Public lands

[SG85]

This is my first deer season in OR and I don't have solid access to good private land. Any tips or recommendations on public land areas. Or places to stay away from. I don't want to be crushing twigs with 1000 people camping with guns and not seeing deer. Any advice?

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[nwwoodsman]

Where in Oregon are you hunting whitetails? It's all blacktail in my area. People, me included, complain about all the other people out there. I've found the easiest way to get away from the Cabelas clad crowd is to find a locked gate and start hiking. Most people don't stray too far away from the main lines. For those that do get off the main lines most don't get out of their truck.

 

[sheepdip]

the only whitetail I have ever seen in oregon were in the northside unit a couple of years ago during elk season

 

[DieselScout]

There is a small herd of eastern whitetail in the NE corner of the state and also the rare Columbia whitetail as well. While ai believe both can be hunted drawing tags is rare. My guess is the OP is new to the area and doesn't know we hunt mule and blacktail mostly. Regardless the advice given is good. Get as far away from easily accessed ground as possible.

Good luck.

 

[SG85]

Sorry for the poor reread whitetail was a force of habit. I have always hunted in Texas, nothing but whitetail. Little ones at that. I'm looking in the Salem area give or take a few miles.

 

[clambo]

It's too bad you couldn't have moved here 20 years ago or sooner. We used to have a lot less people using public land for hunting and a lot more private timberland access. Hunting is much more competitive now than ever ever before. As someone stated below, your best bets are to walk or mountain bike in behind locked gets. The further the better. There is plenty of USFS land to your east up around Santiam Pass but it will be crowded. Some state and USFS land to your west, also crowded. I'm attaching a list of private timberlands that may or may not be open due to fire danger or vandalism. You can call the companies and probably learn a lot as far as accessing their land goes. Personally, I now hunt 85% Forest Service land. A lot of people hate it because of thick brush, lack of visibility, lack of browse, etc. Hunting is harder and shots are shorter but it does tend to keep the crowds out. ( They haven't logged any of it in 20 years or so, hence the overgrowth) I hope this helps a little. Good Luck ! <broken link removed>

 

[Mark W.]

The only land open to hunting near Salem I know of is the Willamette Greenway. Shotgun only and may have some other specific rules. Its out along the river off Walace Rd. in West Salem. There is private timber land up near Silver Creek Falls. But the hunting there in recent years has been very poor. And expect to be shoulder to shoulder with other hunters.

 

[ZigZagZeke]

This advice is too late for this year, but for next year do your homework and investigate the draw tag hunts (100 series in the ODFW Big Game regulation booklet) for eastern Oregon. There are places out that way with lots of public land and you can find some mule deer bucks out that way too.

I have access to some private land totaling a few thousand acres out around Maupin, and I apply for their LOP tags every year. But I worry every year that some yahoo/poacher/road hunter will have gotten the owners so angry that they ban all hunting. Every year I find gut piles by the side of the gravel roads that cross the ranches, and I see obvious bunches of road hunters cruising those same roads, ready to jump out and shoot a deer on private property illegally from the road then trespass to drag it to the back to the road. If there comes a day when nobody can hunt in this state it will be because of shot up signs, torn down fences, trespassing, garbage dumping, shot up livestock, gates left open, and stray bullets bouncing off ranch houses. If I see any of those antics while I'm hunting you can be sure the sheriff or state police will get a call on my cell phone.

 

[JGRuby]

If i had to hunt as ZigZagZeke described I think about the truck hunting - I think I would give up hunting for ever - that is not hunting to me that is not what I go in the field for each year. This year even though I have the time and the money I suspect that I wont be hunting until and if the fire hazards are cleared. What about fishing this time of the year?

James Ruby