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I read with interest the various posts describing the great number of "road hunters" encountered on various Eastern Oregon hunts. Sounds discouraging and aggravating...
I grew up in NE Oregon in a Hunter's paradise. It was a hunting culture, and my family members were good hunters. We were also poor. Our hunting was done just as much for food as for fun. Passing on a smaller Buck in order to shoot a trophy was not part of the mindset. It was fun to shoot a 4 point, but that only happened if he were the first one to be spotted. Nevertheless, a big part of hunting was fair chase, and "Road Hunters" were talked about with contempt. That didn't mean that if a Buck crossed the road we would let him go because we didn't happen to be huffing and puffing our way up those endless steep slopes in the Imnaha River Canyon at the moment. My point is that we hunted Deer the hard way, took pride in our efforts, and viewed road hunting with disdain, but didn't hesitate to take one the "easy way" if an opportunity presented. My Grandfather owned 5000 acres out of Joseph, and we could have shot bucks grazing in his Alfalfa, but that would have been sort of like "road hunting" so we headed out to the breaks of the Imnaha and half killed ourselves because that was a big part of the experience.In retrospect, I don't believe that road hunting in NE Oregon as a strategy would have worked very well. Where I grew up road systems are limited to this day, and bucks live in those steep canyons.
Now I live in SW Oregon. We hunt Blacktails which are considerably (IMO) harder to hunt. Unless there has been a fire, or clearcutting to reduce the amount of brush and increase visibility its tough to even find Deer when the weather is fair and dry. Its a real challenge (Read "waste of time") to try and move through the brush when it's dry, and in my experience the best fair weather strategy is to organize a drive of some sort, or find a killer vantage point and glass.
That all changes however when the weather turns foul and the Rut approaches late in the season. I'm no longer poor, and don't need the Deer to feed my family. I've probably killed 40 Deer in my lifetime. I don't lay awake the night before season hoping just to find a legal Deer like a I did as a kid. I still like the fair chase and challenge of "real" hunting, but in SW oregon where I live now, there are extensive logging road systems, and like it or not, late in the season slowly driving logging roads and glassing clear cuts during a rain/wind storm is one of the MOST EFFECTIVE ways to find big bucks. And I do it...in those conditions.
What do you think of "road hunting" as a strategy?
I grew up in NE Oregon in a Hunter's paradise. It was a hunting culture, and my family members were good hunters. We were also poor. Our hunting was done just as much for food as for fun. Passing on a smaller Buck in order to shoot a trophy was not part of the mindset. It was fun to shoot a 4 point, but that only happened if he were the first one to be spotted. Nevertheless, a big part of hunting was fair chase, and "Road Hunters" were talked about with contempt. That didn't mean that if a Buck crossed the road we would let him go because we didn't happen to be huffing and puffing our way up those endless steep slopes in the Imnaha River Canyon at the moment. My point is that we hunted Deer the hard way, took pride in our efforts, and viewed road hunting with disdain, but didn't hesitate to take one the "easy way" if an opportunity presented. My Grandfather owned 5000 acres out of Joseph, and we could have shot bucks grazing in his Alfalfa, but that would have been sort of like "road hunting" so we headed out to the breaks of the Imnaha and half killed ourselves because that was a big part of the experience.In retrospect, I don't believe that road hunting in NE Oregon as a strategy would have worked very well. Where I grew up road systems are limited to this day, and bucks live in those steep canyons.
Now I live in SW Oregon. We hunt Blacktails which are considerably (IMO) harder to hunt. Unless there has been a fire, or clearcutting to reduce the amount of brush and increase visibility its tough to even find Deer when the weather is fair and dry. Its a real challenge (Read "waste of time") to try and move through the brush when it's dry, and in my experience the best fair weather strategy is to organize a drive of some sort, or find a killer vantage point and glass.
That all changes however when the weather turns foul and the Rut approaches late in the season. I'm no longer poor, and don't need the Deer to feed my family. I've probably killed 40 Deer in my lifetime. I don't lay awake the night before season hoping just to find a legal Deer like a I did as a kid. I still like the fair chase and challenge of "real" hunting, but in SW oregon where I live now, there are extensive logging road systems, and like it or not, late in the season slowly driving logging roads and glassing clear cuts during a rain/wind storm is one of the MOST EFFECTIVE ways to find big bucks. And I do it...in those conditions.
What do you think of "road hunting" as a strategy?
. Not my normal method by any means as I usually make my plans before the season starts, but unfortunately we dont always get something at the planned location!
