Orygun
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Spent 5 days in the Eagle Cap Wilderness in NE Oregon. If you want days filled with sneaking the hills, seeing lots of bucks, glassing, stalking, and shooting. Then the Eagle Cap is not for you. For you Cali guys, think Western Sierra high country with White mtn deer numbers. Some of the most beautiful, rugged, and majestic mountains in North America. on ecna see bighorn, mtn goat, elk, bears, deer and so. Just not a lot of them. Last time I hunted it was with a rifle and never got far enough in. This time we hit a canyon where we had seen deer. Just 6 miles in and many contour lines up.
I had picked several bowls identified on the quad maps. 7000 feet was the magic elevation. The mtns there mostly crest between 8-9000 feet. The bucks live in and above the bowls at the treeline. For the week we averaged 3-4 deer seen a day and two bucks total. I spent all day with one playing hide and seek in his moutain redoubt. Only 3 trails leading in from below, 50 foot sheer rock covering the rest of the approaches. above were a sereis of benches leading up the the mountain peak. I tried dropping in from one of the benches to glass the bowl. I didn't bring mountaineering gear and had to slip into the bowl from one of the approaches. By the time I got into the bowl, the thermals had betrayed me.
This buck had everything up in this 50 acre retreat. Water, forbes, grasses, shoots, brush, shade. I doubt he'll budge form there till the snows. I got into him when I walked through a spring and saw his tracks in the moss, the silt still suspended in the water filling his tracks. He went downhill and into his bowl. I glassed and couldn't see him, figured he'd pull the ole J hook on me and wait. So I waited, and waited, Set up where I thought he might try and sneak back up. Turns out he pulled a straight "I". When I snuck into the 4 acre meadow, he bolted from the single white pine he had darn near burrowed into. I had glassed him svereal times over never registering he was a buck. All I saw at 60 yds when he left was a wide butt amd and a large multi-branched antler bounding into the timber.
I left the hill and hobbled back to camp, a mere 3/4 miles away and 1500 feet below. He's up there laughing right now I'm sure.
For those that wonder where to look for big bucks, here's where to start: [attachment=44479:buckland.JPG]
Highlights: Awesome weather, awesome country, tasty brookies for dinner, a good friend volunteering to tag along, friendly nonhunting hikers along the trail, hiking sticks, no other hunters the whole time.
Lowlights: bad knees, aching back, my 9 yr old boots I bought at Cabelas literally having the tread crumble apart, nasty, nasty lightning storms
For those wanting to hunt the Eagle Cap, get a guide with horse, or do a drop camp, or at least bring some pack animals. Your looking at a 7-10 mile pack out, minimum. Or a steep thousand foot downhill from where you get your deer, so bringing them out will be a long, long walk. Expect to spend most of the day glassing the highest points. You won't see many, but odds are when you do, it will be big.
I had picked several bowls identified on the quad maps. 7000 feet was the magic elevation. The mtns there mostly crest between 8-9000 feet. The bucks live in and above the bowls at the treeline. For the week we averaged 3-4 deer seen a day and two bucks total. I spent all day with one playing hide and seek in his moutain redoubt. Only 3 trails leading in from below, 50 foot sheer rock covering the rest of the approaches. above were a sereis of benches leading up the the mountain peak. I tried dropping in from one of the benches to glass the bowl. I didn't bring mountaineering gear and had to slip into the bowl from one of the approaches. By the time I got into the bowl, the thermals had betrayed me.
This buck had everything up in this 50 acre retreat. Water, forbes, grasses, shoots, brush, shade. I doubt he'll budge form there till the snows. I got into him when I walked through a spring and saw his tracks in the moss, the silt still suspended in the water filling his tracks. He went downhill and into his bowl. I glassed and couldn't see him, figured he'd pull the ole J hook on me and wait. So I waited, and waited, Set up where I thought he might try and sneak back up. Turns out he pulled a straight "I". When I snuck into the 4 acre meadow, he bolted from the single white pine he had darn near burrowed into. I had glassed him svereal times over never registering he was a buck. All I saw at 60 yds when he left was a wide butt amd and a large multi-branched antler bounding into the timber.
I left the hill and hobbled back to camp, a mere 3/4 miles away and 1500 feet below. He's up there laughing right now I'm sure.
For those that wonder where to look for big bucks, here's where to start: [attachment=44479:buckland.JPG]
Highlights: Awesome weather, awesome country, tasty brookies for dinner, a good friend volunteering to tag along, friendly nonhunting hikers along the trail, hiking sticks, no other hunters the whole time.
Lowlights: bad knees, aching back, my 9 yr old boots I bought at Cabelas literally having the tread crumble apart, nasty, nasty lightning storms
For those wanting to hunt the Eagle Cap, get a guide with horse, or do a drop camp, or at least bring some pack animals. Your looking at a 7-10 mile pack out, minimum. Or a steep thousand foot downhill from where you get your deer, so bringing them out will be a long, long walk. Expect to spend most of the day glassing the highest points. You won't see many, but odds are when you do, it will be big.
