Prolog:
As promised, Frank…here’s the story. The big buck we missed was in the same basin you and I each had a waypoint in. The one we ended up taking was about a mile from one of your other waypoints, and way further off the road. I had some waypoints scattered around the area, too.
You never quite know what the landscape really is until you’re there and put your own eyes on it.
I appreciate your help and affirmation on some of the spots. I kind of wish we’d had time to explore all of them…but we weren’t going to leave bucks to find bucks, everything in this story was within about 3-4 mile stretch. We didn’t stray too far out of it except when weather was too bad to drive the dirt. Had we needed more than a day and half, I’m sure we would have extended out further.
Story:
June 10th I was going through my normal routine early in the morning, scrolling through FB as I sat on the throne. I saw a friend had posted they had drawn a coveted elk tag and realized results were up! I immediately opened my ODFW account to see if I had drawn my 600 series tag, not even considering I would draw my Steens antelope tag with only 11 points. There it was, “Successful” for antlerless deer. Wait, what? Successful for Steens antelope? I had to do a double take, close out and sign back in to make sure it wasn’t a mistake. Well shoot, I wasn’t planning for that. But I immediately knew I was taking my 13 year old, Lucas, to fill this tag. He has busted his rear end since he was 8 hunting with me, trying to get him to shoot a deer since he was 9 with no luck. Within a week I had reserved a camp site and was knee deep into E-scouting on OnX. Within a month my map looked like a Christmas tree with waypoints. I reached out to some people I know more familiar with the area than me, even though I had been there before. I had the tag previously in 2011 and my dad had the tag in 2010. So I had a general knowledge and knew where I wanted to focus. One I reached out to was a fellow by the name of Frank with Bwana Bubba Adventures who runs the Oregon Pronghorn – Antelope Hunters FB page. He was always posting about offering info and waypoints so i reached out to him through email. He provided a few areas I had not looked into, but more importantly further confirmed some of the areas I had already focused on, one of which ended up being spot on. Calls to the local bio reaffirmed some of my waypoints.
There was only so much more I could do with no time to take a scouting trip before season, so I spent the following weeks dreaming and talking with Lucas about what to expect, looking at pictures for visual aids, where to aim, etc. Talking over plans and areas with my BIL and my wife’s cousin who had wanted to tag along and camp up on the mountain to scout and glass for us. This would end up being a game changer having them along. With rifles zeroed 2 weeks before season, it was almost time to head over and have a day of scouting before opening day. As the trip loomed closer, my wife decided to extend a stay with her sister and the kids at Sunriver another day, meaning Lucas would come home Wednesday and we’d turn around and drive 6.5 hours to camp the following morning. Being the kind to jump at an opportunity for more time in the field, I changed our camp plans to start on Wednesday so we’d have a full 2 + days of scouting. You know, to save the kid a few hours of driving time.
Wednesday morning rolled around and I hit the road to meet the family in LaPine and get over to camp. That evening we took a drive up the mountain to enjoy the views with the plan to hit the scouting hard in the morning. With the glassers planned to arrive Friday morning, my goal Thursday was to find a camp up on the mountain for them to get to that would allow them short access on their E-bikes to glass and scout nearby in the areas I had wanted to hunt. On the way up to find a camp we pulled off to the side to get out and glass a large basin. A short hike to a vantage point and soon had a group of antelope in my binos. They looked to be 1500 yards or more away, but could clearly see a buck with the group. From that distance, I thought this may be a good one. I quickly got back to the truck to get the spotting scope, returned to Lucas and got it set up. As soon as I found them I knew this buck was as good as we would possibly find. I told Lucas to take a look so I could sit back and watch his reaction. It was nothing short of spectacular to see his face when he looked back at me. Opening day goal was set. We would end up checking back on this basin twice the next day confirming he was still in the area and undisturbed. This area happened to be one I had marked on OnX and was very near a waypoint Frank had sent me for affirmation.
The rest of Thursday was spent glassing other areas and driving quite a bit, only to see one small buck. Friday morning came around and we were up early again to recheck the buck. A quick hike and glass confirmed they were still there, so we were off to meet the others and guide them to their camp site. A slow drive with a camper on the truck, we got them all settled in and hung out for a bit talking about the upcoming hunt. They took a ride up the road a ways to do a quick glass and get a lay of the land. They came back with no news, not a big deal. Evening came around and we were headed back to our camp with one last stop to look again. Still there. We got back to camp to get an early sleep, 3:30 was going to show up quick with the anticipation of opening morning.
Opening morning and we were on the road from camp by 4:15. I’ve been surprised too many times by unexpected hunters beating me to my spot. We made it to our planned parking spot and waited a few minutes to get a little closer to sunup. We couldn’t see anything anyways, I wanted to at least have some visibility as we hiked in so I could see if we busted them out. We waited on a small ridge as the landscape began to lighten up. We spent the first 20 minutes of daylight glassing everything we could see and couldn’t turn up any antelope. Shoot, maybe somebody stopped in after us Friday night and busted them out. There was still a lot of ground we couldn’t see behind the contours of the basin, we just needed to get up on the plateau and start our progression around the rim with a higher vantage point. As we crested the first ridge I was stopping every couple of steps to glass through the sage brush in front of me to the basin below. Third stop to glass and there they were, tucked back into an arm of the basin, about 600 yards, staring right at me. Dangit, they were a lot closer than the night before in a totally different area. We slowly got down on the ground and took packs off to come up with a plan. We were clearly spotted, but they didn’t seem to concerned with us. Up on my knees to look again and evaluate, some were still looking right at me while others had started walking to the left. The rocky ground wasn’t going to work for belly crawling, we only made it about 10′ before we had to get up. Glass again, still there, still looking our way. I decide to get the big red cow off my pack, it had worked before in a much wider open area than this. We made it about 20′ with the cow when we got to the next spot to see them and they were trotting up the hill away from us. Well, that didn’t work. We kneel down and watch as the crest the ridge and stop. Some are looking back at us, some are looking over the ridge. I just want to see what their next move is so I can decide our next play. Soon they all turn to look away from us so we take advantage of the moment to get out of sight, get our packs back on and decide what to do next. After regrouping we get uphill a short distance to get glass on them again. We got up just in time to see them going out of site to the right along the top of the basin. We have 3 options at this point, discussing as we watch to make sure they don’t get out into the basin below us. We can get to the bottom and hope they went back down over the next ridge. We can cut straight across this bottom of this arm of the basin and come up right behind where they disappeared. Or we can continue working our way up onto the plateau and hope to meet up with out in the open. We decide to go the high route as it would give us the greater view and we could already see most of the basin from our current location and they weren’t out there. If we got high, we could come back down to the basin from out of site and hopefully get above them. If they were still out, we would be able to spot them from a long distance and come with a plan from there. In hindsight, we probably should have taken that plan of attack as soon as we saw them. Live and learn, I guess. They weren’t in a hurry, so maybe they’re just over the next ridge.
We back out the way we came, get out of site of the basin and begin working our way up to the top. As we approach the crest of the first ridge and turn to start moving along the top a coyote runs right in front of us at about 30 yards. As we watch him bounce away through the sage in the direction we were aiming for, we smile at each other as we see only his head “boing-boing-boing” disappear over the hill. I’m hoping he doesn’t spook the antelope we are supposedly headed for, but thankful Lucas got to see a coyote up so close to us. We take 3 steps and hear “PPPHHHHFFFFFF” behind and to our left. I turn to see the buck standing at 7 o’clock, guessing 250 yards from us. What the…how the heck did he get behind us? Suddenly it’s a rush to get set up: tripod deployed, can’t kneel down he’d be out of view…can’t get the rifle set properly, need to take the backpack off…backpack off…there he goes running…disappears over the ridge…turn right, get reset, he’s going to come up in front of that knob…there he is….300 yards, aim upper third of body, right behind the shoulder…breath, don’t squeeze until you’re holding steady…whenever you’re ready and feel steady, don’t rush…BANG!…right over his back, dust flies just behind him…takes off running quartering away…reload, adjust your angle….buck stops, turns quartering away….aim straight on, you went right over him on the last one…BANG!…shot in front…takes off running right, same distance….reload, reset, wait for him to stop….stops, stays broadside this time….aim straight on, right where the brown meets the white…BANG!…shot is in front of him again. Buck take off quartering away again. He stops again at I’m guessing is no less than 400 yards. I tell Lucas no shot, we’re too far. Just watch him and let’s see where he goes. After a few seconds he takes off on a trot to our right toward the basin and out of site as he moves behind the next hump of the ridge.
Whew! That was some excitement! I talk him down from the excitement. I can tell he’s upset, but he’s not broken. That’s a lot to ask of a kid who has never had the crosshairs on a big game animal to suddenly go from 0 to 60 unexpectedly. Not a big deal, bud. We all miss, and a clean miss is better than a bad hit. I could tell after the first shot he was no longer steady, the misses were getting further away. We needed to regroup and catch our breath and see if we could catch up to him again. We were already heading that direction, I’m hoping he dropped down into the basin again and we’d be able to find him and just take our time and see if we can put another plan together. A mile and a half later we’ve looked over every inch of the basin and out over the plateau and neither the buck or his does are anywhere in site. Dang. Everything worked out but the shot, and I should have just told him to aim center elevation. Hopefully that isn’t the last opportunity we get at a buck. We hike our way back to the truck still constantly glassing everything we can see. By now it’s almost 2 miles back, so we have time to talk and discuss what we can do better, and just relive the excitement. We get back to the truck and head to the glasser’s camp to see if they’ve spotted anything. They arrive on their bikes shortly after we got there. They could see for miles in all directions and did not see a single antelope. Boy, at this point I’m wondering how many chances we’ll get. That group was really the only animals we had seen since Wednesday with the exception of the lone little buck Thursday afternoon. We eat lunch and rest for a bit since we had been up since 3:30 am. We decide to leave these guys and head back to our camp to rest some more and figure what our next venture will be. We make a run out to a higher vantage point to glass again where the morning festivities took place and still cannot find them anywhere, now with even more visibility. Glassers promise they’ll get down there that evening if we don’t come back and see if they can spot him up. Back to camp we go. Forecast calls for a thunder storm very soon…this could get interesting.
Saturday afternoon, the weather forecast is no lie. As dime and nickel size hail is pounding our trailer, I watch the runoff flooding the campground through the window. I fear this hail is going to crack the vents, it sounds like somebody throwing handfuls of gravel at us. Sunday is looking to be more of the same and even worse on Monday. We discuss our expectations and goals and agree that as much as we want that big buck, or another of similar stature, we need to think about taking the next shot we get no matter the size because there’s no telling how much we’ll be able to hunt with this incoming weather. We decide that we’ll keep looking for a big buck through the evening and starting Sunday morning we’re going to open up our expectations. We spend the evening on the maintained gravel roads, knowing I don’t want anything to do with the “dirt” roads after a rain like that. I get a text that the glassers have spotted a group about a mile away, tough stalk, but doable. Looks to be a decent buck in the group, maybe a second smaller buck. Not wanting to chance the road to get to them, we decide to play it safe that evening. First thing in the morning we’ll hike in to glass the big buck basin and if we can’t find him we’ll head to their camp and hike in to see if we spot their group from the night before. Just before dark they follow through with their promise and confirm that basin is clear of any antelope. Try to sleep and hit the ground running on Sunday as discussed.
Sunday morning comes later than expected. I set my alarm for 4:00…weekdays. Somehow I still awoke by 4:30, but we’re on the road a bit later than we wanted. It’s already getting light as we pull into our parking spot and make the walk to high ground to glass the basin. 20 minutes of full visibility and glassing every inch of the basin and plateau above we confirm that they still have not returned. Disappointed but far from discouraged we hike back to the truck and finish the drive to camp. It’s early enough the glassers are still in bed, so we get grab the spotting scope, rifle, and tripod, leaving our packs at the truck, to hike up the hill and see if we can spot the group of antelope from the night before. Less than a minute and we’ve got the spotted. A loooong ways away. We watch them for a few minutes and decide that buck is worth making a move on.
We walk back to camp as the glassers are pouring their coffee and come up with a game plan. We’re going to get higher up our ridge to a little better vantage point and watch a bit longer to see if they move or bed. We all make the trek up and get set up with spotting scope. From this point, we could see the entire canyon and the glassers could watch and guide us as we made our stalk. After about 10 minutes we have determined there are two bucks in the group, one is definitely bigger than other, and that one is our goal. 6 of the 8 antelope have now bedded down. We come up with the best route to get below them and stay concealed as we come up the mountain on the other side. This was key, as we had to drop down a rock ledge in the bottom and come up the rock ledge on the other side. There was really only one way to go that looked like this was even doable without completely skirting the bottom of the entire canyon to get around the rocks. I get my pack on and tell Lucas all he’s carrying is the tripod. I’ve got everything we need and all he needs to worry about is getting the tripod set and making the shot. We drop off the side of the mountain into the canyon and we’re soon out of site of the antelope. Now it’s up to us to stay on route and the glassers to let us know if the antelope get up and move. We were about to make the first stalk of Lucas’ life and the most exciting I’d ever been a part of.
As we descend into the canyon I am checking glassing the antelope every few steps to A) make sure they haven’t busted out yet and B) know when we can pick up the pace. It doesn’t take long until we are out of view. We pause to gain our bearings and I tell Lucas we are out of view we’re going to speed up a bit to get to the bottom and find a crossing. I should have taken a picture of the bottom either on the way there or back. There was no easy crossing. We descended down a rock face, carefully choosing our steps and me waving the tripod in front of the ledges to try and make sure there were no snakes hiding out of view. Cross the creek by rock hopping in the very bottom, and back up the other side. The other side is a lot steeper as we pick out way up the ledge and finally crest the rocks. As we get out of the rim rock we sit down to catch our breath and drink some water, looking up hill to try and find the path we decided on from the top behind us. Everything looks different from the bottom, we already had to cross at a different point than we had anticipated once we finally put eyes on the terrain. As we rest and look around, we can’t see more than 100 yards up hill with the slope of the ridge. We are entirely at the mercy of the spotters behind us, and a fair amount of luck. After maybe 2 minutes of rest I check my phone: They are up and moving to your right…get up the mountain…500 yards away. Dang, let’s go bud, we gotta roll. We cut straight up, no side hilling. As we reach the base of the rim rock we had planned on coming up behind there is an old two-trac, now a cattle trail. I drop my pack there, knowing it will be easy to find when needed and I don’t want the extra bulk and weight going up the rest of this hill. We get under the rim rock and I text “Which way?”…”Keep angling up about 2 o’clock, they’re all up and moving toward your right, they’re heading for that glass strip”…Glass strip? What glass strip? All I see is hill. This was a key point because as far as the spotters could tell we could see everything they were telling me…That was not the case: this hill was much steeper than they could tell from behind us. This will come into play shortly.
We continue on our direction until we cut a cattle trail going up hill and the ridge levels out a little bit. I can now see close to 150 yards up hill and some sparse junipers spread out. We pick a nearby large tree and slowly aim straight at it. Now I’m getting real anxious, expecting to see horns and eyes above the grass above us at anytime staring us down and not ever having a chance at a shot. We make the first tree, check my phone: You’re on the right path…first one is less than 300 yards…they’re going to cross straight in front of you. Uhhh…I can’t see 200 yards so they’re going to cross out of view. We pick another tree and start heading that way, now angling toward them and really taking a gamble. Next tree, check my phone: they’re right up on that flat in front of you, can you see that flat?…Nope, can’t see anything flat…There is a lone juniper on the next ridge in front of you, behind that is a big dead tree with a black trunk, can you make it to that? I see a juniper, I don’t see a big dead tree anywhere. That tells us how much steeper the mountain is than they can tell: a 20′ plus tree is out of our sight and less than 100 yards from us. Lucas picks up the dead top of a tree in that direction, we figure that must be it. We cut toward it and slowly start to see more of that tree and know we’re headed in the right direction. We get to a lone juniper and stop to glass. No animals. I tell Lucas to get the tripod set to his elevation, we can’t kneel or we won’t see them, we have to stand. He gets the tripod set, takes the rifle and gets it set and tucked into his shoulder. I check my phone….They’re less than 100 yards, can you see them?…Nope…They’re going to come over the ridge to your right. We adjust our angle and shift to look to the right where we can actually see quite far. Check my phone…They’re feeding right in front of you, not far. Still can’t see them. I’m now looking through my binoculars even though I can’t see more than 75 yards up the hill. Then I see the first one, only it’s back. Then it sticks it’s head up. Small buck. I whisper to Lucas, turn your body, they’re right in front of us, keep still, keep your head behind the scope, finger off the trigger, just breath.
Now I can hear his broken staggering breathing, I just hope his jelly legs hold strong. He finally whispers “I see him”. Good, stay behind the scope and breath, we’re not shooting that one. Two, three, four, five start appearing through the grass and coming straight at us. All 5 are bucks, all very small. I know there’s a big one with them, we’re just trying to wait him out. At this point they are less than 50 yards and getting closer. I tell Lucas “Second buck from the left, he’s got wide horns, get the crosshairs on him and breath, don’t shoot, just hold on him as long as we can, finger off the trigger”. These bucks are all 6″ at most, but this one is different with horns going straight out to the side. We’re not leaving this stalk empty, if that big buck doesn’t come over the ridge we’re going to take this one. Lucas has worked too darn hard for the last 4 years without killing a deer, at this point getting a buck is the only option.
They continue to feed closer as I keep scanning the ridge hoping that big buck comes into view. I finally make out a 6th animal off the left that just appeared from behind a juniper, head down. I don’t say anything yet, I just watch. The buck picks his head up and I know instantly it’s the one. I whisper to Lucas…All the way to the left by that juniper, it’s the big buck, shift that way and hold where white meets brown…you on him?…yeah…ok, breath, hold, whenever you’re ready squeeze. The buck starts walking toward the others as I’m watching, waiting for the shot. Now I have 2 other bucks in my field of view and this one isn’t stopping. 8′ away from the next buck, 6′, 4’…Bud, if you’re ready you gotta shoot before he catches up to the others…nose is even with the next buck’s tail…
CRACK!!!”…I see the buck fall and leg start kicking in the air…He’s down! Reload and watch him in case he gets back up! Lucas fumbles to reload but gets another round in the chamber, safety on…He’s watching through the scope but he can’t see because the buck’s behind the ridge, I see the leg stop moving. You got him bud! He’s down!…He’s down?!?…Yessir, he’s not going anywhere! Hugs and tears…I’m so proud of you, you did awesome! That’s the big one! We take a knee for a moment to catch our breath, and he checks his heart rate…160 BPM.
Now it’s time to move in. We start straight at him. As we get closer I tell him to move to the left and come up behind just in case he jumps up when we get there. We get closer and I know he’s done, there’s no way he’s getting back up. I stay back a few feet and watch him walk up to his buck with my phone on video to capture it. This has been the greatest stalk I’ve ever been a part of, and one of the greatest moments of my life. I give Lucas a couple of minutes to take it all in and look around the mountain we are on. As he takes the horns in his hands with tears in his eyes and the world’s biggest smile, I can’t be more proud of what he has accomplished and how hard he worked to get this buck. A few posed pictures and taking in the moment and the awe of what we just accomplished and now it’s time to get to work.
I take my time walking him through the dressing process, through every step, and show him what I’m doing, explain why I’m doing it this way, talk about being careful with the knife when you have to reach up into the chest and feel your way around everything and you can’t see anything inside. We get it dressed and dump the blood out. I have him take the rifle and tripod, both of our binoculars and sweatshirts that won’t be needed anymore, and tell him to get to my backpack and I’ll meet him there. I start the drag the 250 yards or so to my pack while the spotters get their gear together and start working their way to meet us. I get back to the pack where we can see the entire path we started from and start contemplating either cutting it in half or cape and quarter. As the rest of the team arrives we decide at this point with 3 adults, let’s cape and quarter and leave anything we don’t need. The guys jumped right in and started helping caping to the head and cutting quarters while Lucas and I stuffed the game bags. We made short work of cleaning and got the packs loaded. BIL took front quarters and backstraps, cousin took both hind quarters, I took the hide and head, Lucas took the rifle and tripod and extra gear. This was the hardest packout I’ve ever done with the terrain we had to cross, and by far the most rewarding. It’s difficult to put into words how something can be both the worst and best trek ever made. But it was. I both hated and loved every step of the way out of there.
I can say with all honesty that had those guys not been there I would most likely not have even attempted the stalk that we did. Pack out aside, there was no way we could have got to the point of having a shot the way we did without having them behind us directing us. Odds are we would have busted them out of there before ever getting a clear view with the terrain. The stalk, the shot, the packout would not have ever been possible without them there for us. And to be able to share that moment with my son and them, to experience the lows of a miss and the highest of highs with a long difficult stalk, I wouldn’t trade it for anything. I still ask Lucas daily if he’s come down yet, and his response is always the same: Not much. The boy is hooked for life, as if he wasn’t already. And now he is more set than ever on getting the black tail buck we chased last year that he’s had nightmares of.
Author: Chris Schnider
Co Author: Lucas Schnider
