John’s quest for a Mule Deer in Central Oregon

John’s hunt started sometime in January of 2012, when he asked me about hunting for Mule Deer in Central Oregon.  John works with me at the dealership and is from Grants Pass, Oregon.  He comes from a long line of hunters and this year along the family has had to harvest 3 Black Bears and 3 Cougars that were threatening their farm.   I should say I have seen in the later months of 2012 the Blacktails that his family have taken.  I think I would like to retire down there to hunt Blacktails, Cougars and Bears.

John and his group decided they would put in for the Grizzly Unit Rifle Deer Tag for 2012 after John told his group that I would give him an area or two to hunt in the Grizzly Unit.  They were successful as they had a few preference points between them.  The hunt was now set and I would come up the with waypoints and mapping.

John bought a Garmin Oregon 300 from me with the mapping program that would show the BLM that they would have access too!  I am a firm believer in the use of GPS and the correct mapping.   In that area of the country where the ranchers and organizations that have property next to the BLM, have said that hunters with trespass given the opportunity from not knowing the boundaries.   I wanted John if ever stopped to be able to prove with time stamped tracks and waypoints where he and his group have been!  You will find fact with this later in the story!

I was giving John two different areas to hunt in the Grizzly Unit both being in the northern sector about 8 miles line of sight from each other.   John had decide to camp down on the John Day River during the hunt.

Opening day he found himself in the walk-in only area that was bordered on three sides by private.  I felt if he was in the couple of miles from the bottom of the creek to the interior they might be able to find a big mulie.   It has always been a great sp0t in the past for opening day of rifle or even to archery hunt.   In the old days before Young Life and the BLM made an agreement to keep ATV’s out of this area, it was easy to get the 3 miles in and then work the canyons and draws on foot after spotting deer, elk or antelope.

The morning proved to be a bust for the group and they decided to hunt the area a bit further south which had more land to cover and they could drive into key access and observation points to find game.   John told me when he got back after the hunt, that the hunt into the opening day area was a big tough on him, since he has had two (2) hip replacements.  You would think that John would have let me know about this when I explained the terrain!

During there trip into the BLM of H.H., they ran into the resident Oregon State Police Game Officer M.P., who knows that country like he knows his truck and struck up a conversation.   M.P. told him when he came out of the northern sector of H.H. Area he had not seen a hunter or any deer.   Now John and his group are a bit down on all of this great news from the man himself.

The Grizzly Unit has taken a toll with poaching in recent years and the fact that the Cougars in the sage brush, juniper and rimrock thrive.   I have found many a good bull and buck that have been ambushed in a timbered draw in this area.  The Grizzly Unit harbours some great bucks, but you really have to work for them.   A number of Boone and Crockett’s bucks have come from the Grizzly Unit!

The next thing the group does is go to Madras, Oregon and have dinner and setup the next days hunt.  John had given me a call while in Madras and asked what to do next.   I still believed in the northern sector hunt and that they should maybe work within a mile of the access road, as there was a creek that ran next to it.  

The next day which was Sunday they hunted the creek bottom and the shallow draws (brush laden) that came down into the creek.  They started to see some game and had a good feeling that something was going to happen.   Remember that private borders this parcel of BLM.    John and his brother work the ridge next to the road as they are going to go back to John’s B Van and have lunch.  As they are about to get on the access road, John spots a herd of 20 plus deer with 4 bucks in the group.   Now the deer have not spotted John yet and John, pulls out his Garmin Oregon to see if the deer are on BLM or Private (there are a number of cross fences in this area).   Of course the GPS has to fire up and access satellites.   This must take a about minute to do so, my comment to John “What were you thinking not having the GPS on?”.   John sees that the spot is BLM and as he does the deer finally spot them and start to move out.  John and his brother have to move a bit with deer as they would be coming back their direction a bit to get into the draw of safety.   John makes a great 250+ yard shot on buck and his brother targets another buck that broke away from the group.  

John’s group of 4 hunters would run 50% on the harvest of bucks in the Grizzly Unit, so each man gets 1/2 a deer to feed the families this year.   I feel that John would hunt the Grizzly Unit again though he did not shoot what he was really looking for though.   John did a scouting trip about 2 weeks before the opener and did see a couple of the big bucks that the Grizzly Unit is famous for!

I have written as the story was told to me:  Frank B.