All posts by Frank Biggs

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Oregon Aoudad Hunt – “The Bone Man”

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        Bone’s last minute Billie!

Shot with 340 Weatherby 600 yards.

“Bone, you have to take the shot now, there’s not time to measure the horns at 600 yards, once he is the run, you won’t get another chance at a shot”. “Sometimes I think they’re worst then hunting elk.”  “Once spooked they won’t stop until they’re up in The Canyon.”  If one thinks they can track Aoudad’s in these canyons, they have something wrong with them. You do have to glass and look in logical places from previous knowledge and get the jump on them.  Once on the move they will simply disappear.  I have always said that the Aoudad’s have “caves that they hide and live in.”  This was going to be the course taken this weekend with Bone.  Bone was having trouble deciding on whether to take the shot or not on the big Billie Aoudad that we spotted above the Flats. Bone had the opportunity to shoot and kill the “Bell Wanger” as I had named the largest Aoudad Billie that I have ever seen.

The Billie was not going to be hanging on Bone’s trophy wall this season!

It was going to be a grind to find another Billie anywhere near the size of that one.
To this day I do not think anyone ever got the “Bell Wanger” Aoudad.  I had missed him 2 years back while hunting The Ranch.  Dr. Warnock, Jim August, Larry Spring, Chuck Megeske, Darrel Friend, Steve Biggs, Dave Brill, Mike James and Tim O’Meara are just a few that missed the biggest Aoudad that I know of or had ever seen in pictures and in the field.

By now “Bell Wanger” and his spirit roam The Canyon.

“Bone, it’s the witching hour, that’s not a bad Billie on the other side of the canyon”

You wonder why I call an Aoudad male a Billie, when some people call them Barbary Sheep.  One would think that males should be called Ram’s.  The Aoudad is closer to the Goat family, so in my circle, I have always called them Billie’s.

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Oregon Aoudad Hunt – The Canyon – Junior

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Frankie’s pack-out from The Canyon – 102 degree day!

With Rod and the boys we stood on top of The Canyon into the creek bottoms  looking for Aoudads.  It had been worked out for Frankie to shoot an Aoudad with the owner of the ranch.  The two boys, Frankie and is friend from High School, Gabe quickly glassed into the canyon and the surrounding rims.  Frankie was quick to say, “no Aoudads out there dad.” I glassed the rims, creek bottoms, draws, and the two drainages from afar for about 40 minutes with Rod, as the boys walked around looking for thunder eggs, which were lying around almost everywhere. “Give me a break boys; there have to be Aoudads around somewhere.”“Boy of boy, you guys just don’t know what to look for do ya!”  “I got about 6 Aoudads out on that South facing just laying around, about 800 yards out.”  The boys quickly came running and made comment “where are they at”, as I point my arm in the general direction. The hunt was on, we would have to drop down into the canyon and transverse up the opposite draw and get close to the open facing on the rim for Frankie to get a shot on an Aoudad.frankie-richardsons-ranch-high-ground-01.jpg

Frankie with Billie  – 257 Weatherby

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Oregon Aoudad Hunt in Devil’s Canyon “Bwana Bubba”

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“John, this Frank from Portland and I am in the sporting goods business , I understand that you have free ranging Aoudads running around on your place?”  “Yes I do”!  “What can I do for you, I don’t let anyone except family hunt my ranch?”  “Just wondering if you are into horse trading?”  “What do you have to offer?”  “Well I would probably like to know what you would really like to have for the opportunity for me hunt your place for an Aoudad Billie.”  “How about a mastercase of 22LR.” “John, consider it done, anything else you might want!”

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LCDR AL Murray with my Billy shot at 650 yards with 257 Weatherby.

About two weeks later Al an old Navy buddy and myself showed up with a master case of 22 Long Rifle ammo and a Kershaw Knife. “I doubt that you boys are going to find any goats this late in the afternoon, but go ahead and try up in Devil’s Canyon, just follow the dirt road and take left before the creek and it will get you up there.”

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Junior’s Grizzly Unit Elk Hunt – Antelope, OR

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Brian Henninger – PGA Tour Player – W/JR

“Dad, your crazy”   were the words that came from my son’s mouth on an elk hunt in the Grizzly Hunt Unit, in Oregon.  This all came about because I was pushing him too hard to get on a big bull that we had spotted earlier around 1300 from about a mile out.  Plus the fact that I had just passed up shooting one of three branch bulls that we come upon while making the stalk.  Jr. could not understand why dad would not shoot a bull broadside at 150 yards and just standing there for the longest time. (Real reason I was breathing so hard from walk up out of a draw, and being at a bad angle I could not get a clear shot)  We had caught this group of elk at surprise and they were bewildered for the most part.  I just let them walk off; we had a bigger fish to fry! 

On this elk hunt, I had my son, his friend Brandon and myself for the most part and we were hunting the breaks of the John Day River in the BLM.  I did have Mike an old  hunting partner in the immediate area, but he was hunting a another unit to the north this season.  The first day of the hunt we were socked in with fog. Visibility was about 300 yards, with no breaks in the weather. Spotted a number of dandy mule deer bucks, but elk were lacking.  On the second day we were still socked in with fog, but things were about to change.  My old buddy hunting the other unit had hiked up on top of the Buttes and gave a call on the Motorola, “bubba it’s clear at the Saddle”.  Ok! I thought we can work our way down into the “Saddle” above the river.  Then over the Motorola came call from someone else other than Mike, who said “Hey Frank where are you”!  Told Mike “go to alternate channel” now!  So we go to the alternate channel, not thinking that we would still get scanned as I was asking Mike “who was that”.  “Don’t know Bubba”.  Then all of a sudden the person came back on the new channel and said “Hey Frank you dummy, this is BHH”, then I replied “What you doing”, his reply was “were up here in the sun with at least 1/2 dozen bulls in the bino’s, how long before you guys can get up here”.  BHH was the early name that I would use with Brian Hennniner.  It wasn’t very long before we set out on a single 4X4 quad cross country from the BLM to get an opportunity to hunt the Smith Ranch. It did take two hours to go 7 1/2 miles uphill to get and his brother John who were hunting the Smith Ranch.  I had line Brian Henninger and his brother John Henninger up the year before to hunt the Smith Ranch for Elk and Deer. The temperature went from about 39 degrees at the river level to 68 degrees by the time we got to Brian.  Having arrived upon Brian (I really like to call him 257 Bad) and his brother John, they were busy glassing the hills for elk.  Brian said to me “Frank you glass long enough the hills come alive”.  How true that statement was, anyone that who takes hunting seriously, know that to find game effectively, you need to glass long and hard in open country hunting.  Within about 10 minutes I spot a extremely arge bull about a mile off up on a shallow swale, the hunt was on.

Brian Henninger does find the time to enjoy the outdoors during the off season from PGA Tour.  It is always a pleasure to talk about hunting with him.

 

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Dad W/JR’s Rocky Mtn. Bull – 340 Gross

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South Wagontire Record Class Pronghorn – Antelope

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This 85 B & C was taken in Oregon at 165 yards 

“Bubba we can camp at the XL Spring for the hunt”.  The plan was to make the final scouting of the day in a seeding near Lake Abert.  Plans A, B,  & C had been set for the next day hunting and we wanted to get once last Pronghorn – Antelope scouting trip of the day done.  We were burning daylight and didn’t want to lose any opportunity we could have on this hunt.  The past two days of scouting had been quite satisfying for Rod and myself.  We had come up with three game plans on dandy Pronghorn – Antelope bucks.  Plan A had been our last place before the Lake Abert seeding trip,  it had been a long ways into the Plan A spot and rough navigating getting there.

We had hunts planned by the size of the Pronghorn Antelope that we had found.

One being near Diablo Mtn., which is on the back side of Summer Lake, another being up in the northern part of the hunt unit at St. Patrick Butte, and the last one was near the airstrip out near Paisley off the Red Barn Rd.

 We did not want to disturb the herd and keep our distance out about a mile from a ridge-line that allowed us to view the animals that were watering without being detected.

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Cobra’s Grizzly Unit Monster Mule Deer

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In 1985 this was the Number 1 Archery Buck out of Oregon! 
Held that post for 5 years, now ranks # 6 in Oregon.  Records are meant to be BROKE!
Oregon Mule Deer buck had a Gross score of 197 P&Y- Net of 190. 

“Dave, you’re not going to believe it!” I said to my friend. “that fellow in the Bronco was right-that buck has got to be 31 inches wide! I’m going back! He’s just feeding in a shallow basin on top of the knob!”

Thus began my dream stalk.

The Oregon archery season was coming to a close in three days. I’d passed up many smaller bucks during the season, trying to find a real “booker”. Now it was performance time.

I made a quick call to Dave because I knew I could count on him to go on a mission with me. I told him we could make a Saturday afternoon hunt over on the breaks of the John Day River in central Oregon.

The final weekend of the season also happened to be my drill weekend with the U.S. Naval Reserve. Luckily, I only had to spend half of Saturday and Captain’s Call was out at 1130. I made it to Dave’s place just past noon in Sandy, Oregon.

There was a two-hour drive to the mountains, leaving us about six hours maximum for hunting.

On the way to the Bureau of Land Management land, we spotted a small herd of mule deer, with five bucks. All looked pretty nice, and I decided to try taking a few photos. They were in the 23 to 25 inch class with one respectable four point at about 28 inches. At 5:00 p.m., we reached the B.L.M. land on the west side of the John Day River.

This was truly the year of archery mule deer hunting that I could say, “you should have seen the ones that got away!”

190 P & Y Grizzly Unit Mule Deer

This buck hangs in the Sportsman’s Warehouse in Portland, Oregon

Big Game Hunting, Hunting Ideas, Mule Deer Hunting

Crooked River Ranch – Peninsula, OR Mule Deer

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Hunting Equipment

340 Weatherby Rifle

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340 Weatherby MK V Custom.

This is a story about a rifle that I have had since 1983. It is also a story from the starting of a New Year January 01, 2008.I have had the rifle since 1983 when I was managing a sporting goods store for Burns Bros., Inc. It was a great gig in those days to be able to be a Weatherby Dealer; know Roy Weatherby and Harry Bane. I was able to get Weatherby rifles for less that dealer cost and get hand selected wood and little extra done on my rifles. I wish that I had all of those Weatherby’s that went into my gun cabinet in the 80’s.The lone 340 Weatherby is the last rifle from those days that I have. In all reality, I not longer have it; I actually gave it to Frank Jr. about a year ago. 

The 340 Weatherby has been through a lot over the years, had a half a dozen scope put on it. Has probably shot over 2000-3000 rounds, with some of them loaded pretty warm. It has been taken on a motorcycle, quad, horse and my back. It was on a horse of mine that balked on a steep trail in the Snake River and rolled down the canyon. Neither the rifle nor the horse was damage badly. It has been abused most definitely to the max. You would think that the rifle would be worn out!

The rifle has never failed on a hunt. All of the elk that I have ever taken have been taken with the 340 rifle, which is many-many elk.  Elk have been shot in the Snake River canyon at a 900-1000 yards, along the John Day River at 900-1000 yards.  Oh! And it has taken a bull at 50 feet one time in open country. No bull has ever gotten away from the wrath of the 340.

340 Weatherby has always been a tough rifle to sight in. Always a one shot rifle, anymore than 3 rounds would cause the bullets to drift and you would have to wait for the #2 26″ contour barrel to cool down.   About three years ago, I finally went to the two piece Leupold bases with double dovetail rings. I had to do it with a 30/378 Weatherby that broke the one piece base.  I have to tell you that after doing that, the 340 Weatherby really preformed at the shooting range.

So on January 01, 2008 after Frankie got a replacement scope from Bushnell (4200 2.5X10 50MM 30MM Tube), I quickly mounted the scope on the rifle and we headed up toward Goat Mt., outside of Colton, OR. We have a favorite spot up on Gray’s Hill Road that we can shot up to 1000 yards.

The snow was deep of course since the last snow storm. Normally I would not want to sight-in a rifle on a day like this, but Frankie and his girlfriend Holly were persistence in that I go up and get it done. You know that Frankie can out shot me, well at least he is on the quick swing shots, but he does love the way I sight in a rifle.  I feel that it is never the rifles fault if one misses game after I have them sighted-in and all screws are checked.

Anyway it took a while to get to our spot; luckily no one took the spot as a parking spot, as everyone from Portland was up there playing in the snow. There was a great 55 gal drum at the top of the road to set up a shooting platform. Oh! Course I only had Barnes X bullets to shoot at paper.  Quickly sighted in the rifle at 25 yards to get it close. Moved out to 100 yards to tweak the rifle in, then to 150 yards and so on.  The final target was set at 400 yards… I had a slight wind coming from the back and a slight downhill line of sight to the 400 yard target. Oh! I also had the 30/378 and wanted to test it in these conditions at 400 yards. I quickly fire off 3 rounds from the 30/378. Then comes old trustworthy, the 340! The last three rounds that I had were 225gr. Barnes X, loaded to the max.

The 340 has never been fun to sight-in!   The real reason is that it knocks the daylight out of one.  I always have a headache after going to the range.  It is Magnaport with the parallel slots, which I had done to all of the big bore rifles bought or tested in the 80’s.  It doesn’t lift up from the sight pattern, but it does have a nasty recoil. The new process having the muzzle break is best in my opinion.  The 30/378 Weatherby shoots like a 243 and one can shoot it all day, if you can afford the ammo.  The new scope has the heavy European duplex crosshairs. Not a great target scope reticule, but great in timber.   At 400 yards I could not see the how the 30/378 did on paper as I did not bring a spotting scope with me on this trip.

Getting to the end of the story, I made the three last shots of the day from the 340 Weatherby….  I trekked down to the target to see the results. P. S. The snow was about 1-3 feet deep and I wished I had snow shoes. I was quite amazed at the results.  My 30/378 the comfortable shooter, the group was left to right a three inch group, with all shots level at 1/4 difference.  Not the best, but I will blame it on my shooting, not the rifles ability to perform…

Now comes old faithful, the bread and butter of all the Weatherby’s that I have had and that I still have.  I did take a little more time to set-up on these shots, as I really wanted to know if the rifle was set.  The three shot group was the size of a Quarter at 400 yards…. Hard to believe! The yardage was done with range finder!  Other than a sand bag, 55 gal drum, and shooting from one knee there were no other devices used to make this happen.  Much like a hunting condition and not a nice shooting range with heater.

I have always felt that the 340 Weatherby has been the best all around caliber in the Weatherby line.

Bwana