Moving to Oregon

Trad Bow 1979 · Jan 3, 2014

Hello there I am planning on moving to Oregon in the next couple of years and I am just wanting to start familiarizing myself with how big game hunting is done up there. I have done all of my big game hunting here in New Mexico where I curently live. I have obtained a proclamation and gone thru it a few times. It appears that it is not very hard to draw a deer tag, there seems to be a ton of them. However bull elk tags seem more difficult. I am looking at the hunt code with the area that shows the number of tags authorized as well as the amount of 1st choice applicants. I do have to admit though that the Oregon hunting proclamation is a bit more complicated than what I am used to. Is it really that hard to draw a bull tag? Or am I overlooking something? I talked to a local sportsmen in Oregon recently and he gave me his take on bull elk hunting in Oregon. He said I can get an over the counter tag on the west end of the state, but that the hunting pressure is really bad, and it is all very thick timber. Or I can try to get lucky enough to draw a tag on the east side of the state, but that it is so open out there that I should consider buying a 338 Lapua. Of course it is only one locals opinion, but it made me feel a little discouraged. So I am asking for a little clarification on getting bull tags; are there OTC tags, are all of the draw tags really hard to get, where in the state is the best place to apply for a person that is used to hunting in a mix of timber and meadows? Any info is appreciated, thank you.

Wanted · Jan 3, 2014

There are a ton of tags...but not many deer. Don't mean to sound so bleak, it's just reality. You can buy OTC for elk, but you'd be better off using the tag/gas money and buy a side of beef. Our draw tags for decent hunts are 5-25 year waits. I would stay where you're at if you have a choice.

440sixpack · Jan 3, 2014

Oregon deer hunting will be worse than you imagined. the only reason this state gets away with it is too many hunters are ignorant to what good deer hunting is. don't worry much about deer hunting.

The west side elk hunting is no fun in my opinion, but it's there if you're into that sort of thing. the draw tags on the east side range from crap to pretty good, you can pretty well judge that by the draw odds. the NE part of the state has a spike only over the counter tag, it's okay I guess if you just want to hunt and you like spikes and lots of company.

You're going to need to build some points before you're going to have much of an experience in Oregon. and then you may feel let down.

My advice is hunt out of state and build points in Oregon. I hope hunting isn't why you're moving here, CA and WA are the only western states you could have done worse on.

Stay thirsty my friends

desperatehills · Jan 5, 2014

The information above is some what accurate, but all is not doom and gloom here. If you are after trophy mule deer you will be disappointed. To many tags for to many years IMHO. Having said that, myself and most everybody I know that hunts kill a deer every year. The Elk hunting is going to be hugely disappointing for you. Our three best units in the northeast corner of the state would be average in N.M. If you started now you would never draw them anyway. Most of the units in eastern Oregon that are north of highway 20 and south of 84 are open to general archery hunting. If you bowhunt, pick a unit and learn it. You can have a great experience every year. Big bulls are killed on the coast range every year. This is steep and brushy country. It is a different hunting experience and is not for everyone. I suspect most the successful coastal hunter live not far from where they hunt. Thousands of hunters head east every year to hunt elk, not many travel from eastern Oregon to hunt the coast. Oregon has a lot to offer, so long as your expectations are reasonable.

440sixpack · Jan 5, 2014

If you didn't kill a deer every year the hunting would be better. I could kill a deer when I draw too, but I don't I want a mature deer. there should be no deer hunting in eastern OR until the numbers come back above objective levels set to represent carrying capacity. that's the problem with OR hunters , as long as they can kill a dink some of the time they're all thumbs up.

Stop the hunting until the herds warrant a reduction, let ODFW suffer from the lost revenue and maybe they'll get serious about it. Oregon hunters expect little from ODFW and they get it.

Stay thirsty my friends

Brute · Jan 5, 2014

LAST EDITED ON Jan-05-14 AT 11:00PM (MST)[p]Look at Ron Wold's draw info. to see your odds.
Good Luck

Oregon's controlled tag draw odds
https://sites.google.com/site/oregontags/

Big Game Regulations
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/index.asp#big_game_regs

Controlled Hunts
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/controlled_hunts/

desperatehills · Jan 5, 2014

I should have gone into more detail. I shot a 20" wide blacktail in the applegate muzzleloader season, a draw tag. I helped a friend kill a 135" blacktail in the high cascade hunt. 100% draw on first choice but still a draw. The point I was trying to make is you get out of hunting what you put in. 440 is right, Oregon gives out way to many tags. The unit I hunt in eastern Oregon during the bow season has 2000+ rifle tags for deer the last time I looked. A similar size unit in Utah has 330 tags for all 3 weapon seasons. As you can imagine the Utah hunt has better quality and quantity. Its easy to say we could cut tags and have more/better deer. That is not what this thread is about. Quality deer are killed in Oregon every year. Some by skill, some by luck. I am all for a tag reduction to improve deer herds, but as long as ODFW prints tags we will buy them. The experience each hunter gets out of their hunt is directly proportional to the effort they put in.

440sixpack · Jan 6, 2014

I'm an official B&C measurer, I score VERY few deer from Oregon and those I do are almost always taken by a guy who just lucked out. there are no mule deer hunts you can consider trophy hunts.

I'm not sure what the OP was after with his question, I assume he is looking for some quality but if he's not Oregon won't be so bad.

Stay thirsty my friends

baltz526 · Jan 6, 2014

Oregon has some good pockets of deer population and in these areas large mature deer live. In general they are very thick areas with limited visibility. Or hard to draw areas with large chunks of pack in only area. Apply for the Fort rock Buck deer tag 177, the first year you are going to live here during deer season. I'll gladly share camp and scouting info. This unit gives you a very good overview of deer hunting in Oregon. Dive in and give it your best and Oregon can turn out decent critters. One of the big selling points for western Oregon general season tags. You can hunt deer for 3 weeks, switch to elk for 1 week, back to deer for several days, hunt Bear and cougar and grouse all this same time. 5 straight weeks hunting big game on over the counter tags with a unit the covers Interstate 5 to cascade summit, Columbia river to California border. If you can not find a Deer/Bear to harvest you did not hunt enough. Grouse for camp dinners and a limited chance on Elk. Hunt and you will find game. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------support your local guzzlers. OHA life member,lapine oregon

tchoate3 · Jan 7, 2014

First of all don't waste money on a new gun to hunt Oregon! If you are used to seeing game every time you go huting in NM, you will be very dissapointed here in Oregon. It is very common to hunt for days with out seeing a legal animal and if you are picky it is very common to go home with your tag in your pocket. Hunting for days without seeing a deer is not all that uncommon on the west side, it can be tough.
Elk hunting go to the NE corner or the coast range. Blacktail deer, Jackson county. Mule deer anywhere but Oregon. Antelope, you will not likely draw a tag in the next 2 decades. Bear coast range or NE OR: no dogs or bait. Cougar anywhere in the state: no dogs or bait. Sheep - Mt Goat you have as good of a chance to draw as Oregon natives that have been applying for 40+ years. Welcome to Oregon?

Willametteriveroutlaw · Jan 10, 2014

I don't think it as bad as everyone says.. I fill my deer tag almost every year either on the west side or east side.. Elk hunting is good, not always successful on that hunt but there are options to purchase damage tags etc for other opportunities.

Cougar without dogs is near impossible, but filling bear tags is relatively easy.

Needless to say, its not all gloom and doom. The fishing opportunities more than make up for it.

Wanted · Jan 10, 2014

>I don't think it as bad
>as everyone says.. I fill
>my deer tag almost every
>year either on the west
>side or east side.. Elk
>hunting is good, not always
>successful on that hunt but
>there are options to purchase
>damage tags etc for other
>opportunities.
>
>Cougar without dogs is near impossible,
>but filling bear tags is
>relatively easy.
>
>Needless to say, its not all
>gloom and doom. The fishing
>opportunities more than make up
>for it.

And this ^^^^is why it will NEVER get any better "I fill my deer tag almost every year"

440sixpack · Jan 10, 2014

Yep, the yearling dinks stand along the roads and get whacked.

I wish more Oregon hunters knew what good deer hunting was it would be easier to get some interest in bringing it back.

Stay thirsty my friends

desperatehills · Jan 10, 2014

Here are the "dinks" my friends and I killed this year

Left is from Western General Rifle and the right is from the High Cascade buck hunt.

Sorry for the crappy picture, I didn't have my good camera at the time and I rotated it but it changed back. This was a Southern Oregon muzzleloader hunt.

Ron's Buck

We saw this mule deer buck while hanging game cameras the week before bow season. He is on public land in a over the counter unit.

The last three pictures were not this year but they are only a few years old.

Could things be better in Oregon, hell yes. These deer don't compare to other states. But don't think that everyone in Oregon is driving with a Keystone in one hand and a pall mall in the other shooting the first fork by spike they see. Oregon hunting is like sex. It might be bad but it's still sex!

ruttinbull · Jan 10, 2014

>
>
>I wish more Oregon hunters knew
>what good deer hunting was
>it would be easier to
>get some interest in bringing
>it back.
>
>
>

Ok... we have just made you Director of ODFW. You are now responsible for ALL fish and wildlife resources in Oregon. You are responsible for the hunting. You are responsible for the fishing. You are responsible for hunter recruitment and retention. You are responsible for maintaining a budget that includes many hatcheries, wildlife areas, employees (recruitment and retention), non-game wildlife (by law), and threatened and endangered species.

Now with all of this, you cannot make a change to the habitat as you have no control over it (other agencies do). By the way, these other agencies are controlled by their own bureaucracy, none of which gives a hoot about 180 class deer or 350 class elk.
Please tell us in detail how you would fix the problem.

So please, please, tell us what you would do. Please tell us what your background is in wildlife management. Please give specific examples of your wildlife management accomplishments. Have you managed an agency? Please tell us what your background is in leading anything beyond campfire talk.

Curious

440sixpack · Jan 11, 2014

Those bucks are okay, in a few years they'd be pretty nice. we wouldn't have looked twice at them back when we had deer, if you're happy with them then you don't know what could be. I don't want to sound like the old man harping on how it was, but there is no excuse to be hunting deer in most units in eastern OR in the condition they're in. it is not supposed to be the role of the hunter to harvest just to the brink of extinction. this is what passes as game managment in OR.

ruttinbull, I'm a self employed farmer/rancher who sits on an irrigation district board and deveral other related functions . I've lived in eastern OR all my 51 years and I know what the hunting is and I know what the hunting was. does that make me qualified to run ODFW ? I doubt it, but what qualifies the clowns who are ?

The habitat excuse is BS. I know what habitat and feed are, the habitat is one hell of a lot better than it was when I was a kid in the 60's and we had big bucks everywhere. if we destroyed the range today like we did back them the FS would hang us. there were jillions of domestic sheep back then too, very few today. the loss of habitat claim is BS too, deer will live in the hay shed or in your yard.

We haven't has a winterkill in 20 years, we used to have deer killers at least once a decade, so don't blame the weather. when we do, the deer will be on the ESA .

In my opinion predation is the #1 factor and that will be no easy task, but they've tried nothing and it hasn't worked. so lets cut hunting off , and that includes the bowhunters with unlimited tags driving around twanging at yearlings out of the back of the pickup. then go from there, you start with what you can do.

Stay thirsty my friends

Muleymemories · Jan 12, 2014

>First of all don't waste money
>on a new gun to
>hunt Oregon! If you are
>used to seeing game every
>time you go huting in
>NM, you will be very
>dissapointed here in Oregon. It
>is very common to hunt
>for days with out seeing
>a legal animal and if
>you are picky it is
>very common to go home
>with your tag in your
>pocket. Hunting for days without
>seeing a deer is not
>all that uncommon on the
>west side, it can be
>tough.
> Elk hunting go to the
>NE corner or the coast
>range. Blacktail deer, Jackson
>county. Mule deer anywhere but
>Oregon. Antelope, you will not
>likely draw a tag in
>the next 2 decades. Bear
>coast range or NE OR:
>no dogs or bait. Cougar
>anywhere in the state: no
>dogs or bait. Sheep -
>Mt Goat you have as
>good of a chance to
>draw as Oregon natives that
>have been applying for 40+
>years. Welcome to Oregon?

The reason I moved out of the state over 10 years ago. The hunting is sub-par at best in the state. Deer hunting is very very sad.....