Upland Game Birds and Mule Deer, a Western Treat
In late fall of 2015 I headed West to Oregon for a few days of upland bird hunting and to be present for the opening of Mule deer season. I took a friend, Ted Winglass, for his first Western hunting experience. We were hunting Ruggs Ranch in Heppner, Oregon, located within the Blue Mountains in the north-central part of the state.
Upon arriving at the lodge we were greeted by Chef John Kulon, affectionately known as “Cookie”, and he served us an appetizer he called “wild game sushi” which was rice rolls with wild bird meat and avocado. Later we had raccoon sausage, and fried quail with mashed potatoes. Cookie was quite an accomplished and creative cook. I was skeptical about the idea of sausage made from raccoon meat; however it was quite good. After dinner we retired to the patio and fire pit, situated in an elevated position over looking an alpha pivot with the Blue Mountains as a back drop, and watched deer and pheasants meander in and out of the field as we sipped our bourbon and smoked a good cigar.
The lodge was a nice place to begin the trip. It was very tastefully decorated with wood beams, beautiful wood and leather furnishings and the bedding was done with Pendleton Wool blankets. Heppner is not very far from world famous Pendleton Oregon, home of one of the oldest and largest rodeos and where Pendleton wool blankets are made as well as Pendleton whiskey. We would be spending several days in this setting as we tried our hand at upland bird shooting before we would head up to the tent camp for deer hunting.
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New Zealand Hunting Adventure
I have had a burning desire to hunt New Zealand since my PH on my first African Safari, Nick Roet, told me stories of hunting on the Island with the Kiwis and showed me pictures of the beautiful landscapes. Nick is a native of South Africa, of Dutch Decent; however he moved his family to New Zealand when the political environment in South Africa started to change and he felt the environment was not a safe place to raise his family.
A little over a year ago my good friend and hunting companion from Oregon, Gary Lewis, called me and said he was planning a trip to the New Zealand to hunt stag. Gary Lewis is an outdoor author who has published several books, my favorite is Going Ballistic which is a book about the life and adventures of John Nosler. Gary also informed me that he was taking his wife Merrilee, so I thought this would be a perfect opportunity to take my wife Gretchen to a beautiful place and fulfill my dream of bagging a large Stag.
Part of the fun for me in any hunting adventure is the preparation. A big part of that is choosing the weapon and ammo that I want to use for the adventure. I decided to take my trusty Weatherby Mark V rifle chambered in 7mm rem mag. The rifle is topped with a 3,5 x 10x40 Zeiss Conquest scope. I chose the 7mm because I thought I may have to shoot some distance and that is the flattest shooting rifle I own with the exception of my varmint rifles that would not do the trick on a large Stag. I am a huge fan of Nosler ammunition; however I decided to try the Barnes X bullet for this trip, primarily because I was trying to go top range in the bullet weight for the 7mm and they have a “XFB” bullet in 175 grain for 7mm. The bullet did do the trick (second time around) and I was able to recover the bullet just under the hide on opposite side of shoulder of the Stag and I am not impressed with the performance. In the future I am sticking with the Nosler Partition. The powder used was 54 grains of IMR 4831. The accuracy of the loads was excellent, the performance of the bullet at impact and retention is what was not particularly impressive.
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Mason's First Safari
When I was in South Africa in 2009 I started planning for the day when I would take my son to experience the wonders of the Dark Continent. I wanted to take him on Safari when he turned 16. I discussed this with my good friend Gary Lewis, of Gary Lewis Outdoors, and Willem Gerhardt Van Der Gryp (Wighardt) the PH that we hunted with in 2009. Over the last 5 years I had been eagerly anticipating the day when I could watch my young son enjoy the experience of hunting in that special place.
I started last year by taking Mason out to shoot my Winchester Model 70 .375 H&H Magnum with Kales 1.1 x 4 scope. This gun is the stainless and black synthetic stock model and has served me very well on many hunts. Not only has it served me well, but on every hunt I have been on to date someone in my hunting party has borrowed my gun because it simply gets the job done. I initially had a concern that Mason would not be able to handle the recoil of the .375 H&H and was considering a 30-06 as a backup plan. I took him out to the range at our hunting lease and let him shoot it and he said he felt comfortable shooting it so we decided to opt for “old reliable”. After sighting in we made several trips over the few months preceding the hunt for him to practice. We practiced all of his shots off the sticks in both standing and sitting positions.
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Fishing in the Pyrenees and Horse Trekking on the Catalonia Coast
The seeds for this trip were planted about 30 years ago the first time I read Ernest Hemingway’s novel “The Sun Also Rises”. I became an ardent Hemingway fan and his books have inspired many pilgrimages to places like the dark continent of Africa to the crystal clear waters of the Florida Keys. For my 50th birthday trip I decided I wanted to fly fish for trout in the Spanish Pyrenees Mountains. My wife, Gretchen, was not too keen on the idea of a fishing trip so I added to the adventure a horse trekking trip up the Catalonia Coast covering 120 miles through rivers, over mountains and along sandy beaches.
I booked the fishing trip with Ivan Tarin of Salvelinus Fishing Adventures located in the village of Aren in the Eastern Pyrenees. The lodge I stayed in was the Ribagorza Lodge and Spa. This is an Orvis endorsed fishing outfit that has good reviews and a nicely designed website. Getting to the lodge was a relatively easy affair. I flew into Barcelona from Atlanta arriving the morning of May 9th. I took the train from the airport to the Barcelona Sants train station and stayed at the Barcelona Sants Hotel, located in the train station, which was a nice and convenient place to stay. The next morning I took the train from Barcelona to Lleida which was about an hour ride and I met my guide Aitor at the Lleida train station.
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