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Successful Hunters 2017, Uncategorized

Jay L’s 2017 Oregon Muzzleloader Pronghorn

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2017 Oregon East Beatys Butte Muzzleloader Hunt

First of all I want to say thank you very much for all the help…

Getting it done with the Muzzleloader by Jay Lubbes.

Well I put in for a muzzleloader antelope tag down around Beatys Butte. I knew this hunt would be crazy hard being it was muzzleloader and it’s after rifle season if I even drew it.  

I was at work helping dig and lay storm drain when my foreman got super excited and started yelling that he drew his dream hunt.  Well of course I had to check my draw results. Holy smokes I drew my lope tag. Throughout the day I checked 4 or 5 times and each time the website said I drew it. So that night I started studying google maps and started researching field judging and just all sorts of things. I get a hold of Frank not knowing who he was and I picked his brain. Told him I was buying onX HUNT Oregon and pairing it up with a Garmin 64s.  

Weekend before 4th of July (my anniversary weekend) we make the 9 hour trek to scout around some areas Frank gave me. We see a few goats but they were few and far between. A couple of decent bucks were spotted.

Nice Cover Also!

A month later after studying a ton on onX HUNT I decided to go look at an area that was behind some private property that had a few water holes. I see a ton of Antelope and 3 really good shooters.

I head down the day before season and meet up with a buddy named Jeff. We get camp all setup and we decided to take the Razor out for a cruise to scout.  We see a few antelope nothing to spectacular but I’m in good spirits seeing some.

Next morning we head out before daylight out to where we see some goats the night before.  Right at daylight we decided to give 2 smaller bucks a pass and we kept on heading out. We glass a few decent lopes that may have been shooters but they were so far away and we really didn’t have a good advantage point to get a real good idea if they were shooters or not.

We decided to head back towards where we see the smaller bucks. We look 600 yards in front of us and we see a bunch of Mulie does and one loner Lope together. We see he had good cutters and good mass and it was game on.  We close within 120 or so yards take a look and liked his mass and cutters. Took the shot and down he goes I’m tagged out by 0715.

We take a few pics get him to the Razor and ride 6 or 7 miles back to camp. I get him caped out and put in the coolers. We tear down camp as fast as we can load up the Razor and I get to Sewell’s Taxidermy as fast as I could.  Seeing a ton of Antelope on the way out with a huge smile on my face. I get to Sewell’s and they were very impressed with this buck being my first lope ever and with a muzzleloader at that. Well they tell me that he looks like he might be a book buck. He tapes it for a green score real quick and green he came out 74 inches. 

I would have gone in 100 percent blind if it wasn’t for frank helping me out with some waypoints. Yes I branched out and found my own little honey hole, but I would have went out to a couple of those spots if my morning hunt was a bust. Great guy and very knowledgeable. Thank you again!!!

Successful Hunters 2011

Ray’s 2011 Malheur Antelope Hunt

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Ray's 250 yard running shot 2011 Malheur Pronghorn

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). 

Thanks again Frank (we will be in touch),

Ray Nastasia