anyone hunt the ranch this year? If so how was it.

[dino]

just like the title says. Im wondering if things are recovering up there at all.

[ghost]

Dino I was just going ask that same question,miss going up there.

[Stresd]

If your talking Gang, I was there 2 weeks ago. Saw well over 200 Deer on the weekend. Lots of bucks including quite a few 4 or better

[Timbow]

Buddy shot a 7x8 209"

[Tīɡ]

buddy shot a 7x8 209"

pics or it didn't happen!........:D

[Weatherby Fan]

Apparently dana is still there chasing 200 inchers which are extinct in Clearwater ........this is why he hasn't been posting !

[s0ylentgreen]

hi, can somebody edu-ma-cate me on what ranch this is?

many thanks

[mpotzold]

hi, can somebody edu-ma-cate me on what ranch this is?

many thanks

Dino
1. Gang Ranch or Clearwater

Need some help here guys leaving 3rd week of nov Im after a decent buck. Ive been to the ranch, lots of bucks but no real shooters. Never been to clearwater but hear good things if you work har


We(4) only got 1 buck beginning of Oct . in a 2 day Gang hunt.:cry:Lots of does. Had a chance at a buck but he was running. No moose or doe tags this year for 5-03.

[M.Dean]

Or, once your across the Churn Creek bridge, take the left road and go towards the Empire Valley Ranch. Haven't been there for years, but every trip in there was a good one! Had some real close call's driving in, or coming out, and one on the Black Dome mine road that still haunts me to this day! I counted 49, yep forty nine different camp setup's all around the "Hay Sheds" one year, and that's not counting the guys that camped where ever there was a spot wide enough on the road in! So ya, it did get a little "Over Hunted"! Great hunt'in trips they were way back then!

[Fisher-Dude]

Toughest part up there is keeping your truck on the road if you get a bit of rain.

That loon shit clay is brutal. We chained up just to get up and down to our hunting spots.

Of course, this was a dozen years ago. Piles of deer there at the right time of the year. I'm pretty sure if a person were to spend a week there in November and be prepared to wander around a bit, they'd get a chance or two at a 4 pointer!

[Timbow]

pics or it didn't happen!........:D

I guess it didn't happen...haha

[dino]

The ranch is usually just a fun meat hunt for us. I was wondering about it because I haven't seen much chatter on here about it and I have not been there for three or four years. There was a time there not to long ago that the 4 pointers were really small and scarce. I didn't know if things were better now

[wideopenthrottle]

The ranch is usually just a fun meat hunt for us. I was wondering about it because I haven't seen much chatter on here about it and I have not been there for three or four years. There was a time there not to long ago that the 4 pointers were really small and scarce. I didn't know if things were better now
the buddies that showed me that place many years ago made me promise not to mention it...to anyone....ever...heheheh

[warnniklz]

That whole area seems really dependent on weather. You can either be walking in grassland or waist deep in snow. This is a pretty general observation. But I think locals are the only guys not running chains down there, but that's not sating they aren't packing them.

[Backcountry Hunter]

Big 2 pts everywhere!!

[swampthing]

Deer are still there but waaay less than before. Its a meat hunt for me to. I like to hunt yotes there feb/mar and pick up sheds. There was only a couple camps when I was in this year compared to the 30-40 of days past.

[warnniklz]

I don't think the month long doe draws help at all...

[358mag]

Or, once your across the Churn Creek bridge, take the left road and go towards the Empire Valley Ranch. Haven't been there for years, but every trip in there was a good one! Had some real close call's driving in, or coming out, and one on the Black Dome mine road that still haunts me to this day! I counted 49, yep forty nine different camp setup's all around the "Hay Sheds" one year, and that's not counting the guys that camped where ever there was a spot wide enough on the road in! So ya, it did get a little "Over Hunted"! Great hunt'in trips they were way back then!
Sounds like late season hunting Whitetails up the Christian Valley Lock + Load

[Fisher-Dude]

Sounds like late season hunting Whitetails up the Christian Valley Lock + Load

Best time to hunt the CV when all those camps are there. Sit in a lawn chair 100 yards off the road, play games on your phone, eat chips and drink pops, and shoot one of the 30 WT that will run past you. Easy peasy.

[358mag]

Best time to hunt the CV when all those camps are there. Sit in a lawn chair 100 yards off the road, play games on your phone, eat chips and drink pops, and shoot one of the 30 WT that will run past you. Easy peasy.
SSSHHHHHHHSSSSSS ... or sit in your truck with the heater going listening to Johnny Cash and shot your bucket list buck .....

[Fisher-Dude]

SSSHHHHHHHSSSSSS ... or sit in your truck with the heater going listening to Johnny Cash and shot your bucket list buck .....

That technique requires special skill that not all can master. I was giving advice to the 99%ers.

[Bugle M In]

Best time to hunt the CV when all those camps are there. Sit in a lawn chair 100 yards off the road, play games on your phone, eat chips and drink pops, and shoot one of the 30 WT that will run past you. Easy peasy.

That is so true!!
how many deer I saw up there at exactly that distance from the road was amazing.
And how many trucks drove by, and saw neither the deer or myself.
Although I never did see any 4 pt at any time up there.

[dino]

did anybody here jet up or down the river?

[Xenomorph]

Best time to hunt the CV when all those camps are there. Sit in a lawn chair 100 yards off the road, play games on your phone, eat chips and drink pops, and shoot one of the 30 WT that will run past you. Easy peasy.


SSSHHHHHHHSSSSSS ... or sit in your truck with the heater going listening to Johnny Cash and shot your bucket list buck .....

You guys are hilarious. :)

[Weatherby Fan]

hi, can somebody edu-ma-cate me on what ranch this is?

many thanks

Would be the Famous in BC Gang Ranch !

http://i1087.photobucket.com/albums/j466/WeatherbyFan65/map2-362x453_zpsbjrrivah.png (http://s1087.photobucket.com/user/WeatherbyFan65/media/map2-362x453_zpsbjrrivah.png.html)

[Ambush]

I don't think many people hunt the actual "Gang", more so just the peripheral.

I hunted the Empire [south of the Churn and the Gang] when it was still a working ranch and during the few years the Empire was in limbo. It was good and there were some good bucks, particularly in the no-go zones. It was fun to park at the Sheds, hike up the north side and spot south to the "Sacred Ridge". The bucks were a little more casual about their wanderings on that side. When it became common knowledge that there was no effective management, it was a bit of a slaughter with stupid young bucks standing around everywhere.

When it became a park or reserve, there were still lots of deer, but of course access also became common knowledge. The numbers dropped each year as hunter numbers went up. Everybody wanted to hunt the famous, game rich Gang area. But as far as "trophy" quality deer go, it is way over hyped. I've spent many,many hours glassing the fields and river coulies of the Gang from hills over the Churn. There are a lot of giant 3X3's and forks to. Bucks that, if seen from front or back, would have a hunter convinced he had for sure seen a 200" deer! Forks that would have a guy telling the camp that night about the 165" that just made it over the hill. Just plain poor genetics if you like lot's of inches on your deer's head.

I have a couple of friends that are in the "Four Point Hilton" family and they go faithfully every year, and I have hunted from the cabin, but if you check the walls, there are not many "giants" immortalized on them.

I used to go to outfitter's website and and check out the best muleys taken off the Gang Ranch and it was rare to see much over 170" and most considerable under. With a couple of notable exceptions.

I haven't hunted there now for likely ten years, too crowded for me, but it is still such a beautiful place, that everyone should spend some time hunting\hiking it. One of my favourite ways to start the day was to be on a high nob and have the sun come up as you wait with your spotting scope to spy on the deer's world.