Roy contacted me back in early summer that he had a Steens Antelope Tag. He also told me that he had hunted deer the Steens and knew that area well. He was wondering if I would share some extra info on places that he might get into Antelope in the Steens.
Just in case his spots did not work out that there were other avenues to work in the Steens. The spot that Roy hunted is a great area for lopes which his story tells the end result!
Frank, I got a great picture of some real nice rams in the area and sharing it with you and your readers.
Bighorn Sheep that Roy was able to get close to!
I killed a nice buck on Thursday evening, 14 inch buck, nice ivory tips, and good size! I gave up on the long range shooting and sat at a water hole for hours and hours. I hunted in the area northeast of Moon Hill Road.
This buck has some Cutters (Prongs) I know why he took this lope!
I had multiple Does bed down below me at the waterhole when I shot this buck. There were antelope everywhere, and the good thing was, when I got a shot it was a mere 186 yards. The buck didn’t even move, he just crumpled right there.
I was pumped, got him to the locker in less than 2 hours, and the meat tastes great.
Thanks Much, Roy Jackson
I really like this buck and he was definitly a shooter and will look great on the wall! Bwana
Brett's Lope back from the Taxidermist Oct-2011 - Love the Turn!
Brett and I have been emailing back and forth since the spring of 2009 and the Silvies Unit in Oregon. He had enough points to get drawn in 2009 I thought but he did not get drawn. So expecting him to draw in 2010 and forgot. Anyway in 2011 after hearing he got his tag and learning about the mapping software, which Brett bought, the hunt was on. Great they he took this hunt so serious and spent the time in the field. Brett wrote a great story that all of you are now reading!
Brett's 2011 Silvies Lope - 250 Yard Shot
In June 2011, I finally drew mySilvies #2 Antelope tag. I thought I was going to get it in 2009, and forgot to put in for it in 2010. Now the work begins. I took my first scouting trip the last weekend in June. I saw several billies, ones that I would’ve shot, had it been in season. There was lots of water this spring, and the creeks were high. When the dry lakes aren’t dry it seems like it keeps the antelope further out in the desert, and not as close to agricultural lands.
On July 17th, I got back out to do some more scouting. This time I was able to get into the areas that Frank sent me, and there were antelope exactly where Frank’s way points were. I ended up spraining my ankle pretty badly on this trip and had to cut short, but I saw several antelope and a couple more shooters. Unfortunately, I was unable to do any more scouting before the season started.
Brett is one proud Lope Hunter!
On August 24th , I set up camp on Nicoll creek. Once I was situated, I headed out on the desert to hunt. I only had the chance to scout one of the areas Frank gave me for about an hour. That afternoon, I decided to go check out the area where I saw the big billie in June. There was one billie there, but not big enough, so I decided to pass on it.
On August 25th, I decided to head north to the Paulina area. I was surprised that I didn’t see anything ,not even on the GI road. In the afternoon, I headed more towards Burns. I found another billie. It would’ve been an easy shot, however, it didn’t strike my fancy, so I passed.
His daughter likes his Lope also!
On the morning of August 26th, I decided to go back and really work the areas Frank gave me. I got up to the Dry Lake around 8:30 and was glad to see no tracks up there other than mine from 2 days before. As I came out onto a big flat, I spotted some antelope about 400 to 500 yards out. I got out my binoculars and I saw a billie and some nannies. They were definitely watching me. There was a small rise ahead of me, so I got on my hands and knees and crawled far enough where I could get a better look. I saw he wasn’t a monster but I liked his curl and width. He satisfied me and that’s what mattered. I was still 350 plus yards out and had no rest, so I had to belly crawl another 100 or so yards across the desert, to a couple of trees which gave me a make shift rest and a good view. I was resting against the tree, watching the billie. He was out about 250 yards but had nannies all around him. I had to wait for what seemed like eternity (but in reality, was probably 10 to 15 minutes) until he was finally clear. He didn’t give me the best angle. I made the shot, and hit him. He ran about 100 yards and went down.
The Lope Country that Brett found his buck!
Frank was right on the money with his locations. He really helped make my hunt a success. When I went to the places I was thinking of going on my own, I had very little success but every time I went where Frank said the animals were, they were there!
Ray contacted me around June 30th after searching the internet for information on the Oregon Malheur Antelope Unit. What I liked about Ray, was that he was prepared for hunting, having the right equiptment. He also had a Garmin GPS with mapping and he did buy the www.huntinggpsmaps.com Maps for the hunt!
Frank, I used my Remington 700 – .270 with the Winchester Ballistic 150gr (I think, could be 130gr). We ended up camping off of Warm Springs Rd just a few miles north of the Res. (we were the only camp I saw all week). We covered a lot of ground in this area from camp towards Riverside and S.W. towards Crane before deciding to hit the hills east of Shumway south out of Juntura. As you had mentioned, most water holes were full so jumping pond to pond wasn’t giving us any results. On the hot afternoons saw a herd bedded in the timber. Jumped a nice herd of 10-12 lopes with a huge Buck in the rear but we were crossing through private land at that point. We ended up trying to stalk that herd once they ducked the fence to BLM but it only took a few minutes for them to cover a few miles. After hiking to where we thought they might have slowed down they were nowhere to be seen (It took us a few hours to get there). They were bedded down in the sage on a hillside maybe 80 yds off of the road. Saw a nice shooter again on private right along the highway one morning also.
Ray's first big game animal!
Hunting Buddy - JACK!
Ultimately I took my buck on our evening hunt last Wednesday. After a late lunch and a few cold drinks (we had been out since 5AM and had covered over 100miles on our quads and several miles on foot) we headed out of camp around 5:30PM on our quads headed North on Warm Springs Rd. Our plan was to try to glass the hills south of Hwy 20 where we had seen that nice buck off the highway that hit the hills toward camp once we pulled over to see him. We turned on to a road about 5-6 miles south of the highway (spotting scopes in hand) thought we would ride in to look for a good vantage point to sit out the sunset and hope to see him.
Green Antelope Country in August!
It wasn’t a few miles in when I creped around a blind corner and saw an antelope moving through the meadow (about 200-225 yds away) I grabbed my rifle and jumped off my quad. I put my sights on him and realized right then that this was my chance. The sun had dropped below the next ridge and things happened so fast that I quickly but softly asked my buddy who had just ran up with binos in hand “that’s my buck, right?” without hesitation he replied “YES! TAKE THE SHOT!” By this time he had us pinned and had adjusted his walk to a gallop and was broadside planning on getting up over that ridge. I squeezed the trigger and heard a whack! The adrenaline at that point I felt had never been stronger!
Ray's other hunting partner Neil! Find them Lopes!
But he didn’t drop, I hit him a bit low and he ducked around a lone tree at about 225yds . I almost began to panic wondering if I only imagined that whack since I had been dreaming about it every night since I drew the tag. Just then he popped out the other side and stopped broadside looking right at me, I squeezed off another round and he dropped in his tracks! After a few minutes of high-fives, hugs, and holy —-‘s I went up to claim my trophy! Not the biggest one out there but a solid buck with ivory tips and a broken kicker tells me he could have been a little bruiser!
Not the biggest one out there but a solid buck with ivory tips and a broken kicker tells me he could have been a little bruiser! I can’t wait until Christmas time when I get him back and have years to tell the story of my lifetime. Incredible hunt, and an incredible animal…
Antelope Country of Malheur Hunt Unit
We saw a large herd of Big Horn Sheep and more coyotes then I have ever seen in one place. Lot of deer too, and one really nice buck (wish I would have gotten a picture of).
This is a great story about making new friends in the hunting world. DAK was a local hunter that contacted me and met with me at the local Burger King for lunch in 2010. David (DAK) wrote a great story about his hunt, which probably should have been in a magazine or real time public land hunting. Since that time DAK contacted me that he would love to go back over to South Wagontire, if I had a hunter that would like another set of eyes and field work. DAK definitely is a man that is analytic in the field and how he hunts. Mike contacted me and I thought about DAK. The rest is history now and once again there is a successful hunt in South Wagontire.
Frank, Once again, thank you for assisting me on my Antelope hunt. It was a great success! As agreed upon, I am providing a story, and photos. I must add that it’s an honor to do so. I don’t consider myself a journalist in any way, shape or form, but here it goes!
After fourteen years of applying for a South Wagontire Rifle Antelope tag, I was finally successful in drawing! The excitement level was off the chart! My wife Cristine and I immediately planned a scouting trip for the long Fourth of July weekend. I gathered all the maps that I had, and acquired some more from the local BLM office. After studying the maps, we decided on starting in the southern end of the unit. We were on the road early the morning we left to scout. It was about a four hour drive from Grants Pass to the small town of Paisley. We started seeing Antelope after we headed north on Hwy. 395 out of Lakeview. Our first stop was at the Hot Springs RV Park that’s about six miles west of Paisley to see if we wanted to park our trailer while we were there to hunt. What a rustic, but neat little park with full hook-ups, and mineral pools to soak in after a long days hunt! Cristine was really excited about that perk!
We started to see game immediately, but all the property that they were on was ZX Ranch land. No hunting there! We headed north out Red House Rd. and headed out into open country. I had no idea that this unit was so vast, and we were just seeing a small portion of it! After five hours of driving back roads and jeep trails, we had glassed some Antelope, but not the numbers that I had expected. We did see animals in most of the spots that looked “gamey” too me, but putting a stalk on them would be difficult at best, and sitting on a spot and waiting would be an inefficient use of hunting time. After hitting pavement on Hwy. 395 north of Abert Lake, we found a place to stay for the night and talked about what we had seen that day.
Cristine & Mike 2011 Near Lake Abert
Sunday morning we started at the northeast corner of the unit and went west to Christmas Valley. We did see one small herd of three does between Hwy. 395 and Christmas Valley. Antelope do have a way of disappearing on the landscape, and then reappearing again, but we just weren’t seeing them. After doing a complete loop of the entire unit, we were back in Paisley, and seeing some game again. After a scouting until early in the afternoon, we started on our drive home.
I was at a conundrum as to how to approach this hunt, and this is where I found Frank (AKA Cobra). After going online and googling South Wagontire Antelope, his sight came up and I made contact via an email. Cobra seemed excited to finally hear from a hunter that was lucky enough to have drawn this tag! The rules of engagement where made clear and that’s where this success story started. First of all was to get a gps unit that would support the information that Cobra was going to provide, and best of all he mentioned that he had a friend that had a successful hunt in 2010, and he might be interested in meeting up with us to show us how to really hunt this unit.
Mike (LF) & David (RT) Success is so sweet!
Cobra made contact with his friend DAK and explained the situation, and DAK made contact with us, and an instant connection was made. After a few weeks of communication and going over GPS way-points on the map, it was time to hunt! Cristine and I pulled out of Grants Pass at 3:00 am with the trailer in tow Thursday before the hunt so we would have time to set up camp and get some more scouting in. The drive over was awesome like always, and the excitement level was high. After camp was set up, we changed into hiking boots and Camo to go out and scout some of the new way-points that we had acquired. Some of the waterholes we went into had very little traffic coming in, but there were a couple that had lots of fresh tracks surrounding their entire perimeters. BINGO. We planned how we would set up a hide depending on the wind direction at each spot. We were also seeing lots of game, including some really nice bucks. After running around all day we headed back to camp to bib some steaks, and to enjoy a cold drink.
"view of the water hole from our blind."
DAK pulled into camp around 9:30 Thursday evening and introductions were made. What an outstanding man with allot of knowledge of the quarry we were to pursue. After enjoying dinner, it was time to get down to business and discuss what Cristine and I had seen earlier in the day and which areas that where left to scout the next day. We all hit the sack around 11:00 pm Thursday night and were up at 5:00 am Friday morning to get out and cover some more ground. Cristine planned on staying back at camp and soaking in the mineral pools and hiking around camp for the day. DAK and I started on a marathon day that would bring us back to camp at 8:30 Friday evening! We started to see animals immediately as soon as we left the pavement on ZX Ranch property. After checking out one water hole that had some light traffic, we proceeded on to the next spot and glassed a couple does with a nice buck in tow. I was great for me to get DAK’s opinion of all the bucks we glassed that day to help in making an informed decision on what kind of buck to look for. The day scouting was most productive and several bucks were seen. When we arrived back at camp, there was one happy rested and relaxed wife that had amazing fajitas waiting for us! What a great day and the anticipation were high!
We were up at 3:00 am Saturday morning. I don’t think I hardly slept a wink! It was about an hour drive to the spot that we decided to try first so we were rolling down the road by 3:30. That would give us plenty of time to hike in and get our hide set up before the sunrise. We pulled onto the trail that leads to our parking spot, and what did we see? A rig with a tent pitched had come in Friday night and had the same spot picked out! -No trouble. We had covered enough ground the day prior to have a “plan B” up our sleeve. So off we went with about seven miles to cover and an easy half-mile hike in to our hide. We were still in and on our spot with a make shift blind set up against the rimrock before the sun came up. The nearest cover to the water hole was 244 yards to the near side, and 298 to the far side but that was okay! I had been practicing shooting from field positions and had sighted my 257 Weatherby in at 300 yards. The outcropping that we chose also had a perfect rock “bench rest” to shoot from I had humorously pointed out to DAK the day before while scouting.
David's Shot at the waterhole!
A lone coyote came into the water hole at 7:30 am for a drink of water. He headed up into the sage brush on the opposite side of the canyon and started hunting for breakfast. What a treat to watch him through the binos! This was the second time that my wife Cris had been along on a hunt with me, and she was amazed at how fun it is to watch animals in their natural surroundings. I was busy watching the coyote and she whispered “here they come!” I first thought she meant more coyotes, but when I panned to the right through the Binos, ANTELOPE!
Seven does single filed up the edge of the canyon on the opposite side towards the water hole. About 50 yards out from the water hole, they all squatted and went pee at the exact same time. We both giggled about that. I knew that there should be a buck with them and when I glassed further down trail from them, there he was! I watched him walk the last 150 yards to the water hole and I could tell he was a nice buck. Possibly the “one”. He next strolled up on top of the berm to the right of the water hole like he was saying “look at me”. When he turned his head and quartered away slightly, I could see his deep hooks. I wasn’t going to settle on the first buck I saw, but this guy was really appealing to me. I whispered to Cris that I was going to take him when he gave me a shot. She asked me if I was sure about him, and I said once again I was going to take him. He dropped behind the berm and was out of sight. A few seconds passed and he walked around to the back side of the water hole, drank some water and then turned perfectly broadside to us. I made sure that the does were all clear of him and placed the crosshairs right behind his shoulder and squeezed the trigger. At the shot I heard that solid “whack” that you get when a bullet connects solid with an animal. He dropped at the shot and didn’t even kick. He was 298 yards according to the laser range finder. What an emotional moment for the both of us! Cristine now understands the feelings and emotions that we go through when an animal is taken. She wants to start to apply for the same hunt next year!
There’s a phenomenon known as “ground shrinkage” that is sometime experienced after taking a game animal. This buck looked bigger and bigger the closer we got to him. We were stoked! Once we got to him we must have spent at least 20 minutes looking at him before I took off to get the pickup. I managed to get a hold of DAK on his cell phone and told him what had transpired in the last half hour. He was busy watching another possible spot and took some great pictures of another herd at a waterhole. DAK double timed it out and made it to our location to join in the celebration. After caping, skinning, and quartering my buck out it was off to Paisley for ice to cool the meat down.
Cobra, what a great hunt for all of us thanks to you my friend. To all of you those are fortunate to draw this tag, have a great hunt!!! Mike & Cristine
David's Monster Buck in wrong unit!
Many waterholes that were dry last year had water this year. Wildcat waterhole, which was full up last year, was dry this year. Very strange! Had a blast! Mike and his wife are great folks and fun to hunt with. We glassed many Lopes Friday (8 different bucks and lots of does). While Mike shot his buck on waterhole _13, I was sitting on _7.2 with a camera (classified). Watched 13 does and a smallish buck come in, water and feed, and head out. They never knew I was there. I got some great pictures which Mike has. Here are two good ones from the waterhole. Last picture is a monster buck I saw by the highway coming in Thursday night but was not in the right unit for us to go after. Biggest lope I have ever seen by a long ways. If you have anybody in South Wagontire next year keep me in mind. DAK
First off hunting is about networking and in this case it surely is. Justin use to work with or my son worked with Justin in the days of Sportsman’s Warehouse in Portland. I had seen pictures of Bulls that Justin and his group had taken along the John Day River some years back… He knew what he was doing for sure when it came to hunting.
In the early part of 2010 once Justin knew his group had tags for Lopes in the Malheur he got a hold of me and asked if I knew any areas for the Malheur. I knew a few spots and shared the information with him.
As you can see his group was very successful with a couple of good bucks for that area.
2010 Malheur Lope - Justin's Group 100% Harvest
This year I had some other hunters in the unit for both deer, elk and lopes. Justin shared his information on his hunt, which I have past along to the new group of hunters. Those hunters last year got information from me on the Steens Mtns. for deer.
Max's First Elk at 14 years old in the Grizzly Unit of Oregon
As I have said before many people come into our lives. In the outdoor world of hunting and fishing, I feel that we connect with the land and those that are part of the land…
For me there have been many Ranchers that I have come in contact in regards to hunting, especially in the state of Oregon…
In the 80’s. 90’s, 2000’s, much of my time was spent in Central Oregon mostly on the west side of the John Day River in pursuit of deer, elk and free ranging exotics. Through the years one might become infamous or notorious in relationship of the owners of the rimrock, sage and junipers. This past summer my son and I visited one of the ranchers that I have known through others, as well as how he knew me, yet we have never sat down and had a fireside chat… During the 4 or so hours we spent in a tent on his property, setting life straight and becoming friends of the mind, a common bond was made. Life is not easy for Ranchers, especially in the hostile land of the John Day River.
So the following was able to happen because of the gathering of the past summer!
Hi Frank-
“I found your website after sending you a private message on Ifish after you responded to my post about my son needing a place to hunt for cow elk in the North Grizzly Unit. If you have any contacts that would be great the season ends on November 30 and I am running out of options. Any help you could provide for a 14 year old kid would be greatly appreciated!” Jeff
Being able to come up with an area and the Rancher’s phone number, Jeff was able to get permission to hunt on this land.
Hey Frank-“Look at what we found! Ha-Ha….
Great hunting experience for my son we put in a long stalk in on Saturday morning after putting the elk to bed Friday night. We ended up walking the rim rock all the way to the end. We crawled to the edge where my son touched one off from the top clear down to the bottom. He hit her in the back leg with a stiff wind coming from left to right, very tough shot!
The Wind always blows in the area!
They took off running she was hurt yet still ran for an extended period. We caught up to her a couple of times but she ran off before he could settle in to shoot. I finally spotted her bed down in front of a tree at a high vantage point. This time we cut a limb off a tree after he missed twice so he could get a good shot. He connected while she was laying down right in the neck and died immediately… Took us all day to finally get her out with the use of a 4 wheeler but we were both still beat after coming in and out of that Canyon a couple of times! Finished skinning her out then cut her in half and headed for home about 6PM last night.”
Great experience!
Hey Frank-Happy Black Friday!
We ended up on Dave’s property….he really took to the “kid” as he called him…..Ha-Ha.
He let us use his 4 wheeler to haul that thing out which really helped the cause!
He also enjoyed the whiskey, salmon, beer and tuna that I brought to him as Thanks.
Hell of a memory for a 14 yr old kid, made it even more special that we were able to do it together….
Thanks again for the connection, Max is very thankful and wanted me to say Thanks as well….
“Dad, we need help!” “Holly has a buck down!” Sure she has a buck down, you have to stop kidding! “No she really has one down and we need your help, you still at work?”
This hunt would have to be related to a while back on this particular piece of private property in the Willamette Unit.
I have been watching the property for more than 6 years I guess. Since 2004, while driving to Valley RV Center in McMinnville, I would make that the route in the morning so I could get pictures of Blacktail bucks before the archery season, knowing that I would never get a chance to hunt the property. Finally this year I had the nerve to call and ask the landowner if it would be ok to archery hunt their property. During the course of meeting the landowner while in the field, permission was granted for Frankie’s wife Holly to hunt with a rifle during the general western buck tag. Frankie and I went through the archery season with zero kills on the land. We probably skipped a couple of key times in the field after running into what we felt was an armed pot grower with silent running dogs. Left un-easy feeling and it took about 2 weeks to make it back into the field.
In the Velvet with the group!Buck is down with heart shot!Holly and here 2010 Blacktail Buck
Finally the General Rifle season for bucks opened two Saturday’s ago. Holly with Frankie guiding her in the field made it the opening morning, encountering only one buck, but unable to get a shot off. The Sunday of the opener I went out with the kids and I had them stay on stand while I did the driving. NO BUCKS!
I got a call just after 4:30PM that they were going to go hunting and were into the field by 5:00PM.
The plan was to glass the plowed field from about and the entrance points that deer would enter the field to feed on WEEDS from about 600 yards. They spotted a buck and a couple of other deer in the field. The landowner had made comment that he didn’t want any shooting over into the field, because of the neighbors. The two of them decide to head to the entrance road to the property and park outside of the perimeter.
The deer had moved back into the timber and Blackberries and the last movement was in the direction of the draw that was mid-way up the access road.
Holly worked her way on the road using the grass edges as cover and sound proofing of the stalk. Little did she know that the buck would be just off the gravel road?
As she spotted the buck, which looks really big to her, she keeps her cool and pulls up on the buck that was broadside at 20 yards. Using a Remington Rifle 770 loaded with 130 grain, Remington Core-Lock Ultra Bonded she squeezed on the trigger only to have the rifle still on safety. Without hesitation Holly push the safety off and made the heart shot as the buck turn to run.
The 3X3 buck with symmetrical horns dropped in his tracks. Now Frankie and Holly shared High Fives on a great hunt… Now the work would start!
Ironically as you can see in the story I had taken pictures of this buck in Velvet.
With Frankie’s training on the movement of the deer in the area, he was able to calculate how he was going to hunt the property.
David and I had many email contacts, he bought a Garmin GPS, came by and I marked maps. He made the trips to South Wagontire to scout all the hotspots and said he had a great time and lots of buck lopes. I feel that David made it one of the great hunts, with friends and family.
David K. with his 2010 S. Wagontire LopeBrian w/David’s Lope-Glassing PartnerFrontal Shot!
First a confession: I read a lot of hunting magazines, Easton’s Hunting Journal, stuff like that. Those articles are about umber-hunters, alpha predators who know their game and their craft. Every season for them is the kind of adventure guys like me dream about. Average Joes like me respect and admire those hunters, but even though we would sometimes like to, we are never going to be those guys. This year I wanted to see if an Average Joe could have an adventure like that, but home-grown, without guides or out-of-state tags.
I had enough points to draw for Antelope and this appealed to me for family reasons. 35 years ago during one of the Boeing busts my father had to leave the family behind and go work in Ohio because there were no jobs in Seattle where we lived. Two years later things got better and he came home. On the way back he stopped in Wyoming to hunt Antelope. For a farm boy from Pennsylvania, this was a real adventure. He shot a small buck (about 8 or 9 inch) with Grandfather’s Savage 99 in 358 Winchester and was totally thrilled. The picture is still on the wall of his home in Naches, Washington. The horns and hide went into the basement chest freezer till there was enough money to pay a taxidermist. 4 months later the freezer croaked and everything in it was ruined.
Dad was never one to complain and these things can and do happen. Five years later he drew a goat tag and shot a Billy with 10 inch horns which made an impressive mount. Still, I very much wanted to see a Lope hang on his wall.
My first step was to search for some advice from somebody who knew what they were doing and I was fortunate enough to find Frank’s website. After I explained what I wanted to do he helped me figure out
1. What unit to put in for
2. GPS model suitable for a novice
3. Choice of rifle and round
Frank also shot me some GPS data on areas in that unit that he knew would be good bets. He even took a lunch hour from work to sit down with me a go over maps and talk about tactics and how to judge horns. I was advised repeatedly to hold out for a mature animal and not settle for the equivalent of a spike or fork-horn, which is what most hunters do. Franks info was gold and his advice was dead-nuts-accurate. Thanks Frank.
I kept pretty good notes on the scouting and hunting trip both. If this was an article for Eastman’s Hunting Journal it would be titled “Average Joe Hunts Antelope”.
Scouting Trip July 30 –
Got up VERY early. Waterhole 1.0 is about 1 ½ mile from the road and waterhole 1.2 is another mile further past that. Since we suspected the wind would come in from the north again, we fumbled around in the dark till we found a good hide on the top of the rimrock to the south of the waterhole. There were a few high puffy clouds so we should not get stupid hot like yesterday. Got up early and got on 1.0 before light. The GPS is a huge help and got us to our hide in total dark without a problem. I was too pumped to sleep last night and was very tired.. Met Brian and Dad in Madras and headed south again. First stop was the waterhole the satellite picture showed near our core area. This turned out to be a near perfect setup with high ground and cover overlooking it. Only trouble was there appeared to be zero Lope tracks at the water, just a few coyote prints. This hole was surrounded by sage and I wonder if the lopes don’t hang out in the sage unless pressured on the open grasslands. In the morning there was a buck watching us from about 600 yards out. He is probably 10 or 11 inches but not much mass and skinny cutters. This is the kind of buck most hunters take but Frank says to pass on. In the morning as we were munching granola bars and Costco muffins and getting ready to explore some of Franks waypoints the packrat hops out onto the top of the truck engine (the hood was still up from the prior night rat hazing attempts). He is about the size of a big squirrel with very hand-like front paws and a furry tail, but otherwise looks just like a very big rat. He jumps onto the left fender, from the fender to the left side view mirror, from the mirror to the dash, runs across the dash, jumps to the right side view mirror, from the right mirror to the right fender, and, I swear, flips us off before diving back into the engine compartment. Dad and my brother Brian drove south from Naches to scout with me and I met them in Madras. Dad is pushing 80 now and won’t be doing much hiking, but will drive and glass from the high points while Brian and I do the walking. Brian is a biologist and worked for a few years studying coyotes and sage grouse at Hart Mountain. He has never hunted Antelope but is familiar with their habitat and is better at spotting distant animals than anybody I know.We stopped in Silver Lake for gas and lunch. A couple guys at the diner heard us talking about Lope hunting and mentioned they had seen animals over near P—– Basin.
We drove east through Christmas Valley and saw 8 does in the irrigation pivots with a small buck. Past the town we went south on P—– Basin Rd. There is lots of country, but not much water this time of year; at least that we could see. Just south of V—– Butte there were some stock pond by the road and a very heavy horned buck jumped off one of the holes, crossed the road in front of us and raced through the sage up and over the shoulder of the butte. It is absolutely amazing how fast they run without seeming to make any effort.
Joining up with Hwy 395 we went south and then cut west to the area Frank had given me GPS data on. We drove through the Seeding that Frank had marked and saw two young bucks (the bigger one probably 9 inches) feeding in a dry lake bed maybe 400 yards from the road.
Further south we met two coyote hunters coming back to camp. They were using small (and very quiet) dirt bikes to cover long distances and rough roads. They said they had seen two nice bucks a few miles further south but the road there was a real goat path. They had been seeing the same two animals almost every day and thought they bedded in the seeding above and went to the lake for water. The maps show no springs or even topography that would lead to them so this makes sense.
As it got toward evening the Jackrabbits came out. We must have counted a hundred in just the hour before dark. They seem to frequent the border between the sage and the crested wheat grass in the seeding areas. They must be feeding in the grass at night and taking cover in the sage during the day.
We found a place to camp for the night near a gate with a couple of rock jacks holding up the wire fence. Pulled out cots and sleeping bags and slept out. Great to fall asleep to clear sky and lots of shooting stars.
About midnight Brian woke up to the sound of something scrabbling around the engine compartment of the truck. Looks like we had attracted a packrat that had taken home. He popped the hood and hunted around with a flashlight and the noise stopped. 5 minutes after he got back in the bag it started up again. This went on all night.
July 31 –
Driving back toward the main road we saw the two small bucks from yesterday watching us from 800 yards or so out in the sage. They were not far from where we saw them the night before. According to everything I have been reading, lopes are creatures of habit and don’t move far if not pushed.
Going west we saw 10 lopes in a dry lake bed maybe ¾ mile away. We thought one was a buck but it is hard to tell. One thing I am learning is that when you combine flat(ish) land, long distances, and hot weather, the high powered spotting scopes are not much good – everything is blurred by heat mirage. They saw us though. They got nervous being watched and headed out over a ridge to the west.
Next we checked out one of Frank’s marked waterholes (call this one #2). There was still water in it at the end of July. Brian says these big holes are dozed out and lined with Bentonite clay to prevent the water from seeping away into the ground. The dry part of the lake bed had green forbs and dry Pepperweed that the lopes like to feed on. The waterhole had seen lots of lopes based on the tracks, and wild horses as well. 12 of them were watching us form about 600 yard out, a group led by a big black male. They won’t come to water with us there and eventually headed off to the southeast. This must mean that the “possible” waterhole the map shows in that direction still has water. From the image on Google Earth it looks much like #2 and is to the southwest of Frank’s other marked waterhole (we marked Frank’s second waterhole waypoint #1.0 and the possible #1.1 and #1.2.
#1.0 is our next stop. It is about 1.5 miles from the road and appeared to have water still (though it is hard to tell due to the shallow angle and heat mirage. The terrain hides #1.1 and #1.2 from view. It was starting to get warm so we decided to head down toward the head of the lake and see if the lakeshore road was passable. We got about 4 miles down the road before it got bad. Very deep erosion ruts and patches of soft loose sand. We decided getting stuck was not worth it and we were running short on gas anyway. We headed back to hwy 395 and went south down the lake shore. At the end of the lake in a pivot there were 15 lopes with one nice buck. Heavy horns but one of them was deformed and cocked to the side. I don’t know who owns these farms or where you would ask permission to hunt. There seem to be no farmhouses, just barns and tractor garages.
We drove north to Paisley for gas and Gatorade. Late July here can get seriously warm in the afternoon. Does anybody know what the ODFW was thinking when they set the season at the third week of August? Other states do not do this.
They guy at the gas station said to try up near the “Paisley Airport”. There is BLM land that borders the pivots and the lopes move back and forth. We took a drive out to the border between the BLM and pivots. We saw three bucks in the pivots; two of them looked fair to decent. Whether they go up into the sage on the BLM land I don’t know. We decided to ask at one of the ranch buildings on the land.
The lady at the cafeteria building told us the AG land here is all owned by the XLZ Ranch which is owned by Simplot Corp and their HQ is in Boise. We are free to ask for permission to hunt but we won’t get it. The company gets Landowner Preference tags which they reserve for their executives and executives of companies they do business with. “Figures”. We decided to pass on hunting anywhere near the pivots. The maps are not real precise and I don’t need a trespass issue. Anyhow, hunting in a hay field does not seem near wild and adventurous enough, even for an Average Joe.
On the way back to camp we saw two animals in the far distance north of the dry lake bed we saw the animals at in the morning. Think they were bucks but they were way out there. Also as we approached camp we saw 10 does on the ridge top to the east.
Brian and I took a walk down to the dry waterhole where we saw the two bucks the other night. There are several scrapes and they seem to have been eating the Pepperweed and bunchgrass. In the sand at my feet I noticed a scattering of obsidian flakes. I have done some flint knapping (Brian is really good at it) and the bulbs, waves, and ridges on these flakes are unmistakable – 500 or 1000 or 5000 years ago another hunter stopped here to make a stone knife to dress his kill or maybe replace a broken arrowhead and then continued on with his hunt. “Very cool.”
We found a place to park away from any rimrock or rockjacks (which we suspect are packrat havens) and got out the cots and bags for the night. The place we picked has a distant view down to waterhole #1.0.
August 1 –
Brian and I took a walk cross country to a distant ridge that we hoped would give us a view from above down to waterholes 1.1 and 1.2. 1.1 looked to be dry but still a lot of green vegetation so it has not been dry long. 1.2 still had water (at least we think so) and we saw 5 animals watering there but could not see much detail due to distance and heat mirage. Hiking back to the truck we saw 8 lopes had come in to water at 1.0
We think we have a game plan now. We will come back the Friday before the opener and walk in to 1.0 and 1.2 and locate good hides. Before dawn on opening day we will walk in and set up. It is getting warm now and Brian and Dad have a long drive home so we headed out.
On the way out we met another truck out scouting Antelope. This guy turns out to be a guide named Brian Dewey. He told us our plan seemed to be a sound one. He had a blind set up on another waterhole about 5 miles to the east and planned to be on it with a client opening day. He said after the opener the lope bands will be pushed and move about and may be hard to approach, but will still need to go to water. After being pushed some, they will settle into their old routines in a few days. With fewer than 40 tags for the whole 1200 square mile unit they will not be pushed too hard. He said the mature animals this year seemed to be running 13 to 14 inches with only fair mass.
Final Preparations
In they next two weeks I updated my paper maps and went over the area in Google Earth looking for water holes that were of the size and shape of the ones that we had found still held water. Found one additional one near the core area we planned to hunt and several others between 5 and 10 miles away. These would be backup if we did not see good bucks in the core area.
Also made a final trip to Douglas Ridge rifle range and verified the ballistic hash marks on my scope are correct. 200 yards is dead on, 300 is the first mark and 400 are the second. Everything looks good.August 13 – Day before opener
We then walked in to waterhole 1.0. Tracks showed heavy use. Lopes approach this hole from all directions based on the trails. Wind is from the southwest, which is typical, so we located a spot about 175 yards east of the water that had a good shot position and marked it on the GPS.
Headed for waterhole 1.1 next! We came in sight of it over a gentle rise in the prairie and Brian spotted a lope there. We got low and crawled in another 50 yards or so to take a look as it was a buck and he had not seen us. We got to within maybe 250 yards, close enough to get a good look. Nice buck. Not a lot of height, but very heavy horns. We backed out without ever getting close enough to see whether there was water.
Next we headed for 1.2 since we had seen animals there while scouting but never got in to take a close look. There is a shallow swale leading down to 1.2 from the west and we tried to keep low and approach from the nearby sage to break up our outlines in case there were lopes there. We see a herd coming west up the swale. I think they winded us but are not really panicked and did not see us. There are about 15 does and one buck. The buck is a lot like the lone animal we saw on 1.1, but maybe not as heavy.
We waited till the herd moved off and was well out of sight over the next ridge and walked down to 1.2. It is smaller than 1.0 but well used and has lots of tracks. Approach is limited to the east and west as it is walled by steep rocky slopes on the north and south. We find what looks like a good hide in the rimrock to the north and mark it on GPS.
We circled wide to the east of 1.0 so as not to spook the herd from 1.2 if they had gone there. Brian spotted 5 lopes to the east of us in some sage pockets among the wheat grass. Too far to see if any are bucks. Also saw a coyote headed for 1.0. He crossed in front of us at 100 yards. We got back to the truck 30 minutes before sunset.
Plan is to be hidden on 1.0 before daylight. If nothing comes in, we will wait till about 11:00 and try and sneak in on 1.2 and see if there are animals bedded there. Dad is going to drive to a high vantage point nearby and watch through the spotting scope. We have a two way radio (which we set to vibrate on call) so if he sees anything coming he can give us a heads up.
August 14 –
Ranges to various spots near the water are from 150 to 350 with the water’s edge being about 200. I saw something moving at the water’s edge as the light improved and dialed my scope down to 5X to get a look (can’t see much at 16X in very low light). It was a flock of mallards. There is no water plants in the waterhole for them to eat so they must have been traveling between Albert Lake and Summer Lake when night fell and got caught here. They headed out when the light gets good enough.
Dad called at 9:45 on the radio to tell us a herd is headed in from the east. Unfortunately, the wind was then blowing from north to south. At 10:00 they came in but winded us as they passed on the trail to the south. There were about 15 does and one decent buck. The does took off to the south, not panicked, but they didn’t want to stay there. Except for two does who headed down toward the water. The buck did not want to let his harem break up and followed the two does trying to turn them back with the rest of the herd. They were not coming in on any of the main trails now and getting a clear shot at them from prone in the sage was a problem. They stopped briefly on the flats south and west of the waterhole. Based on the ranges I took earlier, this should be about 300 yards. I sighted on the 300 yard mark on the ballistic hash marks on the scope and fired.
All three animals took off after the main group of does in the general direction of 1.2. They were going too fast to get a second shot off. The buck did not look to have been touched and we watched them run about half a mile till they got over a rise. I don’t get it. I know I was dead on and steady when the shot touched off.
I walked down to where he was standing when I fired to look for blood or hair with Brian directing me in. Nothing! I can’t see how I could have missed. Going in to 1.2 didn’t make much sense any more. If the herd was there, we didn’t want to push them and our odds of getting a good sneak on spooked animals was low. We headed back for the truck, after marking on the GPS a spot on the OTHER side of the waterhole in case the wind direction stayed like this and we wanted to hunt this hole another day.
Back at the truck we decided to take a drive to check out another waterhole to the west. It had a fair number of tracks, some of which looked fresh, but is pretty close to the road. This would not be my first choice, but might be worth setting up on later in the week. We saw a lone buck on a knob to the north about a mile out. He did not look very big, but hard to tell at this range. He saw us so a sneak was probably not going to work. It was getting really warm by then, probably 95+ and not a cloud in the sky.
On the way back to camp I called a stop to check zero on my rifle. I couldn’t get over the miss earlier and wondered if the bouncing over bad roads in the back of the truck on the way here knocked the scope off zero. When I set up to take a sighting shot the reason for the miss was obvious – I still had the scope dialed to 5X. The ballistic hash marks are calibrated for full magnification of 16X. At 5X the 300 yard hash mark is more like a 900 yard holdover. I had sent that round sailing two feet over his back.
On the one hand, I’m kicking myself for making such a dumb mistake. On the other hand, it is a relief to know for sure that the shot was a clean miss and not a wound. Still, I can’t recall every reading of a bonehead move like that in any of the hunting magazines; Alpha predators just don’t screw up like that.
On the way back to camp Brian and I took a hike out on a ridgeline hoping to get a look down on 1.2. We got a good view from about a mile and a half out and there were lopes feeing nearby, at least 5 of them.
The heat was just brutal by 4:00. We try glassing the benches above Lake Albert in the evening but nothing seems to want to move in this heat. We decided to set up on 1.2 in the morning.
Back at camp, it cooled off quickly and I got a good night’s sleep. Dad did not. He heard a packrat in the cooking boxes and was in and out of bed all night trying to chase it off.
August 15 –
About dawn, a family of coyotes came in – a mated pair and 3 pups. The wind was dead calm and the rimrock to the north and south sort of captured and magnified the sounds. I could hear the coyotes lapping up the water from 175 yards out. Very cool. We watched them through binoculars for 30 minutes or so. I was sorely tempted when the two adult coyotes line up at the water’s edge, giving me a potential two for one shot, but stayed focused on lopes. There was a little stilt legged wading bird foraging around in the water, but the coyotes left it alone. Brian and I were bracketed by sage, wearing face mesh, and covered up with Camo burlap. We were so hard to spot that birds foraging in the sage often landed on us.
About 8:00 a pair of does came from down the draw to the east of us headed toward the water. Timing was lousy as I was up getting a bottle of sunscreen out of my daypack. The guys in Eastman’s Hunting Journal never have that happen to them. The does spooked and headed back up the draw but didn’t seem to alarmed, I don’t think they knew exactly what they saw.
At 9:00 a group of does came in to water, down the same draw the other two used earlier. 10 of them drank, browsed a little on the Pepperweed and green forbs in the lake bed and started to head out. Suddenly the lead doe got all tense and moved out in front of the herd. One of the coyotes was trying to pull a sneak on them and was hiding in the sage near the mouth of the draw. The lead doe stamped her hooves and the coyote tried to circle around and get a run at a fawn in the back of the herd. The lead doe ran back toward the waterhole and the whole herd moved with her making a big noise of pounding hooves and kicking up dust. The coyote was right behind them. At the lake bed the whole herd stopped and pivoted as one to face the coyote and they all started stamping their hooves just daring him to try it. The coyote ran off up the draw. That was one of the coolest things I have ever seen.
Apparently the lead doe was not convinced the coyote has given up. The herd grazed around the waterhole and bedded down in the dry lake bed. We watched them though binoculars for the next hour.
About 10:30 the bedded lopes started to get nervous. I wondered if the coyotes were back, but it looks like a family of wild horses was coming in to water from the east. The lopes spooked and went running west up the swale toward 1.1
The mare came in first followed by her colt and a stallion and they all tanked up at the waterhole. The horses waded out in the water to drink, where the lopes had stood on the bank. The coyotes came back and tried to pull a sneak on the colt. The mare took major offense at this and chased one of the coyotes through the sage around the waterhole while the colt stuck close to dad. They drank again, browsed a bit, and headed back out the way the came in.
The coyotes decided that this is about all the action they are going to see at this waterhole today and headed out due south. This was going to take them straight at us. We held still and they got within 10 yards of Brian before they spotted him.
By then the clouds had burned off and it was starting to warm up. We headed back to the truck. We did not see any bucks come to water, but I would not have traded the circus we got to watch at the waterhole for a big set of horns. That was just too much fun.
Back at camp we discovered we were just about out of ice and the packrat had gotten into the cook boxes while we were gone. He opened a box off granola bars, took a few bites from each bar, and stole the wrappers from all of them. Dad was taking this personal now. We headed in to Paisley to get gas, Gatorade, Ice, and rat traps. On the way in we saw a big herd of lopes in the pivots where they know you can’t touch them. We made our supply run, had lunch at the café, and headed back toward camp.
On the way back to camp we passed a shallow canyon where there is a waterhole about ¾ mile from the road. This is one of the waterholes Frank liked (#2). Brian spotted lopes grazing the edges of the lake bed. They saw us too. Didn’t’ see any bucks in the group, but we might not have seen all of the animals that were there. Couldn’t tell how many as the knob that overlooks the waterhole might have been blocking some of them from view. They were getting very nervous about us watching them. Brian thought we could make a sneak on them.
Dad drove on, and when we were hidden from the waterhole by a slight rise in the land where the road went into a shallow cut, Brian and I bailed out and Dad continued driving. He drove on and over the hill and we were pretty sure the lopes watched him go. It was about 3:00 by then and 85 degrees or so. Not miserable hot, but no cloud cover. Wind was quartering from us past the waterhole, but frequently swirled and changed direction. Our plan was to sneak out to where we could come up the back side of the knob and peak down on the lake bed and waterhole and hopefully get a shot at any decent buck that happened to be in the group.
Unfortunately we had a half mile of sage flats to cross to get behind the knob. Nothing for it but to crawl on hands and knees through the sage. If we stood up we’d be visible to the herd. The sand had been in the sun all day and was seriously HOT. We crawled fast over the sandy spots and stopped on the occasional patch of dry grass to prevent burns on our knees. Our hands were getting scorched too so we grabbed handfuls of rabbit brush and grass to protect them from the heat. The knee pads and gloves were in the truck. This stuff never happens to the Eastman’s Hunting Journal guys.
As we reached the back side of the knob we saw a cloud of dust rise from the area of the waterhole on the other side. The wind had been swirling and shifting so we figured we were busted. Not sure though, so we started crawling up the backside of the knob. As we reached the top, we saw a herd of wild horses heading out toward the east, which must have been what raised the dust. We backed down from the top and headed slowly through the tall sage around the north shoulder of the knob. The lopes were still there.
We stayed low and glassed from the sage. There looked to be a single buck in the group, with about 15 does. Horns were not real tall but looked like they had some mass. This was definitely a mature animal, but I didn’t have a shot from that position, the sage was too high for the bipod (25″ fully extended) to give me a clean shot over the brush and the distance to too far for an offhand or kneeling shot. I’m just not that good at distance shots without a solid rest.
I scooted forward through the sage on my behind looking for a position where I had clearance over the sage and a solid place to anchor the bi-pod legs. The herd was grazing the dry lake bottom and the edges of the sage. The truck had left an hour and a half ago and they had forgotten all about it and seemed to have no idea we were there. Finally I had a solid rest (not a prone shot which I would have liked but a decent sitting position) with a couple inches clearance over the sage. I estimated the distance is close to 300 yards. The range finder, naturally, was in the daypack back in the truck, along with our canteens. The Eastman’s Hunting Journal guys don’t get excited and forget critical equipment, but Average Joes do.
By now though, the buck had bedded down. He was facing us, with a doe bedded crosswise about 10 feet in front of him. No shot. We settled down to wait.
We watched the herd browse and walk about for half an hour and finally the buck got up. He grazed toward the sage line and I finally had a shot broadside and clear of the does. I jerked the shot. I knew what I did as soon as the trigger broke. When I miss big, this is always the reason and the bullet always goes way low. Brian had been watching through his binoculars and whispered that I hit the dirt in front of him. The lopes were just standing there looking around, and it dawned on me that down in this bowl the sound of the shot probably seems to come from everywhere and they still had not seen us hidden in the sage and wearing Camo.
I jacked another round in and settled in for another shot, holding on the 300 yard hash mark and being careful to get a slow squeeze of the trigger. I lost the sight picture at the shot but Brian whispered that he was down. I chambered another round and got the crosshairs back on him anyway. After about 5 seconds he got up, but stumbled around looking dazed. One more shot put him down for good. It was 5:00.
When we were convinced he was really down, we headed down out of the sage on the knob. The does finally saw us and bolt off to the east. This was a nice buck, not a record book or even close, but a mature animal with good mass and cutters. Both hits were high. The shot distance was more like 225 than 300. Note: Lopes are small; they are usually closer than they look. We called Dad on the radio and he headed back in the truck.
We took lots of pictures, did the gutting, and washed up at the water hole. Once we got the lope to the road and into the truck we stuffed the body cavity with ice (which we just picked up in town) to cool the meat and head back to camp. By the time the sun went down we had the quarters and blackstrap in game bags and in the cooler.
The hunt was not quite over though. Dad wrapped a dab of cream cheese in a piece of tin foil and set his rat trap. About 1:00AM the packrat got what he deserved.
In the morning we got camp broken down in a couple of hours and head out, still early. On Red House Road there were a couple of ODFW guys who checked my tag and taped the horns. 13-1/2, with 4″ cutters. One of the better ones they had seen that season.
So, summary: The hunt ended with a long and difficult stalk under nasty conditions and ending in a difficult (for me anyway) shot. If I left out the blown shot at waterhole 1.0, getting busted by the two does, leaving critical gear in the truck, and of course the packrat, you could almost put this in one of those magazines. I guess there are adventures out there for all us Average Joes after all.
