Columbian w/t hunt this w/e

Hunt begins on 18th. If not familiar with this whitetail variety, is only hunted in Oregon and for only the past few years. About 100 draw tags a year. Similar to Coues deer in size with even smaller racks. I will follow up on how the hunt goes.

Arrived in Roseburg. Season opens in morning. Rain in forecast and 40s. Rain should reduce amount of fog. Can be very tough to glass if fog is heavy.

Fog was not a factor on Day 1. Did rain quite a bit including 30 minutes were was the heaviest rain when I have been outdoors.

Saw 3 legal bucks. Only shot opportunity was at 50 feet on big-bodied mature 2x2 that had short times and minimal mass. That was not a type, mature bucks mostly 3x3 but some 2x2.

Saw 25 does in up to 4 in a group and had some within 100 feet. Mostly saw whitetails but did bump some blacktail does when I hiked more than 500 feet above the stream bottoms.

Saw a bobcat and flock of turkeys, too.

If your hunting the NBH, there are a few whoppers in there! It's a good area, even with all the tags in there! Good luck!!

Day 2. Saw a few new bucks today and lots of does including one with a green ear tag. Hunting mostly along the eastern boundary. No whoppers yet. Plenty of rain and some strong winds in mid-afternoon.

Day 3: Hunted again along eastern boundary and over along norhtern boundary. Saw over 100 does (mostly blacktail) and 1 spike blacktail buck. Zero whitetail bucks. Walked up some of the draws that run up the side of the main ridges and bumped out does anywhere there was significant cover. Also, saw dozens of does spilling over the ridges out of the North Bank BLM at first light to get to the private land where was more food choices. They would return at dark since North Bank offers better bedding habitat, apparently. Plenty of water, everywhere.

I headed home last night so tag soup for me. Was neat looking country for a flat lander and I began to enjoy going up from the creek bottoms at 700 feet elevation to the top of the steep ridges at 1600 or so feet. I think two people working together could flush out a buck from some of the heavier cover rather than just in the draws. Need two people though with the shooter up higher on a hill looking down into the thick stuff and the "bird dog" walking through the brush. The whitetail tend to spook out sideways while the blacktail head uphill.

Very cool post. Wish you had some pics. I'm not a whitey fanatic, only saw my first one 6 years ago when I moved here to Idaho from Cali, but only have a faint memory of even hearing about this subspecies, would love to see/hear more. Sounds like lot of critters where you were and I assume it's pretty thick country.