Tag Archives: Oregon Hunts – Elk

Applying for Oregon Big Game Tags!

The Game of applying for Big Game Tags in Oregon

 
The 2014 ODFW Oregon Big Game Regulations are out online to view!
 
 
 Who is Bwana Bubba?  Watch and See!
 
You can find other helpful information and what you might be able to draw tags with the following link to ODFW Statistics.
ODFW Statistics Link:      Big Game Statistics Reports
I can be contacted via the following email addresses for any questions you might have for on first interview. Free. Intro of me: I am home base out of Oregon – Native Born Resident
Thanks for viewing my sight! Frank Biggs
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Max’s N. Grizzly Unit – Cow Hunt

Max's First Elk at 14 years old in the Grizzly Unit of Oregon

As I have said before many people come into our lives.  In the outdoor world of hunting and fishing, I feel that we connect with the land and those that are part of the land…

For me there have been many Ranchers that I have come in contact in regards to hunting, especially in the state of Oregon…

In the 80’s. 90’s, 2000’s, much of my time was spent in Central Oregon mostly on the west side of the John Day River in pursuit of deer, elk and free ranging exotics.   Through the years one might become infamous or notorious in relationship of the owners of the rimrock, sage and junipers.   This past summer my son and I visited one of the ranchers that I have known through others, as well as how he knew me, yet we have never sat down and had a fireside chat…   During the 4 or so hours we spent in a tent on his property, setting life straight and becoming friends of the mind, a common bond was made.   Life is not easy for Ranchers, especially in the hostile land of the John Day River.

So the following was able to happen because of the gathering of the past summer!

Hi Frank-

“I found your website after sending you a private message on Ifish after you responded to my post about my son needing a place to hunt for cow elk in the North Grizzly Unit.  If you have any contacts that would be great the season ends on November 30 and I am running out of options.  Any help you could provide for a 14 year old kid would be greatly appreciated!”  Jeff

Being able to come up with an area and the Rancher’s phone number, Jeff was able to get permission to hunt on this land.  

 Hey Frank-“Look at what we found! Ha-Ha….

Great hunting experience for my son we put in a long stalk in on Saturday morning after putting the elk to bed Friday night. We ended up walking the rim rock all the way to the end. We crawled to the edge where my son touched one off from the top clear down to the bottom. He hit her in the back leg with a stiff wind coming from left to right, very tough shot!

 The Wind always blows in the area!

They took off running she was hurt yet still ran for an extended period.  We caught up to her a couple of times but she ran off before he could settle in to shoot.  I finally spotted her bed down in front of a tree at a high vantage point. This time we cut a limb off a tree after he missed twice so he could get a good shot.  He connected while she was laying down right in the neck and died immediately…  Took us all day to finally get her out with the use of a 4 wheeler but we were both still beat after coming in and out of that Canyon a couple of times!  Finished skinning her out then cut her in half and headed for home about 6PM last night.”

Great experience!

Hey Frank-Happy Black Friday!

We ended up on Dave’s property….he really took to the “kid” as he called him…..Ha-Ha.

He let us use his 4 wheeler to haul that thing out which really helped the cause!

He also enjoyed the whiskey, salmon, beer and tuna that I brought to him as Thanks.

Hell of a memory for a 14 yr old kid, made it even more special that we were able to do it together….

Thanks again for the connection, Max is very thankful and wanted me to say Thanks as well….

Osbon’s 2010 Oregon Elk Archery Hunt

Having just recieved the story fresh off the press from Doug, it seems Doug has found the honey spot in Oregon for Coastal Elk.   Two years in a row he has gotten his bull and they seem to be getting bigger each year.  I am putting the story out for all you to enjoy, plus his pictures.  Even the Bwana does not know his secret spot, should have loaned him one of my GPS’s.  Hmm!

  
Tod & Doug with Doug's Coastal Bull

“The day had started off like most game days. Driving into hunting area, we were really hoping that no one would want to hunt our favorite elk area. We had gotten through the gate and had not seen anyone; I was hoping we would still have it all to ourselves, in that no one walked into the area. For unknown reasons my lucky star was shining on Tod and me. We got to the first clear cut that we wanted to look at. It was about 10 minutes before daylight. My hunting partner Tod and I went to the edge of the rim to listen for elk talking. We had only been standing there for about two minutes when we could hear elk below us and they were really talking. After daylight we spotted six cows and one dandy bull. We thought that they were going to feed out to the right to the timber. There was a road that came into the bottom on the cut. So we decided that I would go down the timber line on the right, and Tod would get in the bottom on the road so if they ran out he might get a shot. I got down to the first bench, and was in front of all the elk. I had great cover and it look like they were going to feed right across a bench below me. I got to the stump that I thought would give me the best shot and setup to wait. I had only been there for about 5 min when one of the cows must have seen something because she was on the alert. She wanted to go out to the middle of the cut, but she was not the LEAD COW. So they all started looking around, trying to figure out what was going on with the cow being on alert. The LEAD COW decided that she was going to lead them all to the timber. She stared coming just as I had hoped they would. When they were almost straight down the hill from me, she then started to climb the hill a little toward me. Finally they turned broadside again and the bull was the 6th in line. So I pick my spot that I was going to try to get him stopped for the shot. At this time I thought that the shot was going to be about 35 yards. He went behind a stump and I drew my Mathews back and waited for him to move into my lane of shooting. When he was where I wanted him I Cow Called and he stopped just right! I pull in right behind the shoulder and let it fly. The bull took off down the hill. I got my glasses on him and my arrow was sticking high in the shoulder. I watch him go to the timber line and stand for about five minutes. The mortally wound bull than just walk into the trees out of our line of sight. Tod and I decided that we had better give him two hours before we start looking. That was the longest two hours of my life. We went to the road that went into the bottom of the draw. We checked the banks to make sure the bull had not crossed on us. We found the trail that he had went in on with a good blood trail. We had just got in the trees about 30 yards when he jumped up. He ran about 40 yards and that was all he had left in him. My G5s went clear threw the front shoulder and got into the lungs. The best part he was only 40 yards above the road and we got him out whole.”

 
Dandy 5 X 5 Bull Side Profile!

2009 Oregon Alsea Elk Hunt – Jr’s Hunt

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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.frankie-2009-coast-03.jpg

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.

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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.

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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.

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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!frankie-2009-coast-06.JPG

1/3 of the way back to the barn

Osbon’s 2009 Oregon Elk Archery Hunt

Doug had drawn a 2009 Gerber Archery Pronghorn-Antelope tag this past year and emailed for some information.  The information was good and Doug had a dandy Lope come to the waterhole that he was on.  The distance was about 50 yards and he thought the buck would come in closer, but opportunity changed and he did not get the shot.   The Gerber Unit had a lot of water this year and the Lopes were scattered far and wide. 
I recently got this email from about his success story on an Oregon Archery Coastal Bull this year.  I really appreciate Doug sharing his story with me and my website hunters.

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2009 Osbon Successful Oregon Archery Hunt

“I thought that you might want to see the bull I got this year. Maybe I will get my Antelope next year!”

“My Brother, Nephew and I went out bright and early on a coastal elk hunt.  We started the morning finding the herd bull and his cows.  After a few set ups we finally got him to come in to about 24 yards, I drew on him but it was not to be. My peep had water in it and that was the first time that had happened to me. By the time I got things back together he had moved on.
So I was bummed because I though I had just blown my shot.  We had some other clear cuts to look at so we went to look at them.  About mid afternoon we decide we were going to go back after him because he was all wound up.  So we got to the road that we needed to take and stared up to where we were going to take off walking.  We had just started walking on a gated road when a Cow and a Calf stepped out into the road.  We could hear other elk coming so I got out an arrow.  Just as I had knocked my arrow here came this bull, he step out just far enough that I could see his front shoulder and back about 10 inches.  I centered on him and let it fly. The bull went back down into the creek and started up the other side then we heard him go down.
The shot was 34 yards and I got both lungs.”

Doug Osbon

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Doug Osbon and his nephew with Doug’s 2009 Roosevelt Bull

Elk Hunting Pearson Creek – Pilot Rock, Oregon

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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.

Frankie’s First Elk – Warnock Ranch – Maupin

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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!

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Dad will get it out of here, no worry!

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