Trophy Curse

[Redmist]

I was born into the Columbia basin on a homestead farm in 1958.  Very few deer back then on the desert before the Project.  At about 4 years old I remember seeing my first mule deer buck.  I had climbed up in one of Dad's apple trees so as to gain enough elevation to watch my only brother get off the school bus down at the road about a quarter mile away.  I'm sitting up in the tree watching for the bus when this big desert muley comes high stepping through the alfalfa field about 30 yards away.  He never stops and just keeps trucking west down through Crab Creek and up over the hill about a mile away to the east.  I still see that buck in my minds eye clearly today.  The moment I saw that buck I became a deer hunter, and I've been chasing a rack like his ever since.  Can you other people remember when you first got infected with the Deer Curse.

[runningboard]

I was maybe four years old and listening to stories about how my dad and his partner had shot a buck and were walking up to it and it "came alive" and charged antlers first, my dad's friend jumped away losing his firearm and dives behind a little tree, the buck hits the little tree with an antler on either side and my dad's buddy grabs them thinking he is gonna hold it there, he and the buck jerk each other into the tree several times with great force and he screams at my dad, "shoot him Manny!" but my dad is nearly rolling from laughing! after hearing this and many other stories I decide soon as I'm big enough I am going to the woods to start building memories. I would say deer curse like your last line though maybe not trophy curse, at least not until much later anyway.

[Houndhunter]

I was born into the Columbia basin on a homestead farm in 1958.  Very few deer back then on the desert before the Project.  At about 4 years old I remember seeing my first mule deer buck.  I had climbed up in one of Dad's apple trees so as to gain enough elevation to watch my only brother get off the school bus down at the road about a quarter mile away.  I'm sitting up in the tree watching for the bus when this big desert muley comes high stepping through the alfalfa field about 30 yards away.  He never stops and just keeps trucking west down through Crab Creek and up over the hill about a mile away to the east.  I still see that buck in my minds eye clearly today.  The moment I saw that buck I became a deer hunter, and I've been chasing a rack like his ever since.  Can you other people remember when you first got infected with the Deer Curse.

is this the area by wilson creek?? i hunt on a guys property whos dad was one of the main guys in that project. dont know if its the same thing were talking bout here, but im sure it is cause its by crab creek. everyone i talk to that has been out there awhile says the same thing that it was that group of farmers who got the mule deer population back. kinda neat now seeing the huge deer populations out there all thanks to those guys. where we hunt a guy took a buck that had a 28inch spread that scored in the 160s

[dbllunger]

Never really had a deer curse, but man I have an elk curse.  First time elk hunting and saw a herd I was done.  I just love seeing elk. I  think it is the size, combined with their coloration and antlers.

[boneaddict]

Excellent thread Redmist.  I have made several references in several of the articles I have written and published, but here was that faithful day.  Idabooner brought home his trophy Canadian moose.  It was October 1974 and I stood between those gigantic palms with my outstretched arms.   The rest is history.  That moose has cost alot of animals their lives.    I grew up staring at them on the wall and still find myself staring at them when I am up in the valley.

[Redmist]

If that photo was mine I'd have a copy of it in a fireproof safe.  Those are Trophy smiles for sure.  Thanks Boneaddict.  HoundHunter, our homestead is closer to Moses Lake.  The (Project) I refer to is the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project which distributes water to fields from about Stratford south to Pasco.  The Project created Potholes Reservoir, Billy Clapp, and Banks Lake.  It also supplys Winchester and Frenchman wasteways, and keeps Crabcreek running below Adrian.  The "Desert GMU 290" is a result of the water.  I will give some credit to Dave Stevens of Buckrun for supplying deer habitat around Wilson Creek and Stratford.  We'll get migration through our property from Buckrun and Unit 290.  I think that within a decade the Crabcreek drainage from Moses Lake to Adrian could become "Desert Unit 2".  Alot of people have titles for Stevens, but "Project" usually isn't mentioned.  "Antibuckrunhunter" could probably elaborate quite truthfully. 

[Ridgerunner]

I'd like to hear a little more about the project, when did it occur?

[Skyvalhunter]

Bone those are some awesome plaid pants!! You were such a cute kid when you were little what happened to you when you grew up?

[10Key]

There is a ton of info available online about the Columbia Basin Irrigation Project. It is pretty amazing what a few dams and miles of canals can do.

[boneaddict]

Kind of like a Grizzly bear cub.  Cute as hell when a cub, but one hell uv a predator when they grow up.

[WAcoyotehunter]

To learn more about the Columbia Basin project, go to Grand Coulee in the Summer time, bring sunscreen, fishing poles and some beer.  Fish all day and watch the lazer show at night. 
That project has the Neil Diamond Seal of Approval! 

[ICEMAN]

Can you other people remember when you first got infected with the Deer Curse.

Sawtooth 20 years ago, up lake chelan below sawtooth ridge. At the time I was actually gutting a nice 4x4 muley, and was elbow deep in the deer, had my dad and his hunting buddy nearby up canyon, watching for more migrating deer. As I was cutting thru the diaphram, I got this erie feeling I was being watched.  I casually looked to my left, and there he stood, 25 feet away, looking as big as a horse from my angle. A massive, old, greyfaced muley that absolutely drarfed the 4x4 I was gutting. Huge rack, huge body, and all in gray, even seemed to be greying on the antler, spotted sort of.  The deer was looking at me as though asking what I was doing.  After a few seconds, as I spun my head looking for my rifle five feet away... (and yes I would have shot this deer too...) the deer bolted away thru a dry riverbed, kicking cantaloupe sized rocks around like they were peagravel.  I will never forget the sound of the rocks being strewn as he crashed thru the creekbed and flew up an adjacent rock wall, gone. My dad who was watching the canyon from above me, up the trail maybe thirty yards heard me cry out "deer!", he heard it but never saw this brute. I will never forget the deer. That deer has given me nightmares ever since, and I am always on the look out for him, or his ghost.