Keno Late Archery Deer Hunt info?

Just curious what this hunt is all about? Migration or resident herd? Are these migrating blacktails similar to the White River deer? How good can this hunt be? Please PM me with specific info, general info post away.

Thanks!

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Having lived in and worked both areas, I can offer the following:
*both units are east slope of the cascades and both offer a mixture of muleys and blacktails. I would say the blacktail influence is heavier in the Keno unit than the White-River Unit.
*The Keno Unit is a mixture of resident and migrating deer. However the migrating deer often originate within the unit. The migration is generally southward bound.
*The Keno Unit is flatter than the White River Unit.
*The Keno Unit is generally heavier covered in the winter area than the White River Unit.
*Keno has lots of logging roads, some of which are now closed off, but access is easy. Much of the private land is a timber company called JWTR. Open to hunt, just respect their rules.

The hunt has its devoted followers but it is not anything to write home about. I think it may be gradually getting better. I personally would not waste a point on it, but that is me.

Side note:
I had a late season Warner Muzzleloader tag several years back. I was traveling to the Warners to scout. However when I went home (then in The Dalles) I would find just gagger bucks in the White River Unit. I honestly never saw better bucks in the Warners than I did in White River that year. The best Warner buck was a stubby horned 3x4 32" buck. Score-wise he was easily beat by several heavy-horned bench-leg bucks I saw in WR. WOW.

I spend 25-30 days a year in the White River from November 15 clear through March and don't see any Bench legs. All I see are BIG Blacktails. Now if you get down closer to Hwy 197, around Tygh Valley you might see an occasional benchy. Just because these deer are found east of the Pacific Crest Trail does not make them benchlegs.

My Opinion only and it could only be settled with DNA on an animal by animal basis.

Either way, B&C will not accept blacktails from the White River unit as blacktails, nor will they accept them from the Keno Unit. Unfortunately nor will they accept one from where I shot a toad in the Rogue this year. Either way a big deer is a big deer.

Have you ever looked above Mosier? I recall a deer season about ten ago where it had been raining for about an hour. As I was driving through from Hood River there was an absolute HEAVY horned toad standing next to the road I was on. He would not leave! The best he did was trot up the road fifty yards or so and stare. I was working at the time, didnt matter as I did not have a tag for the WR unit.

Oh,I just remembered an ODFW collaring study that was conducted while I was there. They collared some bucks in the Hood Unit north of Hood (say Kingsley Reservoir area). If I remember correctly one of them wintered just south of The Dalles. I did not expect to see that at all.

When push comes to shove, the White River is probably better than the Keno unit for quality bucks. Trouble is that WR is soo close to the Metro area and people.