a nice meadow split up to glass for a couple of hours.  I glassed down to where those two were sitting to see them scrambling to get in position for a shot. However they missed a beautiful reddish-brown big boar.

                                               Hayden lets, let you drag it back to the truck…

We decided to hike out.  All of sudden there goes the flat belly (Hayden).  We had to hold him back so he wasn’t so far ahead of us.  Some times its pays off to be the older, wiser and slower.  We were about a mile and a half from the truck when flat belly and his father rounded a corner ahead of me. As I came to the corner I couldn’t believe my eyes they had woke the bear up from an afternoon snooze. He stood up and looked their way about 50′ away from them.  I had my chance, scrambled to get my 300 Winchester off my back and my offhand shot was right on to put him down.  Down he went moaning and biting everything in his reach.

                                              Roar (Left) & Mark D. (Right)
                                        2018 all three of us will get Bears

I had spine him (boar).   As we approached he started in again, a little spooky to be that close.  Finished him with another shot.  Now the work begins.

                                                                   Old School – Davy Crockett Style

Yea flat belly offered to drag him all the way to the road.  OK! How to get him back to the truck.  In my infinite wisdom I left the cart back at home (we are not really going to get a bear)?

We call it a pig pole it worked to get him out,  but it was brutal.

ODFW Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife  took a tooth and aged him at 9 yrs. old.

What a great trip.  You bet we’re headed back to the same spot this season.

This time I will bring the cart…………Mark

Nevada Desert Bighorn – Randy R.

Frank here is a short story about my Nevada Sheep Hunt.  Feel Free to pass along!

Nevada Guide Service.   This being my first ever guided hunt, I checked out their referrals and felt good about my choice of guides.

                                                                               My One Shot Ram

This Ram Scored 163 which is a great Ram from this Unit

My son Travis would be joining me on the hunt and we could hardly wait for November.  We chose to hunt the second week, allowing us to spend time with our family over Thanksgiving.   Arriving at camp on the 28th of November around noon, we met with our guide Seth who had a Ram spotted; he thought was worth checking out.   After a long drive we me up with the other guide Jason who had been keeping eyes on the Sheep.   After looking through the spotting scope, I agreed it was a beautiful Ram, but passed as I had not waited this long to hunt Sheep and have it over the first afternoon.

The next morning Travis and Jason headed south while Seth and I went north to find Sheep.  The morning spent with Seth, we looked over dozens of sheep with a handful of nice Rams.  Shortly later we got a call from Jason, saying they had a Ram spotted we needed to look over closer.  After driving many miles south we met up with Travis and Jason, only to find out that the Ram has disappeared in to one of the many folds of rugged terrain.

Glassing up several other Sheep we decided to split up again and glass our way back towards camp.  After stopping at a few spots and spotting several more Sheep, we stopped at one last place before camp.  Right away Seth spotted a group of young Rams.  Looking more to the south, I spotted a couple of ewes.   Telling Seth where they were he got excited and said “look what’s bedded between those two ewes.”   

I knew from the moment I laid the glass on the big Ram, I knew I would be thrilled to take him.  Wanting my son to be there, we called and told Travis and Jason, we’d found the one.

                                                        Family shot- Great mass on this Ram

After a short stalk and steep uphill 350 yards shot, my dream of taking a Sheep had finally come true.

                                                         A moment of solitude with the Ram…

My only regret was tagging out so early in the hunt.   Giving many thanks to Travis, Seth and Jason, I couldn’t have had a better group of hunting partners to share this experience with

                                                  Caped for mounting heading to the game room!

Randy R.

Average Joe’s – Dad’s Wyoming Lope

                     The typical environment of Wyoming Pronghorn…

This isn’t so much a hunting story as a story about family, the passage of years, the things that change, the things that never change, and what it all means to us.

onXmaps. The lopes seemed to know there were some areas where they would not be bothered. They tended to group up on private ground.

We spotted a group of lopes headed south, parallel to the road, about 400 yards out and on BLM ground. As they passed behind a little ridge, Dad had me bail out and he continued on up the road to where the lopes would see the truck move on. I worked down to a point where, if they continued their course, the herd would come out from behind the ridge and maybe give me a shot. Right on time they started to appear, first a few does and yearlings, then a decent buck. I already had my rear on the ground and the rifle settled on the sticks. The shot broke with the crosshairs just behind the shoulder at a bit over 200 yards.

Dad with his 2017 Wyoming Pronghorn and sharing the moment with his son…

Years ago, Frank introduced me to Mike Abel (a fine gentlemen and superb shooter) when Mike drew a South Wagontire tag in Oregon, a unit I had hunted with Franks advice the year before. Mike and I have had a few adventures since then (Blacktails, Bunnies, and Rockchucks, oh my!) and Mike coached me a lot on my shooting (thanks Mike and Frank both), so I had no doubt about the outcome of that shot. The buck ran about 40 yards and piled up.

Dad and I took pictures, field dressed the lope, hauled him to the truck, and followed the road 4 more miles to the campground. A couple other groups of hunters were also there (deer and elk hunters) and we found a site near a creek in a little stand of aspen. I did the heavy lifting as far as setting up camp, but as Dad remarked to some of the other hunters in camp, that was only fair since when I was little he got to do all the work.

The campsite had some elevation and was just a mile or two south of the unit boundary we had tags for. From camp, we could watch lopes through the spotting scope. Not our unit, but still really cool.

         Relaxing in our camp on a great day of sunshine and companionship.

Just setting up camp felt good. It felt great to be setting up worn old camp gear that I remembered from my childhood. The lantern we’d used for 40 years, digging out the old camp stove and kettle… every gouge and ding in that old gear was a reminder of hunts and time with family many years ago. When I opened up a can of stew to heat up for supper, it looked a bit odd though. I checked the bottom of the can and the stamp said “best if used by October 2010”. Some gear does not improve with age. Fortunately Dad had packed enough non-vintage food to keep us twice as long as we were likely to stay.

Next morning we were out glassing a couple big patches of public ground that seemed to attract lopes. We spotted a band grazing and bedding on a flat, just clear of the sage, about a half mile from the road and thought they might be stalkable given the terrain. Once the road passed behind a little hill, Dad bailed out and I drove on about ¼ mile and stopped to watch the show. Dad followed a little dry wash to close most of the distance and made a slow crouching approach through the sage. Wind was gusting at about 20. He kept getting closer, 200, 150, and I kept thinking “What are you waiting for? Shoot!”. Finally they busted him at about 75 yards and the whole band tore out of there at top speed and trailing dust. Turned out the issue was the knee again. The wind was too strong and gusty to take a standing shot, a kneeling shot was not an option due to the recent surgery, and a sitting or prone shot wasn’t possible due to the height of the sage he was using to cover his stalk. By the time he worked past the tall sage, they had spotted him. We decided that this spot was definitely a draw for lopes and we would try to find a way to ambush a band as they filed down from the hills to graze in the evening.

The afternoon we spend driving and glassing an area the BLM guy recommended on the other side of the highway. Lots of lopes, but they had obviously been hunted hard and the terrain there did not offer much in the way of cover for an approach. Found some really cool geodes and some jasper and agate for my sister the rock hound.

On the way back to camp for lunch and some rest, we stopped to check zero on Dad’s rifle. I dug out a cardboard box for a target and set it up at 200 yards. Dad shot across the truck hood over a folded up coat. Great group. The horizontal stringing was all due to the gusting wind, which almost never stopped in this country.

That evening we were staked out at what we though was a logical funnel for lopes headed from some private land in the foothills to the flat we hunted that morning. With about 30 minutes of light left, we saw a lope headed down and it looked like we might be able to get out in front of him. We got closer, but at the last minute, he started to veer away. Dad took a standing shot over the sticks at about 150 yards, but the lope took off running. We watched him go flat out for half a mile and over a ridge. Did our due diligence and found no blood. Again, the inability to get a good position due to the knee and the gusting wind had blown the shot. Dad was starting to get frustrated, but this was only day 2. Lots of time left.

The next morning we decided to cover some new ground, an area east of Pine Creek that we thought might have a small band or two up some dry washes in the foothills. It had snowed the weekend before our hunt started and many of the bands we glassed every day were big groups. The big groups tend to stay on the flats and have way too many eyes on duty. They are very hard to get close to. Lopes tend to group in to larger herds and get more skittish as winter gets closer.

Following a little dirt 2-track up toward the hills we saw several groups, but all were down on the flats below the hills… private ground. Even these spooked and ran at the sight of the truck while still ½ mile away. Seemed like every day the herds were getting larger and harder to approach. We headed back toward the main (gravel) road to get some rest at camp and work out a plan for the evening hunt. It was only day 3, but the big herds, lateness of the season and that constant high wind had us feeling much less confident.

         Hate to leave this camp with Dad, as it has been a real blast…

As we were crossing several big blocks of private ground we approached a dry creek bed and saw a small band of lopes coming up out of it toward us. I glanced down at the GPS and was surprised to see there was an odd shaped ¼ square of BLM land right in the middle of the ranch land and we were right in the middle of it. I stopped the truck, Dad piled out, and I got out the binoculars to watch. He kept low in the road cut and got a bit closer as the lopes filed out of the creek bed. The herd just piled up there, about 100 yards away from him, and milled around, seeming not sure what to do. There was one good buck in the bunch, about 10 does and maybe 5 yearlings. Trouble was there was a doe standing right in front of the buck and a doe and yearling right behind him. There was no shot with the does and fawns in the way, and if the herd bolted and ran he’d never get a shot. Dad settled the rifle on the sticks and waited. I watched through the binos for what was probably a minute or two but seemed like much longer. I won’t say I heard angels sing… but the wind died down and the buck took two steps forward. Only the bucks front quarters and neck were in the clear, but Dad was under 100 yards and had good position. I heard the report of the rifle and the buck dropped like a puppet with the strings cut. Dad had his second lope on the ground, 43 years after the first one.

Written by David K. aka Average Joe

HUNTING & NOT COMING BACK!

onX HUNT mapping for both the Garmin GPS (colored – microchip capable) and mobile device, such as the smart phones which 90% of hunters and outdoor enthusiasts carry with them 24/7.

Emergency Beacon
Needs to be registered.

The Garmin GPS, at least in the 21st should have WAAS (Wide Area Augmentable System) Note: Global Positioning System GPS is made up of at least 24 satellites, working in all conditions 24 hours a day and is FREE.

Garmin Rino 755 has two way and your location is available to another user. This is one that I highly recommend.

I would say at least 40% tell me they are “Old School” and use paper maps and a compass (that is maybe on the compass).

Just one little note with onX HUNT on the mobile side there is a trail layer that features trails old and new (CONUS).   Another tool that can help in many hunting areas.

Let’s get real about paper maps, most are outdated, and boundaries change all the time.  I threw out all my paper maps, that I have had for more than 30 years with all the X’s on them, moving the X’s to my GPS.  Paper maps are outdate in field use and lacking the ability to Zoom in.  Even if you mark your map with routes, it surely isn’t going let you do an active route back to camp or truck as a GPS would do.  As for the compass, it’s Okay, if your batteries go dead or enemy decides to use an electromagnetic pulse or EMP while you’re in the back country.

These can reach out many miles and reasonable in price in the pairs.

Beside the Garmin GPS, Mobile Phone with the onX HUNT APP and chip, there is the 2 Ways such as Motorola handheld communicators, and last but not lease is an Emergency Locator Beacon, just in case you’re in real trouble and are immobile…  

We must remember to have them in our backpack or ditty bag (U.S. NAVY), along with the other tools used in the field.  Frank Biggs 

 

Last Chance Bull

Nolan had contacted Bwana Bubba in the spring time of 2017, asking if I knew a place in central Oregon, that he might have chance to harvest a elk during the archery season.   I had an old haunt that, my partners and I had hunted with great success.  I was willing to share, but I wanted him to use  technology, in order to give him a better idea and also stay legal on the hunt…

Last Chance Bull

Oregon Archery Hunt

The day before the end of the 2017 season, I’d driven out to a new place I’d never seen before as a last ditch effort to try and kill an elk.   I’d scouted, prepared, & hunted so hard all season long to make it happen on a D.I.Y. over the counter elk tag, public land, archery elk.  After my blunder on opening day when I missed a cow at 44 yards, I figured my 2017 season was over.  I blew my shot opportunity for the year and it was going to be a long 12 months until I’d get another one.