OR Columbian Blacktail & "King Steve" NEW PICS!!!

[Steve H.]

HAPPY THANKSGIVING EVERYBODY!!!

Many of you remember my buddy Benny Pinney from Wisconsin as the kid who I mentored from age 16.  Benny has gone on to complete a four year degree in Biology and now is in his last of four years of dental school at Oregon Health Science University (OHSU) in Portland, OR.

Over the years Benny and I have hunted together from the Caribbean to the North Slope and many places in between.  (See the 2005 Hunt Archives)

Since it will be Benny's last year in Oregon I decided that I better get down there and hunt Columbian Blacktails with him before he left.

To complete his dental program, Benny has to pass his boards (Which, I'm proud to say he has already accomplished) and get checked off on dozens and dozens of proceedures.

I have gone to Portland several times to be his Guinea-pig from some of these proceedures and this trip would be a combination of "drilling and filling" in Steve's mouth AND deer hunt.

This was going to be the first time I have really been in the woods in the continental Pacific Northwest so these deer were new to me.

I arrived on Saturday evening and Benny picked me up at the airport and we headed south towards Roseburg.  We decided we were going to hunt funnels like we would for whitetails back in the midwest so Benny had pre-scouted a few locations to get us going and hung a pair of stands.

Here is what the country looks like.  This is the west slope of the Cascades.

   

The first morning Benny put me in what he thought would be the better of the two stands. Here is a view from that stand.  That's my boy!

   

I didn't see a single deer but that was alright.  I really had no expectations for this trip other than getting some gold in my mouth and probably getting wet in the Oregon rainforest.

To be continued......

[the Ferret]

Originally posted by Steve H.:
 I really had no expectations for this trip other than getting some gold in my mouth
 

Guess Chad Johnson of the Bengals was Ben's other guniea pig    

Happt Turkey Day Steve.

Hey you know next year is the 10th Mojam. You going to make it?

[Kevin Bahr]

Stevie, finally some pics that will fit on my monitor screen, LOL!  I think Benny just keeps your mouth sore when you visit so you don't eat all his food...hehehe...

[Jack Shanks]

Oh Boy!!!!! Nother one of Steve's stories!!!!!!!

[Steve H.]

Yes another one!  PART 2:

Now while I was seeing NO deer the first morning in the “good” stand, Benny saw TEN (10) deer including 4 bucks from the other stand!  Put dear old “Dad” in the good stand huh?!  Many of the deer were in range and he could have killed a pair of does but the bucks stayed on the move or in brush.

We hunted that evening, me hanging a stand at a new location, but we didn’t see any deer.  That evening we headed back to Portland and the following morning Benny drilled a cracked tooth and prepared it for a gold crown.  Tuesday at a VERY early hour had me headed south while Benny remained at school, prepared “King Steve’s” gold crown.

For some reason I decided to go where Benny had seen the ten deer.  I hadn’t been to this spot so I made sure I had detailed instructions of how to get to the stand.  As the dark gray turned to light gray, it became obvious to me why this was such an incredible spot.  A drainage dissected a steep ridge, a creek paralleled the ridge on one side and an old logging road on the other, and a mature timber stand edge with reprod on the other side came in opposite of the drainage.  That is several funneling features all coming together in ONE spot!

I sat back and eagerly awaited the unknown buck that I just knew would show!

Here is a photo from near the stand.


 

[Steve H.]

I expect some of you just KNEW a deer would show up!  Finally, all of a sudden there he appeared walking downhill sniffing the ground for does.  A spike, no there’s more!  Wholly crap he’s got a rack!

I had to remind myself to stay calm.  He started to angle away then headed my way.  At ten yards he was slightly quartering towards me but it looked like it would get worse from there on as Benny had set this stand really high due to the steep terrain and having been busted in the past with deer at eye level on the hillside above.

I pulled back and shot.

[Mark Baker]

Come on Steve!

[FJTOYMAN]

We're Waiting........  

[peak98]

tap, tap, tap.......

[Steve H.]

I climbed down from the stand about 25 minutes later and started looking for signs of my arrow or red.  As I was looking for first sign I see a flash of brown and then antler.  A nice 3 x 3 plus brow tines must have heard the disturbance and had come to investigate.  He soon spotted the lump in the trail and slipped away.

I continued searching and soon found this:

 

[Steve H.]

I just got back from hanging a SITKA Blacktail stand with Chris "JuneauLongbow" Fannin.  We gotta good trail.

[Steve H.]

Anybody even still reading this?

I continued following a good trail that went farther that I first thought and jumped the buck.  The blood sign read “liver”.  I feared dripping water washing away the sign even though it seemed like it could be a nice day.  Water drips off the trees big-time down there.  Occasionally I would find REALLY good blood.  The buck crossed and re-crossed the small creek.

 

[Steve H.]

I trailed the buck down into the stream bed but was getting nervous since I couldn’t locate where he came out again.  I waded upstream trying to figure out where he came out of the streambed.

[kennym]

HEY Steve ,I'm readin,keep writin!! Lookin better!      

[swp]

Come on Steve, kennym and I at least would like to know what happened.

[Jack Denbow]

Come on Steve this i s better tahn the Dallas/Jets game.

[bbassi]

Originally posted by Jack Denbow:
Come on Steve this i s better tahn the Dallas/Jets game.

Yeah - We know what's going to happen there!    

Come on Steve, give it up.

[Steve H.]

Finally, this in what I found:

 

[Steve H.]

Sorry, I've been "triptofaning".

[Steve H.]

He made it back to water one last time.  Notice the distictive "black"tail.