Opening Day

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Dave

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 12, 2004
Messages
17,705
City & State/Province
Baker County, Oregon
Today was opening day of deer season here. I went into Little Sinker Canyon which has a reputation for big bucks. I didn't see anything. Part of the reason may have been I spent so much time looking at my feet. That piece of real estate is steep. And where it isn't steep it is because it is vertical. This afternoon sitting in the recliner while nursing my tired legs a little forkhorn buck spent about an hour slowly feeding his way up the driveway. He got to my stock trailer and turned in through a open gate into the corral. I didn't shoot him. I will spend a few more days looking for his grandpa. Actually if I do shoot a young meat buck it will be one of two spikes that need to be removed from the gene pool.
 
Stocker Steve said:
But did you close the corral gate ?
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I wouldn't have done any good. I am still working on the back end of the corral. He just walked out that way without even jumping.
Four days of hiking the steep ground looking for the big one. My legs are saying enough is enough. My son who is young and really in shape saw over 40 deer yesterday. The only bucks he saw were two spikes in the field in front of the house. I saw 7 bucks the last 3 days all spikes or 2 points. I am beginning to think it is meat deer time.
Sunday I made an interesting find. An old mine shaft. I saw a tailing pile so I investigated. Way up on a ridge. A long ways from anything (takes well over an hour to walk to it). A hole chiseled out of solid rock. It is about 10-12 feet in diameter and about 15 feet deep. There is a vein of quartz running down the side. They found a lot of gold here in the 1860's and 70's. Long enough ago there is no sign of any activity other than the hole in the ground. But some old timers worked mighty hard to dig it.
 
Seems like having oil wells in the pasture is a traditional way to get rich ranching, but I would settle for a gold mine.

Is the gold mine on your property?
 
Stocker Steve said:
Seems like having oil wells in the pasture is a traditional way to get rich ranching, but I would settle for a gold mine.

Is the gold mine on your property?
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No that one is on BLM. It is only a couple hundred yards from my property line. But there is gold on my property. We have found some. I am certain there is lots. The thing is how much dirt do you have to move to get it. It doesn't work well to find a million dollars in gold but it takes 1.5 million to recover it. I don't have gold fever at all. I play with it once in a great while. But I realize that I am just playing. The best gold on the ranch is reasonably inaccessible most of the year and is snake heaven for 5 or 6 months of the year.
 
Stocker Steve said:
Can you file a mineral claim on BLM land and get da boys wound up at the local café ?
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I am not sure how that filing a claim works. Going up the canyon from my place is one claim after another for 15 miles but they are old claims from before BLM even existed. When the Hoffmans on that Discovery show Gold Fever mined in Oregon it was about 16 miles upstream from me. As for firing up the boys at the local cafe. There is no "local" cafe. The nearest anything is 30 miles away. There are some gold miners around but I doubt that anything I would do would fire them up.
 
Don't know how you can make it w/o a café. We have the "table of knowledge" at our local spot. Don't need the internet with that kind of local power!
 
Stocker Steve said:
Don't know how you can make it w/o a café. We have the "table of knowledge" at our local spot. Don't need the internet with that kind of local power!
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There is a building by the freeway with a cafe sign. It closed 4 or 5 years ago. Just not enough local people to support it. Within a 10 mile radius of that point there are 10 or 11 ranches. There is by my count 10 houses in town that are lived in. I guess not enough traffic stopped off the freeway to keep them in business. They claim the post office serves 130 people. That must be every man, woman, and child within 20 miles.
 
The oldest son is here hunting. He was going to go home this morning. Last night just before dark he saw the big one. Made phone calls to his wife and work. Now he is staying through Friday. Me, my legs have had enough of that mountain for a day or two. I am doing chores around the place today. Maybe I will shoot one of these little hay field bucks.
 
Jeanne - Simme Valley said:
Or maybe the big one will visit you!! It happens!
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If my son doesn't get him he will stay back in those steep canyons. I have seen him twice. Both times was when the rut was on and that is well after hunting season closes. Both times it was darn near dark. He didn't get to be that big by being stupid. Even during the rut he is pretty much a ghost.
On the other hand there is a stupid forkhorn just across the fence on the neighbors. He was on my place last night and this morning. There is a big spike who is 2 or 3 years old that walks through the front field most afternoons. Need to remove him from the gene pool anyway. One of those may die this afternoon.
 

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