Document text
Mark Freeman Commentary Spending big bucks still leads to no bucks Stephen Walker plunked down a record amount of cash to hunt the Hart Mountain National Antelope Refuge's legendary monster mule deer bucks with a high-powered rifle. But 10 hard days of hunting and a $27,000 check to Oregon wildlife officials later, Walker can say from experience that legends are better left uninvestigated. Walker, 54, of Santa Barbara, Calif., bid the most money ever spent on a deer tag in Oregon when he bought the coveted Hart Mountain buck-rifle tag during a February auction, and he never tagged the big buck he expected to shoot. Though he was one of just two hunters since the Kennedy Administration to carry a high-powered rifle on Hart Mountain while stalking mule deer, Walker never fired a shot while on Hart Mountain last month. He never even flipped his trigger's safety off. "I never saw anything I wanted to take," Walker says. "I'm not just a killer. I just couldn't see pulling the trigger." In the pale light of reality, the mythical monster mule deer of the antelope refuge were off somewhere with the unicorns. The only big bucks associated with this hunt were the ones Walker paid for his tag. "It was disappointing," Walker says. "In terms of spending the money? No problem. It's for conservation. "You hear about these big bucks, but I never saw anything like that," Walker says. "And the bucks that I did see didn't seem to have the genes to produce the bucks like the ones I was expecting." Not what you would call great public relations for Oregon's Access and Habitat Program, which auctioned the coveted Hart Mountain tag to raise money for funding big-game habitat programs at Hart Mountain and across Oregon. Walker's not bitter. And he doesn't feel gypped, or that he was sold a bill of goods. It's just that his Hart Mountain experience was so ... unfulfilling. "It's like listening to the drum roll," Walker says, "and the cannon never goes off." Hunters have been itching to be in Walker's shoes since 1961, when high-powered rifles were banned during mule-deer hunting seasons on the 285,000-acre federal refuge in southeast Oregon. Archers and muzzleloaders have hunted mule deer in the ensuing decades, and many have reported seeing world- class bucks that are hard to get close to. They could have had a monster buck, the archers and muzzleloaders always seemed to say, if they could hunt with a rifle. That created an incredible allure when Oregon and the refuge agreed to offer one auction and one raffle tag for rifle hunting the refuge's mule deer bucks this August through November. It certainly piqued the interest of Walker, a former pension investor who retired to the sporting life in 1990 -- instantly making him the hero of hunters and anglers worldwide. His combination of wealth and opportunity has sent him hopscotching the West for trophy big-game animals by purchasing auction tags like this one. Walker bid his $27,000 by telephone during the Oregon Hunters Association banquet-auction last February in Medford. His bid was $5,000 higher than any deer tag ever sold in Oregon. After buying the tag, Walker said he expected to take a buck whose typical antlers will score about 205 points on the Boone and Crockett Club scoring system. That would have made it the top two or three in Oregon's hunting history. He also said he'd take a non-typical mule deer if those asymmetrical antlers would score in the 250-260 point range. Scouters combed the refuge in August for a big buck worthy of Walker's high expectations, but hot weather kept the animals bedded down and tough to hunt. With September and October dominated by bow and muzzleloader hunters, Walker decided to wait until the November rut to hunt his buck. During the first part of November, raffle tag holder Dean Rogers of Mount Vernon, Wash., shot a respectable buck -- but not a remarkable one, by any means. Then Walker arrived on Nov. 12, and instantly began seeing plenty of deer and plenty of bucks. But they all had much smaller antler racks, with nothing close to his pre-hunt standards. "There just wasn't anything outstanding," Walker says. As many as six men scouted the desert and mountain areas for bucks for Walker, and they often brought back reports of nice deer. But not one lived up to the pre-hunt hype. "Those bucks were never," Walker says, "what we were after." Walker even spent two days combing the desert for that one, aloof big buck. But it, too, turned out to be a mirage. They hunted hard, dawn to dusk, each day and no big bucks presented themselves. Frustrations began to mount. Disappointment replaced optimism. "People dream about hunting on Hart Mountain in the rut, the potentials for finding a really big buck and (the pressure) built upon itself," Walker says. After 10 days, Walker left the refuge, returning to Santa Barbara to spend Thanksgiving with his family. Needless to say, he doesn't expect to become a poster boy for next year's Hart Mountain auction. But coming home empty-handed, Walker says, is better than shooting an inferior buck to justify his $27,000 payment. "This way," he says, "maybe (future bidders) will just think I wasn't a good enough hunter, or I'm a guy who can't climb or something like that," he laughs. While Walker has no regrets, he realizes his experience has not helped Hart Mountain's mule-deer legend. "It was a good experience," he says. "I enjoyed it. But I'm not trying it again this year." (Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at: [email protected] ) Outdoor Journal main page Mail Tribune Copyright � The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, Oregon USA