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Black Bear on the Pacific Coast – Oregon
Oregon’s bear population numbers between 25,000 and 35,000 animals, spread over approximately 40,000 square miles of habitat. In 1994, voters banned the use of hounds or hunting with bait. Hunter success plummeted in the years after the ban, but as bear numbers increased and more hunters adapted to spot-and-stalk and calling tactics, hunter success has…
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Feral Round-Up in Central Oregon
Thirty-two feral sheep worked away into the junipers. A black ram with a full curl of horn stepped out from behind a tree. Instead of coming up our canyon, the sheep fed through the sage and bitterbrush and over the next ridge. “That black one is a good one,” Todd whispered. “There’s a buckskin-colored one…
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Oregon Fall Turkey Hunt
Southwest Oregon has more turkeys than any other corner of the state. So many, that Oregon has instituted a fall season to keep populations in check. Lots of edge habitat with mixed oaks, madrones and bottom lands along creeks and rivers keep these turkeys (Rio Grande transplants) happy.
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Hunt Trophy-Class Columbia Blacktails
If there’s one animal on the West Coast that frustrates hunters more than any other, it is the Columbian blacktail deer. A big blacktail buck may be one of North America’s toughest antlered trophies. Here’s a late-season rut hunt in one of Oregon’s top blacktail units that offers an opportunity to look at a lot…
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Southwest Oregon’s Quail of the Mountain
Mountain quail sightings are short affairs punctuated by whirrs of wings and palpitations of the heart, but a hunter is more likely to hear mountain quail before he sees them. An alarm call cle-cle-cle is the sound a hunter is most likely to hear. After the covey is disturbed, mountain quail regroup with a series…
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Though no Substitute For Hunting Skills, the Right Gear can Help you Bag your Deer
When she sees a deer or a picture of one, our nearly two year-old daughter will exclaim, “Ah, bucka. See bucka!” We’ll tell her, “Right. Deer,” or, “Buck deer.” “Yah. Gear,” she says. I think she has a point. Every huntger needs to consider the gear they will take into the field on opening day.…
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Preparation can Keep Lost Hikers From Staying Lost
A week of warm weather melted the snow and I took the opportunity to make a hike into Marion Lake. I left the trailhead in the early morning as the sun came over Rockpile Mountain. The path wound up through old growth fir trees hanging heavy with moss until finally I could hear water running out of…
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In-Season Scouting for Hot Weather, High Country Elk
When the mercury climbs to 90 degrees and above, as it can throughout the late August and September season, elk have to adapt. At the end of last season, I joined a hunt with Mike Crawford of Battle Creek Outfitters on their Buckaroo Ranch in the Heppner Unit.
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Turkey Season – Get Back in the Game
He is big. Sometimes 20 pounds or more. One suspicious move and he’ll duck his head and run. Don’t move a muscle. Not yet. He stops to strut, fanning out his tail feathers and puffing out his chest as if to boast, ‘Look at me girls, ain’t I the pretty one though?’
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Scouting, Wind Sense and Calling Pay off During Archery Elk Season
Walt Ramage and Jon McLagan topped out on the ridge, looking into the valley below. Morning sun pushed back the shadows, poking bright fingers beneath the firs and ponderosa pines that forested the north-facing slope. Across the canyon, on the dry side, sagebrush and junipers cooked in the early morning heat.
Field Guide
Oregon Hunting
Hunting in Oregon is a more diverse experience than anywhere else in the country. One of the great things about Oregon hunting is the incredible variety of species available for the taking; a hunter can choose to pursue mule deer, blacktail deer, Columbian whitetail, northeast whitetail, Rocky Mountain and Roosevelt elk as well as goats, sheep and predators. The abundance of diverse habitat allows for everything from sage rats to black bear hunting in Oregon!
I’ve been fishing and hunting in Oregon since I was a teenager and I’ve gotten to know the country, habitat and hotspots. The result was an Oregon hunting guide—my book, Hunting Oregon.
The first Hunting Oregon was brought to you by Sun Publishing in 1999. As every Oregon hunter knows, animal habits and habitat change. That’s why we published the second edition—Gary Lewis’s Hunting Oregon. This update, finished in 2010, is completely new, with chapters written by Scott Haugen and Duane Dungannon. In full color, this Oregon hunting guide is what every hunter needs to have before they head out into the field.
There are other ways to prepare for your time in the Oregon outdoors, and I’ve listed a few helpful resources below, to go along with Hunting Oregon.