Learning Taxidermy with Aleksis Miller

James Nash (0:08)

These are stories of outdoor adventure and expert advice from folks with calloused hands. I'm James Nash, and this is the 6 Ranch Podcast.

This episode of the 6 Ranch Podcast is brought to you by Defend Security Cameras. Well, who do I have with me in the studio today?

Aleksis Miller (0:36)

My name is Aleksis Miller, owner of Miller's Toxidermy here in Wallowa County. I'm 20 years old and born and raised in Wallowa County.

James Nash (0:46)

20 years old. I was curious about that. I didn't know if you were 18 or 19, but you turned 20

When was your birthday?

Aleksis Miller (0:53)

I actually turned 21 in less than a week. Opener of Rifle Buck Season, actually.

James Nash (0:58)

Okay, all right. Is that going to be a problem with Buck Season? Are you going to have a foggy morning? Are you going to be focused on the hunt?

Aleksis Miller (1:05)

Oh, I'm focused on the hunt. The party's coming after.

James Nash (1:08)

That a girl. That a girl. Did you draw a good tag?

Aleksis Miller (1:11)

Sled Springs.

James Nash (1:12)

Sweet.

Aleksis Miller (1:13)

Whitetail, so.

James Nash (1:14)

Nice. How do you feel about this year being the first year that you had to declare whitetail or mule deer?

Aleksis Miller (1:22)

I don't really like it. I mean, I feel like it does definitely help keep the animals regulated and keeps numbers a little bit more known for what people are taking. But personally, where I live and all that, I mainly hunt our private ground and stuff. And so one year, we can have all the whitetail bucks come in and no mulees. And then the next year, there's no whitetail and there's all mulees. And obviously, you get to pick and choose, whatever. And some years, you're not going to be able to kill an animal and stuff. But personally, I don't like it for what I hunt.

But I also do feel like there's a lot of good things about it with regulating whitetails and mulees in different units and all that, because there is definitely less mulees in our area right now and more whitetail that we see and stuff. So I feel like it goes both ways. So there's pros and cons of it.

James Nash (2:24)

Yeah. Yeah, I agree. I think it's the right thing for managing the resource. You know, they haven't even been counting the whitetail deer, so they don't even know what the population is. And it's obviously higher than the mule deer. The mule deer are not doing well.

But it is tricky. And of course, you know, I have a whitetail only tag this year, and I haven't shot a mule deer in Oregon in a very, very long time, just because they aren't doing well enough for me to feel good about doing it.

And we've got whitetail bucks here on the ranch that are pretty reliable to hunt, and they taste great, so that's just what I've been doing. I put in for the whitetail only tag for myself this year, and got it, stoked about it. However, this is also the first year in decades that we've had some decent mule deer bucks on the ranch during this time of year, and I'm like, oh, that would be kind of nice, but it's also just good to see some of those deer coming back, and the mild winter has helped, and I'm awfully hard on the predators around here, and that helps, too.

Aleksis Miller (3:39)

Yeah, it's definitely, I don't know, pros and cons of it.

Like our mulees this year, I think we've only seen like two or three bucks out of the whole Slud Springs and Chestnum unit, because I've been scouting quite a bit during elk archery season, too. And the mulees are just not there this year. Last year, I saw quite a few decent bucks, you know? But yeah, like last year, I saw archery, a mule deer, decent four by four, but they're just not how they used to be and stuff. But the white tails are definitely growing and needing to be taken down a little bit, it seems like.

James Nash (4:19)

Yeah. How long have you hunted?

Aleksis Miller (4:22)

Um, since I was nine years old. Yeah. First, my nine-year-old birthday, it was opener of rifle buck season, and so I killed a little spike, about inch horns, two inch horns.

So I've been hunting pretty much my whole life. And then that's pretty much rifle hunting. And then four years ago, I started getting into archery hunting. And that's pretty much what I've done. This is my first rifle tag in four years.