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Mossyhorn70

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I’m going to draw a Steens rifle tag this fall. Burning 19 non-resident points to do it. I grew up in Oregon and spent time down there as a kid but it’s been 20 years since I’ve been down there.

I know it’s going to be a tough hunt but wanted to hunt there once in my life. I’m looking for opinions on east vs west. It’s a long ways to travel around so I feel like I need to pick a side. Leaning towards east cause that’s what I’m most familiar with.

What does hunting pressure look like as the season progresses? I’ve heard the area has become really popular with “overlanders”. Has this been an issue for anyone?

I’m assuming the Fields Cafe is still open, serving burgers and milkshakes?

If anyone wants to shoot me a PM with any advice on logistics or ideas from having hunted here before, I’d much appreciate it.
 
Mossyhorn70 said:
I’m going to draw a Steens rifle tag this fall. Burning 19 non-resident points to do it. I grew up in Oregon and spent time down there as a kid but it’s been 20 years since I’ve been down there.

I know it’s going to be a tough hunt but wanted to hunt there once in my life. I’m looking for opinions on east vs west. It’s a long ways to travel around so I feel like I need to pick a side. Leaning towards east cause that’s what I’m most familiar with.

What does hunting pressure look like as the season progresses? I’ve heard the area has become really popular with “overlanders”. Has this been an issue for anyone?

I’m assuming the Fields Cafe is still open, serving burgers and milkshakes?

If anyone wants to shoot me a PM with any advice on logistics or ideas from having hunted here before, I’d much appreciate it.
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Isn’t Fields in the trout creek unit? And steens would be French Glenn? I’ve bow hunted both a lot back in the day.
 
PRCnut said:
Isn’t Fields in the trout creek unit? And steens would be French Glenn? I’ve bow hunted both a lot back in the day.
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Fields is just outside of the unit. It’s actually on the border of Beatty’s Butte and Whitehorse. If you’re hunting the east side, Fields is way closer than Frenchglen. There’s lots of places that I’ve hunted where actually have to leave the unit to go get food, ice and gas.
 
Mossyhorn70 said:
Fields is just outside of the unit. It’s actually on the border of Beatty’s Butte and Whitehorse. If you’re hunting the east side, Fields is way closer than Frenchglen. There’s lots of places that I’ve hunted where actually have to leave the unit to go get food, ice and gas.
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Ya fields is actually in the Whitehorse unit. I’m assuming you put in for rifle? There are some good spots just east out of Frenchglenn if you draw that I could pm you if interested.
 
Yes, fields is still there serving burgers and shakes. They have gas and plugs to repair some flat tires. They had a few beers on tap last time I was there too. They used close pretty early.

Denio Junction is 30 miles down the road and has 24 hour fuel as long as the pumps work.
 
kota said:
Yes, fields is still there serving burgers and shakes. They have gas and plugs to repair some flat tires. They had a few beers on tap last time I was there too. They used close pretty early.

Denio Junction is 30 miles down the road and has 24 hour fuel as long as the pumps work.
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Ya I remember pulling into fields shortly after 5 to fuel up and they were closed and I barely made it to Frenchglenn on fumes and about 10 minutes before they closed! Lol ?
 
PRCnut said:
Ya fields is actually in the Whitehorse unit. I’m assuming you put in for rifle? There are some good spots just east out of Frenchglenn if you draw that I could pm you if interested.
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If I don’t draw, there’s a problem! ?

It required 14-15 points last year, for NR’s. 19 should be a lock.
 
It'll be a tough hunt no doubt, but it's still probably one of the best in the state, for what thats worth. I had the tag 4 years ago, didn't take near as many points as now. I want to hunt it again, I have a bit of advice on what not to do and can give you some pointers if you draw. Certainly not a wealth of information though
 
Wish you luck on the hunt, and please keep us posted. Going to burn my 18 points in the next year or two on Steens also.
 
Cmyron said:
How did the hunt go?
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Well, not great… I killed a lion on day one. Spotted it stalking some does. That was the only bright point of the hunt. I hunted for 11 days and never saw a single buck bigger than 110” or so. I scoured the country with optics, put quite a few miles on my feet and maybe I’m just bad at it, I don’t know? But it was sad…
 
Mossyhorn70 said:
Well, not great… I killed a lion on day one. Spotted it stalking some does. That was the only bright point of the hunt. I hunted for 11 days and never saw a single buck bigger than 110” or so. I scoured the country with optics, put quite a few miles on my feet and maybe I’m just bad at it, I don’t know? But it was sad…
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Sorry to hear, but cool that you tagged a lion. I was stoked to spend my points on this hunt in the coming Fall, but as I read more and hear more feedback I'm getting less and less stoked and may do another unit.
 
I’m not the most successful hunter but I hunt hard and put time in. Ive been hunting for almost 30 years and have never been on a more disappointing hunt. I lived in AK and did a half dozen fly out bush hunts for caribou, grizzly, sheep, deer and goat. I’ve hunting Wyoming, Idaho, Montana for elk and deer. Grew up hunting Oregon… I’ve never been on a hunt, for that many days, where I didn’t at least see an animal that got me excited.

There were also too many hunters. I hunted the east side and the first couple days were ok. Access is tough thru some of the A&H property. The Alvord ranch makes you pick two access points per day. You have to sign in physically at the office. Could mean a long drive depending on where you’re camped. Their ranch hands are always watching and checking too. Some of the gates have people driving thru private and setting up camp on BLM. There was one big canyon that was essentially locked down by multiple groups camped up there.

When snow hit, it pushed all the hunters off the top of the west side and many came east. It got busy after that and never died down. I kept expecting people to get discouraged and leave. Pressure stayed constant to the end.
 
The reason for the relentless pressure was because of the later dates last year. It was like that in every unit. Basically Oregon is finished and your experience was very typical of a public land deer hunt. You could of been 7 miles from a road in the Wilderness area and you still would of only seen 5 deer total.

I happen to be at ODFW last year when two guys were checking in 2 cougars they shot in the Beatys Butte unit right next door to the Steens. They said they had seen 2 cats and 5 deer in 5 days of hunting. At least they got something for their efforts!
 
Sadly this is the state of mule deer hunting in Oregon today. your experience is typical, except for the lion. good work.

If we were like so many hunters though we'd tell you that your problem was you just didn't hunt hard enough or smart enough. we killed a dink last year so the problem isn't deer numbers it's you. and that's why I'm not hopeful it's ever going to get better. ODFW has no incentive to do better if this is good enough.
 
since I shot my cougar the first day and only had so long to check it in, I hunted a morning and then drive into Burns during one of the hotter days to get it checked and out of the way. The bio wasn’t at all concerned about deer. He said taking cougars out didn’t really help deer much, but that the cougars were hard on the sheep. I saw more bighorns than deer on my hunt. Every place I looked, I found sheep. Ugh, the whole thing still burns me up.

IMG_5242.jpeg
 
Great Job killing that cat that was awesome! Yes, ODFW is not concerned about the low deer numbers in any of the units and the sheep are the primary concern.
 
Great shot, good work.

That biologist knows he was lying to you but they have a script to stick to.

I can tell by your picture you're too young to have seen the days when you'd have passed multiple nice bucks a day in the Steens. the Trouts were even better. even in the 80's it was pretty good, we had an awful winter in 92/93, they banned hunting lion and bear with hounds in '94 and it's been downhill ever since. it's a joke today and ODFW knows it, they just don't care. it's depressing really.
 
Togwotee:
It is funny you mention the winter of 92/93. I drew a Steens tag that year. It was also the first year when ODR started the points system. I hunted on both the West side and East side. I only saw a 2 X 3 buck I passed on. I did see a 4 X 4 in someone's camp. But that was it. I spoke to the ranchers and they all said the deer population took the worst hit they had ever seen. Dead deer everywhere.
 
It was horrible. I've lived in eastern OR my whole life and never seen anything like it before or since. I hunted Murderers Creek that next fall and it was the worst deer season I had ever seen at that time. down towards the river it looked like a boneyard with all the deer skeletons. sad part is it's not much better today.

The first time I hunted the Steens was when it was still a 4 point minimum unit. I had hunted the Ochoco, Heppner and Murderer's Creek units since I was old enough to remember and I had seen good deer hunting. but the number and size of the deer in the Steens was amazing. it was like a shooting gallery just pick the buck you want and shoot it. like I said, it's depressing to see what we have today after seeing that.
 
Thanks for the update on your hunt! Sadly this sentiment is becoming more and more common for the Steens. Well, most mule deer units in all honesty. It's sad to hear that people waited 7-8 years to draw this tag only to come away disappointed. Nice work on the cat and giving the unit your best effort! Cheers. 🍻
 
Scrillznac said:
Thanks for the update on your hunt! Sadly this sentiment is becoming more and more common for the Steens. Well, most mule deer units in all honesty. It's sad to hear that people waited 7-8 years to draw this tag only to come away disappointed. Nice work on the cat and giving the unit your best effort! Cheers. 🍻
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I contemplated hard about what to put in for. I burned 19 points. I read the reports but knew of some decent bucks that had come out of there in recent years. I thought, if I hunt hard and put the time in, I can find a 160+ deer. Boy was I wrong…
 
Mossyhorn70 said:
I contemplated hard about what to put in for. I burned 19 points. I read the reports but knew of some decent bucks that had come out of there in recent years. I thought, if I hunt hard and put the time in, I can find a 160+ deer. Boy was I wrong…
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I read your original post again and see you spent 19 points as a non-resident. Definitely a tough one to swallow. As an Oregon guy I still talk to people that have this elevated perspective of the Steens and still think it's like what it was 20 years ago. Even 10-12 years ago it was producing a solid number of 140"-160" bucks. My biz partner has 9 resident points and is thinking Steens for 2025. I keep telling him to split his points up with some buddies and go somewhere else. Even a lot of wilderness that I archery hunt elk in is severely lacking deer numbers even compared to 4-5 years ago. Hopefully it'll come back but it's more of a prayer at this point.
 
My 12 year old son got a Steens Mountain mule deer tag. We've never been there. I've been doing some e-scouting, and it looks like big country—in many ways, it's intimidating and hard to know where to even start. Does anyone have any recommendations?
 
Riverfish1 said:
My 12 year old son got a Steens Mountain mule deer tag. We've never been there. I've been doing some e-scouting, and it looks like big country—in many ways, it's intimidating and hard to know where to even start. Does anyone have any recommendations?
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Start up on top with a spotter glassing down into those big canyons or off the end of the mountain. Be there glassing and setup before twilight and don't leave until after dark. Finding bucks in the desert is about being consistent behind the glass. Just 10 minutes ago I looked through the spotter and a big 4 point buck appeared out of nowhere, I saw him for about 10 seconds and he was gone again. Deep sage swallows deer up and they love it.
 
Just my opinion but the Steens is not a great unit for "First Time Youth" or a 12 year old to hunt. The deer nunbers are horrible and some grown men that wait 9 years to draw a tag shoot the first two year old 3pt they see which doesn't help things. It's your tag, but hopefully you don't have your kid shoot the first forked horn you see, the Steens isn't the unit for that! And I don't care what anyone on this website says, that's a fact!
 
Don’t know when I’ll draw a tag for the TC area I’m at 17 points now so could be in a couple years👨‍🌾🤔. Just call me longhorn for short🤔.
 

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