All posts by Frank Biggs

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Coyote Hunting – Glock Style

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Frankie and I were on an Antelope Hunt in the Grizzly Hunt Unit near Antelope, OR in 2004.As noted in another excerpt we had basically wasted about 9 point to hunt the unit.  We still had fun hunting and Frankie being able to get his first Antelope buck.  During the hunt on part of Earl Smith’s many properties Frankie took some time out to shoot at Coyotes. 

During the course of two days he shot and killed 5 Coyotes with his Glock 9mm, which I believe as a Model 17.  It was a great amount of fun watching Frankie take out some dogs during the hunt!  Maybe a few more Antelopes will survive during the spring time.

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Mighty Mulie Hunter – Bud Lucas – Hunter of the Trout Creek Mountains, Oregon

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Bud Lucas with his 30″ Plus Trout Creek Mule Deer

As with many people that touch our lives in the course of more than 30 years, they do pass.  One such person is Bud Lucas from Klamath Falls, OR.  I first met Bud back in 1978, when I first started Burns Bros., Inc. as an ASE Certified Auto Mechanic.  I had been introduced by Jim Dunlap the CFO of Burns Bros., Inc (Truck Stops).  Bud Lucas was quite the hunter and did a lot of Mulie hunting down out of the Trout Creek Mountains in SE Oregon. 

Bud had MS, but could still get around with the use of a Quad.  He was always one that hunted the big mulies along the Oregon – Nevada border.  Over the years Bud harvested many a monster mulie and pronghorn.

Bud Lucas had own a furniture store in Klamath Falls, OR.  He was surely missed by me, the community and his daughter.  Bud and I never did get to hunt together over the 20 years that I knew him, but anytime he was in Portland visiting Jim Dunlap we always had lunch and spun a yarn.

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Oregon Paulina Unit Antelope – Dean Beard

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Dean’s 2006 88B&C Green Score – Paulina Hunt Unit – Oregon! 

First off Dean is an RV ASE Certified Tech for Valley RV Center in McMinnville, OR.  He is fortunate enough to live near a great Roosevelt Elk hunting area near Hwy 58.  When dean isn’t working he is hunting for scouting.  Dean is one of the most successful Elk, Blacktail deer and Antelope hunters that I know that does it on a Dime.  Figure of speech of course!   In 2006 Dean drew a Pronghorn – Antelope tag for the Paulina Hunt Unit in Oregon.   Dean like myself has been successful in taking another Boone & Crockett Antelope before.  His first one was in the Grizzly Hunt Unit near Madras, Oregon.

As the story was related to me, Dean had chances on two (2) different Boone & Crockett Antelopes during his hunt.   Both Antelope roamed in the timber area of the unit.   Dean stalked this buck Antelope pictured above and shot the buck at about 100 yards.

Now Dean will probably have to wait another 12-15 years to get another Booner Antelope.

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2006 Steen’s Unit Antelope – Pronghorn Hunt – Headlee

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 Ryan Heedlee’s 2006 Steen’s Mtn. Antelope buck!

 Ryan was a Fleetwood RV Motorized Rep. that I made friends with at Valley RV Center in McMinnville, OR when I a Sales Associate with at Valley RV.   Ryan had told me that he had drawn a Steen’s Mtn. Antelope tag and didn’t know where to go.   This would be his first time to hunt for an Antelope.   I told him that I had hunted the unit, but I had a buddy that that recently hunted the unit and knew a rancher.  I told Ryan that I would handle it and see if I could get the rancher’s number and location.

I quickly called Steve Tandy who I have known for more than 25 years.  Steve and I had scouted and hunted Lopes with a bow in Gerber a few times.   Steve gave me the ranchers number and I called the rancher.  Hey! I caught him in the ranch house.  He told me he didn’t mind if Ryan and a buddy came down and hunted his ranch near Crane, OR.

I let Ryan know that he would have the privilege to hunt the ranchers place, but he needed to get a couple of cases of pop for the rancher and find a good quality folding knife.  Ryan says “why the knife Frank” , I told him that he would know that answer when he met the rancher.

Ryan and his buddy arrive Friday afternoon down near Crane to scout the area and meet the rancher.  Having arrived that the ranchers home, they were greeted by the rancher.  The rancher was very busy and told the boys to go down the road and look for a circle and they could hunt out there.   Remembering I told Ryan that he would know the answer to why he bought the knife, he quickly said that he had something for him. 

The comment back from the rancher was “let me show you guys where the bucks have been hanging around.”   Morale of the story!  A little thought to the rancher goes a long ways.   A good working knife is always welcomed by a rancher or farmer…

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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!

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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

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Oregon Grizzly Unit Archery Brill’s Bull Elk

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Dave’s Grizzly Unit Bull shot at 15 yards!

 “Frank you can’t shoot at the bull, you already have one out there somewhere.” Those were the words from an old hunting buddy Dave Brill, as we were calling in a dandy 5X5 bull on the Big Muddy.  We had hiked in about 2 miles from our base camp that Dave, Ben and myself had set-up in the middle of Smith’s Ranch.  We had plan to work a canyon that held a lot of elk just about anytime you ventured into it.  Ben had split off from Dave and me as traveled across the flat just before the canyon.  As we got close we could her a couple of bulls bugling down in the canyon.  It wasn’t long before we could see a large herd of elk and about 5 bulls wandering around with one doing all of the major calling.  I could also see the spike that I had taken a shot at the day before that the arrow had deflected off a tree and bounce across the bull’s back. 

You wonder why I would shoot at a spike; well that is a great question.  The spike had sabers that were are at least 40 inches long.  He would have look pretty good on the wall.  I had only seen one other bull that had horns like that and that bull had been taken by the old owner of All Sports in Portland, OR.  Anyway Dave and I decided to charge right in on the herd and split the bull from the cows.   It wasn’t more than about 10 minutes and we were sitting in the bottom of a dry creek bed with the cows to our back side and the bull in front of us in the Junipers.

I have always liked to be a smaller bull; Dave on the other hand along with Ben would always pretend that they were big bulls when calling.  I have had a great amount of success using Glen Berry calls, both diaphragms and bugles.  I have been using Glen’s call for more than 25 years. If you ever get the chance to talk to Glen or his son Chad at one of the Sportsman’s Shows, you’ll understand why I feel he has a great product for the average and experience hunter.  I have made many a deal with him via a handshake.  Go to Glen’s website and check-out his products! 
http://www.berrygamecalls.com/

Ok! Getting back to part of the story that I will give you today.  I start to do my typical cow and small bull calling.  It wasn’t long before the bull went into a rage, ripping up sage brush and grunting a lot.  The bull came right in on us, you could see his red eyes bulging and saliva dripping from his mouth.  He was not more than 20 yards from us.  I still went to draw as he was coming in, but my awkward sitting arrangement my arrow slipped from the rest.   Dave was at full draw and I wondered if he was ever going to take the shot, the bull was still coming in on us.  The bull would be on top of us soon.  Dave let the arrow fly at about 15 yards, almost missing the bull at that range he hit the bull high in the spine.  The bull is enraged but decides to turn and trot off down the canyon.  Not wanting to pack out the bull that is hurt and not able to run full tilt, I run across to the top of the creek ledge I made the decision to head the bull off and turn him back up the creek, so Dave can get another shot off and put the bull down.  I am able to catch the bull in about 300 yards and make him turn back up the creek.  The bull goes by Dave and he lets an arrow fly and again the bull is hit high in the spine.  The bull comes to the edge of a ledge above the creek and jumps, landing on top of an old corral, breaking through to the ground.  The bull was dead when he hit the ground.

Ben during this time period had been on the ridge above us watching everything unfold.  I believe his words went like the following:  “I thought maybe the Circus was in town with you two guys!” “I wish I had a video camera so I could sell it and make a million.”Charging in on the herd worked on this stalk, but it doesn’t always work which I found out later on the hunt.  The bull I thought I could charge in on, decided to work his way to the spot that I had originally called from… 

Sometimes one has to have patience when it comes elk hunting!  There is more to this story, but that will be a later time.

http://www.berrygamecalls.com/home.html

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Axis Deer – Lanai, Hawaii

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Island of Lanai, Hawaii – PSE Mach Flite IV – Signature Series

Non- Guide Hunt

My days in the U.S. Naval Reserves were great days, being able to go to Hawaii almost every year for about 21 days of active duty.  I was attached to the Naval Communications Area Master Station at Wahiawa, Oahu.  My crew members would be expecting me every year to come back for duty.  Besides doing my duty as a Spook, I would also help with the Physical Readiness Test, as I was the PRC for my detachment in Portland.  I was usually watch standing during my stay at the NCAMS Wahiawa, which would be 2 eves, 2 days and 2 mid-watches, with 80 hours off between the next watch.  This would allow me to find places to hunt, run or bike on the islands. 

One of my favorite places to work up a hunt was on the Island of Lanai, Hawaii.
I had made friends with the local game warden – Ken Sabino.  Ken was nice enough while he was working to loan me his Jeep.  It made it a lot easier to get around the island. 

Who would of thought that there was Axis Deer hunting on such a small island in paradise.
Well I have to tell you that the island gets big when you hunting it.  Some of the canyons are quite deep and rugged.  I loved to hunt the canyons and look for Axis Deer.  In the old days when Dole had Pineapple Plantations, they would have open arms for hunters to harvest the deer.  The Axis Deer had a passion for the Pineapple and Passion Fruit.

I had hunted the Island of Lanai twice before and harvested Axis Deer on both hunts.  It is in Hawaii where I learned how to do the Hawaiian Cut (gutting).  It has made it a lot easier to get the back strap, tenderloins, and all four (4) quarters off the game animal in the field without gutting the animal.

I would usually have to take a Cessna twin engine plane out of Oahu.  The flight was short and not to bad on the ride.  

My last hunt to Lanai was just before I retired from the Navy and it was a bowhunt.
I was successful in taking a nice Axis Deer off the Island of Lanai after two days of hunting.

Today it is a resort island and not the same as when I hunted.  There was one old hotel that looked like something that should have been in the Catskill’s in upper state New York.  It was very easy to get a tag to hunt on the Island.  I would get my tags from Dole Pineapple.  Today I believe that you go through the State of Hawaii.

If you want a rough – tough hunt for Axis Deer, you surely can have one.  On the dry side of the Island they have a bush called Long Thorn Kiawe that will give you a run for body.  The Axis Deer thrive in the stuff.  You can also hunt the wet side of the island and you better have a rain suit.

The big buck got away got away from me – I had 2 tags!

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257 Weatherby Lazermark Custom – 350 yards