Tag Archives: hunting pronghorn in oregon

Kenneth’s 2016 Owyhee Pronghorn Hunt

Scouting more than 200 miles for Pronghorn

The bluff above my Pronghorn
The bluff above my Pronghorn

Hi Frank
Thanks a lot for directions that you sent me.  I scouted from Wednesday to Friday and cover more than 200+ miles.  Majority of the scouting was in my Ford truck in 4wd low range.  I found a dandy buck on Tuesday morning on the south side of the Mahogany’s running off three other bucks from his 6 doe harem, between water and the bedding area.  This I know, because I had spotted him and the doe’s the day before just as they entered the brush at 10AM.  I camped in my Ford FX4 truck high above them that night and would hunt down in the morning.

My great camp site with my trusty Ford
My great camp site with my trusty Ford

The next morning I worked myself out on the bluff I figured I could find him.   I found him, ranged him in at 350 yards with my Bushnell rangefinder and made the 1 shot kill with my Browning A-Bolt in a 7mm Remington Mag, topped with a Leupold V-3 4.5×14 50MM Gold Ring scope.  Other items in my bag to make the hunt successful were my Garmin GPS with onXmaps HUNT Oregon chip and GIS hunt map.

The bedding area!
The bedding area!

 

My Oregon Pronghorn
My Oregon Pronghorn

Thanks Bubba

Kenneth D

Warner Unit – Archery Antelope Hunts – Oregon

100% Archery Antelope – Pronghorn Hunts 

OREGON WARNER HUNT UNIT

I would love to say I have stories to go with the following pictures, but I do not have stories.  Yes I gave out waypoints for the hunters and I am told the were killed with in 1 miles of on of my waypoints.    My understanding that Holly T  had chances for two (2) bucks over water and harvested her buck with one arrow in 2012.  The other two bucks were harvested in 2013 a couple of days apart by Mark and Jim.   I will have to see if I can attach a link to the video’s they made of the hunt in the Warner Unit of Oregon.   John Mark does work for an bow manufacturer (Bowtech) in Oregon.  He lives by the bow and is a most successful hunter.   

John Mark, plus his family and friends do shoot Bowtech!

If you would like to get a hold of their video you can find it on the following site:

  LINK:       Faith in the Field

Holly
Holly and Hubby – John Mark!
Holly with her Warner Archery Antelope.  She got two chances on taking an Oregon Antelope with her bow!
Holly with her Warner Archery Antelope. She got two chances on taking an Oregon Antelope with her bow!

 

Mark took his Antelope a few days later on the hunt with Jeff in 2013!
John Mark took his Antelope a few days later on the hunt with Jeff in 2013!
Jeff took his buck on the opening day of the hunt!  Great Buck from the state of Oregon
Jeff took his buck on the opening day of the hunt! Great Buck from the state of Oregon

As you can see the Warner Unit which has not been devastated by Coyote predication on the Antelope fawns, has lead to a great herd in this unit!  I do believe that if we add up the rifle hunters and bow hunters, my hunters are at 100% harvest in the Warner Unit! 

Bwana Bubba

2013 Pronghorn Hunt – Juniper Unit – Oregon

ACE’s 2013 Pronghorn Hunt

on the

Westside in the Juniper Unit

This is an interesting hunt that turned out to be a successful hunt for Ace who was hunting with his father.  This is not the first time I have had similar accounts on hunting Lopes.  Lopes can be crafty and escape a great stalk.  A hunter can misjudge the distance as Antelope – Pronghorns are smaller than deer, so it can be difficult to judge the distance.    WELL DONE ACE!

Ace with his 2013 Pronghorn from the Juniper Hunt Unit in Oregon.  A well earned dandy Lope!
Ace with his 2013 Pronghorn from the Juniper Hunt Unit in Oregon. A well earned dandy Lope!

Dear – Frank

We got there on Friday and scouted til dark.  We made the big loop and only saw 5 animals. Got up the next morning just before light and went out.  It was too dark to see when we left camp so we waited on one of the roads leading to a water hole.  I looked over and saw two bucks about 400 yards to our left and Ace shot at one that had a good size rack.  Ace missed with 3 shots and they ran off.

The GPS was a Magellan and I couldn’t figure out the software or the unit and so I don’t have the coordinates and we ended up using the BLM maps we got in Burns on Friday.  I have always used Garmin’s but a friend lent me this Magellan.  The range finder was kind of useless because laying on your belly it gave bad readings and if you stand up the antelope can see you for a long ways.

We went down the road a ways more and saw some of to the right.  He crawled out to get a shot and got a shot in a sitting position but also missed.  He thinks he was shooting under the animals because the range finder was not accurate in the sagebrush.  Then we saw at least one hundred (100) Antelope come over the ridge, but saw three (3) hunters and away they went from us.

As Ace was coming back to the rig we saw one male and six does about eight hundred (800) yards out but no way to get to them.  We drove out the main road and headed North we went out another road and saw two groups out on a ridge.  Ace crawled out to the gully and come down into it till he thought he was under them.  I was watching at the rig with the spotting scope and he came up right under them with my guidance (hand signals).  When he got to the top of the ridge they spooked and he got of a shot but missed again.

He decided that he needed to fire his gun when he was in the prone position because offhand and sitting he shook too much.  We went out to the main road again and headed North and took a road East.  He saw some out at a distance and crawled out to a point where he could get a shot and not be seen by the antelope.  He took a shot and dropped this antelope.  I drove out in the sagebrush to where the buck dropped, about 3/4 mile from the road.  We field dressed it and quarterd it out right there and put the meat in the huge cooler on ice.

A few things we learned.  Its hard to sneak up on Antelope on flat ground.  Range finders are useless in flat ground with sagebrush.  Knee pads are essential for crawling up on Antelope on your belly.  You need to be able to cool the meat down fast.  Walkie talkies are a great thing to have for communication. Its hard work to get a good shot at an Antelope.  Thanks for the GPS points but we hunted on the west side of the unit and your points were for the east side mostly.

We appreciate your thoughtfulness. – Dennis and Ace Clark

2004 Grizzly Unit – Antelope & Pronghorn Hunt

Frank Jr.’s Oregon Grizzly Unit  Not a guaranteed kill!

Horse Heaven Area Antelope 2004

This particular hunt came about with wanting to hunt Antelope sooner than later again with a rifle, plus not waiting until we had 12 or more points for hunting old haunts from the past in S.E. Oregon.  My son Frank Jr. and I had 9 points saved up each.  This would be his first Antelope hunt as a shooter!  Getting very impatience with waiting for more points and looking out 4-6 years longer to hunt for Antelope maybe in the Wagontire, we decided since we had a couple of places to hunt in the Grizzly Unit in Oregon, that we would put in for the Grizzly Unit.  Past and present I have sent many hunters into the unit with very good success!

Permission to hunt Earl Smith’s Ranch was given to us by Earl for hunting on the properties that laid in the Grizzly Unit, one piece being the “Old Gomes Ranch” and the other land lay south of the Cold Camp of Hwy 218, which included the Maupin and Hasting Buttes.

We had found a great buck on the “Old Gomes Ranch” prior to the season and he would be our first choice to chase.  “Chase” Strange word with Pronghorn, as most of the time we like to ambush Lopes at water or crossings.  In the Grizzly Unit you will not find the waterholes that one would find in the S.E. part of Oregon, so spotting and working in on them is the normal in the Grizzly Unit.  We did not get to hunt the opener of the hunt coming in on Sunday late.  Little did we know that Earl forgot about us (this happened a lot) and he let a guide come onto the land and hunt the place with his client.  Having talked with the ranch foreman an old friend from the past, that particular hunt was very interesting to say the less.  The client had a number of buddies with him at the time.  It is hard to say who harvested the buck after all the shots that were taken with multiple rifles.  Scuttlebutt was that the guide finally had to finish the buck off as it was leaving the property boundary, but then again it is only scuttlebutt!  It did piss me off a lot on this one!

A little dog hunting with the Glock at Earl's

So the hunt had changed for the both us now.  This hunt was about Frankie getting his first Pronghorn in Oregon.   We would have to work old deer and elk haunts in the Grizzly Unit that carried a population of Antelope and put Earl’s places on the back burner.  We would work the area around Hay Creek as I had found a good buck over in B.L.M. area during another earlier scouting trip for deer.  There were the areas around Ashwood and the National Grasslands that we could concentrated on for Lopes also.  None of this worked out, even with all the glassing from observation points.   Water was scarce in these areas; the Lopes were not working the areas as expected.  We would work another area of the Grasslands later in the hunt!

A run into the Horse Heaven and Donnybrook area was warranted.   We found a couple of decent bucks that would be shooters for Frankie during the first day of the hunt, but light was fading.  The 2nd day of the hunt, Frankie got on a pretty good buck near Horse Heaven.  The wind was really blowing hard on the hill and the shot was at about 300 yards.  That was one lucky Antelope at that particular moment of the hunt in the Horse Heaven area outside of Donnybrook.

Later a number of good herds of Antelope were located in the Grasslands near Hwy 97, but all the bucks were small.  No mature bucks were hanging away from the herds that we spotted.  A little dishearten for me as I truly wanted to see a Big Buck. The Grizzly Unit had gone through a major poaching epidemic of Antelope, Deer and Elk some years back along the Hay Creek Ranch, Ashwood & Grizzly Mountain area.  The culprits (youth) were caught from what I understand (local rancher gossip) and given just punishment.

We finally took a run down into Clarno which is B.L.M., the Northeast boundary of the Grizzly Unit and were about to drop in on quads to get back into the basin about 3 miles were I knew some good bucks would be.  Just as we are unloading a lone hunter comes up to the road off of the well warn trail.  He told us he had not seen any Antelope and he had been in their whole day.  Hmm!  Here we have a long hunter that is working hard and walking in, who knows if he was getting into the area of the Lopes.  I did not want to just head off down the trail and over the knobs with him there.  He then told us he would be hunting back in there once he got some food, new socks and a little rest.  Disturbing his hunt was not in my nature!

A very good hunt for Frankie! Grizzly Unit Lope

Finally Mike T., the ranch foreman for Earl Smith is located out in the hay fields on a tractor, see what glassing gets you. Mike says go ahead and hit it hard in the two ranch sections in the Grizzly Unit, I saw a number of bucks earlier in the morning on those sections.  The hunts know starts to get pretty exciting for both of us. This hunt was for Frankie and I wanted to make sure he got his Lope.  Since I do most of the glassing in the field and Frankie can spot them with the naked eye on the road, I was able to find a buck up on top of a draw along a fence-line at about 1000 yards.  Since I could only see the horns of the Lope, I told Frankie he was about to do some hiking to move in on the buck.  It was now very hot in the late afternoon, so this hike was a bit laboring!

We are able to close the distance to about 150 yards with little cover at this time. The buck was not a monster or even a big buck, but Frankie said he still wanted to harvest the buck and get one under his belt (youth and the wait).  The buck started to move out, but Frankie now had a rest on a fence post on the side of the hill.  He made the shot from his Browning BLR 270 loaded with 130gr. Nolser Ballistic Tips. The shot hit the buck in the chest cavity, a bit high in the lung at an angle, I would see later on.  The buck staggers and drops, but then all of a sudden he is up and heading out full tilt through the sagebrush and not stopping until he was a more than about 1/2 mile out in the rocks and sage.  I forgot to tell Frankie to shot if they move!  Now the chase was on for us without actually chasing the buck.  Using cover and moving quickly we were able to get within about 275 yards.  To my surprise Frankie stands up without any cover or rest and shots offhand at the buck as he starts to run again.  The buck drops and never moves a lick after that.  I was quite happy that Frankie got a Lope on this hunt and he made the final shot that counted.

Frankie really liked the 270 BLR, now he has to shoot the 257 Weatherby in the future!

I never did see a buck that I would take on the rest of the hunt.  The Grizzly Unit is not an easy hunt, as most areas of the Grizzly Unit are walk in area.  Now if one can hunt some of the private lands that hold Lopes, it could be a much easier hunt. Would I hunt the Grizzly Unit again, yes I would.  Though I want to go back to another haunt with Lopes that is going to take 12 points or better to draw.  There is something about hunting the S.E. part of the state, that only one that has hunted it would realize what draws you to it!

 

Pronghorn – Antelope Pictures Oregon

The following video was taken during the archery season for Antelope.

The following Video is a pretty good Antelope – Pronghorn buck in the Grizzly Unit.   I took the short video while I was bow hunting for mule deer near Clarno, Oregon.

 

Pronghorn Still Shot! Oregon Buck!

 

Oregon Antelope Buck Herding!

Contact: bwanabubba@gmail.com

 

Oregon Archery Pronghorn Successful Hunt

Russ & Doug’s 2011 Pronghorn Hunt

I would love to tell you where this buck was taken, but I promised that I would not give out the exact location.  For two (2) years a couple of the fellows in the circle have taken dandy Antelopes from this area in S.E. Oregon.   It is a Pronghorn Archery Hunt Unit that takes about 5-7 preference points to get draw.   As my biologist that I have known for more years than I can remember told me recently that Oregon has monster Lopes in every unit, “it is just a matter of having the time and patience to find them”.
I myself have hunted a number of units with the arrow and have been fortunate to harvest some big Antelope Bucks!  So I know from scouting in almost all of the units that there dandy bucks everywhere.
Pictures from the 2011 Oregon Archery Antelope – Pronghorn Hunt:
A little different profile! Great buck taken by Russ!

This is a dandy archery Antelope Buck taken by Russ in 2011

This buck was one that got away, but not before Doug took his picture. Definitely a candidate of a buck for Boone & Crockett in 2012!

Enjoy the shots by Russ & Doug!

Joshua’s Interrupted Silvies Antelope Hunt

When a planned trip does not go the way it was expected after 11 years of waiting!

The following story was sent to me by a young man that had drawn a Pronghorn Tag for the Silvies #2 hunt for 2011.   I like that way Joshua hunts and his thoughts about his hunt.   As you can see from the pictures he is dedicated hunter and from the Blacktail buck pictured in this story, he likes to trophy hunt!

Dear Mr. Biggs,
Thank you for your patience regarding the timely delivery of the story of my Silvies Lope hunt. Unfortunately, it is a disappointing story to due circumstances out of my control but there is always something to be learned every time I go out and with that in mind, no trip has ever been a waste.
First of all, let me say that this was the first antelope tag I have ever drawn in Oregon. I have hunted them one other time in Wyoming, where the herds can be seen spotting every rolling hillside and public and private is virtually the same thing. I did not know what to expect on this hunt which is what caused me to begin researching on the internet and eventually stumble on your website which was the most amazing resource I have come across. Everyone’s story updates are pretty cool too. 🙂 Your website allowed an under-prepared outdoorsman feel like he had done a little bit of scouting. You gave me a point of reference to start from and also, I believe, an edge psychologically to know that I was not wandering around in vain.

The night before opening day, I made the 8 hour drive over to beautiful central Oregon from the towering pines of southern Oregon in an amazing heavenly lightening show as I passed through the vast alfalfa fields. Using the coordinates you gave me I was able to find a campsite quickly, near a waterhole southwest of the well. Pulling in the dark, right away on the other side of the oasis, a small black bear was stalking around. I watched it in the headlights for a while, excitement brewing for the hunt to come.

Calling in the dogs in the snow!

The next morning I headed out before daylight and hiked through some of the canyons that were noted on the map you gave as I tried to get my bearings and a feel for the land. Sure enough, around ten o’clock, I was sitting at the base of a canyon taking a breather as the sun had began to heat up past the 75 degree mark, and I saw a lone buck tearing across the plain about a mile off. I watched him as he passed behind a small ridgeline out of site. I decided I was going to sneak up and over the face of that ridge and hopefully pop up directly above him thinking he might have slowed his pace after reaching the safety of the canyon walls. I started putting the sneak on him down across the plain, crossing a deep creek bed and up and over the ridge. Just as I hoped, I crawled slowly over the ridgeline through the sage and there he was standing broadside not more than 75 yards away!!! Here is the complicated part of the story. As I climbed up the ridge and reached the higher elevation, a ranch house came into view a couple miles off to my left and 100 or so head of cattle a half mile off to my right. As, I stared at the small buck in my scope (but the biggest I’d ever seen) the thoughts and voices of my mentors over the years raced through my mind and even as the Lope began to sense my presence and EVEN COME CLOSER, I couldn’t find the peace to pull the trigger. I knew I’d get another chance with 10 days left and decided I needed to really make sure I knew the public land boundaries. Later that evening I received a telephone call from work stating that I was needed for an emergency and that I had to return by Sunday.

Dandy Blackbear, up close with the leveraction!

In the remaining time I had there, I only saw one other group of females as far as I could tell, as they were too far off even with the spotting scope. I was disappointed that I could not finish the hunt as I felt like things were heating up and I was enjoying the challenge of a new species and a different terrain. That’s how life rolls sometimes I guess and I’m thankful for all the memories I had anyway.

BTW, I saw the biggest Muley I’ve EVER seen just bedded in the shade next to the road, an easy 35in wide with velvet hanging.

I wonder if that is a 30-30 or 32 Win Special?

Thank you so much for your help. I am not one to use a gps but I am definitely reconsidering it as I could have found precise spots that you told me about quickly and accurately. I look forward to trading information in the future. Again, thank you for your wealth of knowledge and your willingness to share it and your patience as I finished out the hunting year. I had a chance to guide a hunt in Chesnimus and finished out the year in Grants Pass where I reside. Here are a few pictures of this year other hunts.    JOSH

Boxing the Tom in!

 

Cobra’s Grizzly Unit Archery Pronghorn Hunt

 
 

Grizzly Mountain Antelope Buck

Most of my friends that have hunted with me over the years, know that I have little patience to sit and wait, though in more recent years I have found that I have grown to be more patient. Thus they know that I love to glass, find and stalk the Mulies and Lopes.

This story is about chasing Antelope in the Grizzly Hunt Unit in Oregon during Archery Antelope Season some years back. In the past one would put in for the premier rifle areas for Antelope and make the second choice for archery, knowing you would get an archery tag. I drew the Gerber Reservoir tag for many years and had a blast chasing and harvesting Lopes in the Sycan area.

Then the Grizzly Hunt Unit became a choice for Archery Antelope and the first couple of years it was easy to get the tag as a second choice. Having hunted for elk and deer in the Grizzly Unit since the early eights and seeing pretty good numbers of Antelope – Pronghorns, it was a great choice to hunt.

There were a great number of areas to hunt Lopes in the Grizzly Unit for public lands in the Grizzly Unit carried Lopes with some numbers. The National Grasslands was a great place, along with the BLM both in the Northern Sector and near Ashwood, Oregon.

Many of friends think I am off the wall with some of my mannerisms when it comes to hunting. First off I would never relieve myself in an area that I hunt and I am going to have a wide stance so none of my sense is getting on my boots or pants.

4x Globe Sight Target Style

Then there is the issue with sunglasses, I would always wear sunglasses during the day and “Photo Grays” for the evening hunts. I felt if the game, especially Antelope can’t see my eyes or movement then I could close the gap on them. I always wore a hat and a backpack with the spotting scope & tripod sticking out of the top. It is what it is with habits and wearing the same pants on every hunt! Terrible that it may be I wore blue jeans as my basic pants! It has never been about hiding from animals, only other humans.

Let’s get onto the Antelope hunt in the Grizzly Unit this time frame in my life! Realizing that story is based on a hunt in the 80’s, things have not changed other than I might hunt more waterholes now as I grow older.

My equipment in those years was P.S.E. Mach Flite 4 Bow 70# 29″ Draw, Easton Arrows, P.S.E. Brute 3 125gr. Broadhead, Stanislawski Sight (Globe), Stanislawski Overdraw Rest (Mel Built for me) and Stanislawski Superb Rest (attached to the overdraw). The length of the arrows are 25 ½’ with a speed of 340 fps!

Couple more years he would have been a dandy buck!

The weather was great and was able to find Antelope in the numbers in the area around Haystack Reservoir and Grays Butte. This was going to be a usual weekend hunt only as I could be make it their in about 1 ½ hours from my home in east Portland. On Saturday I made a number of stalks after spotting lone bucks to within 100 yards. Funny how that distance is workable with Antelope. There were not many does around to mess up my stalks. What I needed was to find Bucks that would be in areas with more cover. The area that I hunted had little water and the Lopes would range into the private for water. Saturday ended with no success, but I would make the most of the following day.

The following day I would work the area on just south of Grizzly Mountain, which was always a great area to find Antelope and Mule deer. It was a time that the road in was not gated off and one could work a lot of area. Now it is gated off, yet it is only because about 100 yards of the road touches private. If one wants to hunt it present day they will have to come around from the west and do a great deal of walking.

I found a lone buck at about 1000 yards while glassing an area that I could find Antelope at any given time. The stalk was on and I was able to move quickly, even run as there were bulldozer cuts in the land for fire lines. Settling down I was within 80 yards of the buck, which I figured to be about 14″ with decent mass making him a shooter on this weekend hunt. The wind was blowing off the mountain as it was getting late into the day. His attention was to the direction of the mountain and with the wind (heavy) I was able to move in on him to 45 yards. It was still a time that I used fingers and as I came up from the crotch position I was a full draw. I aim at this chest and released the shaft, he made no movement as the wind was making a lot of noise and his head was turned away from me. I missed the mark and hit him in the shoulder and the arrow did not pass through him, but yet looked deep enough that he would not go far.

Pretty good mass and cutters
After waiting for about 30 minutes I went to the place of impact and followed a small blood trail, he had gone about 500 yards and laid down in the trees. The area of made up of Junipers, Sagebrush and rocks.
Great way to end a weekend of hunting for Antelope and take a buck that would score around 69″!
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