Ray contacted me around June 30th after searching the internet for information on the Oregon Malheur Antelope Unit.   What I liked about Ray, was that he was prepared for hunting, having the right equiptment.   He also had a Garmin GPS with mapping and he did buy the www.huntinggpsmaps.com Maps for the hunt!

Frank, I used my Remington 700 – .270 with the Winchester Ballistic 150gr (I think, could be 130gr).  We ended up camping off of Warm Springs Rd just a few miles north of the Res. (we were the only camp I saw all week).  We covered a lot of ground in this area from camp towards Riverside and S.W. towards Crane before deciding to hit the hills east of Shumway south out of Juntura.  As you had mentioned, most water holes were full so jumping pond to pond wasn’t giving us any results.  On the hot afternoons saw a herd bedded in the timber. Jumped a nice herd of 10-12 lopes with a huge Buck in the rear but we were crossing through private land at that point. We ended up trying to stalk that herd once they ducked the fence to BLM but it only took a few minutes for them to cover a few miles.  After hiking to where we thought they might have slowed down they were nowhere to be seen (It took us a few hours to get there).  They were bedded down in the sage on a hillside maybe 80 yds off of the road. Saw a nice shooter again on private right along the highway one morning also.

Ultimately I took my buck on our evening hunt last Wednesday. After a late lunch and a few cold drinks (we had been out since 5AM and had covered over 100miles on our quads and several miles on foot) we headed out of camp around 5:30PM on our quads headed North on Warm Springs Rd.  Our plan was to try to glass the hills south of Hwy 20 where we had seen that nice buck off the highway that hit the hills toward camp once we pulled over to see him.  We turned on to a road about 5-6 miles south of the highway (spotting scopes in hand) thought we would ride in to look for a good vantage point to sit out the sunset and hope to see him.

It wasn’t a few miles in when I creped around a blind corner and saw an antelope moving through the meadow (about 200-225 yds away) I grabbed my rifle and jumped off my quad. I put my sights on him and realized right then that this was my chance.  The sun had dropped below the next ridge and things happened so fast that I quickly but softly asked my buddy who had just ran up with binos in hand “that’s my buck, right?” without hesitation he replied “YES! TAKE THE SHOT!”  By this time he had us pinned and had adjusted his walk to a gallop and was broadside planning on getting up over that ridge.  I squeezed the trigger and heard a whack!  The adrenaline at that point I felt had never been stronger!  

Not the biggest one out there but a solid buck with ivory tips and a broken kicker tells me he could have been a little bruiser!  I can’t wait until Christmas time when I get him back and have years to tell the story of my lifetime.  Incredible hunt, and an incredible animal… 

Thanks again Frank (we will be in touch),

Ray Nastasia