Saturday, Oct. 04, 2008

Oregon rifle deer season begins

By The (Eugene) Register-Guard

EUGENE -- The Oregon rifle deer season opens today, and it appears that after a generation of declining numbers, the number of deer hunters in Oregon is on the way up.

The number of deer hunters declined for 25 years, from 317,473 in 1981 to 171,680 in 2005.

In 2007, hunter numbers had rebounded by about 10 percent, to 188,870.

Elk hunting activity was also up, for the third year in a row.

It's estimated deer hunters spend a million days each fall in search of game.

Their chances of bagging a deer this year will be about the same as those in 2007, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife says.

Last year, the weather was favorable, the Fall Hunting Forecast says, and 36 percent of the hunters who drew Eastern Oregon mule deer tags got their venison, while 21 percent of those who participated in black-tailed deer hunts on the west side filled tags.

In the winter, biologists worried that heavy snows in some areas would hurt deer and elk herds. But spring counts indicated otherwise.

The opening of the rifle deer season is followed by a flurry of other general season hunts that begin over the next two months. Those include upland game bird and waterfowl seasons as well as five different elk hunts two in Eastern Oregon, two in Western Oregon and one along the spine of the Cascade Range.