New Oregon resident

[PaulB84]

My sister and her husband just moved to the Hood River area. They're both supremely outdoorsy and I am now trying to take advantage of their resident status and get them into hunting. I'm a meat guy, don't give two shits about antlers. A cow would be a huge trophy for us.

If I were to act as their "guide" knowing nothing about the actual areas but plenty about hunting in general, where would you suggest we start?

Thanks in advance

 

[BullsDeep]

E scout and Boots on the ground.

 

[PaulB84]

From what I understand, they just fill out a few forms online and buy a license, same as I would for deer or whatever in my home state?

 

[Windigo]

From what I understand, they just fill out a few forms online and buy a license, same as I would for deer or whatever in my home state?

OTC elk in OR is a crap shoot, good luck

 

[coast range]

Well basically too late for this year. But you can buy preference points for this year if you do it before November 31st. You will have to buy a hunting license first. I don’t do cow hunts myself but most take several points. So a couple years of applying.
But there are opportunities if you have money or know people with a large amount of land to get land owner tags.

Good luck general seasons are um well general seasons…

 

[PaulB84]

Understood. So even as a resident you need points?

 

[Erict]

From what I understand, they just fill out a few forms online and buy a license, same as I would for deer or whatever in my home state?

If they just moved there, they are likely not entitled to resident licenses for this season:

 

[PaulB84]

No worries. More than willing to play the long game

 

[Sawitrightoff]

My sister and her husband just moved to the Hood River area. They're both supremely outdoorsy and I am now trying to take advantage of their resident status and get them into hunting. I'm a meat guy, don't give two shits about antlers. A cow would be a huge trophy for us.

If I were to act as their "guide" knowing nothing about the actual areas but plenty about hunting in general, where would you suggest we start?

Thanks in advance

It’s a good thing you just want to “guide” them and don’t care anything about antlers, because OR is a NR unfriendly state, for branch antlered bulls.

 

[Tmac]

OTC elk & deer are on the West side, and it’s generally not easy. But if one learns an area and the tactics, you’ll eventually have success. Very tough terrain for the most part.

Get a copy of the Oregon regs and pay close attention to the General Season Antlerless Damage hunt. 20 minutes ish east of your sis is open thru 3/31/2026 on a 2025 OTC elk tag with no tag purchase deadline… You would almost certainly need private land access, but worth exploring.

Hood River orchards can need deer/elk thinned out, ODFW can issue special damage tags when necessary. Again private land so would need to know a landowner.

You can do all the above and still buy Oregon preference points and build to a decent elk hunt in NE OR. Good bow and rifle opportunities. There are some controlled draw antlerless elk hunts that do have public land, takes a bit of research, but they are there. The 2026 regs are just hitting stores.

 

[wide_groupings]

As you'll find reading the regs, there are not many public land doe or cow tags. And the ones that exist take points for rifle, or are archery hunts. But, you can hunt deer and elk in OR every year.
I live in the area, PM me and I can help you get the lay of the land a little.

 

[elkocd]

I'm sorry for them I grew up in Hood River and lived there for more than 45 years. Used to be such a nice place and now it's a chitty snow flake farm with more pride flags than US flags. My family is still in the area and I still own a home in White Salmon so I do have to visit sometimes sadly.

As far as the hunting, there is hunting in the area, but it's not great locally. I never spent much time hunting near HR, but have friends that do take elk and deer most years. Mostly archery season.

 

[breinhart18]

there are some second season rifle elk tags that are hair tags (any elk). Would have to build points for a year or two; but as a resident, aren’t hard to draw. Could also look into some of the spike hunts that happen in the big 3 units (mt Emily, weneha and walla wall). If you’re just after meat, that’s a good way to get an easy to draw tag, see animals and still hopefully go home with some meat. Just look at the regs and figure out which units you can draw within next year or two. Hope that helps

 

[Smokeslider]

Reading the regs will get you started.

Understand the draw process for Oregon has some differences from other states you may/may not be familiar with. The 2nd-5th choice options in the Oregon draw process require leftover tags to be present so a little research will tell ya if you're gonna get a second choice but anything beyond that is futile in most units that are worth hunting.

Most of the desired units to hunt elk in Oregon require a few years to draw..... at least.

Using Hood River as a reference, The White River-Hood unit requires 3 points for a cow tag but you could draw the bull tag every year if you wanted to use the bull tag as first choice.... Or you could apply for the first choice cow tag, with the 1st season bull tag second choice. This would more or less get you the cow tag every 3-4 years and the 1st season bull tag every other year or so in between. If you used 2nd season bull season, you'd draw every year for second choice while building points for the Cow hunt.

This point game is present in a lot of the eastern side units.

The Westside of Cascades is a whole different story and not a game I play so I'll leave that to someone else to weigh in on.

I recommend doing some research on the Hood, and White River units and expand from there based on your interest.

 

[rodney482]

Reading the regs will get you started.

Understand the draw process for Oregon has some differences from other states you may/may not be familiar with. The 2nd-5th choice options in the Oregon draw process require leftover tags to be present so a little research will tell ya if you're gonna get a second choice but anything beyond that is futile in most units that are worth hunting.

Most of the desired units to hunt elk in Oregon require a few years to draw..... at least.

Using Hood River as a reference, The White River-Hood unit requires 3 points for a cow tag but you could draw the bull tag every year if you wanted to use the bull tag as first choice.... Or you could apply for the first choice cow tag, with the 1st season bull tag second choice. This would more or less get you the cow tag every 3-4 years and the 1st season bull tag every other year or so in between. If you used 2nd season bull season, you'd draw every year for second choice while building points for the Cow hunt.

This point game is present in a lot of the eastern side units.

The Westside of Cascades is a whole different story and not a game I play so I'll leave that to someone else to weigh in on.

I recommend doing some research on the Hood, and White River units and expand from there based on your interest.

what can you tell me about this tag

 

[WRO]

what can you tell me about this tag

View attachment 1086247

You should go hunt it, that one doesn’t suck


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[wide_groupings]

what can you tell me about this tag

View attachment 1086247

That it's a good one!