Young hunters who finish the general blacktail season without their buck will have two fresh shots at filling their tag beginning next year.
Juvenile hunters with unfilled general-season rifle tags will get two extra days afield under a newly adopted change to Oregon's big-game hunting regulations.
The extra days will be the Saturday and Sunday after the Friday closure of the general blacktail rifle season. Next year, those days would be Nov. 3-4.
The extension will affect those kids 17 years and younger who own with unfilled western Oregon general-season tags as well as those who hold an unfilled West High Cascade (Hunt 119A) or Hood-White River (Hunt 141A) limited-entry tags.
The change was part of the package voted upon Friday by the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission. It enjoyed support from the 11,000-member Oregon Hunters Association, whose leadership sees it as another way to put hunting's best foot forward in recruiting new hunters.
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The extension covers hunting dates trimmed from the general season over concerns about buck harvest among declining blacktail herd numbers throughout the 1990s and earlier this decade. However, deer numbers have stabilized in recent years throughout parts of western Oregon.
Commissioner Don Denman says the trade-off of allowing the juvenile hunting extension could help slow declining hunter numbers, and that's worth allowing the extension for juveniles.
"I don't think it will result in a huge amount of harvest," Denman says. "You still have to get out there and find the buck. And at that time of year, even in the rut, that can be difficult."
Just a breakdown of the western Oregon general-season statistics reveals that participation would be relatively lighter than adding even one of those general-season days back to adults.
Consider about 87,000 general-season buck tags were sold to rifle hunters last year, and about 8,000 were juveniles, says Tom Thornton, the ODFW's game program manager. A telephone survey reveals that about 80 percent of the tag-holders actually hunted, he says.
If 80 percent of the juveniles hunted, that would mean about 6,300 kids hunted general-season bucks in western Oregon last year. If those kids experienced the same 20 percent success rate, the youth group would be whittled further.
"Our best estimate is that there is the potential for up to 5,000 kids out there walking around with a tag in their pocket," Thornton says.
The new hunts, including the juvenile extended hunt, will be printed in the 2007 Big Game Regulations booklet due out next month.
Along with the regular calendar shifts for general-season deer and elk hunts, there are several other changes to next year's seasons.
Though the hunts are adopted, the actual tag numbers for these hunts will not be set until June. The exception is spring bear tags, which were set Friday.
- Youth Hunts — Eight new youth hunts were added statewide, including a new youth hunt deer hunt in the Chetco Unit. The hunt will mirror one initiated this year in the Applegate Unit, running through Christmas break and likely sporting 25 tags.
- Spring bear — Spring bear tags will increase 9 percent to 7,984 statewide. Most of the increases were in the Southwest and Starkey hunts. The Southwest hunt tag numbers climbed from 2,500 tags this year to 3,000 tags next year.
- Bighorn sheep — A new West Deschutes River No. 2 hunt was added for next year. The hunt will run Oct. 13-21, with an estimated two tags.
- Rocky Mountain Goat — A new hunt called the Second Hat Point hunt was added. It will run Oct. 13-23 and sport an estimated one tag.
- Cougars — The opportunity to buy a second cougar tag will be available statewide in 2007. The additional tag previously was open only for two eastern Oregon cougar-hunting zones.
Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail mfreeman@mailtribune.com.
