Archive for the ‘Hunting’ Category
Thursday, December 1st, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Hunting Big Horn Sheep in the Strawberry Mountains:
Sometime back I was sitting in a barber shop and a fellow came in that had been hunting Big Horn Sheep in the strawberry range of Oregon. He proceeded to tell us he had talked to the Game commission first off to find out how many Big Horn Sheep were in different areas and how accessible the roads were as he had very little knowledge of the area. They told him what they knew and directed him to the local sporting shops to possible find others that had hunted the area that he could talk to as well as direct him to a possible Guide if that was what he wanted. The next few days were spent talking to a number of hunters that had gotten big Horned Sheep and others that had not! Before leaving each person though, he asks them where they would go if they had a tag. With the knowledge he had gained from others and for what they had suggested was all that was needed to get him excited about climbing hills and glassing for Sheep for the next several weeks. During this time he made a note of all the larger Big Horn Sheep he had found in each area he had went to. With the day fast approaching for hunting to start, he took long walks and did a fair amount of shooting. The first few days out hunting he got to see a number of Big Horn Sheep but could never get the largest one into the scopes view without another smaller one moving in front of it! So he made a decision not to spend more than 2 days at any one area as he felt it would incite the Big Horn Sheep to move around more! As it came near to the time he had to call it quits, he got to shoot at a fairly large one and missed it and left to go to one other place before he left for home. As he was driving into the area he realized that the road was on a slightly constant uphill slant and after a time, he thought he could see a couple of Big Horn Sheep out lined against the sky above standing on a large knoll. It was then that he started looking for a place that was level enough where he could unload his 4 wheeler if he needed too; but he never did find a level spot so he parked it and put a rock in back of the wheel. By this time he was aggravated but was still driven to go after the sheep and found a rock he could peer over and could make out several of them using his binoculars just under a rim. He had seen one that was very large but could never get a shot at it so he decided to shoot at the next largest one. As it was getting late in the afternoon and he wanted to get out of there before dark. The first shot found its mark and it fell! He then proceeded to go back and get his 4 wheeler out of the back of the pickup and was wrestling in his mind as to how he was going to do that with the pickup being on a slant. Without even thinking of turning the pick up around to where the tail gate was facing up hill he placed his gun back into its scaffold. Then he proceeded to open the tailgate; and take out one of the wheel ramps. The top ramp had the spare tire on it as he did not have room for it elsewhere and of course the top ramp could not slide over the top of the second one with the weight of the wheel on it. so he thought he would pull the ends of both ramps out and take the tire off of them but in doing so the tire came up on end and proceeded to roll down the mountain till it hit the road below and bounced very high in order to land up the hill in the high brush on the other side of the highway. Back at the pickup he set about putting the ramps in place and started rolling the 4 wheeler down the ramp, but he found he could not hold the 4 wheeler for he was facing the front of it and using the brake and ended up on the ground with him holding on to the bike with one hand and holding on to the bottom of the ramp with the other. He realized there was only one way to save the 4 wheeler and that was to kick a large enough rock in back of a tire to hold it in place! During this time he was crying out to GOD for help as it took several mins. to dig a rock out of the ground with his feet to push behind a tire. Tell me who put that rock there for him to kick out of the ground? If you answered anyone but God you are wrong! Did that fellow get his Big Horn Sheep out? Yes he did and the following day came back and found his tire across the highway fairly high up on the side of the hill. How many of us have pulled boners like this? Ha.
Written by Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Boners, Ramp, Sheep, Shot
Posted in Humorous, Hunting, Safety, tips | No Comments »
Saturday, October 29th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: White Tail hunting in the Wallowa Valley
The week end before last was sure a disappointment as far as hunting White tail in the Wallowa valley this year! We never saw one in all the time we hunted. The only thing we could attrib it too was that the area was thoroughly saturated by days of rain, for in some areas it was like a swamp. What we normally hunt in, is grass over the top of our heads at times alongside a river about 35 ft. wide. It has several different kinds of fruit trees along with others that are found in the mountains in the area. But there were also about 8 or 10 trees of a species in one area that I had never seen before! These were about 16 ft. tall and looked like they should have been in a flood plain in Africa as there were no branches for about 6ft. The branches at the bottom were small and very thick and seemed to come straight out 12 to 14ft. It was formed somewhat like an umbrella and left everything on the ground completely sterile as I did not see any grass at all; but around those trees were vegetation everywhere. I can only assume that the Deer and Elk in the area keep the trees eaten off underneath because of the taste. Now, the way we hunt this is fairly simple but it not without a certain amount of risk of getting hurt. There is a fence alongside a huge grain field on higher ground bordering the 75 yards of land to the river. Within those 75 yards, a little ditch of water meanders back and forth and there are many standing and downed trees along with the high grass and it is this area we normally scare the Deer out of. When one or more gets up, they jump the fence and some may run a little ways and then will turn around to see what spooked them and most often we will have bagged our deer there within an hour. That is our normal approach to hunting there but this definitely was not a normal year; as all we received, was being soaked clear to the crotch and one member actually fell into the ditch! But that’s why we call it hunting as there certainly is no guarantee to whatever we attempt to do. All we can do is place it in the Lord’s hand and tell ourselves, it just was not meant for us to get one this year! Then if we try to analyze what we could do next time and find an answer, great! But if all we end up doing is beating ourselves up and or getting angry, we end up the looser every time; not only for self but possibly passing on our feelings to someone else we care about!
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Analyze, Deer, Hunting, Risk, trees
Posted in Hunting, Safety, tips | No Comments »
Thursday, October 20th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Unusual Elk experience!
One day we were visiting with our granddaughters – in-laws sitting around an old large wood stove out in their Garage. It had several davenports and stuffed chairs sitting in a semicircle. This was where they do most of their entertaining with friends, neighbors and relatives as most all of them have a love for the outdoors and it’s the only place they have to entertain a large group at times. Oh, before I start into my story, there was one thing in that garage that really got my attention! It was one of the last Jaguars made before the Ford motor co. bought it out. It was in immaculate shape with 82,000 miles on it. It was truly thrilling for me to sit inside of it as it had advances in the dash gages and computerization that are in the newer Fords now! The only thing that was deteriorated was the shellac on the wood dash with a few fine cracks but the surface was still smooth and provided beautiful character to the whole dash. One evening, I and my Wife along with my granddaughter and her husband were talking to his parents. The father was telling a story from his past, about a time he and a friend went Elk hunting together on a couple of horses. After a few days they had gotten their Elk and were carrying them out on their horses with them holding the rein and leading them. The packs on their horses were fairly good size and the father did not have enough room to place the rifle scabbard slanted towards the rear of the horse so they placed it towards the front and he figured he would be extremely careful in walking the horse through brush and small trees. They were walking them along a rim and without the father noticing a small branch had caught between the scabbard and the pack throwing the horse and the father over the edge with him holding on to the reins. They both rolled over one another at times for a space of a hundred yards and ended up on small boulders at the bottom. The father knew for sure the way he was hurting that he had broken some bones but after checking himself all over, the father found that he was just badly bruised. The father then went to the horse and took the pack off and in feeling it all over found that it did not have any broken bones either but found some badly bruised spots. The horse could not stand up in the boulders so they used limbs to pry the rocks out of the way enough to get the horse back on its feet, then they cleared a path for it though the rocks. The father then said it took quite some time for the horse to stop shaking before they tried to take it back to the top where they could place the pack on it. Bringing the horses down off of the mountain was no small matter as they came down very slowly. Then he made a statement, saying that when they were rolling down the mountain he could hear what sounded like breaking bones and it was not till later that he realized that it was the horse’s hoofs hitting the rocks that made the sound. He then said it was the LORD GOD that saved both him and his horse from dying on that trip! Then he said, I will never take a horse hunting again! The reason being, he had use of one of the neighbor’s horses.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Horses, Hunting, Path, Rolled, Stove, Wood
Posted in Hunting, Safety, tips | No Comments »
Monday, August 8th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Going Fishing
A few days ago, a friend called and asks me to go fishing with him out at Beulah Reservoir which is about 12 miles north of Juntura Oregon. The road going up to the lake area is fairly secluded probably, mainly because of its wash board effect it has on vehicles even at low speed. The area is known for its fishing as there are some very large trout caught out of the lake at times but as the weather gets heated up its best to fish deep. The canyon going up to the lake offers a fairly nice camping area about 5 miles from the dam and is located in the bottom of a narrow area so it is fairly cool even in warm weather. There are many fishing streams along with Chukar, Deer and Elk hunting possibilities that comes from taking that road as it takes you into the castle rock territory upon reaching the far end of the lake. The view you see from the dam is very spectacular and beautiful; as you will see many rolling hills along with sage brush and Junipers all around the lake. It is several miles long and from there goes into a very remote and high elevation with one mountain having a huge rock out cropping rising above it called castle rock. This whole area is very well known for its hunting. My friend had been in the area several times over the years and said there are few decent roads into the area but in the higher elevations some roads are fairly steep and are more or less cow trails but several of them will take you right out on to a nice graveled road. But each road may lead to a different area such as Drewsey, Unity, Ironside and Praire city; so if you going into that area do yourself a favor; take along a map or you may get lost! Now back to what I was first talking about, fishing Beulah reservoir. It was very warm by the time we arrived at the lake as we did not start out when we should have, mainly because of a communication error of the person driving, ha. We did not get there till about till about 9:30 and I had forgotten my wadding shoes to shove the boat off of the trailer. I didn’t want too but I wadded out with my good tennis shoes on, so my feet were wet all day long but the water felt real nice. It was a good thing we were just out for a good time otherwise we would have been disappointed for we never got a hit one on anything we tried in both shallow and or deep water and no, we did not have a downrigger! We spent about 5hrs. on the lake with the sun getting warmer all the time and decided to fish where the river came out of the reservoir which was extremely turbulent. My friend found a hole several times that his bait sank into and picked up 3 trout out of it with 2 of them being 16”and the other one 12”. As for me, I fished in the very swift water up above and only got two hits and never connected with either one. But it was a great day as we just enjoyed conversing with one another throughout most of the day and that’s what we were mainly out there for as neither of us eats trout!
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Area, Dam, fishing, lake
Posted in fishing, Hunting | No Comments »
Friday, April 8th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: Shots of the Past # 1
About three months back I went to Idaho to see my mother. She had just gotten back from visiting most of my other brothers and sisters and their family’s scattered around in four states: Idaho, Oregon, California and Washington. She had a wonderful time with each of them but was looking forward to going back to New Mexico where she lives with my Brother’s family and of course loves the warmer weather down there. The day before I left Caldwell Idaho to go back home to Oregon, she ask if I would take her to Wilder Idaho to see my aunt and uncle that are 93 years old as well as 2 cousins that still lives there. As we drove there, we reminisced on a number of things and had a lot of laughs. As we started conversing with my aunt and uncle, He started talking about some things from way back. They first came to Wilder Idaho back in 1936 from the panhandle in the Oklahoma Ozarks. In Oklahma my Grandfather and Grandmother had 5 kids. They worked at anything that came along and fished a lot, along with shooting anything they thought they could eat. They had chickens, cows and raised anything that would grow in the soil including fruit trees. The one thing that surprised me most was hearing that My Grandfather had been a Circuit Rider Preacher.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Idaho, Ozarks, Surprised, Wilder
Posted in fishing, History, Hunting | No Comments »
Saturday, March 19th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: a world of wonder but not entirely safe
Several years back we had a mountain lion run across the road in front of us going to Idaho and thought to myself, man that was neat! Awhile later I was talking to my mother and they had just got back from a camping trip and the highlight of the week was hearing a mountain lion scream, three times the last night they were there. She said that cry was like nothing you have ever heard and just put the hair up on the back of your neck. They had a fire but decided it might be better psychologically for everyone to be in a tent, rather than wondering if something was out there watching them and especially having children with them; so that’s what they did. We live in somewhat of a high desert area in Oregon but had never heard of mountain lion being around here until year before last, when tracks were spotted around the outskirts of town by several people. As too what became of them I do not know for they had professional hunters looking for them! Last year a friend told me a story that would make you wonder if it is really safe out there! Two friends were hunting deer in the North Malheur unit and had just shot a nice four point. One was holding the back legs while the other one was slitting open the underside to get the insides out. Then the one holding the legs saw something jump from a rock and ran behind some trees but soon came around the trees running straight for them. It was then that he said, “Behind you a mountain lion.” The man slitting the cavity dropped his knife and grabbed the rifle that was already pointing towards the cat and shot him flying through the air with the cat landing only a few feet of them!
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Jump, Mountain Lion, Scream
Posted in Camping, Hunting | No Comments »
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 5 Once in a Life Time:
After I shot, we saw dirt fly up on the back side of the ram but he did not flinch or act like he was hit. Eric and Jesse got on the radio “He missed.” By now Jesse has returned and was able to watch me shoot. The guys called back saying shoot again. And as fast as I could eject my shell and load another one the rams turned and ran up the hill. We walked into the area where Trenton had shot at it and some distance away found it shot in the neck laying in a low spot. We then deboned it and took the hide and head and started the mile and half back to the pickup. You can imagine the thrill of the hunt as they went home reliving the events that took place, giving Trenton something to remember for the rest of his life! Once home we took the head to the Game Commission and found out the Horns measured 163 7/8”. Sometime later the Big Horn Sheep foundation contacted them and asks them to become a member and invited them to the annual Big Horn Sheep foundation meeting, Banquette and Award night in Reno Nevada. Trinton was awarded 3 Placks to put on his wall! In the end, I would like to say thanks for everybody helping me on my sheep hunt, my mom for helping me get my hunting gear ready, my family, Grandpa Butch; Grandpa Jeff; Ryan, Dad; Wayne, cousin; uncle Jesse; brother Trey; and my step-dad Eric; on being there on this special hunt. Also, I would like to thank the folks that has wildlife foundations out there but especially the Wild Sheep Foundation, (FNAWS) for their contribution of enhancing wild sheep populations so kids like me have a chance to draw this once in a life time tag. Being able to hunt one of these magnificent creatures on public land is a hunt I will never forget.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Hunt, Ram, Sheep, Thrill
Posted in Hunting | No Comments »
Thursday, March 17th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 4 Once in a Life Time
Just as we got out the rams view, Eric yells, “The ram is running away.” Dad and I looked back and Dad utters “These sheep are not docile.” We finished our 2 ½ mile hike back to where the Grandpas’ picked us all up again. We didn’t see any more sheep that morning. Back at camp we ate lunch and took a quick snooze. After theorizing where the sheep are, Eric, Jesse and I hike up to where Greg Allum told us to sit in the first place. Once we got on top or close to the top we had a fantastic view. We found where Greg told us to park ourselves. But Eric says let’s move down a little bit. It wasn’t long before the three of us got very excited upon spotting a small ram coming up the mountain. I whisper as quiet as I can.“He is a nice ram. Eric, I think I can take him.” Jesse and Eric both said he is a young ram and it was a long shot. My heart sinks as I watch the young ram go over a ridge and out of sight. After thirty more minutes of glassing, Jesse decided he would walk further down the ridge we were sitting on. Eric and I continued to glass for sheep from where we were and talked about how neat it was that I had drew a Bighorn sheep tag. Shortly after we finished talking we saw 4 nice rams. Eric couldn’t hold back his excitement calling on the radio for Jesse. Eric utters “They are heading right towards where Greg said to sit.” After watching the sheep for some time walking up the hill and grazing, Eric and I make a short stalk towards the sheep. They say sheep have excellent vision. This must be true because after only a 20 yards stalk, they spot us and start heading back down hill. The rams didn’t go far before they stopped though. Then Eric whispers, “This is it.” So I sit down and lowered the bipod on my Dad’s 308 Winchester using a 150 grain hornady plastic tip bullets and take aim. In the four there were two shooters. One ram was larger and chocolate brown in color but did not have a full curl. Our decision was to shoot the white one having a full Curl.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Ram, Sheep
Posted in Hiking, Hunting | No Comments »
Wednesday, March 16th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 3 Once in a Life Time
After a quick discussion how to hunt this piece of country, we rode back to camp with a buzz of excitement. Back at camp the chatter is loud. Eric serves up dinner for the night as we rehash the hunt for opening day. We choose to not ride our ATV’s opening morning. Instead, we would jump in Grandpa Jeff’s pickup to drive over to the area. I’m not excited at 4:30 Saturday morning as we head down the road in Grandpa’s pickup. The two grandpas’ and my brother are in the cab, while the rest of us are in the bed of the pickup eating dust. It is late August, and that night the wind blew but fortunately it came from the southwest and is a warm wind. It seemed to take forever to get over to the spring. At the spring, we decide that Eric, Dad and I would go up and glass for sheep on the Westside of the hill and my uncle Jesse and cousin Wayne would go around and look on the Eastside. To cover most of the mountain face my two grandpas and my brother Trey sit and glassed from the spring. An hour into the hunt, Wayne says into the radio “Watch out for snakes, Jesse just about stepped on one.” Ten minutes later we came across a snake skin that was over 4 feet long. Eric and Dad gave a nervous laugh, which are now looking down at the ground verses looking for sheep! It wasn’t long before we found one sheep from the night before standing on the skyline looking intently at us. We squat down and glassed him for 10 minutes before he felt comfortable enough to lie back down. He appeared to be a decent ram so we determine he is a shooter. After a discussion, Dad and I were to walk back down the hill and come back up a different way, leaving Eric to watch to make sure the ram doesn’t run off.
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Hunt, Pickup, Ram, Sheep
Posted in Hiking, Hunting | No Comments »
Tuesday, March 15th, 2011
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Christian Outdoor Recreation: Reporting on: # 2 Once in a Life Time
Finally, we begin the hunting plans: where to camp and how the hunt was going to take place on theFirst day, (special thanks to Greg Allum, from X hunting outfitters). The hunting party consisted of Eric, Step-dad; Ryan, Dad; Grandpa Jeff, Grandpa Butch, Uncle Jesse, Cousin Wayne, and my little brotherTrey. The Friday, before the hunt we all agreed to meet at Mann Lake campground recreation site, which is next to my sheep unit. At the campground recreation site waiting for the rest of my hunting party to show up we noticed we were sitting under the nearest tree, which was the outhouse. We all laughed because that was the only shade we had during this hunt. Finally everybody shows up and off we head for our camp site to get set up. We camped where two track roads came together. Most of us slept on either the ATV trailers or in the back of the pickups. Friday, evening we all rode our ATV’s to an artesian spring where a week earlier we had spotted sheep. While glassing for sheep and comparing all the different binoculars they had, ranging in price from $150 to $700, cousin Wayne says “he has just spotted sheep with his expensive $150 binoculars.” “I didn’t know that bighorn sheep hunting was so easy.”“You guys outa buy a pair of these nice binoculars” laughs Wayne. We all chuckle with him. We count six sheep in all. “I think this is going to be a tuff hunt. Greg told me to hike up there”, says Eric. Everybody chimes in, why would we want to hunt up that steep hill if these docile sheep are on this small hill?
Written By Christian Outdoor Recreation:
Tags: Binoculars, Hunt, Plans, Sheep
Posted in Camping, Hiking, Hunting | No Comments »
