Oregon 2022 Big Game Regulations Are Posted

[kselkhunter]

For those already contemplating 2022 plans that want to get an early start, Oregon has posted their 2022 Big Game Regulations.

Link:  https://www.eregulations.com/assets/docs/resources/OR/22ORHD_LR.pdf

The most notable change is the eastern Oregon elk archery units.   Thankfully ODFW scaled back plans to make all eastern units controlled, like they did with the archery buck tag.  And only did northeast and east central units.  Thankfully my preferred eastern unit was spared so I can continue just buying the OTC archery elk tag.   

[vandeman17]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

[jae]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

That’s does sound crazy!
If you draw then no general season area’s can be hunted.
That makes for some tough choices.

[vandeman17]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

That’s does sound crazy!
If you draw then no general season area’s can be hunted.
That makes for some tough choices.

My theory is its a way to limit the non resident hunters in the units while still giving resident hunters a legitimate chance of hunting it every year or two. 

[Ricochet]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

$8 per application. I'm not convinced this isn't more about increasing revenue than managing hunting pressure.

[vandeman17]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

$8 per application. I'm not convinced this isn't more about increasing revenue than managing hunting pressure.

So basically mirroring wdfw mindset. Makes perfect sense to me

[hughjorgan]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

$8 per application. I'm not convinced this isn't more about increasing revenue than managing hunting pressure.

So basically mirroring wdfw mindset. Makes perfect sense to me

How much money are they going to lose in non resident license and tag sales with this move. Only 5 percent goes to non residents and I bet the percentage when it was OTC was much higher than 5 percent in a lot of units.

I took my non res money to Idaho this year…

[Browndawg]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

$8 per application. I'm not convinced this isn't more about increasing revenue than managing hunting pressure.

So basically mirroring wdfw mindset. Makes perfect sense to me

How much money are they going to lose in non resident license and tag sales with this move. Only 5 percent goes to non residents and I bet the percentage when it was OTC was much higher than 5 percent in a lot of units.

I took my non res money to Idaho this year…

My math is they will lose close to 375K in NR fees. These changes are a way to calm down the rifle hunters who are complaining about the much higher success rates in archery than it was 20-30 years ago. IMO it's not going to decrease the amount of harvested bulls enough to keep them happy for long. They will reduce the tag numbers in a few years. And with the loss in revenue due to lack of NR fees, resident prices will increase.

It will be interesting to see what hunters do for their controlled hunt selections. Will they continue to go after the hard to draw units? Or dump their points into a unit that they always got to hunt OTC? Either way, the coast range is going to be pretty crowded. At least for the first couple weeks. People die in that hell hole!!

[Stein]

I doubt resident fees will increase, they can just jack up NR fees and people will still pay.  Are they still at $588?  That's cheaper than ID and MT, so plenty of room for increases.

[Browndawg]

I doubt resident fees will increase, they can just jack up NR fees and people will still pay.  Are they still at $588?  That's cheaper than ID and MT, so plenty of room for increases.

Yes, still $588. And yes, I'll still pay...

[Tacbeav]

$588 for the Elk Tag but another $172 for the hunting license, which by the way, you need to purchase up front before applying for any tags.

[kselkhunter]

$588 for the Elk Tag but another $172 for the hunting license, which by the way, you need to purchase up front before applying for any tags.

Yes it's $172 and an $8 app fee to be able to apply for a controlled hunt in Oregon.  But, Oregon doesn't charge the tag fee at application time like ID, WA, etc. do. , OR only charges if you choose to buy the tag that you win in the controlled draw.    Pretty straight forward.  And Oregon's bear and cougar tags are only $25 for non-residents so I always hunted bear and waterfowl and upland birds when I was a non-resident since I already had the license paid for (am an Oregon resident again now so doesn't apply to me anymore). 


Many of the new east side elk archery units will be drawn as a second choice tag this first year.  Then it will normalize to likely taking 1pt to draw most units, and a few lesser known units still going as second choice.  The change had nothing to do with herd numbers, it was ODFW finally caving to resident rifle hunter complaints about being jealous of the archery hunters having more opportunity than them because archery tags were OTC and rifle tags were controlled.  So ODFW did the same thing they did when they made east archery deer and east cascades rifle elk seasons controlled:  they set the number of tags to equate to how many hunters hunted each unit in prior years.   So they placated the rifle hunters complaints, while not impacting archers too negatively.


But it won't really impact the high preference point totals.  Most people holding 10 or more points will still continue applying to the big 3 as 1st choice, and an east archery unit as second choice.  Then if they draw neither they just archery one of the other units.  There are still plenty of good OTC archery elk units left in Oregon after this change....

[hughjorgan]

$588 for the Elk Tag but another $172 for the hunting license, which by the way, you need to purchase up front before applying for any tags.

Yes it's $172 and an $8 app fee to be able to apply for a controlled hunt in Oregon.  But, Oregon doesn't charge the tag fee at application time like ID, WA, etc. do. , OR only charges if you choose to buy the tag that you win in the controlled draw.    Pretty straight forward.  And Oregon's bear and cougar tags are only $25 for non-residents so I always hunted bear and waterfowl and upland birds when I was a non-resident since I already had the license paid for (am an Oregon resident again now so doesn't apply to me anymore). 


Many of the new east side elk archery units will be drawn as a second choice tag this first year.  Then it will normalize to likely taking 1pt to draw most units, and a few lesser known units still going as second choice.  The change had nothing to do with herd numbers, it was ODFW finally caving to resident rifle hunter complaints about being jealous of the archery hunters having more opportunity than them because archery tags were OTC and rifle tags were controlled.  So ODFW did the same thing they did when they made east archery deer and east cascades rifle elk seasons controlled:  they set the number of tags to equate to how many hunters hunted each unit in prior years.   So they placated the rifle hunters complaints, while not impacting archers too negatively.


But it won't really impact the high preference point totals.  Most people holding 10 or more points will still continue applying to the big 3 as 1st choice, and an east archery unit as second choice.  Then if they draw neither they just archery one of the other units.  There are still plenty of good OTC archery elk units left in Oregon after this change....

It won’t adversely affect residents ability to continue to hunt eastern Oregon but it will certainly affect the non resident hunters being that there is a 5 percent non resident cap on controlled hunts. In a lot of the more popular units there are about 1k tags, if only 5 percent can be awarded to non res that equates to approximately 50 tags which isn’t very many. So as a non res if your used to hunting eastern Oregon I doubt it will be an every year thing for guys anymore…

[elkchaser54]

That 5 % cap rule hits hard as a non resident . I was in murderers creek last year and it was 50/50 Washington vs Oregon plates.  Maybe it will result in leftover tags after the draw ?

[elksnout]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

 Pretty sure that tag number you're referring to is five or six units combined. Eagle Cap Zone?  1795 permits. That number seems hardly "controlled"   

 I fail to see where this move is going to reduce hunting pressure. We hunt one of those units and have seen a very noticeable increase in bow hunters the last 3-4 seasons.

 Guess time will tell.


 elksnout 

[vandeman17]

Not sure why you would make a unit a draw unit and then offer 1700 tags. Oh well

Yes agreed. After looking into it more following my post, it is a combo of 5-6 units of which we have hunted a few. Curious to see how it plays out




 Pretty sure that tag number you're referring to is five or six units combined. Eagle Cap Zone?  1795 permits. That number seems hardly "controlled"   

 I fail to see where this move is going to reduce hunting pressure. We hunt one of those units and have seen a very noticeable increase in bow hunters the last 3-4 seasons.

 Guess time will tell.


 elksnout

[BUTTER]

will drastically decrease the non residents. Only 5 percent quota for the non residents will decrease the hunting pressure alot. I have sent in a letter to the commisioners every month hoping for future changes


Commisioners, thank you in advance to the members that read this email. I understand next years changes were felt needed, and have been passed at this time. Im writing this email in hopes that in the future other ideas can be brought forward. I am writing this email as a non resident, and would like to express some concerns. The current five percent cap for non resident hunters is an issue for the future. Not only does it limit non residents, but it greatly hurts your very own Oregon outiftters. These outiftters have survived years on the current system, and over night have lost alot of there loyal customers. I suggest two options to better the current system increase non resident tags to a minimum of 10 percent for archery hunting. I also suggest allowing non residents the oppurtunity to purchase left over tags at a first come first serve basis. This will help Oregon over all by increasing the revenue from the 95 percent of non residents that will now not be able to hunt in your great state.
Thanks for your time,

[kselkhunter]

As part of the 2 years of discussion and research on the elk archery unit change, Oregon actually documented the amount of non-resident hunters that would be reduced on average per unit by making these units a controlled tag and with the 5% non-resident cap.   But they allotted roughly the same number of tags per unit as the number of hunters that reported hunted each unit in years past.  So hunting pressure will remain roughly the same. 
https://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/docs/Non-Resident_Effect.pdf


https://myodfw.com/articles/big-game-hunting-season-review
Except it really won't impact overcrowding that much because they made the tag #s the same as what already hunted those units, and won't help the elk herds.  This change was in response to years of complaining by rifle hunters that archers had more opportunity than them. 

[hughjorgan]

As part of the 2 years of discussion and research on the elk archery unit change, Oregon actually documented the amount of non-resident hunters that would be reduced on average per unit by making these units a controlled tag and with the 5% non-resident cap.   But they allotted roughly the same number of tags per unit as the number of hunters that reported hunted each unit in years past.  So hunting pressure will remain roughly the same. 
https://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/docs/Non-Resident_Effect.pdf


https://myodfw.com/articles/big-game-hunting-season-review
Except it really won't impact overcrowding that much because they made the tag #s the same as what already hunted those units, and won't help the elk herds.  This change was in response to years of complaining by rifle hunters that archers had more opportunity than them.

So they’ll lose a little over a half million dollars in tag sales. That seems to be pretty significant amount of money.

[BUTTER]

It will be good for the residents but the non residents will suffer. Or arguably not hunt Oregon again

[Halo]

If I remember correctly, half of that 5% cap is guaranteed to the outfitters, at least in the good units. So, the cap is actually 2.5% for deer and elk and 1.5% for antelope.