I would love to tell you where this buck was taken, but I promised that I would not give out the exact location. For two (2) years a couple of the fellows in the circle have taken dandy Antelopes from this area in S.E. Oregon. It is a Pronghorn Archery Hunt Unit that takes about 5-7 preference points to get draw. As my biologist that I have known for more years than I can remember told me recently that Oregon has monster Lopes in every unit, “it is just a matter of having the time and patience to find them”.
I myself have hunted a number of units with the arrow and have been fortunate to harvest some big Antelope Bucks! So I know from scouting in almost all of the units that there dandy bucks everywhere.
Pictures from the 2011 Oregon Archery Antelope – Pronghorn Hunt:
A little different profile! Great buck taken by Russ!This is a dandy archery Antelope Buck taken by Russ in 2011This buck was one that got away, but not before Doug took his picture. Definitely a candidate of a buck for Boone & Crockett in 2012!
This hunt took place on the last day of the archery season in Oregon and it was my last and final effort to harvest a Blacktail Buck after a great deal of hunting during the season. It also would be the first time I exposed my young daughter to an animal of majestic qualities to her dead to look at and touch!
An extremely large buck just stood there looking at me, probably wondering why anyone would be down in a hole like this! This deer hunt was the end of a long Oregon deer season for me. Earlier that season, I spent four days at HartMountain in southeastern Oregon looking for one of the famous big mule deer bucks that dwell there. My vacation time had been changed and I was not able to hunt the first part of the season with my group. So getting that early jump on a big velvet buck was gone. I’d seen as many as 14 bucks in a group at one time prior to the season. Truly the big bucks had been stirred up by earlier hunters and were keeping their distance.
I found myself seeking a buck to take home on the last day of the late November hunt in the Santiam Hunt Unit in Western Oregon, just west of the National Forest Boundary in the BLM. It seems on the last day we (empty-handed) will do some strange things. The trip in itself was similar to my earlier trips in which I covered innumerable miles looking for greener pastures. I must have traveled 800 miles in three days only to find myself hunting in dense forest 30 miles from Portland, Oregon my home. On this trip, I was by myself, my partners having had their fill of hunting for one season. With the heavy rain & wet snow coming and going, I’d just about had enough myself. Then by mid afternoon it started to snow and by 3 PM there was about 4 inches of fresh snow on the ground. I was glad I’d missed a 60-yard shot at a small buck I should have not taken with the wind blowing. The small buck seemed to be playing king of the mountain standing on a ledge overlooking a deep canyon. If I’d hit him, he surely would have taken to the canyon below – what a pack out that would have been.
So, like any other sane bowhunter, I went down into the canyon. I decided to walk the naked alders and fir trees, which seemed to surround the small creek that wound through the canyon. I noticed some large deer tracks in the snow and told myself they must belong to a big Blackie. I hadn’t covered more than 100 yards when I just about stepped on a deer. I was so busy stepping over downed limbs and following the tracks that I didn’t even noticed the deer bedded under a fir tree. The most beautiful Blacktail I’d ever seen jumped up and ran out 30 yards and turned broadside to me and gazed back at me. Not taking time to count points, I was already at full drew with my Martin Cougar Magnum, set the 30 yard pin on the buck’s chest, and let fly. One would have thought I was shooting with fingers, ah I was shooting with fingers. The buck was no longer just standing, he’d flat busted out of there. He moved so fast I just shook my head and wondered if I’d missed. I went to the spot where the buck had been, no blood. Now the snow was really coming down and the wind had picked up in the canyon. My heart pounding in my chest, all I could do was follow the tracks in the direction he’d gone. I started to notice some foamy blood spots and walked about 80 yards on the blood trail, stopped, and looked around. There, in the ferns just below me, was the butt of a deer. He must have taken one last leap in this last breath! The broadhead had done its job; my shot was a bit high barely missing the heart. I was able to find a small road out of the canyon, thus was able to drive my truck with chains forward and aft down into the canyon. The buck was a heavy load to pull up into the bed of the truck, especially since I was wet, tired and the snow being everywhere.
My Columbia Blacktail had one of the most beautiful basket sets of horns a person could want, a very symmetrical four point with eye guards. He scored officially at 129 7/8 P & Y Net (Pope & Young). Never wait so long to get an animal scored! If he had not had a small chip off of the G-4 on left side, it would have made the B & C (Boone & Crockett) book along with the P & Y book during that time frame. Now in B & C is at 135 to be listed. I’ll bet that a great deal of hunters do not know that you can list your Archery harvested animals in Boone & Crockett also if it meets their standards. Double the pleasure of being in both Books! Sometimes it pays to do the unexpected at the last minute.Hmm! Now I will check out the head!
You can see from the expression on my daughter’s about her thoughts of seeing a dead animal lying on the ground. In the future I found she would not want to harvest an animal, but would get involved with the field dressing of animals on trips that I took her on.
I thought I would do some updating on this post since I did write it in 2011. I am a firm believer in having the correct equipment and knowledge to keep legal while hunting. The other benefit of having the following tool, is that you might be able to find a landowner that let you hunt. Most farmers have great feeling about Lopes when they grow grasses…
Everyone should have @onxhunt in Mobile and or Garmin Colored GPS with the #onxhunt chip.
The tool know where you are at all times, boundaries are important to know…
In my time I have done a great deal of scouting and researching of Pronghorn or Antelope as most call this great animal from the past in Oregon and the rest of the Western States, where they roam in hunt-able numbers.
2019 Thoughts: If you have time to scout even 1 day prior, get a game plan of glassing and glassing. Everyone should have at least an A, B and C plan. Glass from afar and if possible from a rise. Lopes are habit creatures and will work the same water holes and areas.
For archery hunters in many of the Western States you have a chance to hunt every year for Antelope. Where as with a rifle you might have to wait some 12-25 years to draw a tag, at least in the Oregon. I have hunters in Oregon that are now hunting almost every year with the bow. A great challenge to hunt with the bow, but what a rush and accomplishment to harvest up close and personal. You’ll find hunting with the bow for Antelope a great sport that you won’t be able to stop doing. I have been told by my hunters that they have had the best experience hunting Antelope over anything else they have hunted in North America. It could be that they see a lot of Antelope while hunting them.
Picture taken at 30 yards from a 500 yard stalk!
I one thing I do know after all these years and not even being in some of my old haunts for many years, is that Pronghorn are animals of habit from generation to generation. They cover the same ground and do the same things from one generation to another. Most of the land in which they live never changes. There was one buck that my friends & hunters chased for about three years and never got. I really wanted him for myself is what all thought. He would be located in the same spot within a 1/4 mile and escape basically the same way. His escape route was not one you could cover and he knew it. Now if we ambushed him in his normal spot he could have been taken. He was one of the biggest Antelope I ever hunted. I did get one hunter on him at very close range with a standing broadside at 40 yards. He missed the buck and the hunt was over for him! He had told me that he was the greatest shot with bow and arrow! A few years back I went back to a spot which I hunted and guided about 20 years ago. The only thing that had changed is the B.L.M. put a solar power water pump on a water hole in one of my favorite spots. Even the old ranchers sign was still there and he had been gone for a long time. The sign had stated in so many words that you were crossing into his lands. This happen to be B.L.M. that he leased, but did not own. I have that sign now in my loft.
I once heard on a hunting program on cable that Pronghorn don’t jump through barbwire fences! Well I have to tell you that they do got through the middle at times and not always under the bottom wire. I have a blurred picture in of a buck Antelope jumping over a five strand fence! YES I DO!
Ah! They do jump fences with ease!
I have seen mature bucks standing in the middle of a back country road in B.L.M., marking the road. No, not by scratching but by urinating in the middle of road. Once someone knows some of the peculiar habits of Antelope, you can use it to your advantage. Such is the case a couple of years ago when I spot a group of Antelope in a 5 tag unit. I wanted the picture of the buck and just knew he would go around the mountain and want to get back into the hole. He did just that and my son asked how did you know?
I ambushed this buck as he came around the mountain!
I have taken a great deal of Antelope with the bow and all but a rifle kill has been from stalking. A great deal of the bow hunters I know do wait on water, but you have to have patience. One of my GPS Hunters sat for two (2) for more than 12 hours. He as been successful two (2) years in a row. I do love to stalk them and arrow them before they know I am there.
This was stalked while at a waterhole and taken at 50 yards.
Antelope do lay in the sagebrush flats and with a lot of glassing from a vantage point you can find them and stalk within bow range easily.
I followed these bucks for some time and close the distance, wind to my face!
Many of friends think I am off the wall with some of my mannerisms when it comes to all types of hunting. First off I would never relieve myself in an area that I hunt and I am going to have a wide stance so none of my scent is getting on my boots or pants. Then there is the issue with sunglasses, I will always wear sunglasses (favorite are Ray-Ban Wayfarer-easy to lift with bino’s with no bind) during the day and “Photo Grays” for the evening hunts. I felt if the game, especially Antelope can’t see my eyes or movement then I could close the gap on them even easier once spotted. I always wore a hat and a backpack with the spotting scope & tripod sticking out of the top. It is what it is with habits and wearing the same pants on every hunt! Terrible that it may be I wore blue jeans as my basic pants! Once in a while I will go full Camo, but that is on my son’s request. It has never been about hiding from animals!
Good thing I had Top Secret Clearance on this shot! This picture was taken on a military missle site. This white buck was later taken out by a car as he crossed a highway.
Most experience hunters have there ways to hunt game, whether it is from stalking, waiting, ambush or just being lucky and walking into a shoot-able animal. It is whatever works for you that makes the hunt!
Most of my friends that have hunted with me over the years, know that I have little patience to sit and wait, though in more recent years I have found that I have grown to be more patient. Thus they know that I love to glass, find and stalk the Mulies and Lopes.
This story is about chasing Antelope in the Grizzly Hunt Unit in Oregon during Archery Antelope Season some years back. In the past one would put in for the premier rifle areas for Antelope and make the second choice for archery, knowing you would get an archery tag. I drew the Gerber Reservoir tag for many years and had a blast chasing and harvesting Lopes in the Sycan area.
Then the Grizzly Hunt Unit became a choice for Archery Antelope and the first couple of years it was easy to get the tag as a second choice. Having hunted for elk and deer in the Grizzly Unit since the early eights and seeing pretty good numbers of Antelope – Pronghorns, it was a great choice to hunt.
There were a great number of areas to hunt Lopes in the Grizzly Unit for public lands in the Grizzly Unit carried Lopes with some numbers. The National Grasslands was a great place, along with the BLM both in the Northern Sector and near Ashwood, Oregon.
Many of friends think I am off the wall with some of my mannerisms when it comes to hunting. First off I would never relieve myself in an area that I hunt and I am going to have a wide stance so none of my sense is getting on my boots or pants.
4x Globe Sight Target Style
Then there is the issue with sunglasses, I would always wear sunglasses during the day and “Photo Grays” for the evening hunts. I felt if the game, especially Antelope can’t see my eyes or movement then I could close the gap on them. I always wore a hat and a backpack with the spotting scope & tripod sticking out of the top. It is what it is with habits and wearing the same pants on every hunt! Terrible that it may be I wore blue jeans as my basic pants! It has never been about hiding from animals, only other humans.
Let’s get onto the Antelope hunt in the Grizzly Unit this time frame in my life! Realizing that story is based on a hunt in the 80’s, things have not changed other than I might hunt more waterholes now as I grow older.
My equipment in those years was P.S.E. Mach Flite 4 Bow 70# 29″ Draw, Easton Arrows, P.S.E. Brute 3 125gr. Broadhead, Stanislawski Sight (Globe), Stanislawski Overdraw Rest (Mel Built for me) and Stanislawski Superb Rest (attached to the overdraw). The length of the arrows are 25 ½’ with a speed of 340 fps!
Couple more years he would have been a dandy buck!
The weather was great and was able to find Antelope in the numbers in the area around Haystack Reservoir and Grays Butte. This was going to be a usual weekend hunt only as I could be make it their in about 1 ½ hours from my home in east Portland. On Saturday I made a number of stalks after spotting lone bucks to within 100 yards. Funny how that distance is workable with Antelope. There were not many does around to mess up my stalks. What I needed was to find Bucks that would be in areas with more cover. The area that I hunted had little water and the Lopes would range into the private for water. Saturday ended with no success, but I would make the most of the following day.
The following day I would work the area on just south of Grizzly Mountain, which was always a great area to find Antelope and Mule deer. It was a time that the road in was not gated off and one could work a lot of area. Now it is gated off, yet it is only because about 100 yards of the road touches private. If one wants to hunt it present day they will have to come around from the west and do a great deal of walking.
I found a lone buck at about 1000 yards while glassing an area that I could find Antelope at any given time. The stalk was on and I was able to move quickly, even run as there were bulldozer cuts in the land for fire lines. Settling down I was within 80 yards of the buck, which I figured to be about 14″ with decent mass making him a shooter on this weekend hunt. The wind was blowing off the mountain as it was getting late into the day. His attention was to the direction of the mountain and with the wind (heavy) I was able to move in on him to 45 yards. It was still a time that I used fingers and as I came up from the crotch position I was a full draw. I aim at this chest and released the shaft, he made no movement as the wind was making a lot of noise and his head was turned away from me. I missed the mark and hit him in the shoulder and the arrow did not pass through him, but yet looked deep enough that he would not go far.
Pretty good mass and cutters
After waiting for about 30 minutes I went to the place of impact and followed a small blood trail, he had gone about 500 yards and laid down in the trees. The area of made up of Junipers, Sagebrush and rocks.
Great way to end a weekend of hunting for Antelope and take a buck that would score around 69″!
Brandon’s 2010 West Beatys Butte Antelope 40 yards!
Early on in 2010 after Brandon drew his Archery Antelope Tag for West Beatys Butte with one preference point, he contacted me via email about possilbe Lope hunting sights in the unit. He and his dad were willing to spend some time to scout the area. I worked up some waypoints from the old days and since he had a Garmin Mapping GPS, it made it easy for him to utilize the waypoints.
I thought I would share the pictures from his hunt and a short story about the hunt. The big thing he was successful on this bow hunt and harvested a very good Antelope.
Bwana,
In the above attachment you will find the 2010’ Archery Antelope that I got which you helped me on with the GPS coordinates. You will also see a picture of a really nice Lope that we saw during our scouting trip we did 1 month prior to opening day.
Scouting Lope at waterhole!
I got the smaller lope at the same hole as we saw the larger lope at. There was an average of 20 to 40 lopes using the water hole we found. I shot my lope at 40 yards out of a Primos double bull blind while he was drinking water from the hole. Last year was extremely dry and any hole that had water had antelope around.
The water hole that I hunted which I found while scouting is coordinates:
Top Secret Spot
Thanks again for all the help you were. Your help with the GPS let me find the above water hole which brought me success. There were a lot of antelope around this water hole.
I thought I would do some updating on this post since I did write it in 2011. I am a firm believer in having the correct equipment and knowledge to keep legal while hunting. The other benefit of having the following tool, is that you might be able to find a landowner that let you hunt. Most farmers have great feeling about Lopes when they grow grasses…
Everyone should have @onxhunt in Mobile and or Garmin Colored GPS with the #onxhunt chip.
The tool know where you are at all times, boundaries are important to know…
In my time I have done a great deal of scouting and researching of Pronghorn or Antelope as most call this great animal from the past in Oregon and the rest of the Western States, where they roam in hunt-able numbers.
I have been fortunate to have harvest 2 Booners. Should have 2 more, but things happen. I have guide a few in the past and had them on Booners. One fellow that I was really upset was told me he could shoot out to a 1000 yards, no he did not shoot at 1000 yards, but has rested shot at 200 yards on the famous Rye Grass Buck. He missed him, hunt over and we parted ways…
2019 Thoughts: If you have time to scout even 1 day prior, get a game plan of glassing and glassing. Everyone should have at least an A, B and C plan. Glass from afar and if possible from a rise. Lopes are habit creatures and will work the same water holes and areas.
The best part of having a successful hunt is having experience with you. On my first Antelope hunt I was very fortunate to have my a Navy buddy guiding me in an area that I have never been in. My Navy buddy and I met when I was station at the Naval Security Activity in Imperial Beach, CA. I was a young enlisted guy and he came in as a LTJG from Portland, OR. I took him on his first duck hunt in the area of Imperial Beach and Tijuana. We later got reconnected when I got off active duty and joined the Naval Reserve. Rod retired as a CMDR from the Navy!
Grizzly Unit – Archery Lope
Cutting to the chase, my first Antelope hunt was a great learning experience for me. I became a quick learner and listen to everything Rod had to say and show me. He had a friend that worked for BLM in the area that knew the habits of the local Lopes. My First Lope Hunt
After that I became quite hooked on Antelope and spent the next 20 years plus scouting, chasing and free guiding on Antelope in Oregon and a little in Wyoming.
I have found that Antelope are very habit forming in their movement. I have seen the same buck or bucks working an area even after pressure. I know that most people do not realize that Antelope any other animal that marks their territory. One may not notice other animals doing so, but with Lopes the area that they live is a bit more arid and their marks show up. I always found it particular that they would mark a dirt road. I would catch them squatting in the middle of a road on scouting trips.
Many times I hear that a hunter hasn’t seen an Antelope at all on a scouting trip or hunting trip. I often ask them how much glassing had they done. Glassing you will find the the sage brush moves and the colors aren’t green. One has to have an eye when driving in or just looking for game. If what you think you see is not rock, dirt, junipers, or sage brush, it is usually some sort of game.
Spotted from 1/2 mile away during rifle season!
Over the many years of chasing Lopes, I have found the same buck in an area from year to year, which includes the same feeding areas. Years ago I chased the same buck for more than three (3) years in the same 5 X 5 square miles that I would locate him. I do believe that he lived to be a ripe old age.
Don’t ever overlook the fringe area of timber in an arid location, especially in Oregon. We have many units that the Antelope use the timber as would a Mule Deer buck. We have areas like the Maury, Gerber Res, Paulina and many more that the successful hunters have found big bucks in the timber.
If you want to find the big boys you need to take out the Coy Dogs!
My words are to those that hunt for Pronghorn is to carry a great pair of Bino’s, water, Mapping GPS (Garmin), a rifle cartridge that can carry the distance in wind, and maybe someone that can spot game.
Having just recieved the story fresh off the press from Doug, it seems Doug has found the honey spot in Oregon for Coastal Elk. Two years in a row he has gotten his bull and they seem to be getting bigger each year. I am putting the story out for all you to enjoy, plus his pictures. Even the Bwana does not know his secret spot, should have loaned him one of my GPS’s. Hmm!
Tod & Doug with Doug's Coastal Bull
“The day had started off like most game days. Driving into hunting area, we were really hoping that no one would want to hunt our favorite elk area. We had gotten through the gate and had not seen anyone; I was hoping we would still have it all to ourselves, in that no one walked into the area. For unknown reasons my lucky star was shining on Tod and me. We got to the first clear cut that we wanted to look at. It was about 10 minutes before daylight. My hunting partner Tod and I went to the edge of the rim to listen for elk talking. We had only been standing there for about two minutes when we could hear elk below us and they were really talking. After daylight we spotted six cows and one dandy bull. We thought that they were going to feed out to the right to the timber. There was a road that came into the bottom on the cut. So we decided that I would go down the timber line on the right, and Tod would get in the bottom on the road so if they ran out he might get a shot. I got down to the first bench, and was in front of all the elk. I had great cover and it look like they were going to feed right across a bench below me. I got to the stump that I thought would give me the best shot and setup to wait. I had only been there for about 5 min when one of the cows must have seen something because she was on the alert. She wanted to go out to the middle of the cut, but she was not the LEAD COW. So they all started looking around, trying to figure out what was going on with the cow being on alert. The LEAD COW decided that she was going to lead them all to the timber. She stared coming just as I had hoped they would. When they were almost straight down the hill from me, she then started to climb the hill a little toward me. Finally they turned broadside again and the bull was the 6th in line. So I pick my spot that I was going to try to get him stopped for the shot. At this time I thought that the shot was going to be about 35 yards. He went behind a stump and I drew my Mathews back and waited for him to move into my lane of shooting. When he was where I wanted him I Cow Called and he stopped just right! I pull in right behind the shoulder and let it fly. The bull took off down the hill. I got my glasses on him and my arrow was sticking high in the shoulder. I watch him go to the timber line and stand for about five minutes. The mortally wound bull than just walk into the trees out of our line of sight. Tod and I decided that we had better give him two hours before we start looking. That was the longest two hours of my life. We went to the road that went into the bottom of the draw. We checked the banks to make sure the bull had not crossed on us. We found the trail that he had went in on with a good blood trail. We had just got in the trees about 30 yards when he jumped up. He ran about 40 yards and that was all he had left in him. My G5s went clear threw the front shoulder and got into the lungs. The best part he was only 40 yards above the road and we got him out whole.”
I had gotten an email from Scott asking about Archery Antelope hunting in the Owyhee Unit for 2009, he had been successful in drawing the tag. I asked him what he had done already to prep for the hunt.
Scott is a great success story; he had already talked with the local biologist for the area and had mapped out the area. He also did a scouting trip for two (2) days just after the rifle season.
Scott also would dedicated if he had too the whole season which is 9 days to get his buck. He gave the spot he was going to work and I told him a previous trip that that area looked really good and to trust the biologist.
Here is the short version that I have on the hunt from Scott. Hopefully I will get a little more detail about the hunt.
“Frank, I killed a nice goat 14 1/4 and 14 3/4 just short of 70 inches. I sat at a water pond for 10 hours and made a 30 yard shot.”
