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

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!

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!

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.

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!