Lewis

He called me two days before the controlled hunt application deadline last spring. He had so many elk points. He had so many deer points. He had so many antelope points. And he was getting close to 70 years old. What was a boy to do with those points, he wanted to know. I had some ideas, but he had to make decisions quick.

“But Gary, I don’t have a muzzleloader.”

No big deal, I told him. I’ll find one for you.

In June we drew our antelope tags and as I was wondering what I was going to give my friend Winfield and what gun my daughter was going to hunt with, my phone rang. Another friend said he had two muzzleloader kits and I could have them if I would build them. Quick as that, I had another shop project. My daughter and I started on the two rifles side by side — 50-caliber Traditions Deerhunter kits like those available from La Grande-based muzzle-loaders.com for $319 each.

Over the summer, my daughter and I completed the rifles. We sighted-in at the beginning of August and by the end of the month we were in the field. My 24-year-old daughter tagged the biggest trophy of her hunting career when the herd buck put on the brakes in front of us at 41 yards. She dropped the book she was reading and in one quick, smooth motion, cocked the gun and fired. When the smoke cleared we saw the trophy pronghorn stretched out before us, felled by a 275-grain conical from her home-built muzzleloader.

After a celebratory antelope camp dinner, my daughter headed for the taxidermist and the butcher block with her buck. The rest of us toughed it out in the desert for the next four days. I missed a buck downhill at 100 yards and Winfield had his chances too.

Not only did we burn our powder last year, I burned my deer tag too and with only one point to count toward the elk drawings, I find myself in the unenviable position of searching the big game regulations for easy-draw muzzleloader hunts. What’s a boy to do?

Because muzzleloader hunters are a small minority in Oregon’s hunting community, sometimes the opportunities go overlooked. This year, two deer hunts look like they could be drawn with zero or one preference point. The Grande Ronde (152M) hunt runs Nov. 14-27, when whitetails are in the breeding season.

Another option is the Sled Springs Unit muzzleloader hunt (157M) which runs from Nov. 28 to Dec. 11. Be careful when applying for this one as Sled Springs has a lower percentage of public land and the deer are more likely to be found in the valleys. The bag limit for both hunts is one whitetail deer.

For elk, check out the Elkhorn 1 (251M1) and Elkhorn 2 (251M2) offerings in the Sumpter Unit. The first season runs Aug. 1 to Oct. 15 and the second season runs Oct. 15 to Dec. 31. A frontiersman with his coonskin thinking cap on might also apply for a Baker Muzzleloader (151M) tag for a November whitetail deer season opportunity while hunting elk.

For a nine-day bull elk hunt, consider the Eagle Cap Muzzleloader (260M). This year, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife offers 55 tags. Nine days is a good long hunt and enough time to pattern animals and get close to herds.

Maybe you don’t have a muzzleloader. That’s easy to fix.

Try to find a 50- to 54-caliber muzzleloader with at least a 28-inch barrel. If it’s a traditional sidelock, you can upgrade the sights to adjustable irons, a peep or even to fiber optics.

Plan about 24 hours for the build, working on evenings and weekends. With spring around the corner, the May 15 big game application deadline in view and one or two easy-draw tags in your future, you can start scouting now.