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OR Lookout Mountain Antelope Hunt Recap

elkrchr

Well-known member
Joined
Jun 26, 2010
Messages
1,279
Location
Three Forks, MT
After 13 years as an OR resident, I applied for and drew the Lookout Mountain antelope tag. This is a large unit that is mostly private (~65-70%), but supposedly has/had some excellent genetics. I lived near this area for three years back in the early 90's and still have friends in the area who were willing to help where needed. Prior to the season, I tried to obtain permission on a few pieces of private ground but was unsuccessful. The first scouting trip ended up being a washout as the area received four inches of rain and the roads were nearly impassable (even for my Nissan Titan). The next scouting trip allowed me to familiarize myself with the roads and a couple of the "walk in" private areas. Very few antelope were seen during that visit.

Fast forward to the day prior to opener. A massive fire was burning near Baker City, OR which had the interstate closed from LaGrande, OR to Boise, ID. That meant I couldn't access two of the "walk in" areas I had planned on hunting until the freeway was reopened. We made a plan to hunt the largest, most accessible BLM area on the opener. On Saturday morning, we hit the ground running. After two days of thoroughly hiking and glassing the BLM country, we had only seen seven antelope. Fortunately at the end of the second day of hunting I was able to obtain permission to hunt a large ranch bordering the BLM property we had been hunting.

We now had to learn this area and find the antelope. I didn't take long to find the antelope, but they were situated in an area where one would need to be a military sniper to harvest one. Our daily routine was to hike one mile to a knob where we could glass most of the "antelope holding" country. There were around 50-75 antelope in the area, five of which were mature bucks, but none that would warrant any excitement. At this point in the hunt, we decided to shoot the first legal buck (horns longer than the ears) we could get within range of. On Tuesday we managed to pull off a well executed stalk which ended up in a five hour waiting game only to have me botch an easy shot at one of the mature bucks. My 10 year old son had some words of encouragement for me, but didn't let me forget I'd messed up for the remainder of the trip.

We needed to be home Thursday night. Wednesday morning we nearly sealed the deal on another of the mature bucks, but an unseen doe and fawn busted us at the last minute. Thursday morning we planned to execute the same tactic as Wednesday morning. We never made it. On the way to our glassing knob, a herd of about a dozen antelope ran across the ranch road. There weren't to spooked, so we pursued. After hiking about a 1/3 of a mile, we spotted them feeding in front of us. There were three legal bucks in the bunch, so I ranged (220 yards) the buck offering the best shot, put the rifle on the shooting sticks and squeezed one off. Needless to say, my son and I were both ecstatic with the outcome. This hunt was all about patience, perseverance, determination and hard work. I'm sure he is going to taste great and my son and I will be able to relive the adventure every time we look at the photos and the european mount on the wall. Enjoy the photos!
 

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Great adventure for you and your son!! Congrats on your success. Those fires have made the hunting difficult in many areas in Oregon. Way to get it done!
 
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