First mulie hunt (long and lots of pictures)

[Don Becker]

Well, I thought I might finally get something posted here about my brother Jon’s and my muzzlestuffer deer trip to the Silvies Unit last month. Things have finally calmed-down just a little so, here we go.

This was to be the very first mule deer hunt for either of us and fuel and time from work were too expensive for a scouting trip. We had hunted the area on a doe pronghorn hunt in 2006 and Jon and a former hunting partner had hunted Silvies for elk in years past. So, we felt relatively comfortable with the area we would hunt and camp. Interestingly, though, the particular canyon I was certain would produce our bucks never produced anything at all. Well, there was the one “good” coyote someone else had tipped-over.

During the pronghorn hunt we were restricted to certain parts of the unit and, for this mulie hunt, we had the entire unit. We were hunting only public lands. This information will factor-into part of the story later on.

Late Friday afternoon, we hooked-up the travel trailer and headed for Bend where our cousin and her husband had invited us to stop for a late supper with them. WOW! What a great offer! Great food and a great visit with special people! Thanks again, Melanie and Tom! Then, it was on to Chickahominy Reservoir to set-up a very temporary camp, for the night (yes, in the dark), get some sleep and up and on to hunting at 0-dark-thirty the next morning.

Saturday morning, we saw a few does and yearlings and ended-up back at Chickahominy sometime in the afternoon to pick-up the trailer and move camp up into the national forest. Then, it was off for the evening hunt.

We extended our stay and were actually there for a full week. Hunting was a combination of vehicular spot-n-stalk, glassing and still-hunting. We did a little calling and grunting but no rattlin’ and, the few bucks we did see did not, as best we could tell, look to be in the rut.

Four days into the hunt we had seen 134 does and yearlings, 2 very large (spooked, running and way too far-away) coyotes and one pronghorn that ran full-tilt from the Eastern to the Western horizon, way out in front of us. We never did figure-out what had spooked him/her . . . in fact, s/he was running so fast we never even tried to determine whether it was a buck or a doe; expecting I suppose, that eventually it would stop and let us take a look. Actually, as I think about it now, we did see some deer and some pronghorn in various irrigated fields as we drove from one area to another but we were hunting public land and didn’t count those.

The morning of the fifth day, Jon spotted a truly magnificent buck. We were not in a position to see exactly what was on his head but it was very big and very broad. Jon didn’t have a shot and told me to take him . . . I should have and probably could have. But, here’s where the previous pronghorn hunt and the restricted areas of that hunt come in . . . . this monster buck was outside of the area we had been allowed to hunt during that pronghorn hunt and I also had it (firmly and incorrectly) in my head that this area was private land - - - oh my gosh, what a bonehead mistake. After he took off up the hill and I verified Jon was completely correct and after kicking myself around some, we began tracking him . . . . ‘tough, high hill! I’ll talk a little about the conditions later but, we eventually could no longer determine what direction he went and we left the area for a few hours. Later that day, we added sandwiches and extra water to our packs and carefully worked our way back up there. We spent several hours combing the area and still never came across him again. Nor, did we really find any good tracks or evidence he might have frequented this area. This, of course, is where the pre-hunt intense scouting pays-off, for those that have that luxury - - we didn’t.

A friend at work and her husband had hunted Silvies at the end of the rifle season, a little more Northeast of where we hunted and they had quite a bit of snow and wind gusts to (I think she said) 45 mph. Well, three days later when we arrive, it’s absolutely bone dry - - everywhere. You might have noted in her column a few days ago, Jennie crediting me with using the term walking on “potato chips.” That’s where she got it - - when I gave my very short-version of this story on the mod board upon our return. That’s just what it was. Every step was like walking on a 6” deep layer of fresh potato chips. Now, I suspect those of you who regularly hunt Central Oregon are saying something like “yea, so . . . “ Hey, ‘just putting it into perspective for our fellow blacktail hunters out there. And, tracking was something else, too. A five-minute-old trail of tufted-up pine needles, in those conditions, only looks so very slightly different than the same trail, five days old.

The weather: warm and cold and little in between. As soon as the sun began to drop in the sky, the temperatures dropped. Every night it got below freezing. Three nights it was 18 degrees F. ‘Couldn’t beg a drop of rain. We would head-out in the morning with jackets and by sometime between 8 and 9 am we had to shed them . . . . . high 60’s and low 70’s.

At the end of that fifth day, I did spot another legal (albeit much smaller antlers) buck some distance off. I thought, from what I could see, it might have been a fork. But, Jon assures me it was bigger than that. We tracked him and the does and yearlings that were with him until it just didn’t make sense to go any farther with the end of legal shooting light nearly on us.

And, the final morning, Jon spotted another legal buck (I never did actually see this one myself). We did a fair amount of tracking trying to pursue him, too.

For the trip, we counted a total of 3 legal bucks, 288 does and yearlings, 3 coyotes (including the dead one) and that one pronghorn. We never did see one single deer that appeared to be in other than very healthy condition. We saw quite a few does with twins, some with singles and some that appeared to be without yearlings. Of course, while secondary, we were also keeping an eye open for turkey, grouse and pheasant . . . but, ‘saw none nor, particularly, any sign of them.

We did get into some of the areas of this year’s fires and, as the ODFW guy said, “deer magnet.” We also saw smoke from an active fire to the Northeast and, on the trip home, there was a fire to the North and one to the South of Bend.

We had a great time and brought-back a ton of Central Oregon dust. Actually, just before hitting the highway, we opened the side windows on the canopy in an attempt to leave some of that dust along the way.

Part of me wants to say never again do that hunt with a muzzlestuffer but, on the other hand, we did hunt some great timbered areas where they would have been perfect.

A week from this coming Friday, Jon and I take off for several days in the Indigo Unit for muzzlestuffer elk.

Here are some of the pictures from our adventure:

[Rauly]

That sounds like it was a fun trip!! Thanks for sharing the story and pics.

[jmg]

Thanks for sharing. My dad and I had cow tags there last year and we only saw 3 bucks and lots of does. (and that was during the RUT!!)

[buckhunter]

Sounds like a fun trip. Nice pics and story. BH

[SandyRiverFisher]

Sounds like a nice time. I always appriciate seeing pics of the terrain in units Im unfamiliar with, thanks!

[CW59]

Sounds like you had a good time!! When I hunted Silivies for deer this yr, it was one of the worst yr's ever. My father-law who has been hunting there since he was a kid, also said he has never seen it so bad!!! We hunt private and public land, it was not much better. 3 yrs ago while elk hunting I saw some great bucks, but then the last two yrs we have not seen a decent buck. So who knows!

CW

[Raining_Kings]

Nice recap. Glad you posted it even though you didn't bring home the trophy, its still nice to share.

Is that an Lo-Liner you're pulling? If so how do you like it? I was thinking about picking one of those up, setting up the tent is getting OLD.

-= Scott

[Scrillznac]

Sounds like some good memories. Nice story and pics.

[Don Becker]

Originally Posted by Raining_Kings

. . . Is that an Lo-Liner you're pulling? If so how do you like it? I was thinking about picking one of those up, setting up the tent is getting OLD. -= Scott

No, it's an old Roamer. And, actually, it isn't being towed in that shot . . . camp is set-up and the truck is just backed-in - - - 'does kind of look like it's hooked-up, though. Don

[hookum]

Excellent post. Thanks so much for the picture reminders of when I used to hunt Eastern Oregon. Maybe I need to make another trip next year.

[Lik2f&h]

It was a down year for seeing many bucks this year for our hunting group also. My father in law has hunted the Silvies for over 35 years and agreed it was a down year. I did manage to get a nice 4 point on openning morning and then my father in law shot a nice 4 point on Sunday morning also. Three years ago I saw 14 bucks before I shot my biggest mulie to date. This year I only saw the one that I shot on openning day even though we were in the woods for 6 days looking to help out others in our party find their bucks. I did see quite a few elk which I hope I can find again in a couple of weeks when we go back for our cow hunt.

[Don Becker]

Originally Posted by Lik2f&h

It was a down year for seeing many bucks this year for our hunting group also. My father in law has hunted the Silvies for over 35 years and agreed it was a down year. I did manage to get a nice 4 point on openning morning and then my father in law shot a nice 4 point on Sunday morning also. Three years ago I saw 14 bucks before I shot my biggest mulie to date. This year I only saw the one that I shot on openning day even though we were in the woods for 6 days looking to help out others in our party find their bucks. I did see quite a few elk which I hope I can find again in a couple of weeks when we go back for our cow hunt.

General season or muzzlestuffer? Don