Roseburg, Oregon, October 8 – 12, 2005
Western Oregon Outfitters—guide Eric Bunn
Used my Robar .308 again (Sherry). Used the Federal 165 gr. Trophy Bonded Bear Claw ammo again.
I took a Columbian Whitetail Deer and my husband a Columbian Blacktail Deer

This was the first time in 25 yrs. Columbian Whitetail deer had a legal hunting season. They are found in the limited habitat along the Pacific coast. They share their territory with the Columbian Blacktail deer.

I drove from Wyoming through a snow storm to get to Oregon in time for our hunt! (Note: This is a nerve wracking feat for this Californian!)

The season had already opened October 1st and before heading to the field I was able to see the results of some earlier hunts. The reports were all good and all the area hunters were filling their tags. Most of the tags on this special hunt were Landowner tags. I was able to obtain mine through Western Oregon Outfitters and hunted with guide Eric Bunn. Eric and his partner contracted with many of the local ranchers for landowner permits.

My husband took his 4x4 with eye guards, Columbian Blacktail the first morning of the hunt with guide, Dan. In real life, Dan is a local rancher, infamous sheep shearer and all around handy guy. My husband made an outstanding shot, considering he is legally blind, on a Blacktail facing him at 217 yards. He dropped him like a rock!

I took my Columbian Whitetail on the 3rd afternoon of my hunt. He was the first trophy quality buck I saw, and I couldn’t pass him up at 75 yds. He was a 3x3 with 1 small kicker and tall eye guards.







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Back home to Bakersfield, California, October 18, 2005 (5 days before close of season)
Self guided on our own property
Used my .308, Sherry again and same 165 gr. Trophy Bonded ammo

After Wyoming and Oregon, we headed back home to Bakersfield where we happen to own a section of rugged country bordering Sequoia National Forest. Although I had missed most of the deer season already and I have not harvest a deer from our property previously in the 4 years we’ve owned it, before I got back to work in our business, I rushed up the mountain and bagged my first buck off our own property !!! The deer in our area a small compared to Rocky Mountain and Desert Mule deer. They seldom weigh over 125 pounds. He was a little forked horn, but a trophy to me nonetheless!

What a lucky gal I am, the freezer is full and what a fantastic season I’ve had. It will be a hard year to duplicate, but I want to try!!!!

Awesome job by both of you!

Sounds like you guys have had a great season. That is awsome!

Those Columbian deer sure are nice looking animals.

Those are nice deer, and I am glad to see you used a local guide to get them. Unfortunately, most of them shot these days are poached.

(I had to look several times at your pictures to determine that they were not taken on my place.)

My favorite amongst the deer on my land was poached just two weeks ago. A Columbian Whitetail much like your wife's, except with 7 points on each side... I try to keep a "safe" area around the house,where I spend about $1,000 per annum giving the deer special feed and minerals to build up the local breeding herd.

I don't mind them being taken in fair chase hunting when they are out of the "safe" zone, by hunters who have permission and legal tags to hunt where trhey are. This particular buck NEVER wandered out of the "safe" zone, and had fathered MANY very nice other bucks which do and hence are fair game...he was a primo herd "stud". He also was tame, would not run from a car or a person, and was a real pleasure to an old man's heart.

I DO resent the Hell out of the yahoos who show up here from Oregon cities and other states and poach them!! I have had three deer killed in my front yard in the last couple of years, all at night, where if the poachers had used a more powereful rifle or missed the deer, the bullet would have gone into our front bedroom!!

The ones who poached the 7-pointer committed all kinds of violations. They pulled their rig into my driveway, (where they had no permission to be), shot from their truck (without even getting out), across a paved rural highway, killing the deer on our land across the road which they also didn't have permission to trespass upon. Then they lept out, crossed a fence, dragged the carcass back to their rig, threw it in the back and peeled out throwing gravel everywhere ...speeding off.

Our area had almost 100 deer killed and left to rot by that kind of people...all gut-shot with .22 rimfire's, BTW, in less than a month, three years ago...and it is getting worse.

(In that instance, they killed approx 50 deer which were found, then were caught and arrested, and while out on bail were caught after having killed 40 more. They thought it was funny and bragged all over Roseburg about it. Their court penalty? A $200 fine and two years loss of hunting privileges. Those people were not axxhxles, that's a useful part of a HUMAN.

In Oregon, F&G enforcement is the State Police's jursidiction,so the County Sheriff's Deputies won't even respond to poaching calls. The State Police will only repond in a day or two, if they have the time, as they are also responsible for all the Interstate traffic enforcement in the state.

Guess why my neighbors and I are posting ALL our land within the next couple of weeks......?

Anyway, glad your hunt was a legitimate, guided, effort, and that you were successful. That's a nice pair of bucks. I hope Oregon always has room and a welcome for folks like you that play by the rules.

I just read the report on re-opening of Columbian Whitetails in The Hunting Report Dec issue. Facinating animals! Thanks for sharing great pics and report!