Mike is one of my neighbors that I have know for about 17 years. He has hunted the area for many years and knows it better than anyone else that I know. While turkey hunting near the same area this past year he had an encounter with a Cougar. Having seen the Cougar and missing him, continuing with his turkey hunt in a dense and steep area, the Cougar stalked him up close and personal. This time the Cougar the was the loser of the encounter. I greatly appreciate the following story of his 2013 hunt, when most were complaining about the opener state wide being a mess with rain and high winds. HOORAH FOR MIKE!
The Cougar who thought it could eat a man with a gun! 30-30 Winchester Model 94 did the job!
It was a windy and rainy day on this opening day of deer season 9/28/13 in the White River Hunt Unit just above Mosier Oregon. I had decided to start out high this time and walk down hill, for the most part anyway. I got myself into the woods just before day light and was sitting under a tree watching it rain and all I could think about is how last year the weather was the complete opposite, clear and hot.
This is going to be the year for a big one. When I was able to see me way through the woods with about 50 to 75 feet of visibility I started my hunt working the Old Hood River-The Dallas road that has been over grown for years. If you did not know the area would not even now what you were walking on. I made my way out of the bigger timbers and into the scrub oak.
At this time now it was around 8:30 or 9:00 am and I am wet through my rain gear and starting to feel like this is going to be a long day trying to keep the wind in my face as it was changing directions what seemed like every 5 min.
A great picture of what looks to be one of Oregon’s Benchleg Bucks from the Cascades! Mike’s Opening Dad Buck 2013
That is when I saw some movement in the brush about 65 yards in front of me. I crouched down to where I could just see over the brush when I spotted this beauty. He was broad side looking right at me. What was going through my mind was I was going to hit a branch, but if I waited too long he was going to be gone so I let it go. So when I saw him hunch up I knew I had hit him. He ran about 30 yards when I heard him crash! I could not wait to see him up close so I started walking his way rather quickly and low and be hold he fell right on the edge of one of the so called roads that I had mowed down this last spring for hikers and bike riders to use, so I was able to drive the truck right up to him, that never happens.
God is Good, All the Time!!!
Mike Witt
Great Eyeguards on his 4 X 4! We call this a Benchleg, then again it could be Blacktail Buck or a Mulie as the mix it along the Cascades! Hoorah Mike!
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
Oregon needs to get in the 21st Century on Lighted Nocks & Expandable-Mechanical Broadheads
Sweet Baby James’s Oregon Blacktail Hunt of Woes!
Though this is not a long story about a successful so to speak Blacktail Buck hunt in the late season 2012 archery hunt in Oregon, it is about absurd hunting regulations on bow hunting brought upon by the minority to the majority.
When I get into the story you the reader will understand where I am coming from on my logic on hunting regulations that should be changed to improve the experience of hunting. Much like taking away anchored putters from golfers as technology changes! As I write that might not happen for pro-golfers… In their case they still got to get it in the hole!
Sweet Baby James, as his peers called him in the days of his professional boxing is a very good friend of mine. This past year I got permission for him and his brother to hunt a few days on a small place in rural Oregon in the Willamette Valley to bow hunt for Columbia Blacktail Deer on the late season archery hunt. His brother was successful in getting a deer for meat and made a great 12 yard shot on the deer. James would remain un-successful until the last week of the season.
Readers should know that the Columbia Blacktail deer is one of the hardest to hunt and I do believe they are even more nocturnal that the elusive Whitetail deer. In the Pacific Northwest low light comes earlier than some areas with the heavy brush cover and deep canyons. Oregon is a mountainous state and Blacktail deer range from 10,000 feet to sea level. I sometimes feel that the canyons can range the same in footage. Those that have never hunted in the habitat that Blacktail frequent with the creepers on the ground, blackberries, thistle and deadfall are in for an experience.
As I said before many know James as Sweet Baby James, the professional boxer from Oregon, who has fought clear to Madison Square Gardens, knowing the likes of Ali. He came from a background, whose father was a world ranked Archer, who should have been in the Olympics 1968, but because took a prize of 73 bucks, he later would be turned away at the Olympic Trials thus not allowed to shoot for the United States of America. Hmm! A great deal has changed over the years in that aspect. He was a good friend of Fred Bear and shot Fred Bear traditional bows before the compound came out. So growing up with a father that expected the best from his son, James became a great fighter, archer and hunter himself.
It is now Tuesday evening and he is in the treestand about 2 ½ hours prior to the end of shooting time. He had not been in the stand for very long when from the northern sector of the property he could see a big Blacktail Buck working its way through the maze of vine maple, blackberries and ferns, at 40 yards he could see the buck was the Odd 3 X 3 that seldom entered this area. Over the course of 6 months I would say the Odd 3 X 3 has been on camera about 20 times in this area. The buck seems to be on a mission and a direction he was heading for in hindsight would be the deep canyon leading to another property. The buck did not stop; thou he was walking down the trail to the flat, James made the decision to take the shot at 18 yards with focus and direct eye contact on the boiler room. The arrow tipped with a 100 grain Thunderhead hit the buck hard a bit back from the heart, which appeared to be in upper lung area. He could see the arrow hanging out on the opposite side of the buck. The buck in an instance dug with his hooves and vaulted into forward motion with head down and not missing a step.
James could hear the noise of the buck on the gravel road and anticipated the buck would come around his backside and he would see movement in the trees…
James waited some 30 minutes before leaving the treestand to look for the buck with about an hour of light left to find his trophy Blacktail Buck. He finds one speck of blood in the dirt, but nothing in the gravel. There are no tracks to follow as from both sides of the road there is nothing but blackberries and heavy brush. He felt the buck had entered back behind him and headed into another creek bottom to the east.
I get phone call James while I am down at the coast asking for help, “sorry James but I am long ways away” “did you check to the west of the road”. Of course it started to rain when he got out of the treestand and there is not going to be any trace of blood to follow. With no tracks or blood trail and heavy cover James still continues to look for three hours with a flashlight and no help. Without an extra set of eyes it most difficult on your own to find a downed animal while in panic mode. If it was legal in Oregon to have a lighted nock on your arrow, James might have seen the travel of the deer through the brush. More likely if the arrow had fallen out he could see the arrow from an elevated point near the area if he could have used a lighted nock in Oregon.
The next day James looks for more than four hours, but if there was any blood it would be washed away by the rain. A very distraught hunter not being able to find a big buck that should have gone a very short distance from the hit! If it had been legal in Oregon, an expandable-mechanical broadhead might have help greatly on stopping the buck or leaving a blood trail at the gravel road.
Over the course of months and going out to the farm, this included me to look for the buck’s remains, along with looking for drops we never could find the buck, but still knowing he went down on the property since he was hit hard.
Just recently after going through the winter and the deer moving through the farms or lands in the area, they have made many worn trails. So this past week in March 2013, I told my son that James’s buck headed to the west canyon a normal route for him to escape. So with our minds intent on finding the remains, we ventured out. In know less than 100 yards from the treestand Jr., finds the arrow. Noted the brush is bare foliage and the blackberries have no leaves on them. The arrow is completely intact right along the game trail. Next thing was to scan and split up with me working the lower eastern edge of the canyon and Jr. going to the flat on the western edge of the canyon. He spots something about 150 yards away, then loses sight and said it must have been a deer. I tell him to continue to the spot as it is probably what we wanted to find. Low and behold it is the Odd 3 X 3 Blacktail buck. The coyotes had taken care of the deer and closure was made for all that have hunted the place.
Recovery of the rack is illegal in Oregon, so it will stay until it skull denigrates or grows into a tree ornament as it mends into the V of a tree. Thus only pictures are taken for remembrance of the hunt.
I know myself if I had been shooting an expandable-mechanical broadhead, I might have made a fatal hit on the buck I shot with the arrow passing through the buck and not hitting a vital in front shoulders. Ok! He has survived the winter and will be bigger next year as I have vendetta to harvest him.
From my understanding OPS Game Officers have talked and feel that there would be greater recovery on big game with expandable-mechanical broadheads and lighted nocks. Over 44 other states allow lighted nocks. All but three states allow the use of expandable-mechanical broadheads. Oregon, Washington and Idaho have an issue, it is said by some that crossbow users are the problem, but in Oregon they are not allowed…
Did I mention that in Oregon you can use any arrow or broadhead for Game Birds though? It is said that light nocks and expandable-mechanical broadheads will lead to poaching! Give me a break, only the stupid would poach at night, thinking they might get away with it. Poachers are going to do what they do until they get caught. In Oregon the O.S.P. Game Officers are very talented and educated. It may take a while but they run a high successful rate on catching the big game poachers. Poachers should have a clue by now because there are so many trail cams on private and public property out there that the bucks and bulls have names.
Just watch the Outdoor Channel and you see that on every program.
Sort of funny while looking for the buck, we see the landowner and talk about who has access. She had told us she allow a couple of guys that do business with her they could come out and get some ornamental plants, but said to them “oh we have cameras all over the property”, one of them said “Hmm, I hope you didn’t catch us by a tree..” They were surprised that the land had surveillance…
Technology in archery or bow hunting has been improved, but the principal of archery and bow hunting remains the same. You have to be able to hit the target with your talents. The recovery of game should be in the balance for the hunter, thus I feel that using light nocks and expandable-mechanical broadheads with lead to greater recovery of game. I am all for a change here in Oregon, as well as everyone that are known in my circles.
Oregon, Washington and Idaho should get out of the dark ages and move forward to the betterment of the sport.
I did do a quick P & Y field measurement on the buck. To bad he was odd! He netted out at 92 after setting in the brush for 4 months. He had 15 inches of penalty with the odd rack. He has nice symmetry when viewing straight on, most interesting buck… You would need 95 to make P & Y for Columbia Blacktail!
In closing how many of us can shoot out to 40-50 yards and hit the target, yet miss an easy 20 yard shot?
This is a picture of the Odd 3 X 3 in the velvet. He would be arrowed within 5 yards of this spot!This is how the buck was found some 300 yards line of sight from the target area
Bwana Bubba aka Cobra
Here he is after rubbing off his velvet in the area!
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!
It is very tough for the team to stop hunting the ranch, it is an addiction!
It is the only time I have put an arrow down the throat!
It is about time that I share this story with my readers and friends on how the hunt really happened and where! It happen a few years back, lets say some 25 years ago, (which feels yesterday), during an opening day bow hunt in Central Oregon in the Grizzly Hunt Unit for Mule deer. The story is of humor, comedy of errors, or just plain hunting! We would be hunting the Rancho Rajneesh again or better known to the locals as “The Big Muddy” we spent a great deal of time over there, glassing, scouting and taking pictures of the deer and elk that thrived in the area. On this hunt I would be accompanied by one of my hardcore hunting partners Dave Brill who is a very accomplish bow and rifle hunter.
On this trip I actually let someone else drive their truck. This would work out greatly for me at the end of the hunt. “Dave it looks like I won the toss, so I get first shot at a Mulie buck” “Ok! Bubba, even if it is my truck and all!” “Ya! Dave, like you would let me drive your truck?” That was a great line to use, but the next day, I would have his truck while he hunted… I needed to get the deer meat into cold storage in Madras, Oregon. One of the grocery stores in town had a separate locker for game meat! Again we would be hunting one of our favorite spots in Central Oregon, which would be outside of Donnybrook, Oregon on the south side of the Rancho Rajneesh.
There was a couple of parcels we found ourselves going back too every year, as it was B.L.M., yet tied to a couple of ranches that we could pass through and sometimes hunt. Ah! You are wondering of the spot, well I will give you the spot of big bucks as near Hinkle Butte! Old man Crowley (Raymond) was a great man to know in the area! You could find him on his front porch at his home in Donnybrook along Gosner Rd. He had a number of parcels that bordered the BLM in the “Big Muddy Ranch.” This gave a save access into the BLM without being noticed. We were able to keep are secret spots to ourselves for over a 20 year time frame. This land is now owned by Young Life and a real estate broker in three separate parcels.
We had spotted a number of bucks during our trip into the area for the evening hunt. The morning hunt was a bust for both of us! I love to hunt the evening, as most everyone else has settled back down into their camps. It does not bother me to hike out in the dark when I am deep into the interior of B.L.M.; usually the evening is from about 1330 on. If I look back over the years I have probably harvest more game from 1300 until dusk! Figuring that big bulls and big bucks need to stretch a bit after their mid-day nap!
Let’s get back to the story, as I stated earlier, we had seen a number of bucks on the way in. As we were approaching the honey spot, I notice a real dandy buck up on the hill with what I figured at about a 29” outside spread and heavy racked. Hunt on, as I roll out the truck and took off with my pack, pack frame, crackers, light sweater, Leupold binoculars, camera, new Martin Onza bow, and Kershaw knives! Oh! Did I mention that I forgot water in my pack? The buck is working up the hillside and not knowing that I am behind him I figured. So quiet that I am in the stalk of this “Big Muddy” buck. He is working up in front of me through the Junipers, rocks and Sagebrush still in view at about 90 yards. I feel that I am closing the distance quickly and when I get within 40 yards I will just let him have it when I grunt at him and get him to swing broadside. As I turn the corner of the ridge I was working up he has disappeared, “what no way he is gone.” The wind was coming down the ridge into my face; I just missed seeing him turn into the draw…
Got over that little trip in the mind and decide to continue the hunt at a place we called the swamp.
As I approach the swamp, I see a lone buck standing at the edge of the water with lots of cover to work into him. The buck is not very wide, but tall and extremely heavy with abnormal points. As I get ready to drill him at 35 yards (he has no clue I am behind him), out of the corner of my left eye, I see about 25 bucks starting to get up in another part of the swamp in the cattails at about 45 yards. They were now in full line of sight. I swung onto this buck that was pushing 30” who was just standing their broadside looking me, as were all the rest. Easy shot and I took the shot, only to see it hit the only branch of Sagebrush sticking up at the boiler room. The arrow of course deflected and cut the hair off the top of the buck’s back. He gave me a smile and just walked off into the direction sun and they all stood out at 70 yards on the open hill side! “A bird in the hand is worth how many birds in the bush?” I would have say that was pretty wild and not ever going to be repeated in my lifetime of so many bucks taking a bath together at one time. I found a few empty Ivory Soap wrappers at the waters’ edge…
I am now over that experience also and moving on as I had more ground to cover and see what was out there. I move alone a Juniper tree line and spot 6 good bucks, one being swamper in a small basin at about ¼ mile away. To run the game down to within 100 or so yards, then put the final stalk on was great enjoyment for me. Mule deer with enough cover are pretty easy to sneak up on. I get to Juniper and Sagebrush along a B.L.M. cross section fence line that was next to the small barren basin which is about 50 yards from the deer. You wonder about the 50 yards and all! I used my range finder the wheel type and it said 50 yards to the big buck. I took a picture of the big boy also! You’re saying how many big bucks can this guy find? Well it was un-real, but real. The big bucks were there and everywhere around the area within a 50 mile circle. Alright being skeptical of my dial a wheel range finder (just got it), I felt the buck was no more than 40 yards as I drew back and shot through the brush, I should have believed the range finder, as the buck must have been 50 yards, as I watch arrow past under his belly.
Almost! Horseshoes anyone?
Now I am really bummed out about this whole hunt and rushing into the hunt and not believing first thoughts. Well there was still some day light left and I never give up until it is illegal to shoot.
I at least left my head on in this picture of my 1987 double horn Mulie!
I am now up on the plateau glassing down into another basin. All of a sudden I see a single buck at about 1000 yards out. I figure he is about 25” to 26” wide and a pretty good looking buck, plus the fact it about time to get the job done. He is feeding in the middle of the basin, but I could see that he was working towards the West. In his path of travel it would lead him past a big pile of dead Juniper trees. Hunt on, as I race to cover ground and get on the buck. Getting within a quarter mile of the spot that I would ambush the buck, I drop my pack frame. With only my Martin Onza (first run production Onza) I raced to the pile of dead junipers. I was completely invisible (another words he had not clue I was standing in the open and waiting for him) from where I was standing, yet I could see his rack as he moved along the pile. I went to full draw and had the 30 yard pin on the spot I figured he would come to once he cleared the pile. It is great that he covered the distance in a short period of time as the Onza had a draw weight of #90. It was mental thing in those days of bow hunting to have the biggest and baddest bow made! In the 21st Century my new Onza 3 with a draw weight of 72 is most likely about 100 fps faster than my first Onza and it was a hottest bow in the 20th Century! (Yes, I know believed the range finder and mentally plugged in points of yardage.) As he cleared the pile and was broadside to me, yet was still feeding, I let my fingers do the work. As the XX75 2317 26 1/2” with a 125 gr. Muzzy in flight the buck look straight at me into my sunglasses (he heard the bow, but it was too late for him). That was the last time I saw his eyes looking at me, as to my amazement the arrow hit him dead center in the mouth. “You got to be kidding me”, as the buck jumped over the side of the rim that I didn’t know was even there. I thought to myself as the light was fading, what I am going to do now? I set my bow down on the rim and started to glass in to the bottom of the canyon. It took me about 2 panic minutes to spot him hunkered up in the bottom (arrow went down this throat about 12 inches). Ok! I have found him, but I don’t have my pack frame or camera. I took off on a dead run to where I left my pack frame and ran right back to the rim. It took me another 90 seconds to remember where I left my Martin Onza. Finally I get myself down to the buck, take pictures as no one is going to believe this shot. I give the buck my “Hawaiian Cut” which puts him in quarters with the removal of backstrap and tenderloins. This is the only way I field dress big game, fast (30 minutes on a deer) and there is little blood! I get as much as I can on the pack frame along with the head and cape.
I have to climb out of the bottom and head back to the truck that would be waiting for me I hoped. It would be about 3 miles line of sight to get back and light was fading fast, real fast. There was a great deal of cheat grass and it made it possible to see for a while. I had decided to take a short cut to the road, which would be a mistake for me. It was now dark and dark, as the thunder heads over the John Day River were settling in. Thunder and Lighting now was everywhere, plus it started to rain. When the sky would light up I would move towards the direction of my pickup spot. I could see the micro wave tower light and that helped me for a while. I then lost all the grass and got into just rocks. I could no longer go forward in reaching the truck or Dave. I had lost the lighting as it would move further east towards Mitchell, Oregon. I was going to have to spend the night out in the weather with only a light sweater on. Did I mention that I had forgotten water, now I needed it for sure after eating the crackers? The crackers were pretty dry. It was a good thing that I trained in the desert on running missions with no water… The temperature had now dropped and my sweater was not enough at this point. I hate DIRT, (did I say I hate dirt?) but knew the only way I was going to make until morning, was to hunker down under a low hanging Juniper and bury myself in the dirt (dust). Though it was raining it would not last very long, as the storm had past. That is just what I did; waking up about every two hours to see if light had come finally over the John Day River. It was probably about 5:30 AM when I woke up again and could see a hint of sun coming over the hills above the John Day River. There was not a cloud in the sky now with only the sun to show up for the day!
Later in the day the temperature reaches about 98 degrees, same the first day. I was now up and getting the pack frame on with most of the buck attached. It was a good thing I did not try to venture further during the night; I surely would have found myself in the bottom of narrow rock crevice for life. There was no way that I would have seen the edge and would have fallen to the bottom. Making it out to the dirt road, out of no where, Dave and his truck appeared. Dave had driven the dirt road hitting the horn once in a while until about midnight, and then parked off the road until morning; he figured I would be ok with my military background!
Final pack out of the front quarters! Drink of choice Coca Cola!
I told Dave it was time for him to hunt the elk he had seen while he was coming up the road. I could get the front quarters out later in the afternoon! Dave never got on the elk again, but at the end of the season we went back to our spot and he killed a great buck! That will be another story, but I will let you see Dave’s buck from the last weekend of the archery season in 1987!
Dave's Rah Buck 1987! Dave's hunt was an unusal hunt, worth a storyDave's packout end up being at night also! He hunted the same spot on the closing weekend of 1987!
Morale of the story: Be Prepared – Have a Trusting Friend
This article will be more of requested of receiving comments from the readers. I have been watching a great deal of programs on the Outdoor Channel with both rifle hunters and archery hunters when I have the time to do so in recent years.
I have to say there are some great hunters out there both female and male that get the job done and make the shows real.
The following words, which I write in this story, represent my views on subject of recovery of big game at night.
Hunters choose various times to hunt which range from dawn to dusk, hunt the morning only, and hunt the evening only.
Today, I am going to talk about the evening hunt from around 1300 to dusk! So much game is spotted just before short minutes of ending legal shooting times. Shots are made during that time frame and there is what should be the recovery time. Recovery time includes time for the animal to exhaust from the shot and then we are into the actual recovery time which is darkness.
I am amazed at the technology of the knowing the animals whereabouts and their movements at any given time with the aid of trail cameras, boundary systems and GPS systems. This will tie into my words with the recovery of big game without saying anymore…
In my young adult years, my Dad (Bill) and Uncle Dave, taught me when you harvest an animal in the hours before dusk, that you make every attempt to recover the game before leaving the field. I continue to live by that code to his day. Only one time I have not been able to locate an animal at dark, though my partner and I spent more than 4 hours trying to do so, plus my son turned around some 60 miles away to help locate the deer (the deer is alive today). This just happened to be in 2012 during the general archery season and I have been bow hunting since 1970.
Shot of the hit buck present day January 2013!Entrance wound from 20 yards!Exit wound on the buck, no vitals hit and only a few drops for 100 yards!
I am appalled with many of the segments on the hunting channel and how game recovery is done. Many of the programs are highly sponsored and the names of the hunters are well known in the industry! The lack of not seeing recovery at night is disturbing! That is not to say I have not seen night recovery footage from the hard core hunters with segments on the Outdoor Channel.
On one particular program there was hunt in a Western State during an archery season for Antelope – Pronghorn. The hunter was hunting the afternoon prior to dusk and makes what appears to be a great and solid shot. On the video we all see the Lope go lay down and this was prior to darkness, it appeared to be about a ¼ mile away from the hunter and his crew. It almost broke my heart when the next part of the video showed the hunters going on recovery in the morning. Considering the light of the day, one would think they ate breakfast first before attempting recovery. What they found at the sight was just a skeleton of the Pronghorn that had been stripped of all meat and hide by coyotes. I was amazed it still had it horns as coyotes love the horn. This was a trophy Pronghorn that the meat went to waste, but fed the predators. I did not finish watching the program, as I could not believe the guide did not know or tell them a Pronghorn left overnight will be stripped. It is very hard for me understand why they did not go after the Pronghorn a bit later. Plus are we to assume that they continue to keep hunting and the horns went to the barn?
Years ago I lined up a hunter in the Silvies Unit of Oregon with waypoints for harvesting a Boone & Crockett Pronghorn. He found “thee buck” in the evening, shot the buck. It was not the best shot and he watched the buck head out into the sage brush and lay down outside of Riley, Oregon. It was getting dark and he decided waited until the next morning to find the buck, what he found was nothing but hair! It had been stripped by coyotes also. My comment to him later was “what were you thinking?”
This is not the first time on these programs that the hunters waited until the next morning to find their kill! Ok! We all can have a bad shot, but leaving an animal over night with the bad shot, the meat is not going to be premium quality. The animal was alive and the fluids of a bad shot still affect the overall meat quality even though it might freeze. Then again during general bow season it should swell right up from the heat. So was it just about the trophy, the kill or the amount of footage on the video? There could be the other side of the coin that they are showing what can happen with a bad shot and what to expect. I am one that doesn’t want to know or see that type of footage; it leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth.
Lastly there is the shot on an animal that should have never been taken, such a Mountain Goat on a pinnacle at 1000 yards cross canyon and the goat is not anchored in his tracks with the shot and free falls 6000 or so feet to the creek bottom and no recovery can be done. Heck of a shot, but the judgment of recovery was not there no matter what time it was shot!
We all have lost game over the years and the more time you spend in the field it can happen via a bad shot, miss or a non-fatal shot. In Oregon during the general seasons of rifle a bad shot can be opportunity for the next person in the canyon… Archery hunting that is not the case, which is why most of us will bow hunt for solitude!
Maybe some hunters are afraid to be in the woods after dark as they might fear a predator or even the “boogie man.” Just maybe they can’t handle darkness and lack the ability to walk in the dark. A large number of hunters have never had the opportunity to run a night mission out of country (combat). Plus in many states it is legal to carry a sidearm during archery and rifle season for protection. Hunters will pack a sidearm for protection against the 2 legged predators, so why not four legged predators? Ok! Sometimes it just feels great to carry a 1911!
In most states which, doesn’t include my home state of Oregon, bow hunters can use lighted nocks which can help a great deal with recovery of a hit the animal, you can tell if the animal was hit, direction of the animal’s travel if it sticks in the animal for a while and if the arrow passes through the animal you can check the blood content.
There are number of the seasoned hunters on these programs that will seek until they find the game at night and I applaud them. We all know these hunters and those are the one’s I am going to tune into the future!
