Tag Archives: Oregon Hunts Archery

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Gerber Reservoir Archery Pronghorn – Antelope

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               Gerber Reservoir 78 P&Y Antelope

My good friend Steve Tandy and I had Archery Antelope tags for the Gerber Reservoir near the Sycan Marsh in South Central Oregon.   We made an early scouting trip near the marsh below Thompson Reservoir.   There was no doubt that there were a lot of lopes in the area.  We were not disappointed at all with the numbers.   We saw a number of dandy big bucks in the area working the water holes.

 It would make for easy setups on stalking or waiting for the lopes out near a waterhole.  The biggest problem that we had on the scouting trip were the mosquitoes, oh my were they bad, one couldn’t even take a leak without them attacking you.  Reminded me of the days in Nam with the blasted things.

 Anyway Steve and I were not able to hunt together on the opening weekend of the hunt.

Gerber Reservoir Antelope are a bit different from other antelope in the typical nature in that they work the timber in the Gerber Res. Unity and not just the open sage brush pockets.   Makes for great ambushing when you know their routes.

Anyway I was very fortune to harvest a nice respectable Antelope that scored 78 P&Y.  I made a 45 yard shot as the buck was coming out of the timber en-route to a waterhole near the power-lines.   In those days I was a shooter for PSE Archery out of Arizona.

I would recommend this area to hunt for Antelope during the Archery season, Youth Hunt or Muzzle-loader season.

Cobra

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Ben’s Archery Oregon 31″ Mule Deer

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Ben and his 31″ mule deer buck after getting back to the truck.

I would love to say that on every bowhunt for mule deer that I have been successful.  Well that is not the case, if it ha been, then I would have to say that I would be hunting in enclosed area.  That is not the case for me with elk, antelope or deer.
Well this hunt was more for my good friend and hunting partner Ben Olson, the only hunting partner in my past that could read what I was doing on a hunt, whether it was making a drive or working an area.  

On this mule deer bowhunt, both Ben and I were hunting and area in the Grizzly Unit. We would be hunting about a mile apart, as both us had spots that we thought were ours to hunt. I had a great spot, but Ben would be the only person to be successful on this hunt and he would do it in a big way.  That is not to say that I didn’t see any great bucks, but I did see some dandies, but failed to connect on them.  Guess I was just too picky and let a couple of good bucks go, trying to get the monster buck.

Anyway Ben would be hunting a bowl that harbored some dandy bucks in the past.
As the story goes, Ben spotted this monster mulie at about 300 yards out; the buck was running with 10 other bucks.  There was enough cover with Junipers, Sage brush and rocks, with the wind blowing into his face at 15 knots; he was able to walk right up on the buck’s butt.  The buck never knew that Ben was at full draw at 45 yards as the buck turned to feed.  The rest is history according to Ben as the buck jumped and went about 15 yards and lay down.

I knew where Ben was and made my way just before dark to see whether or not if he saw of go anything.  To my surprise here Ben with this monster mulie already quartered and caped.  This did make it a fairly easy pack out to the truck even though darkness had fallen upon us.  It had not been the first time that we had to walk out in the dark from this area.   This was before we started using GPS’s.

This was Ben’s best buck from the area in the number of years that he has hunted the area.

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I think it finally sank in with Ben, how nice his buck was!

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Oregon Grizzly Unit Archery Brill’s Bull Elk

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Dave’s Grizzly Unit Bull shot at 15 yards!

 “Frank you can’t shoot at the bull, you already have one out there somewhere.” Those were the words from an old hunting buddy Dave Brill, as we were calling in a dandy 5X5 bull on the Big Muddy.  We had hiked in about 2 miles from our base camp that Dave, Ben and myself had set-up in the middle of Smith’s Ranch.  We had plan to work a canyon that held a lot of elk just about anytime you ventured into it.  Ben had split off from Dave and me as traveled across the flat just before the canyon.  As we got close we could her a couple of bulls bugling down in the canyon.  It wasn’t long before we could see a large herd of elk and about 5 bulls wandering around with one doing all of the major calling.  I could also see the spike that I had taken a shot at the day before that the arrow had deflected off a tree and bounce across the bull’s back. 

You wonder why I would shoot at a spike; well that is a great question.  The spike had sabers that were are at least 40 inches long.  He would have look pretty good on the wall.  I had only seen one other bull that had horns like that and that bull had been taken by the old owner of All Sports in Portland, OR.  Anyway Dave and I decided to charge right in on the herd and split the bull from the cows.   It wasn’t more than about 10 minutes and we were sitting in the bottom of a dry creek bed with the cows to our back side and the bull in front of us in the Junipers.

I have always liked to be a smaller bull; Dave on the other hand along with Ben would always pretend that they were big bulls when calling.  I have had a great amount of success using Glen Berry calls, both diaphragms and bugles.  I have been using Glen’s call for more than 25 years. If you ever get the chance to talk to Glen or his son Chad at one of the Sportsman’s Shows, you’ll understand why I feel he has a great product for the average and experience hunter.  I have made many a deal with him via a handshake.  Go to Glen’s website and check-out his products! 
http://www.berrygamecalls.com/

Ok! Getting back to part of the story that I will give you today.  I start to do my typical cow and small bull calling.  It wasn’t long before the bull went into a rage, ripping up sage brush and grunting a lot.  The bull came right in on us, you could see his red eyes bulging and saliva dripping from his mouth.  He was not more than 20 yards from us.  I still went to draw as he was coming in, but my awkward sitting arrangement my arrow slipped from the rest.   Dave was at full draw and I wondered if he was ever going to take the shot, the bull was still coming in on us.  The bull would be on top of us soon.  Dave let the arrow fly at about 15 yards, almost missing the bull at that range he hit the bull high in the spine.  The bull is enraged but decides to turn and trot off down the canyon.  Not wanting to pack out the bull that is hurt and not able to run full tilt, I run across to the top of the creek ledge I made the decision to head the bull off and turn him back up the creek, so Dave can get another shot off and put the bull down.  I am able to catch the bull in about 300 yards and make him turn back up the creek.  The bull goes by Dave and he lets an arrow fly and again the bull is hit high in the spine.  The bull comes to the edge of a ledge above the creek and jumps, landing on top of an old corral, breaking through to the ground.  The bull was dead when he hit the ground.

Ben during this time period had been on the ridge above us watching everything unfold.  I believe his words went like the following:  “I thought maybe the Circus was in town with you two guys!” “I wish I had a video camera so I could sell it and make a million.”Charging in on the herd worked on this stalk, but it doesn’t always work which I found out later on the hunt.  The bull I thought I could charge in on, decided to work his way to the spot that I had originally called from… 

Sometimes one has to have patience when it comes elk hunting!  There is more to this story, but that will be a later time.

http://www.berrygamecalls.com/home.html

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Cobra’s Grizzly Unit Monster Mule Deer

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In 1985 this was the Number 1 Archery Buck out of Oregon! 
Held that post for 5 years, now ranks # 6 in Oregon.  Records are meant to be BROKE!
Oregon Mule Deer buck had a Gross score of 197 P&Y- Net of 190. 

“Dave, you’re not going to believe it!” I said to my friend. “that fellow in the Bronco was right-that buck has got to be 31 inches wide! I’m going back! He’s just feeding in a shallow basin on top of the knob!”

Thus began my dream stalk.

The Oregon archery season was coming to a close in three days. I’d passed up many smaller bucks during the season, trying to find a real “booker”. Now it was performance time.

I made a quick call to Dave because I knew I could count on him to go on a mission with me. I told him we could make a Saturday afternoon hunt over on the breaks of the John Day River in central Oregon.

The final weekend of the season also happened to be my drill weekend with the U.S. Naval Reserve. Luckily, I only had to spend half of Saturday and Captain’s Call was out at 1130. I made it to Dave’s place just past noon in Sandy, Oregon.

There was a two-hour drive to the mountains, leaving us about six hours maximum for hunting.

On the way to the Bureau of Land Management land, we spotted a small herd of mule deer, with five bucks. All looked pretty nice, and I decided to try taking a few photos. They were in the 23 to 25 inch class with one respectable four point at about 28 inches. At 5:00 p.m., we reached the B.L.M. land on the west side of the John Day River.

This was truly the year of archery mule deer hunting that I could say, “you should have seen the ones that got away!”

190 P & Y Grizzly Unit Mule Deer

This buck hangs in the Sportsman’s Warehouse in Portland, Oregon

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Number 1 Oregon Archery Pronghorn – Antelope

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          86 P & Y Pronghorn – Antelope

Bone couldn’t believe the size of my Dinosaur. “You did it again, Bwana” were his only words, as he finished capping a nice buck he’d taken earlier in the day.  My big guy’s horns measured 14 1/2″ in length, with 7″ cutters and bases of a monstrous 7 1/2″.  His green score was 89 1/2″, and after three months of drying time he was measured 86 P&Y.    This buck is now ranked #3 after 23 years, it held the #1 spot for 9 years!

I have always said that “records are meant to be broken!”

This buck can be seen at Wholesale Sport Outdoor Outfitters (Old Sportsman’s Warehouse) in Portland, Oregon at 82nd and Johnson Creek.