- We couldn’t get closer to this bear -

After parting ways with our good friend and guide John Dickenson, we grabbed our turkey hunting gear, raced from Elkton, Oregon to Roseburg, Oregon, and were turkey hunting by 12:30 PM. Within ten minutes of setting out we had two hens knocking on our door, coming within ten yards of our setup. Unfortunately there were no toms in sight so we continued moving.

We quickly worked our way along the ridge, stopping to call every now and then. Once at the top of the knob we finally got a lone tom to respond from the valley below. Due to the thick brush between us and the tom, the bird hung up and wouldn’t move any closer, so we pressed on. After a few minutes we got another tom to respond behind us, so we backtracked a little and located the bird by a tall Douglas Fir tree.

That’s when a hen tried to lure the tom away from us, which had Wil battling it out furiously to maintain the tom’s focus on us. As the tom headed up the mountain to our location, we quickly set up and waited.

Within five minutes not one, but two toms went by just slightly out of range, but the hen headed straight towards us and appeared from under a small tree, cutting excitedly the entire way to within 10 yards of us. All of this happened so quickly that we didn’t have a chance to put on our face masks and gloves, but in this case it didn’t matter, as the hen was obviously pretty excited.

- This hen moved within 10 yards of our position, staring right at us for what seemed like forever -

While we were watching the hen in front of us, the two toms had moved to the top of the knob, completely out of sight. As the hen moved away from us we slowly switched positions, as the toms were now directly above us. We still couldn’t see them due to a slight rise, so we sat tight to see if we could call them back within range. After a few minutes Wil was able to call them to within 20 yards, and at this point the toms were making a ton of noise.

After ten more anxious minutes of waiting and calling, the toms refused to come any closer. Sensing that the birds might head uphill again, Wil stood up, located the birds, and took a shot. It was now or never, so I quickly stood to my feet as well, ran up the hill a couple of yards, and was surprised to see not two toms, but eight. No wonder those birds were so loud as they strutted above us. Between Wil and the hen, the two of them had called in every tom within a hundred yards or more.

Wil’s shot took out a few of the tom’s feather as it was in mid-strut, and I hammered a two year old tom with a seven inch beard. Oddly enough, Wil’s tom had a ten and a half inch beard, but no spurs. Neither of us had seen a mature tom with no spurs before, so that was a first.

- Wil Askew (left) and Jeremy Henricks (right) -

- Over ten inch beard with no spurs -

This hunt was a great way to end the season, and has me looking forward to fall turkey season. Look for this hunt and more on our upcoming turkey hunting DVD from Pursue The Outdoors.

Saturday morning we got Jeremy on a good tom. I told him to use my gun (Benelli Super Black Eagle) and had him sitting in a perfect position for a shot. Benelli’s have one flaw, and I thought about this as he sat down. Then figured it was ok.

This tom comes in perfect, I’m thinking shoot Jeremy, shoot, shoot SHOOT…… Click! I knew it. The action had not SLAMMED shut and the firing pin did not engage. Sorry!

We headed off to another spot and did the usual call from a ridge to get a response.

I got a response from a tom that was turning himself inside out with every call.

I worked this tom for an hour and a half. Got in close but I had three things going against me. 1) he was in an open area and knew he should have seen the hen making all the noise so he hung up. 2) He was across a creek and there was too much brush on my side where I was at 3) there was a fence. I finally made it down to 50 yards be fore he started PUTTING. When his head rose I knew I had a 50% chance of killing him. He won.

I worked down to another ridge and instantly got another response from a tom.

He gobbled non-stop but would not come in. He was actually laying down sunning himself. We finally got some interest from him but a deer spooked him and we watched him sail across to the other side of the canyon.

Kept moving as we were about to lose our weather. It had been beautiful all morning and now it’s spitting snow and hail. We would hide under trees for shelter and wait it out.

Finally the sun broke back out and we were on the move. Heading down a steep hill I stopped to call and got an instant response right in front of me. I moved to the right and rounded a tree only to find three red heads staring at me no further than 10 yards.

Shotgun up, bird down. The hill was so steep, he tumbled head over feet for a 100 yards before coming to rest.

I went down and was surprised to find he was a Jake. I was a bit bummed at first but then I realized that WE had worked our tails off to bag this bird. As soon as we picked him up, it began to snow. When we finally reached the truck, it felt good to be punching a tag.

As we left the snow really began to fall so we decided to head home for the rest of the weekend as the weather was only to get worse.

As I thought about the day events on the drive home, I couldn’t help but smile. We hunted hard. Covered a lot of ground and saw some great country too. He may not be the biggest bird, but it was a fun hunt and it was great to be outdoors with good people and maybe we’ll bag a big one next time.

I still need to call Jeremy and see how he faired after walking through all of this poison oak, which just covered the hillside.

I have all my clothes in a heavy garbage bag so my wife and daughter wont catch it. I’m lucky. I can walk through it and have never gotten it.

Arriving at our hunting/camp spot, we found conditions more than perfect.  A foot of snow had fallen, which congregated the animals, and made spotting coyotes ideal.  Although the snow made sleeping conditions a bit rough, seeing the deer  everywhere, and antelope herds healthy was well worth the restless nights freezing in the sleeping bag.

Although spotting over 40 coyotes, we ended up with only calling 10 dogs to our credit. But I am happy to say that all 10 dogs would later be by our side.

When we weren’t positioned calling yotes, or glassing the hills for other four legged critters, we found a nearby stream to produce Redband trout in the 20 inch range.

An absolutely amazing week, and a place I will never forget.  There was never a dull moment and always something to do.  Truly the ulmimate  sportsmans week.

On November 17th, Brady Smith capped off his impressive hunting season with this magnificent 8×6 roosevelt bull  during Oregons 2nd coastal elk season.

Brady parked his truck along a skid road and began walking into his hunting spot at first light. Walking on the skid road in the pouring down rain for no longer than an hour, Brady caught movement in the mass of jungle like vegetation. Keeping his cool, Brady waited for a shot to present itself, and gently squezzed the trigger dropping the bull in his tracks at only 30 yards away.

I told her to stay still, and the birds settled down after a few minutes and we snuck around the hill and cut off the feeding birds once again. I caught a glimpse of a red head off to my right and finished the day with another young tom. No rain, no pressure, nice birds.

The beginning of the 2007 rifle season started off well.  A recent rain quited the forest, and kept deer moving throughout the day.  My cousin Brady Smith and I spent most of our time high atop ridges where we could get  better vantage points for glassing.  We ended up seeing a fair amount of deer, consisting of lots of does and smaller bucks, but nothing that particularly caught our attention.

On October 20th, Brady ended up slapping his tag on this very mature 4×4 blacktail. We spotted some does upon the very top of a ridge, and soon to follow was Mr. big.  After a brief 20 minute stalk, Brady was able to close the distance and down this nice deer with one shot through the lungs at 215 yards. The deer ran only 45 yards before expiring.  Our quest for a pair of mature bucks was half way over.

On Halloween morning I escaped out of the house to avoid the pesky doorbell ringers that would arrive later that night.  Brady and I arrived at our sweet spot at  about 1 o’clock in the afternoon and started glassing draws and hillsides, a little to early in the afternoon though for the deer to be moving well. A few hours later, with a small nap in between,  we decided to glass some more from our vantage point and started picking deer moving throughout the oak and poison oak patches. Again, nothing buck smaller bucks with does. Thinking that this was going to be another uneventful journey, we packed up the spotting scope and started for the truck so we wouldn’t be tripping over logs and rocks in the darkness. Not 100 yards away from where we were  sitting, we jumped a few does, and then noticed a set of deer legs stationary through a patch of Madrone trees. I quickly threw up my scope, yet couldn’t reveal the deers identity.  Knowing that the body was bigger than usual, we slowly moved downhill to get a better vantage point. There was no mistaking this deer for a shooter, as soon as I threw my scope on the deer I saw a mass of headgear, wider than the ears, with good mass, by far the biggest buck I’ve seen all season.

The buck disappeared quickly after the 70 yard shot. After a few minutes of catching our breath and getting a hold of our nerves, we walked slowly down to where the deer stood. Not 30 yards from where the deer was standing, we saw his magnificent rack sticking up above the tall grass. With only 2 days left in the season, my wait for a special buck finally ended with this beautiful chocolate antlered 4×4. As night quickly came, I sat there in aw of what lied before me, smelling the fresh untainted air, sharing the experience with my best friend, and thanking the creator for everything I have been given.  This is what hunting is all about!

An amazing hunt, and a true eye opener at that. My patience, hard work, frustration, and long days in the field payed off with a beautiful blacktail buck that I was more than proud of. 

I know public land hunting isn’t the easiest, as thats where I have hunted all my life, but this goes to show, that if you put the work into it, and get out into the field and study your area thoroughly, you will see trophy class bucks, it all comes down to whether your going to be patient enough and have the determination of holding off at a shot, waiting for Mr. Big to show himself!

Good hunting,

Steven Frambes

The weather was warm and we didn’t see the BIG bucks that I know are in the area. Friday morning we passed on a couple smaller bucks hoping to come across Mr. Big. After a slow afternoon and only two days left to hunt we decided it was time to start filling tags with a personal 3-pt. or better requirement. We stuck to our plan and managed to hammer a couple after some hard work.

The way I personally like to hunt is “Run and Gun,” cover ground, glass, cover ground and glass some more. Anytime we would see a doe, we would immediately begin looking for a buck. They were really starting to follow the does around fairly close, so we knew it wouldn’t be long before something with antlers appeared.

Steep, rugged terrain at times and not exactly the coolest of temperatures created a tough hunt, but sometimes you have to pound it out with only a limited time to try and fill a tag. We covered a lot of ground in a short time and my feet are paying the price for it right now. Very tender and blistered heels.

Jeremy’s buck went down on Friday evening, a decent 3-point. It was a little windy as we crept along high ridges and watched the oak covered creek bottoms in search of a shooter buck. Soon one doe appeared, then two more and following behind was this buck. One shot and from 60 yards and the buck was down for good.

I took this small 4 point yesterday morning as I worked my way through the tops of the breaks. Good thing too, it was the only deer I saw while hunting yesterday. I cruised through a couple areas looking for any sign of a shooter buck. I peeked over break peering down into the creek bottom and saw this guy staring at me only 80 yards away. With a single shot my tags was filled. The creek bottom below me was filled with turkeys gobbling as I was gutting out my deer on the steep hillside - made me begin to think of spring already. Not to bad for a quick weekend hunt

Jeremy Henricks, publisher of HuntTheOutdoors.com, took the trip south with me and was able to take his first ever wild boar.

I was fortunate enough to take my first ever California Blacktail on a shot that even amazed me. After a vertical hike up to the opposite ridge of the buck, I threaded the needle and made a cross canyon shot that broke his neck dropped him in his bed. He never knew what hit him.

After a long night of skinning a buck and a boar and three hours of sleep. The early morning found us glassing for hogs at first light. Soon we spotted a small group and the race was on to try and sneak in close before the opportunity to fill my pig tag expired. We covered a mile and a half and snuck on the pigs as they entered the trees. I was able to creep to a large rock and take this sow at a range of 50 yards as she moved through at a quick pace. One shot through the lungs and she came to rest no further than 30 yards from impact.

Excellent trip, lots of fun and a great way to get the blood pumping before archery elk. North Powder Outfitters, definitely worth the trip down.

I was shooting a Remington 700 - 22.250 with a 4.5 x 20 Gold Ring on top. Flat shooting. I am more of an archery hunter but with the open terrain, I had to make some changes. I stopped in Medford and shot at the Jackson county sports park.

The pig was a bit closer. We spotted them from almost two miles away. After closing some distance, I was able to sneak in and I believe I made the shot at 50 yards. One shot behind the shoulder with the 22.250 and the pig was down in less than 40 yards.