This is another great story from a Pronghorn Hunter who waited the years to get a great tag!
Frank, here is my story and pics, the buck was taken on private land in the Maupin unit!
This year I was one of the lucky ones to draw an antelope tag for a unit close to my home. Since living in the area my entire life I knew the better antelope areas would be on private ground and would require gaining access to those areas, so the homework began. Having friends that own ranches in both units made access fairly easy, but finding a descent buck to take was not such an easy task.
What great Mass this Pronghorn! It is all about the Mass!
Since I had to work opening weekend I could only dream of chasing big ole lope bucks, and this was not easy. Monday and Tuesday I focused on a few agricultural areas that always held a few antelope, and while I saw a few descent bucks I knew the area held some bigger bucks and continued to hold out for that special buck I had waited 12 years for. Wednesday I changed gears and hunted close to home, with a tip from a rancher about a dandy buck he had seen a week earlier. Excited and ready to seal the deal I got an early start and headed out to the area that the rancher had seen the buck previously. The weather was fairly cool in the morning with a strong breeze blowing from the South, and rain clouds threatening to pour some much needed moisture on the dry ground, wow I thought to myself this feels like deer season. As I proceed through the gate I see 12 doe and fawn antelope running down the road in the direction I’m heading, I was thinking to myself that this is already looking good. Feeling motivated and ready to see a good buck antelope I park the pickup and head in the direction of some newly planted fields that the big buck was spotted last. I stopped at a fence-line that overlooked the fields, and glassed down the draw towards the fields and saw a few antelope milling around. Being close to 1000 yards away I made my way down the draw for a closer inspection. As I got closer I could tell there was an exceptional buck antelope lying down among the others, and knew this is the one I had waited 12 years for. As I made a plan to crawl and hide my way closer to the buck I wished I would of brought my knee pads, but had so much adrenaline pumping through my body I really didn’t feel a thing.
As you can see there is little Public Land (BLM). It is best to get yourself lined up with a rancher. This mapping would help to find someone! The MAUPIN unit for sure lacks, the West BIGGS unit has some huntable Antelope BLM.
As I was working my way closer to the buck I realized he had gotten up and was chasing the other bucks around and feeding in between sparring matches. I was running out of cover and came to a slight rise in the terrain that allowed me to get a perfect rest and range the buck at 305 yards. I decided that this was as close as I was going to get, and set up for the shot. I placed the cross hairs on the buck’s front shoulder and squeezed the trigger. As the recoil of my 257 Weatherby came back the old buck dropped in this tracks. I took a moment and thanked GOD for such a fantastic opportunity, and taking such a great buck. As I walked up to the buck I couldn’t believe the mass of his horns and that this beautiful animal was mine. I spent a quiet moment with the great antelope buck just admiring him and taking in the moment.
The hunter with his great trophy. Doing the research, brings rewards!
The bucks horns measured 14 1/2″ Long, with 6″ Prongs, and a little over 7″ Bases. The buck holds his mass all the way to his 3rd quarter and has lots of character. I couldn’t have asked for a better antelope hunt and realize how lucky I was to experience this rare opportunity to hunt pronghorn in Oregon. This buck is very close to being able to make Boone & Crockett! Depends on the 90 day drying period! Jeff H.
The following story is one of the best that I have read on an Oregon Pronghorn Hunt. As you can see Ken is a man of detail and the results show! Thanks Ken!
“Hey Frank,
I would like to share my hunt experience with you since that’s the condition you gave me when you helped me with advice, locations and mapping.”
A great Dinosaur of the Warner Hunt Unit! An awesome hunt with action and lots of Antelope-Pronghorn to few!
The first phase of my hunt was preparation. I had 12 points and decided it was time to quit doing point savers and get into the hunt. I prepared an antelope worksheet, which I have attached. My criteria were significant public land, a projected draw range around 12 points, and a high harvest percentage. The Warner Unit second season looked like a good possibility. Next I searched the internet for hours looking for any information on Warner. I didn’t find much, but nothing negative and the general consensus was a good number of bucks, although maybe not the next B&C record. Then I found the Bwana Bubba website and made contact. You sent GPS waypoints and I managed to get them into my Magellan GPS and Topo! software. Also at your recommendation I bought the Oregon Hunting Maps premier subscription from onXmaps HUNT for my iPad. No cell service but I had pre-cached the maps and the iPad GPS worked like a charm. Excellent suggestion and worth the price. I also called and spoke with your friend Craig, the ODFW Bio for the area. He was very helpful and I had enough information to decide to put in for the tag, which I drew. After drawing I drove down and visited Craig in Lakeview. We went through the maps I’d printed and we strategized the four main areas to hunt in order of preference. The #1 area based on water and animal count this year was from about Luce Lake north to just above Colvin Lake. There were also some springs still running in Coyote Hills that made that #1A. The northernmost section of the unit was so dry this year the antelope had moved down to the area I hoped to hunt. I spent the rest of that day driving around the unit to get the lay of the land and headed home.
The next phase of my hunt was learning about Antelope hunting first hand. I borrowed my friend’s Rhino and trailered it into my chosen hunt area late the night before season. I slept in my rig and was up early for opening day. It took a couple hours to find the goats but as I got within a few miles of water they started appearing. The main area I hunted was around Colvin Lake and north and east to Cement Springs in the Coyote Hills. As I was driving down a road (road means you drive on the same big rocks as everywhere else but the grass is shorter) I came across a hunter packing out a beautiful antelope – the consensus of guys who later saw it was 82-83 – and gave him a ride several miles back to his camp past Colvin. I tried to put the sneak on a group I saw heading into water at Colvin but hunters were already set up there so the shooting began before I got there. I headed out to other areas and saw bucks other guys had taken and chatted with the State Troopers cruising through the unit. Late that afternoon I travelled back in towards where the guy with the big goat had been and sneaked into a lake about half a mile long north and east of Colvin (see google earth picture attached). Throughout the day I had seen just one buck on the hoof but I spent time practicing sneaking in on the does to see what worked and practice my skills. Now down at the water I watched as one, two, three and then four herds came to water. I noted the time they showed up and the locations, as well as their behavior. This was my first antelope hunt and I needed all the intel I could get. I checked out a fair number of antelope through binos but observed no bucks. After some time the herd furthest away (about half mile) showed some activity and in the binos I saw some chasing going on. Interesting. Then I noticed one of the lopes had a prominent black cheek patch. “Hey – that’s a buck! And I can see horns at half a mile!”
The final phase of my hunt was the stalk. Because there were some junipers and pines along my side of the lake I eased back to their outer edge and started heading down towards where the buck and does were. Covering distance on that terrain is not quick and I needed to be careful so as not to be spotted. By the time I got down to the opposite end of the lake all I could find were big-eyed cows staring up at me. I couldn’t find the herd but as I looked into the distance across the sage there was a nice buck. I hit the ground and kept watching in the binos as he was a quarter mile out, alternatively grabbing a bite of sage and trotting away. He was nervous but could not see me as I had the setting sun to my back. I watched him over the horizon and consoled myself with the thought he’d be back tomorrow at the same time so I’ll come an hour earlier. I headed back to put glass on the other herds, by now moving away from the water. It was at that point I thought I should at least walk the country the buck had gone into so I was familiar with it in case I needed to go in there the next day. As I walked out across the sage, I saw him coming back towards the lake. Again I hit the ground. He cut the distance between us, moving from my right to my left heading towards the lake.
A closer look at Ken’s mature herd buck!
The sun was now quite low and every time he went behind any sort of bush or tall scrub I bent as low as I could and cut whatever distance I could. I kept my shadow pointing at him as he moved so the sun was always in his eyes. He just ambled obliviously towards the lake. I figured in all the excitement he forgot to get a drink of water and was heading back. When he went behind some scrub trees near the lake I moved as far forward as possible and figured I was at 150 yards from having ranged things earlier. Then I saw why he went back – there were three does heading toward him from the lake. Now I was in trouble, though, because there were a lot more eyes and they had a better angle on me. As I reached forward to flip out the bipod on my rifle in preparation for a potential shot, all three does busted me. They took off running from my left to my right across the sage. The buck took off running behind them in the same direction. I knew there were no people the direction I was shooting and had no time to do anything but take an off-hand shot at a running antelope. So I pulled up standing and located a small juniper tree ahead of the does, putting my cross-hairs on its right side. As soon as the does ran behind it and came out the other side I counted running antelope through the scope, “One, two, three…” and timed the movement of my rifle so I was already swinging to the right just as the buck came into the crosshairs. I squeezed off one shot and watched as the antelope hunched, staggered several steps, and fell to the ground. The shot felt good, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit I was surprised. The 180 grain .300 Win Mag went through both lungs, and I couldn’t be more excited. I had just enough sunlight to get some pictures before the work began.
The bottom line is this: Thank you for the great help – the hunt would not have been the success it was without it!
Ken Dixon – Professionals Pursuing the Perfect Project
Well Spring is almost here and so is daylight saving, about time here in the Pacific N.W. for me.
Getting started we open the New Year with no snow and plenty of RV Sales here at B Young RV. I know I said no snow, but that has come and gone in February. In the old days I loved the snow and I loved to head to the hills and play in places like Steen’s Mts. or the BLM east of Madras, Oregon to play in the snow or chase exotics.
Today has been a moving day for the company for the upcoming PORTLAND METRO DEALERS 56th RV SHOW, which starts March 5th and goes through to March 9th. The company has been able to get in and setup before any other dealer. Makes life easier for the set-up crew! Hoorah!
B YOUNG RV will be taking up HALL- A at the EXPO, which was the main HALL at EXPO SHOWS. I had the privilege to take out a Tiffin Allegro RED 33AA Diesel Pusher today. I have to say that I am glad I don’t have to arraign some 70+ RV’s in the building. Today the B in the B YOUNG, Jack Phelps and Jimmy G are doing all the work. Oh! There are the drivers also, which all sales staff did drive out a Class A Motorhome!
I would like to say that I have had our motorhome out in the winter, but only had one chance in December to do so. In the meantime I have had it protected at Luxury Vehicle Care in Milwaukie, Oregon. It is great feeling to know that my RV is stored inside in a secure facility. I have notice that a great deal of B Young RV’s customers also usesLuxury Vehicle Care to store their RV’s.
Little Guy has come out with another Teardrop called the T @ G, which has nicer features over the regular Teardrop. I have a rancher that is heading out into the S.W. part of the U.S. and taking his T @ G out and pulling it behind a 2012 Porsche 911 AWD. I will put pictures of the setup in my next newsletter.
This is the new T @ G with A/C and dual pane windows! Hot Stuff
Tulips are about to come out, so RV’s are about come out and head to the parks in Oregon and elsewhere in the U.S.A. I know in December I was surprised how many people were camping on the Oregon Coast. Yes it was easy to get a spot during the weekend trip, but folks were enjoying the good weather on the coast.
Now if you happen to be in Newport, Oregon, I would suggest eating at the Newport Café, my good friend Michael Blakely tells me it is the place to eat. I will eat there the next time I am in Newport. You do have to love their webpage!
At B YOUNG RV, we are lucky as Sales Staff, as I feel and so do my colleagues we have the best RV’s in the marketplace, with the likes of Tiffin RV, Grand Design RV, Prime Time RV, The Redwood, Coachmen, Keystone, Little Guy and many more. Tough to choose, but we have a floor-plan and a model for everyone.
“And as we say at B YOUNG RV, come shopping today and you can be camping tomorrow”
This is not much of a story, but it is an example of wanting to know where to hunt.
I have known J. Henninger for a great deal of years, along with his brother Brian Henninger the PGA golfer. John use to hunt with his brother Brian a great deal when their children were young. I had lined up Brian to hunt on old ranch in the Grizzly Unit for Elk and Deer, so John had the privilege to be able to hunt the Old Smith Ranch outside of Antelope, Oregon for a number of years.
Last year I get an email from John that he had gotten an Oregon Warner Unit Pronghorn – Antelope Tag for rifle hunting. Wanted to know if I had spots for the Warner Unit. Sent back an email that I had it dialed in for hunting Lopes for the unit.
John’s Oregon Warner Unit Rifle Pronghorn Buck!
Told John I would send him waypoints and what GPS does he or does he have a GPS and any mapping for the area. After a number of emails, John did have a Bushnell GPS. Hmm! This will take some work and I sent him TXT file that he would have to hand input into the Bushnell GPS.
Of course I said to John, now get yourself a colored Garmin GPS and get the mapping from the Montana company which now is called Hunt onXmaps.
I get text message from John in the field that the file won’t load to his Bushnell GPS. Great I tell myself, why hadn’t he call me sooner and get this straight?
I then printed out the TXT file and send a JPG picture of it to John to hand load to his GPS.
I did later get a text message from John that he had harvest an Antelope in the Warner Unit of Oregon. Hmm!
In closing on this short blog of the Oregon Warner Rifle Antelope Hunt in Oregon, is that you wait from 10 to 20 years for a tag, why not spend a little bit of the gas money that I have saved you and buy a good Garmin GPS and the proper mapping to go with it…
The above picture of John’s Oregon Buck is a great picture. Very clean and setup well!
There is a bit of humor with this story, as Larry met me in by day job. He and the wife were looking at RV’s, in particular 5th Wheels. I gave him and wife some literature and my card. A couple of days later I get an email from Larry about Antelope-Pronghorn Hunting in Oregon. He has found my website and had put 2 and 2 together. I did send Larry waypoints that he loaded to his Garmin GPS. He is one of Oregon’s finest and knows how to use a GPS. He is 1 of 4 that drew Whitehorse Lope tags in 2013 that made contact with me. I did read that he found some private land to access. The waypoints that I gave him and the others were keys waypoints through-out the unit. Whitehorse Unit has lots of Pronghorns!
This is Larry’s Story as he has written it!
It was late, 11:30pm, when I drove into the hunt area about two hours south of Burns. This hunting trip hadn’t gone well so far. The season started on Saturday and I had training to attend on the following Monday and Tuesday, so wouldn’t get in until late Tuesday night. My hunting partner, Rich, had headed over from the Portland area on Saturday and had set up a base camp. The plan was for him to hunt Sunday, Monday and Tuesday while I would sleep in the front of my truck Tuesday night at the edge of the White Horse Unit and hunt for “speed goats” into base camp, Wednesday morning.
Tuesday morning, the last day of training, I received a text message from Rich letting me know that he was really sick, had pulled camp and was headed home. I knew it had to be bad as it had taken us six years to draw these tags. After training, I met Rich outside of Salem and caught up on the Antelope hunting, where to set up camp and how he was doing. Rich didn’t look good at all, but assured me he could make it home.
The buck has quite the horn configuration! Never know about Lopes and the horns!
11:30pm, Tuesday, I pulled off the highway, opened a ranchers gate and drove back onto BLM land a couple hundred yards back and tried to sleep. Note to self… I’m getting too old to sleep in the front of a pickup truck…
5am Wednesday, my alarm goes off and I awake to a false dawn. It’s still warm, about 73 degrees and I work up a sweat just getting my rifle and hunting gear ready to go. Cold coffee left over from a few hours ago works for breakfast and I fire the truck up. The road is rough although I’m just idling along watching the desert come to life. About two miles back in, I see a herd of twenty antelope about 1500 yards away off to the south. A look through the spotting scope reveals one really nice buck, some smaller ones and the rest does. Driving until I get a hill between the herd and myself, I park, put on some knee pads and gloves, grab my pack and rifle and head up the hill. Nearing the top, I’m in a low crawl until I almost crest out. The herd is gone! I see three antelope does is all and behind them only a few yards away, a muley and yearling. All of them finally feed out of the area, over the ridge top and are gone. Making my way back to the truck, I’m sweating pretty well now; for sure have to stay down wind if I put the sneak on anything.
Heading on down the road, I finally experience for myself why folks call these critters “speed goats” and talk about their acute vision. Easy to spot in the desert, even at a thousand yards, I’d stop my truck to get the spotting scope up and they’d take off like they were shot out of cannon. I spotted half a dozen more small herds and some individuals and every time I’d stop, all I would see was a dust trail.
Seventeen miles back in, I found what was to be base camp. An old corral, offering some wind protection, although dry with no water in sight. After receiving hunt location information from Bwana Bubba-Frank Biggs, I explored the area at home on satellite maps and had the coordinates on several possible waterholes. Checking out several of these I found them to be all dry. Not much snow pack last year I guess. I made my way to what mapped out to be a big one, but found that dry as well. From there, I headed to a ranch I could see in the distance, a spot of green in an otherwise desert landscape.
Driving into the ranch, I made my way to the main house but didn’t find anyone at home. Then I decided to head back and break out my camping gear and set up in that old corral. Just as I was leaving the ranch property, here comes a truck herding a single pissed off cow with some impressive horns. The cow rushes past me and the cowboy gets out of the truck and we meet right there. Sporting a very large drop mustache, I can tell that this man has been up the creek and over the mountain. I introduce myself and we start talking about antelope hunting. Before it’s over, I’m up to date on speed goats and a much better place to camp. Just as I’m getting ready to leave, the ranch owner suggests that I take a different road back, up towards some rim rock where he has recently seen some nice bucks.
It’s now about 10:30am and I head up the road I was directed to. About a half a mile up, I see a buck in front of me about 800 yards out. I stop the truck but he doesn’t seem too interested. A closer look with my binoculars, just as he’s headed down a draw out of my sight and I see what at first appears to be a hell of cutter and I say out loud, “That’s a shooter!”
Grabbing my rifle and shooting sticks, I head out on foot where I last saw him. As I get within shooting distance of the draw, the buck I’d spotted breaks out at warp speed, 150 yards out, from my right to my left. I shoulder my 7mm Mag and follow him, leading just a bit and touch her off. The buck piles up, over on his back, kicks his legs about three times and then all is still. I scope him out and all I see are legs in the air. Watching him for a few minutes, I can tell this boy isn’t going anywhere except in the back of my truck.
I then walked back to get my truck and started a little cross country to get to my buck. About a hundred yards out from where he should be, I see a buck standing, looking at me. Stopping the truck, I open the door, throw my rifle up and take a closer look. I’m thinking, “Is that my buck? Did he get up? He IS standing a little weird and not moving!” Looking closer at his horns, they just don’t look right. I swing the rifle back a bit and see one leg of my down buck sticking in the air. Whew!!!! Glad I didn’t fire one off at that second one…. THAT would have been hard to explain!
Got the buck to the truck and loaded! Hoorah! Congrats to Larry on his first Lope!
Getting up to my buck, I discover that he is a non-typical. What I thought was a hell of a cutter was actually one horn down turned while the other was normal. 14″ on the good one and pretty good base. Not a record by any means, but a beautiful buck that will look great on my wall. The shot? Lucky! Blew the entire bottom half of his heart away.
Guess speed goats just can’t match 3,000 fps 7mm Mag bonded bullets.
I would love to say I have stories to go with the following pictures, but I do not have stories. Yes I gave out waypoints for the hunters and I am told the were killed with in 1 miles of on of my waypoints. My understanding that Holly T had chances for two (2) bucks over water and harvested her buck with one arrow in 2012. The other two bucks were harvested in 2013 a couple of days apart by Mark and Jim. I will have to see if I can attach a link to the video’s they made of the hunt in the Warner Unit of Oregon. John Mark does work for an bow manufacturer (Bowtech) in Oregon. He lives by the bow and is a most successful hunter.
John Mark, plus his family and friends do shoot Bowtech!
If you would like to get a hold of their video you can find it on the following site:
Holly and Hubby – John Mark!Holly with her Warner Archery Antelope. She got two chances on taking an Oregon Antelope with her bow!
John Mark took his Antelope a few days later on the hunt with Jeff in 2013!Jeff took his buck on the opening day of the hunt! Great Buck from the state of Oregon
As you can see the Warner Unit which has not been devastated by Coyote predication on the Antelope fawns, has lead to a great herd in this unit! I do believe that if we add up the rifle hunters and bow hunters, my hunters are at 100% harvest in the Warner Unit!
This is an interesting hunt that turned out to be a successful hunt for Ace who was hunting with his father. This is not the first time I have had similar accounts on hunting Lopes. Lopes can be crafty and escape a great stalk. A hunter can misjudge the distance as Antelope – Pronghorns are smaller than deer, so it can be difficult to judge the distance. WELL DONE ACE!
Ace with his 2013 Pronghorn from the Juniper Hunt Unit in Oregon. A well earned dandy Lope!
Dear – Frank
We got there on Friday and scouted til dark. We made the big loop and only saw 5 animals. Got up the next morning just before light and went out. It was too dark to see when we left camp so we waited on one of the roads leading to a water hole. I looked over and saw two bucks about 400 yards to our left and Ace shot at one that had a good size rack. Ace missed with 3 shots and they ran off.
The GPS was a Magellan and I couldn’t figure out the software or the unit and so I don’t have the coordinates and we ended up using the BLM maps we got in Burns on Friday. I have always used Garmin’s but a friend lent me this Magellan. The range finder was kind of useless because laying on your belly it gave bad readings and if you stand up the antelope can see you for a long ways.
We went down the road a ways more and saw some of to the right. He crawled out to get a shot and got a shot in a sitting position but also missed. He thinks he was shooting under the animals because the range finder was not accurate in the sagebrush. Then we saw at least one hundred (100) Antelope come over the ridge, but saw three (3) hunters and away they went from us.
As Ace was coming back to the rig we saw one male and six does about eight hundred (800) yards out but no way to get to them. We drove out the main road and headed North we went out another road and saw two groups out on a ridge. Ace crawled out to the gully and come down into it till he thought he was under them. I was watching at the rig with the spotting scope and he came up right under them with my guidance (hand signals). When he got to the top of the ridge they spooked and he got of a shot but missed again.
He decided that he needed to fire his gun when he was in the prone position because offhand and sitting he shook too much. We went out to the main road again and headed North and took a road East. He saw some out at a distance and crawled out to a point where he could get a shot and not be seen by the antelope. He took a shot and dropped this antelope. I drove out in the sagebrush to where the buck dropped, about 3/4 mile from the road. We field dressed it and quarterd it out right there and put the meat in the huge cooler on ice.
A few things we learned. Its hard to sneak up on Antelope on flat ground. Range finders are useless in flat ground with sagebrush. Knee pads are essential for crawling up on Antelope on your belly. You need to be able to cool the meat down fast. Walkie talkies are a great thing to have for communication. Its hard work to get a good shot at an Antelope. Thanks for the GPS points but we hunted on the west side of the unit and your points were for the east side mostly.
We appreciate your thoughtfulness. – Dennis and Ace Clark
Another Technical Hunter Scores in the S. Wagontire Unit
This is the third (3rd) hunter to hunt in the S. Wagontire Unit in Oregon for Antelope that has written a great story about the hunt in manner of being technical. It is put in this post as I received it and a well done piece by: Brandon. Pictures will be placed at the end of the article!
Dandy Buck Lope from the South Wagontire Unit in Oregon!
I hadn’t been applying for the South Wagontire Pronghorn tag for very long. This spring when my brother Derek and I applied as a party we averaged 4 points. We know some people who apply for the same tag and watch the numbers so we know it takes about thirteen Preference Points for a resident to get a tag. So as you can imagine, the last thing I expected was for my brother to call and rouse me out of bed for something “very important” and inform me of the luck we’d both just received. Two Pronghorn tags after only four years of applying; we could only hope for such wonderful luck when it came to killing bucks come August. How could this be? Oregon uses a percentage of the total allotted tags for a hunt to give all applicants a chance at a tag before they draw numbers for those with Preference Points. I for one am glad they do.
As you can imagine we had some work cut out for ourselves if we were going to be ready for this hunt as we didn’t expect tags for at least eight more years. We needed to figure out our options for rifles and loads, transportation, camping arrangements, transport of game, and many other smaller but no less important aspects of this exciting hunt. I read all the books I could find on the animals and spent some time looking at photo and video of Antelope bucks in order to familiarize myself with a “shooter.”
If you think you might want to shoot a Pronghorn, you are going to need to do some homework. You will want to have some hunting experience and you will need to be patient, prepared, and flexible. It helps to know some people who know some people and remember to make friends as you go. I owe a debt of gratitude to several people for their contributions to my hastily prepared, surprise Pronghorn hunt.
The first step was to start asking around. We had never even been on an Antelope hunt before. I personally had never even seen one. I work in the Sporting Goods department at a major Northwest membership store and was able to glean a lot of information from some of my more experienced customers. My brother and I both had good conversations with Craig Foster, a Wildlife Biologist in the Lakeview office. He gave us some good information in regards to herd density in specific areas of the unit as well as what class of bucks we might expect in those areas. He did let us know the overall population in the unit was a little lower than he had hoped for but not significantly so. In a later conversation he told us the major contributing factor to the low populations is due to poor fawn recruitment. If you’ve ever been to this unit this would come as no surprise as the leading predator of Pronghorn fawns, the coyote, are as thick as flies around a sorghum mill. As an aside we have plans to return with dog guns and a FoxPro to give the coyotes a dose of hell for what they’ve done to the young Pronghorns in the area. Overall Foster supplied us with a good understanding of what is going on in the unit.
Being members of an Oregon hunting forum my brother started a thread asking for some help. We got a lot of responses on the thread and after sorting through all the information we had a couple of pieces of good information. The best advice we got on the forum was to try and get ahold of Bwanabubba. Now Bwanabubba isn’t his given name and Cobra isn’t either. I contacted him via email through his site Bwana Bubba and learned he is a fine gentleman known to his friends as Frank. Frank was a big help to me and my brother. He gave us sound information to get our heads wrapped around Pronghorn hunting in South Wagontire. He even sent us GPS waypoints to good areas to look into when we scouted the area and eventually hunted it. One thing Frank did which was a great help to us, was to put us in contact with David K who had hunted the unit two years previous and killed a nice buck. You can read David’s story on the Bwanabubba site too; look for “The Average Joe.” If you have read Franks Guide to Successful Big Game Hunts you know that a successful hunter “listen[s] to people that have been successful in hunting.” That is exactly what I did. I had a real nice conversation with David on the phone and we exchanged several follow up emails. David was able to make time for us and actually came out to scout for us and show us around the unit some on opening day. David gave very generously of his time and even lent me some equipment that I don’t own. I like to think we have made a new friend in David and look forward to spending some more days in the field with him.
Pronghorn Antelope live in wide open spaces on the desert plains of Oregon so it is a good idea to leave the 45-70 at home and bring your flat shooter that chisels bullet holes one after the other. Derek opted to bring a Remington 25-06 borrowed from a friend and I brought my Remington chambered in 280 Remington. One aspect of this hunt I had been looking forward to was the chance to develop a 120 grain load that was hopefully accurate as well as fast. I knew I wanted to use a 120 grain because of the potential for speed. So I looked at the available bullets and compared them across the board from ballistic coefficients to projectile integrity once inside the game. I narrowed it down to either the Nosler Ballistic Tip hunting or the Barnes Tipped Triple Shock X bullet. Both of these bullets are known for their devastating effects on game. I want to eat as much of the meat as possible when I kill a game animal. I have known the Ballistic Tip Hunting bullet to over fragment in game and leave too much behind so I chose the Barnes. The Barnes bullets are a bit more money but if I have to wait 13 years for my next South Wagontire Antelope tag I am not going to worry about a few more cents per round this season. Bullets being chosen It was time to settle on a powder. My rifle likes IMR 4831, a lot. Shooting the 140 grain Accubonds I have gotten groups just a touch under a half inch at 100 yards. They weren’t particularly speedy compared to the Hornady Light Magnum stuff but they shot pretty well. I chose Remington cases because they have always been the most consistent brass in my collection. Barnes says their TTSX bullets like to be set .030-.070 inches off the rifling so I loaded a few groups of increasing grains of 4831 with the TTSX set .050 off the rifling. The next week Derek and I were able to get out and do a little shooting. Derek sighted in the Hornady Superformance loads first and, after a little trouble with the Bi-pod affecting his zero, was eventually able to get a satisfactory group shooting off my sand bag. The first group I shot had 58 grains of powder and was pretty respectable at barely over one minute of angle. The next group was a little tighter just under an inch with 59 grains. The third group was the winner though. At 60 grains the case was completely filled with powder and one grain under maximum. It shot like a dream ¾ of an inch including one that I knew I had pulled. I loaded up a box worth of this load in the next few days and headed off to the range with my chronograph to see just what I had exactly. The results of the range work? Three hole group in 0.323 inches with an average velocity of 3240 feet per second. If that isn’t an antelope load I don’t know what is. Happy with my load and optimistic with the info I had gotten from several fine gentleman it was time to scout the country and see what a Pronghorn looked like in person.
Since we are both working men with families we didn’t have much time to scout so we had to do it in a single day, no overnight, and two young sons in tow. Now since my boys were coming along we also couldn’t go in the truck and actually went scouting in a Dodge Neon. I know, I know, we must be crazy. That may be true but it was go in the car or don’t go at all. From the conversation I had with David I was expecting to see quite a few Antelope and a good portion of bucks. This didn’t happen for us because we couldn’t cover very much ground in the car. Going was slow and careful. The only Antelope we saw in the interior of the unit were so far off they were barely discernible. We did see some wild horses though and eventually saw an antelope buck on the way out. I hoofed it to a waterhole David had suggested and found it rather full of water but unfortunately it also had a rotting cow lying out in the middle of it. It was disappointing not to see very many Pronghorns but we weren’t discouraged. We saw plenty of tracks and got a good idea of what the country was like and most importantly we now knew just what a Speed Goat in the wild looks like.
When it came time to head east for the hunt we would be going in my brothers Ford Ranger and we would be packing light and camping wherever we found a spot in the unit. That little Ranger was stuffed to the gills. We brought a couple of Coleman extreme coolers for our victuals and to bring Antelope back in once successful. Derek devised a handy rack to hold the coolers off the bed of the truck giving us more room for camping essentials. We used a 5 gallon beverage cooler in the truck for our drinking water and occasionally refilled it with ice to keep it cool. We would get our fuel at the Chewaucan garage while we were there and the friendly folks there would allow us use of their hose to re-up our supply off drinking water. While refueling there during the scouting trip we learned of a local resident who operates a walk-in during the season and hangs your meat for a reasonable fee. That took care of the question of what to do once we had one killed.
Friday evening before the opener my wife was competing in a local pageant to “rain” as the Slug Queen of our home town. Obviously getting to our camp a day early was out of the question so we left early Saturday morning though not too early. We opted to sacrifice a few hours of the season to get a healthy amount of sleep before kicking things off. We met up with David in Paisley and fueled up before heading in country. He had been able to do some scouting for us Friday night and he had some bad news for us. There wasn’t any water anywhere that he had found so it would be difficult to pattern the Antelopes. We were determined to keep our thoughts positive though so we just started trucking in to see what we could come up with. It wasn’t long before we saw Prairie Goats in the numbers we had expected. They were all on private ranch land on that first day but seeing nearly 70 animals was definitely a boon to lift our spirits. We spent the rest of the day trying to spot Lopes while looking for water.
Sunday we decided to head east deeper into the interior checking every spot on the map that looked like a depression that may hold water. We weren’t having much luck when on the way to a potential waterhole we spotted some wild horses in what looked like a very small depression that we couldn’t believe would hold water with everything so dry. We watched the horses for a while then continued up the road suggesting checking for water where the horses were on the way back out. Once we had determined our original destination was as dry as the Sahara we headed back to the little waterhole the horses were at when I spotted Antelope on the slope right by the water hole. We glassed them and determined there was one buck in the band of ten and he looked like a shooter. As we were glassing and racking our brains on how to get close to these animals a small plane flew over very low and spooked the Antelope away. I don’t know who was in that plane but they were definitely not friends of ours. When we checked the hole we found water. Not much of it but it was apparently enough.
It was on the way out of the area that we experienced a flat. I strongly urge airing down out there. Some of the roads leave a lot to be desired; seemingly paved with large rocks and boulders. Passenger tires will not cut it. At least we got a chance to refill our water cooler as the able young gents at the Chewaucan Garage fixed the flat.
Monday morning started in makeshift hides within shooting distance of the little waterhole. Confession time, sitting and waiting for game is not for me. I found it excruciating trying to sit still and stay awake. Then when the coyotes came in I wanted nothing more than to let ‘em have it but I couldn’t risk firing my rifle and spooking any thirsty lopes within hearing distance. After four hours more sitting than we could stand we were off to see if we could find any more water. We encountered thirteen antelope the rest of the day in groups of 1-4 but no bucks.
Tuesday morning was a repeat of Monday morning. Another excruciating wait for nothing, I wondered how long we could keep doing this? For the afternoon we decided to head to a super secret spot Frank had been keeping in his back pocket. It was way further north than the area we were hunting in thus far. We also found that maps can’t be trusted in this country. They suggest roads exist where they don’t, or at least don’t any longer. Considering what passes for a road around there anyway, it sure adds a lot of frustration when it becomes clear the road you were headed for has been returned to boulders and sage. The super secret spot was just one of these places we couldn’t get to because “the road don’t go there no more.”
We weren’t half way to the secret waterhole when appearing out of nowhere two nice bucks that I’d say were 15 inchers are laying tracks in the draw just as fast as you could imagine. They were much too far out and moving too quick to even dream of getting a shot so we watched them to see what they’d do and they slowed down and started to browse about half a mile away. We thought since they stopped we ought to be able to make a stalk so we grabbed the essentials and headed up the back side of the ridge. We got up to where we last saw them and the terrain there was just perfect for one of us to sneak up to the edge and have a shot. It was going to be perfect. One problem though. Those speedy little buggers had gone further up the draw while we were slipping up the back side. I was really starting to get excited so wasn’t about to give up on the opportunity but Derek wasn’t feeling too well so he waited while I went ahead. I went further up the ridge in the direction they’d originally headed to see if they were over the next rise. They were there alright, but they had me pegged. I could only see their heads looking straight at me from about three hundred yards. A three hundred yard headshot on the top of a ridge in 97° heat and a swirling breeze isn’t exactly a slam dunk for me so I backed out a little and set up a flagging decoy I had made to see if it would coax them closer. It didn’t have the magnetic pull I had hoped for. They were only mildly curios until they became nervous enough to vacate the premises completely.
A rifle shot in the distance called me back to where my brother was resting. I made haste back and found my brother with a little story to tell. He had been feeling a little light headed and actually blacked out for a few seconds. Let this be a warning to those who attempt this country. It is hot here, hotter than it seems. My brother’s problem wasn’t dehydration as you may suspect, he had plenty of water, but rather nutrition. We found we had little appetite in the peaceful comfort of the desert. Luckily that was the only safety concern we had the whole trip because we recognized the problem and remedied it by tucking in the groceries.
Wednesday morning the dread of returning to the hide at the waterhole was of course mixed with the hope of returning Antelope. After three hours of trying to stay awake in the blind, the cold coffee from breakfast was wearing off and I nodded off for a while. When I opened my eyes two does were on the edge or the waterhole. I nudge Derek and whisper “They’re here.”
“They’re here?” he returns.
“They’re here.” I say.
“Who’s here?” asks Derek.
“The antelope.”
“The antelope?”
“The antelope!” I nod.
I got into firing position and waited in hopes more would come out of the sage to join these two adventurous does but none ever did. They started coming out of the waterhole. One here, one there. Eight of the ten had slipped in and down to the waterhole without alerting us, the alpha predators that we are. The old pump was really starting to bang when number six walked out sporting headgear. I was steady enough over the bi-pod I’d borrowed from David but that buck wouldn’t stand clear of his ladies. What was I to do? He went back in for another drink. Where will he come up? Will I have a shot? He came back up on the opposite side of the waterhole. Sauntered slowly broadside and took a Barnes bullet like a champ. The whole band ran a few steps at the shot and the buck circled a few yards to the near side of the waterhole and looked back where he had been standing. He apparently didn’t know he’d been shot. Then he started to falter, leaned back, and bicycled his front hooves before settling down for his last rest.
As it turned out the bullet entered between ribs and exited between ribs and left virtually no bloodshot behind. The fact that the bullet passed through so cleanly was probably what kept him from knowing he’d been shot. After a quick field dress we loaded the buck into my brother’s Ranger and made our way straight into town. We had him skinned and in the cooler little more than an hour after loading him up. The gentleman who operates the cooler has a nice electric hoist that makes skinning a breeze. He even let us use some of his tools later when we packed the Lope on ice for the trip back home. I must really stress here that the geniality Paisley showed me and my brother in our short time in their town has never been paralleled.
With my tag filled early enough in the day, we spent the afternoon trying to locate a buck for Derek. We decided it was time to check out the seeding west of Abert. We were lucky enough to run into another small band. Derek tried to make his way closer to them but the lay of the terrain in their vicinity didn’t give him much of a chance. I was able to see them make a very large circle and head down toward the lake and way off to the east.
Having seen a decent group the night before we headed to the Abert seeding again to see if we could make a go of our final day on Thursday. We eventually spotted a couple bucks as they ran away from us at a distance I estimate was in the neighborhood of a mile and a half.
We met a local guide while hunting out there and he told us this was the toughest season he had seen in forty years guiding in that country. That makes me feel good that we were able to make it happen on a nice buck this year. We will come back again when we have the points and try for a trophy. Hunting the desert of Oregon for Pronghorn was a totally new experience for us and for me was some of the most fun I’ve ever had in the field. I am going to make as many trips out there as I can to enjoy it. Coyote hunting, maybe some jackrabbits and squeaks, and I hear the fishing can be great in the local rivers. I’m hooked on desert Antelope.
Brandon B. 2012
Nice buck in the spotting scope!Wild Horse's in the S. Wagontire Unit - Taken from the spotting scope!
Vast country to hunt AntelopesOh! I know this road!Lope Down!
The Neon went on the first scouting trip prior to the season... Brandon did not make it to the Devils's Well!
