Oregon rifle muledeer hunters? Results?

[finnman]

I have been reading results on another site and seems to be a rather bleak season in eastern Oregon this year. Some nice bucks but mostly zeros and few deer at all seen. My buddy, his son and another guy hunted a week in SE Oregon, saw next to nothing and shot the only 2 bucks they saw, which were together. A nice 4 point and a 3x4.
How about anyone else?
My wife has 11 points for deer but I keep waiting for it to get better....not sure if that is going to happen!

[CJ1962]

Went down to Lower Deschutes unit.  My Oregon family had 4 tags.  Hunted through Sunday the 11th and the only bucks we saw during daylight hours were on private land.  This is an easy unit to draw so I wasn't expecting much, but not to see a single buck on public land during daylight hours was pretty disappointing.

[MtnMuley]

Burned my points on a unit that takes far lesser points than I had. Decided to not even pursue it, nor buy my tag. I'd personally rather chase muleys with an OTC archery tag in Oregon.

[finnman]

That OTC archery hunt is gone starting next year. All draw for archery now in eastern Oregon.

[vandeman17]

Didn't have a deer tag in the unit, but while on my old man's archery elk hunt we saw FAR MORE deer than we did in the other years we had a tag. Cameras had a lot more deer too. Bunch of younger up and comers and I saw one very nice 4x4 that I would have easily killed on any draw tag I had in WA. 

[Buckjunkie]

My son, son in law and father in law had Owyhee tags last year. It was pretty bad. They only filled 2 of 3 tags and they shot forkies. After the hunt a guy said we should have tried hunting from a boat.

I have a Mt Emily late deer tag this year. I have been down twice learning the unit. The deer numbers are way down. I read where 2200 of their 3300 whitetails died from EHD. The mule deer supposedly faired better, but their numbers were already down.

[rtspring]

Not sure where everyone was hunting, but the unit I hunt had a ton of bucks!  Seen many in the 160-170 range. Plus a few that absolutely blew my mind.  I of course shot a two point!!!  Deer numbers are just fine. 

[KopperBuck]

Deer numbers are just fine.

Hardly.

[rtspring]

Deer numbers are just fine.

Hardly.

This is exactly why some of don’t post much anymore! Cause people such as yourself contest every damn thing people say!!  I don’t know much, I only hunted 30 straight days out of a 30 day season!  Pretty sure I know the game numbers. 

[abhold87]

Got mine in the sumpter unit Sunday evening of the opener. I think the full moon And hotter weather had the deer super nocturnal. Shot mine at last light and was the only deer I saw all day due to sitting on his bedding area waiting for him to come back out where I saw him that morning.

[Buckjunkie]

Got mine in the sumpter unit Sunday evening of the opener. I think the full moon And hotter weather had the deer super nocturnal. Shot mine at last light and was the only deer I saw all day due to sitting on his bedding area waiting for him to come back out where I saw him that morning.

Great buck! Thanks for sharing.

[finnman]

Got mine in the sumpter unit Sunday evening of the opener. I think the full moon And hotter weather had the deer super nocturnal. Shot mine at last light and was the only deer I saw all day due to sitting on his bedding area waiting for him to come back out where I saw him that morning.

Congrats!
Eastern Oregon is a giant area. It’s absolutely possible some areas are doing ok and others not. And if the only deer you see all season is a big 4x4 and you kill it....it’s a good day.
However, there are many units guys are seeing absolutely next to nothing and that’s not a hoax. 

[abhold87]

I can believe that. Between this hunt and the last time I was able to hunt there down in the pine creek unit I’ve hunted and hiked a ton of miles for the little amounts of deer I’ve seen. I just happened to be in the right spot at the right time and lucked out. I watched a huge basin over at willows creek lake the first night and never saw a deer. I know I scared some walking over to the lake to get water but it was maybe 3 at most. The only other deer I heard was one that was snorting at me as I hiked back to camp in the dark after I shot my deer. Tons of sign up where I was but I saw more mountain goats then deer.

[pd]

Abhold, those are really beautiful goats.

[JimmyHoffa]

What do you guys suspect to be behind the lack of seen animals?  Fires?  Cats?  Wolves?