Tag Archives: Oregon Hunts Rifle

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2006 Steen’s Unit Antelope – Pronghorn Hunt – Headlee

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 Ryan Heedlee’s 2006 Steen’s Mtn. Antelope buck!

 Ryan was a Fleetwood RV Motorized Rep. that I made friends with at Valley RV Center in McMinnville, OR when I a Sales Associate with at Valley RV.   Ryan had told me that he had drawn a Steen’s Mtn. Antelope tag and didn’t know where to go.   This would be his first time to hunt for an Antelope.   I told him that I had hunted the unit, but I had a buddy that that recently hunted the unit and knew a rancher.  I told Ryan that I would handle it and see if I could get the rancher’s number and location.

I quickly called Steve Tandy who I have known for more than 25 years.  Steve and I had scouted and hunted Lopes with a bow in Gerber a few times.   Steve gave me the ranchers number and I called the rancher.  Hey! I caught him in the ranch house.  He told me he didn’t mind if Ryan and a buddy came down and hunted his ranch near Crane, OR.

I let Ryan know that he would have the privilege to hunt the ranchers place, but he needed to get a couple of cases of pop for the rancher and find a good quality folding knife.  Ryan says “why the knife Frank” , I told him that he would know that answer when he met the rancher.

Ryan and his buddy arrive Friday afternoon down near Crane to scout the area and meet the rancher.  Having arrived that the ranchers home, they were greeted by the rancher.  The rancher was very busy and told the boys to go down the road and look for a circle and they could hunt out there.   Remembering I told Ryan that he would know the answer to why he bought the knife, he quickly said that he had something for him. 

The comment back from the rancher was “let me show you guys where the bucks have been hanging around.”   Morale of the story!  A little thought to the rancher goes a long ways.   A good working knife is always welcomed by a rancher or farmer…

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Frankie’s First Elk – Warnock Ranch – Maupin

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First Elk – Shot at 50 yards from the prone position

In the days when the Warnock’s own a very large partial of land between Bake Oven Rd and Hwy 197 The Dalles-California Hwy, Randy would give access to first time hunters.  I had called Randy Warnock in September and asked him if it would be alright for my son who turned 12 the day of the opening cow elk hunt for the Maupin Hunt Unit to hunt for a cow elk.  Randy Warnock said no problem at all for Frankie to hunt for his first elk. Randy was great host and allowed us to hunt the whole ranch, giving us some of the spots to hunt.  Linda, Frankie and I would camp down at Spring Hollow.  Looking at this country from the road one would never think that any elk would live there or even migrate through. The road isn’t called Bake Oven Road because it’s a nice place to be. Anyway the first day, all we could see were bulls and plenty of them.  Some were as close at 50 yards.  What a sight for Frankie to see and have the opportunity to experience.The next day things came up a bit better as we were venturing down into Deep Creek via Johnson Draw.  All of a sudden I spot about 400 elk up in the Power lines.  How were we going to get close as we had to go down a long road in the open?  I would have to get Frankie close to the elk for him to make a clean kill shot. We had closed the distance to about 300 yards when the gig was up with the elk.  There just were too many eyes covering the canyon with little chance to get closer.  We could only watch as the elk busted out and ran down into the bottom of Deep Creek.  Later in the day we decided to hunt an area called “The Watermelon Patch”, a spot the Randy said would be great for an evening hunt.  “The Watermelon Patch” was down in the bottom of a canyon that Deep  Creek went through on its way to the Deschutes River.  After getting to the bottom and not seeing any elk, I told Linda and Frankie to wait while I ventured up a draw that had the feeling of elk present.  It just looked like there should be elk harboring in this spot with water, cover and feed being plentiful.  Having traveled about 500 yards, I caught sight of about 25 elk with 5 bulls and 20 cows.  I quickly backed out of the area and ran down to Frankie.  I grabbed Frankie and carried him up the draw with his rifle.  We got very close to the elk which was about 50 yards.  We were on a very steep hill side with an uphill shot to a cow elk.  I lay down on the ground and had Frankie take a rest on my side, setup and take a deep breath.  Frankie made a great one shot kill on the cow elk! We were very thankful that I had a Quad and about 1000 yards of aircraft cable.

The following year Frankie, Becky and his mom had tags again for the same area and they harvested 2 elk on that trip in a blizzard.  Linda’s comment was “stop shooting it looks like a massacre.”  Two elk was enough elk to kill on this trip and then have to quarter them and pack out in the blizzard with everyone having a cold.

P.S. “The Watermelon Patch” got its name from the Warnock’s planting Watermelons there!

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Dad will get it out of here, no worry!

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1998 Grizzly Unit Oregon Elk Hunt – Henninger Bros.

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The Henninger Group 1998 – Hunting the Oregon Wild West

It is Brian Henninger and John Henninger’s first hunt for elk at Earl Smith Ranch.  I had been able to line up Brian Henninger to hunt Earl’s place after I mentioned that Brian was a PGA Tour Pro and that he was very trustworthy and spent a lot of time on a ranch growing up.  Earl and his wife Ann when they had time would play golf in the old days.   Earl has since past away and Ann has move into a Central Oregon town next to a golf course.  

Getting on with the hunt that Brian and John had going on at Earl’s Place.  Most of this has been relayed to me from Brian of course as I was working the high ground in the unit north of the ranch.  I was able to view much of the ground that the two of them hunted. Knowing exactly where Brian and John were hunting made it easy for me to understand the story.  They had been hunting the most Northern part of the Grizzly Hunt Unit, near Hastings and Maupin Butte.   It’s fairly easy to get into the part of the ranch.   On any given day there could be 200 plus elk utilizing the rim rock top of Maupin Butte.   Earl really never liked elk being a cattle & wheat rancher.  If he had his way all elk would be gone from his ranch.  He just hated to feed them all the time on his dime.

Prior to harvesting the two dandy bulls, I remember a story about how the hunt had gone the day before with hunting Earl’s Place.   Brian and John could see a large herd making their way to the fence line, surely going to go over or through the fence.   There were many branch bulls in the herd.  The herd was moving from the Washington Family Ranch which Young Life ran.   Young Life allowed hunting to perspective hunters that would donate money to them. 

The following is my observation of the happenings.  As the herd was moving to the fence to my surprise wranglers on horse pack were in pursuit of the herd.   They were able to turn the herd back before going over the fence.  A couple of bulls escaped the pursuit by the Ranch Patrol.

Later the next day Brian Henninger and John Henninger spotted about 5 bulls near Maupin Butte.   Brian and John could see a real dandy in the group leading the herd.
Brian had the first shot and would catch the bull coming out of the Junipers.  Little did he know that the biggest bull pulled up and the 5X5 moved up front?   Brian got the 5X5 and John got the big 6X6 bull.  About two years later Brian Henninger was able to get the monster bull and John Henninger would take a smaller bull.

I did have a little fun with this picture and had to put it back in history.   Hunting Earl’s was like hunting the old west.  The fences seem to be a hundred years old!

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Brian Henninger – 300 Weatherby MK V

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John Henninger – 300 Weatherby MKV

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2007 Silvies Unit Antelope – Brian Henninger PGA Tour Pro

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 Hunter Henninger with Dad’s Silvies – Antelope

Hunter Henninger already accomplished hunter:  http://www.tylerpaper.com/article/20080203/SPORTS02/154881907/-1/SPORTS02

I do believe that this was the first Big Game Hunt for Brian Henninger with his son aboard in Oregon.   What a hunt for Hunter Henninger to go on, but an Antelope hunt with his dad.   He would have the chance to see game and of course watch his dad harvest a nice Pronghorn – Antelope buck.

As with the two Frank’s in another story, I loaded up a Garmin E-Map GPS for Brian with what I thought were the best waypoints for him to hunt the Silvies Unit.   Brian had waited some 12 years with his collective gathering of preference points to materialize into a Antelope hunt.   This was Brian’s first Antelope hunt in Oregon.

Once hooked on Antelope hunting one wants to hunt them forever.  Only problem it does take a long time to get a tag in Oregon.  You have a great chance in Oregon to take a Boone & Crockett Pronghorn.   You just have to wait it out and not get anxious! 

I do remember Brian’s comment to me after he harvest his dandy buck and got it pack-out to the truck.   “Frank after I left and went down the road about a 1/4 mile, I saw the biggest buck ever standing by a fence line.”   This is the typical case when it comes to Antelope hunting, especially in Oregon.  It has happen to me a number of times while archery hunting for Pronghorns.

 Hunter assisted his dad with the GPS and was an expert in a very short while, giving directions to dad in the field.  I also understand that Hunter Henninger could spot the Antelope better than dad in the field.   Kids are always quick when it comes to spotting animals once they have been trained to spot for something out of the ordinary.

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Brian Henninger with his 07 Silvies Antelope & 300 Weatherby

Check out Brian’s Children’s Foundation:

 http://www.brianhenninger.com/

http://www.brianhenninger.com/index.php

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2001 Silvies Unit – Antelope Hunt – Phillips

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 Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. with their Silvies Antelope

Early on I had told my old running partners, Frank Sr. and Frank Jr. that they needed to put in for the Silvies Pronghorn – Antelope tag.   Low and behold one of the Frank’s drew the tag for second season.  At that time I was working for a Sporting Goods Company in Portland, OR as the Operations Officer and was able to get a loaner Garmin GPS the     “E- Map” for them to use.

I had taken the time to put in GPS coordinates that would enable them to find the truely big Pronghorn – Antelopes that occupied the area. “Frankie if you take the time and not shoot the first nice buck you see, you can get a real wall hanger buck.”

I suppose I should explain the GPS coordinates and how I came about with them!  I have spent a great deal of time in the Silvies Unit and neibhoring units on weekend scouting trips.   I also had the privelege to know many of the ranchers in the area from spending so much time in the area.   Ranchers do like to talk about the land and will give vital information on the whereabouts of game and game that they might have taken off the land.   I have made a habit of collecting the information.   When I was with Fisherman’s Marine and Outdoors I was able to become an expert with GPS’s and gave a couple of classes.   I would never leave home without a GPS!

I did not receive any calls during the hunt and I wondered how the boys did on the hunt.
I had to meet the two Franks at their store for a run and see the results.  As can see the pictures tell the story.  Not the whole story mind you, but the end results.  Frank Sr.’s comment to me was  “Bubba you were right on with the waypoints, we saw more than 14 big bucks and tried to kill them all.”  Ok!  They did miss a couple of them at long range, but when it counted they netted the one that counts.  This buck was running with about 60 does and a couple of smaller bucks.

Having the right knowledge about a spot that you have never hunted can make the hunt successful.  In the past 8 years, I have dial too many to count on the use of GPS and waypoints for hunting spots.  Pronghorn – Antelope have been the most successful for me.  Most have not hunted for them and know that they need to find out about them in a quick manner.  That is a service that I can offer for a reasonable fee.
The Garmin GPS systems have been a great too work with and I have never had a failure in the field with a Garmin product.

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Frank’s Son-in-Law!   He is 6′ 6″! Check out the Horns!

Bwana Bubba

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White Knuckle Road Mule Deer – Oregon

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 257 Weatherby 120 gr. Gameking – 50 foot shot!

This was a great hunt with some fond memories, one coming from my taxidermist.  His comment came as surprise to me “bubba, couldn’t you guys find the big buck!”

I remember my first kill with my 257 Weatherby MK V Left-Handed custom rifle and what happened to the rifle after the first kill.   I had been up at Wild Bill Campbell’s place on East Birch Creek Rd, outside of Pilot Rock, OR. I had just killed a big Black Bear down in California Gulch up off of Pearson Creek.   We had gotten the bear back to the cabin and Bill had asked to see my new fancy Weatherby.   He took out a pocket knife and turned the rifle upside down and said to me “bubba, this rifle will have a lot of kills and I need to mark it for you.”   About that time Wild Bill notched the butt stock pad of the rifle.   I know sometime later that I had more than 30 notches in the butt stock pad of that rifle. So with fond memories and trying follow Wild Bill’s first notch, I took this nice buck with the 257 Weatherby.   I shot the buck so close, that I took off a dead run and did not notice the half down barbwire fence of yester year about 50 feet in front of me.   I and the Weatherby ran into the fence and had a nice landing; I also ruined a great pair of worn Levis.

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Oregon Texas Dall Ram – Ashwood, OR

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Taken at 200 yards – Post Hollow – 257 Weatherby 

I remember Dynamo’s comment to me “Bubba, I think you could have shot a bigger ram, like the one I got”  Little did Dynamo realize that the Texas Dall (Corsican) Ram that I shot at 200 yards cross canyon would have a net score 105 (Gold Medal) would be the largest free ranging Texas Dall Ram ever shot in Oregon.  Al and I had glass a herd of rams and eves for about an hour as they maneuvered their way to us.  I had lots of time to decide on the type and size or ram that I wanted to shoot.

It had a been a virgin trip into Little Trout Creek, near Ashwood, OR.  We had gotten permission to hunt the Darrel Friend Ranch.  The sheep had a range of about 20 miles that they would move within from ranch to ranch and BLM.   During a spring run-off I watch sheep jump and swim across a river.  We had been the first persons other than family that got the opportunity to hunt this ranch.

Again this ban of sheep and other exotics had been turned loose some twenty years before this hunt by “Old Harry”.  He had found ranchers that would be willing to let him turn them loose for future use of paid hunting.  “Old Harry” just got to old to see where his dream went.

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Oregon Aoudad Hunt in Devil’s Canyon “Bwana Bubba”

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“John, this Frank from Portland and I am in the sporting goods business , I understand that you have free ranging Aoudads running around on your place?”  “Yes I do”!  “What can I do for you, I don’t let anyone except family hunt my ranch?”  “Just wondering if you are into horse trading?”  “What do you have to offer?”  “Well I would probably like to know what you would really like to have for the opportunity for me hunt your place for an Aoudad Billie.”  “How about a mastercase of 22LR.” “John, consider it done, anything else you might want!”

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LCDR AL Murray with my Billy shot at 650 yards with 257 Weatherby.

About two weeks later Al an old Navy buddy and myself showed up with a master case of 22 Long Rifle ammo and a Kershaw Knife. “I doubt that you boys are going to find any goats this late in the afternoon, but go ahead and try up in Devil’s Canyon, just follow the dirt road and take left before the creek and it will get you up there.”