>The steens is a total bust....way
>to many tags for that
>unit....Oregon F & G just
>don't care about the hunt...It
>really needs the tag numbers
>cut in half...IMHO
>
>I burned 15 NR points in
>2016...Scouted all summer and worked
>over the entire unit from
>top to bottom, at
>least 40 days of scouting..
>I saw 2 bucks over
>180..Both on private land. 1
>in the north and 1
>in the south. Both
>owners said NOPE...Lots of public
>to hunt, so I just
>kept on scouting...It's amazing how
>much country is void of
>deer...I worked hard to find
>something worth waiting 16 years....I
>even flew it 2 days
>with a buddy....NOTTA..
>
> I
>managed to find myself on
>the Roaring springs ranch, totally
>by accident. (I never saw
>anybody or any signs, but
>after checking with the ranch
>itself, YUP I was trespassing)
> The amount of bucks
>I saw was impressive.
>I bet I saw 25
>bucks in 2 hours of
>scouting. Nothing giant but several
>in the 170's...promising for the
>future. That ranch is
>fairly large and control all
>access to a lot of
>public land, {landlocked}. I was
>told from a ranchhand that
>they allow hunting, I
>didn't get that lucky...
>
>I ended up shooting a nice
>little 160 4x4 on opening
>day...I had burned way to
>much gas and time, and
>quite frankly was bummed at
>the lack of bucks..
>
>On another note, I found
>some elk in the 340's,
> some antelope in the
>mid 80's and Bighorn sheep
>that would score great...Funny how
>I couldn't turn up one
>buck on all that public
>ground.
>
>
>By the way...I did kill, in
>the Steens, a 210 gross
>with my bow in 2006....So
>it has that potential..Maybe one
>day it will return to
>it's former glory, but until
>that day, there needs to
>be a lot of attention
>put to improving the herd
>and it's numbers.
Scott,
That's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard! With that much scouting it is so SAD that you couldn't turn up several shooters on public land that would go 180 or more. ODFW says there are 3-4 thousand deer in the entire unit when the objective is 11 thousand. The Steens unit is in serious trouble, and the worst part of is it has awesome habitat but like you said is thousands of deer less acres.
They need to close the archery season or make a draw exclusively for the Steens because hunters shoot every twink buck standing along the road and it's OTC. Then guys who wait 6 years for a resident rifle tag shoot forks and tiny 3pts the first day. The unit can't spare one of those small bucks let alone any at this point. ODFW will say the bucks don't matter only the does do.
The thing is when guys wait 15-16 years like you did or even 6 for a resident, I would think they want to see or know they had a chance at a mature 160-180 buck. You are right unless something changes the unit is gone forever!!!!
Those deer are pressured year round now with all the activity up there from campers, youth running camps that run every trail bothering the deer, and the Steens rim run. It never ends for them! The deer seriously never catch a break in that unit!
I wish more could ne done to bring the deer numbers back!
Okay I'm done complaining!!!!!!!!!!