From the Guide’s Desk

The thing that I haven’t really mentioned enough in all of these reports from the ranch is that none of this would be happening right now without the irrepressible efforts of Coon Camp Springs, Inc. President, Dave Allen.  

When I first visited this place six or seven years ago, I thought it was beautiful.  But it was also covered up in juniper.  As Dave showed me around, he talked about the little springs he remembered, but all that was left of them was low spots and maybe a little green cover.  The junipers were sucking the groundwater dry.  Left alone, the property would soon be little more than another patch of high desert sage and juniper, without enough food or water for anything bigger than a pack rat.  Dave told me about how he remembered the place, with cottontails, upland birds, and most memorable to him, some frogs around a couple of the springs.  The frogs had long ago gone silent.

A couple years later, after some false starts and some changes of plan, Dave was able to get a forester to start cutting down some of the juniper.  The forester chipped the trees up, and sent them to a local power plant to be burned for fuel.  The arrangement worked out great for Dave (and the property) because it got rid of the junipers, and it was also profitable for the forester.  At the same time, he started the groundwork to form the Coon Camp Springs, Inc., a 501-C non-profit organization (of which I am a proud Board Member).  With this non-profit status, we were able to recruit occasional volunteers who could write off their travel and various expenses as donations.  We were also able to acquire some donations of equipment and even a little cash. 

But all of this was a drop in the bucket.  The bulk of the work (besides the large-scale juniper clearing) was carried out by Dave… often working alone.  He had a dream, and this project would be his lasting mark on a place that has given him so much joy. 

Several weekends per month, he’d load his dogs in his truck and take off on the six or seven hour drive, and then spend the entire weekend putting up fence, working on a cabin and bunkhouses, planting native plants such as bitterbrush, wildflowers, and grasses, and working on water sources. 

All of that work costs money, and while he was able to acquire the occasional grant or assistance from donors, Dave often digs into his own pocket to pay the costs of this dream.  As an organization under Dave’s leadership, we were fortunate to qualify for four deer tags and an antelope tag under the PLM (Private Land Management) program which we can sell to generate funds for the project, and these help to offset the costs.  That’s where these hunts come from, and the quality of the hunts is a direct result of Dave’s hard work. 

The thing is, all of this work is paying off for the habitat.  What was already a beautiful place has become even more beautiful and getting better every year.  We have flowing springs again where there was only rock.  Bitterbrush, a prime food for deer and other wildlife, is growing and spreading where juniper once ruled.  The deer herd is growing and thriving, and from the signs they’re staying on the property longer.  Cottontails flit from brush pile to brush pile, while golden eagles, hawks, and owls hunt from above.  Waterfowl nest on the restored spring ponds, and occasionally loaf on them again during the migration.  We even have a covey of quail, something I’d never seen on this property until last year. 

And on a warm, summer evening, if you happen to be out beside the right spring at the right time… you’ll hear frogs.

You can click to enlarge this image for a better look.

I’m still waiting for final word from our last hunter at Coon Camp Springs, but as of my last communication he’s been seeing and passing on several smaller deer.  As I understand it, he’s perfectly happy to shoot nothing but his camera this week, and it sounds like he’s getting lots of good opportunity to do that.  From reports, they’ve spotted several forked-horns and one young 4×3, all with or near does.  I can only imagine the caliber of deer it’ll take to make him spend a bullet. 

I know there are plenty of good deer left, by the way.  The afternoon after David killed his buck, Dave Allen and I took a little cruise to look for coyotes, and just to see what else we could find on the place. 

Click to enlarge this image.

For one, the pretty 4×4 that was harassing David’s buck earlier in the morning was one happy camper.  We came across him pushing those does around the sage and bitterbrush flats.  A smaller 4×4 had come to the party as well, and from the looks of things I’m betting there was probably a pretty good brawl later that night. 

Click to enlarge this image

By the way, in my rush at Cabelas the other day I somehow picked up two boxes of .270 WSM ETips, instead of .270 Winchester.  Cabelas does not accept returns on firearms or ammo, which left me stuck with these bullets and no gun to shoot them in.  So, they’re for sale at the marked price ($38 or so) to anyone who can use them.  I’d prefer that you be close enough to the SF Bay Area to pick them up yourself in person, as I don’t even know what the rules are for shipping.  I just can’t see going out and buying a new rifle for two boxes of ammo.

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post. Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).

Click Here to view Part 1

Click Here to view Part 2

Here’s the final part, then… hope you enjoy it!

The waxing moon was the biggest concern for our next hunt.  David Brown would be arriving on November 1st, and the moon would be completely full on the 2nd.  Way up in that country, a full moon lights up the night like daytime, and the deer stay active all night long and then bed up during the day.  The only bright spot was my hope that the moon would also help kick off the rut.  Nolan’s buck had been chasing does three days earlier, and on the Saturday before David’s arrival I glassed up a really nice 4×4 leading a harem of does, so things were looking really positive on that front.  As long as the moon didn’t screw us up, I had hopes that we’d see a pretty good hunt.

I was in Reno when David arrived on Sunday, so Dave (Allen) would take him on the tour, and go over to the shooting bench to check out his rifle.  I thought they’d also go ahead and hit the field for a little while before I got back, but they decided just to relax in camp and wait for me.  The hunt would start Monday morning.

Over dinner, we talked about the last couple of hunts, and I told David about the big 4×4 I’d seen.   I described what I thought was the best strategy to get on him, just sitting on a glassing point and waiting as long as we could stand to sit there.  A lot of western hunters can’t sit still for hours, but with the deer moving consistently over the same area, the longer we could stay put, the better our odds of getting a shot on that buck.  David assured me he loved glassing and sitting, so the plan was made.  We had a great dinner of elk and pheasant, and headed off to bed with visions of big bucks dancing in our heads.

Monday morning’s hunt was a guide’s dream come true.   Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post. Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).

Click Here to view Part 1

Here’s the second part, then… hope you enjoy it!

When Nolan left with his father on Tuesday night, his plan was to get home, visit with his family a little bit, and then come on back out to the ranch on Thursday afternoon.  Tom said he might come back as well.  Even though he already had his buck, he wanted to be there when Nolan tagged out.  In the wings of the plan was the possibility that Nolan may bring his six year-old son back up with him to enjoy the hunt and camp, and possibly to see his father take a buck, just as Nolan had been there 35 years earlier to see his own dad tag out. 

With these plans in our minds, Dave Allen (President of the Coon Camp Springs non-profit org), Kat (my girlfriend and camp cook for the week), and I decided to take our downtime on Wednesday to get out to town and pick up some supplies.  We did some work around camp and headed up the hill to the highway.  Just before we topped the last ridge, a black truck came up the road toward us.  Nolan just couldn’t stay away!  I bailed out and let Dave and Kat go on to town.  I’d spend the evening hunting with Nolan and his son, Tommy, and see what we could do to fill that tag. 

With a six year-old in tow, the cards were stacked against us on this one.  On this property, there are a couple of ways to hunt.  One is to sit tight on a high spot and glass, and then either shoot or stalk for the shot.  That requires quiet, patience, and sitting still… none of which are exactly common traits among the first grade set. 

The other method is to still hunt slowly through the juniper thickets.  This is slow, silent going, and is difficult enough for a solo hunter.  With a couple of experienced hunters, getting close to a buck is a real challenge.  With two hunters and a youngster, it’s almost a guarantee we wouldn’t see anything except tracks. 

There is a third method, of course… road hunting.  While I’m not against the practice, and will do it from time to time, it’s not really something we encourage at Coon Camp Springs.  The terrain is pretty friendly, and there’s almost no place the most out of shape hunter can’t go on foot.  Besides, riding around in the truck isn’t the kind of experience most mule deer hunters are paying for. 

I had some decisions to make, and none of them looked promising.  This was gonna be tough and no way around it.  Read the rest of this entry »

Well, I’m back.

It was an eventful couple of weeks at Coon Camp Springs… too eventful, in fact, for me to simply summarize the hunts in a single post.  Instead, I’ve decided to write up each hunt separately (although there’s a great connection between the first two).  Here’s the first part, then… hope you enjoy it!

The huge mule deer stood broadside… not 40 yards from where I crouched with my hunters, glassing the thick brush.   “I can’t see his head,” said Tom Henry, the senior of the father-and-son team.  “Is it a buck?”

His son, Nolan, whispered back.  “It’s huge, that has to be a buck’s body.”

“Does anybody see horns,” I asked? 

It seemed like we were standing there for several minutes before I was able to spot antler tines protruding well above the juniper branches that obscured the deer’s head.  Once I saw that, I was able to piece together the rest of the rack and head.  I had been looking too low… this sucker was big!  It was definitely what we were looking for. 

“It’s a really good buck,” I hissed. “Kill it!”

“Did he say it was a buck,” queried Tom?

“It’s a buck,” answered his son.  “He said, ‘kill it.’” 

“What,” said Tom?

“SHOOT IT!”

At the crack of Tom’s .270, the buck hopped and kicked out his back feet, then tore out through the brush.  His right leg was flopping.  To all appearances, it looked like a textbook shoulder/heart shot.  I breathed a sigh of relief, and started out to follow what I expected would be a really short blood trail to a really dead deer. 

The last time the elder Henry killed a buck with his son was almost 35 years ago, when Nolan was a youngster of around six.  They’d hunted together since then, but it seemed that Tom was destined to go home empty-handed every time he joined Nolan in the field.  This year he’d bought two of our PLM tags at Coon Camp Springs as a birthday gift for his son, both as an opportunity to spend that time together, but also as a chance to break that long, unsuccessful streak. 

This was the first full day of hunting with these guys, after spending the previous evening checking the zero on their rifles, touring the property, and scaring the coyote population with a few long shots.  Since we had a little daylight left, we even sat and glassed for a while before heading back to camp for a big dinner of wild boar sausage with apples and wild rice. 

At first light, we were back on that rock. Shortly after we settled in, I spotted some does off in the distance.  They were way off the property, but we watched them as they slowly worked their way toward our fenceline.  There were about eight or nine deer in the field, but no bucks that we could see (they were over 1000 yards away).  Suddenly, Nolan hissed, “deer!”  Read the rest of this entry »