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.
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
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.
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.
onX HUNT Oregon and pairing it up with a Garmin 64s.
Weekend before 4th of July (my anniversary weekend) we make the 9 hour trek to scout around some areas Frank gave me. We see a few goats but they were few and far between. A couple of decent bucks were spotted.
Nice Cover Also!
A month later after studying a ton on onX HUNT I decided to go look at an area that was behind some private property that had a few water holes. I see a ton of Antelope and 3 really good shooters.
I head down the day before season and meet up with a buddy named Jeff. We get camp all setup and we decided to take the Razor out for a cruise to scout. We see a few antelope nothing to spectacular but I’m in good spirits seeing some.
Next morning we head out before daylight out to where we see some goats the night before. Right at daylight we decided to give 2 smaller bucks a pass and we kept on heading out. We glass a few decent lopes that may have been shooters but they were so far away and we really didn’t have a good advantage point to get a real good idea if they were shooters or not.
We decided to head back towards where we see the smaller bucks. We look 600 yards in front of us and we see a bunch of Mulie does and one loner Lope together. We see he had good cutters and good mass and it was game on. We close within 120 or so yards take a look and liked his mass and cutters. Took the shot and down he goes I’m tagged out by 0715.
We take a few pics get him to the Razor and ride 6 or 7 miles back to camp. I get him caped out and put in the coolers. We tear down camp as fast as we can load up the Razor and I get to Sewell’s Taxidermy as fast as I could. Seeing a ton of Antelope on the way out with a huge smile on my face. I get to Sewell’s and they were very impressed with this buck being my first lope ever and with a muzzleloader at that. Well they tell me that he looks like he might be a book buck. He tapes it for a green score real quick and green he came out 74 inches.
I would have gone in 100 percent blind if it wasn’t for frank helping me out with some waypoints. Yes I branched out and found my own little honey hole, but I would have went out to a couple of those spots if my morning hunt was a bust. Great guy and very knowledgeable. Thank you again!!!
First off I have known Randy, who lives in Washington for a number of years. He once drew an Oregon Pronghorn Tag and got a hold of me. He used Garmin and onXmaps HUNT back then and even found his own honey hole….
‘Yes Frank , We did use onX Maps. That’s how we found the honey hole when Travis had his tag a few years back. Just couldn’t find a mature one there this year. Have yet to see another hunter in that spot. I’m sure come rut time a big one will show. We have a friend in 033 now, looking for something mid 80’s. I’ll let you know how he does.”
Hi Frank,
Just got back from Nevada and thought I’d better share my story with you. Travis my son and I arrived in Mountain City on Sunday afternoon. Right away we wanted to check out an area we knew held numbers of antelope west of town. After locating several groups of animals that evening and the next morning we were not seeing much for mature bucks.
We decided to check out the unit to the east and look over some new country. After few miles it started looking like lope country. Soon I glassed up a few does a mile away . We drove a bit closer and snuck in to get a better look. Three or four soon materialized into 27 with one good-looking buck. We marked the location on the Garmin and pressed on. By now it was pushing late afternoon and in the upper 80’s we arrived in a massive area that looked like prime antelope habitat with several good water sources. Cruising and stopping to glass, I spotted the buck I knew was my #1 target.
Randy’s! Orignial target Lope in Nevada…
I attached a picture we took with a phone scope. We left him alone and found a camp site a couple of miles away. This area was getting a lot of traffic and other hunters out scouting. Seeing this I figured we’d have competition in the morning.
We struck a plan and went to bed thinking about the big guy all night. Up at 5:00 and on the road by 5:15 we planned to hike up a ridge to a good vantage point. Sitting in the dark for 45 minutes we were finally able to pick things apart.
Soon I spotted 5 antelope high up the mountain on a sage flat. Getting the spotter on them I thought it was the big one. We made a plan and the stalk was on. It was a steep and noisy climb trying to use the lay of the terrain as cover. After and good hour we closed the distance to 500 yards.
Not feeling comfortable at that distance we moved to a pile of rocks and shorted it to 380 yards. Not pulling the spotter out again I readied for the shot. As I got settled in I told Travis I wasn’t sure it’s our buck. They were about to feed over the ridge top when I said I like him anyway. At the shot they all grouped up and I knew I had missed . They fled over the top not offering a follow-up shot. I figured we’d better go check, just to be sure it was a clean miss.
At this point we were nearly 7000 ft in elevation. Reaching the top Travis picked them up 3 – 400 yards out grouped in tall cover. They saw us and busted out of site. Since we were up there we decided to continue along glassing the vastness below. After another 45 min. of side hilling. Travis shouts “buck”! I looked directly downhill and 120 yards away was the buck I just missed staring at us. All I could see was his neck and head. I threw up my .280 and squeezed off a shot. He immediately flipped over backwards and disappeared.
Randy’s 2017 Nevada Buck down and posing for the pictures…
Off went the Does crashing down the mountain stopping a 1000 yards away waiting for the buck. Getting down to him I very was thrilled with his symmetry and the nice backwards hook to his horns. After a few photos and tagging him I dressed him and down the mountain we went.
At the road we both knew we were a bit turned around the road and surroundings did not look familiar. Looking at the Garmin and onX HUNT we realized the truck was 3.5 miles away as the crow fly’s. Travis took off and I began boning out the buck and putting it into game bags.
All Lope hunters would appreciate the symmetry of this Pronghorn!
After 1.5 hrs I was getting a bit worried when I seen a dust cloud in the distance and my grey Tacoma coming my way. He ended up climbing a high ridge and spotted a rig parked glassing. Meeting up with 2 older fellows from Reno they had seen our truck and gave him a ride to it. Still not sure where I was since he’d not marked my location. He looked at the map and thought I might be on the road heading south of our camp which we had not explored yet. Sure enough he guessed right and we got the meat iced up good and went back and broke camp.
Overall we had a great trip and was very happy with the buck I took. I feel very lucky to be able to still get out and enjoy what I love and to share it with my son.
technology, in order to give him a better idea and also stay legal on the hunt…
