Hey guys, I moved to Oregon 6 months ago and just got my sportsman's pack. When I was doing the transaction the clerk asked if I wanted an archery or a rifle deer tag... I, being ill-informed said what does that mean? Well, it means you can either have an archery tag or a rifle tag. I cannot have both... hmmm... Now this goes for deer and elk. You are allowed one tag for each animal, either archery or rifle. The archery seasons overlap. My question to everyone is what would they do in my shoes. Get an archery buck tag for a month and a rifle bull elk tag for three days.Or, An archery elk tag for a month and a buck tag for a month. Because the archery seasons overlap I would rather not limit myself to one month of archery hunting for both animals because of work time constraints...
Right now the regs state I need a 50# bow for elk, 40 for deer. I only have a 40#. So I would need to acquire another bow and arrows and practice, when I don't really have the money for that. (I guess I could trade for a different bow...)
Hope this post makes some sense...
You also get the late season. When I was there most of the trad guys got archery for both and focused on elk during season and tried to go for deer in the late season. In fact most of them referred to it as the late blackmail hunt. I was on the west side.
Welcome to Oregon! As far as I know? You do not have to decide what tags you want for your sports pac right now... Just make sure you decide and purchase before that season starts.. Its been a couple years since I have bought a sports pac, so I am a little out of the loop if they have changed? I would think that kind of change(making you choose archery/riffle) would make a lot of noise, that I haven't heard???
Right now what a lot of rifle guys do is put in for rifle tags. Then when, or if, they don't draw their rifle tag they have time to go out and buy an archery tag before the season starts. I think the clerk was just asking if you were going to apply for a rifle tag or not. The general deer and elk archery season is Aug 30-Sept 28. The rifle seasons start Oct. 4. The late blacktail season starts in some units Nov. 15. This doesn't overlap with the rifle hunts because it is in different units. There are some youth hunts that do overlap. These are during the late blacktail season.
Because of the number of deer we have, compared to eastern and southern states, we can get just one deer tag. But with some additional draw tags you can get the opportunity to put a couple in the freezer.
I think if you are committed to hunting with a bow then there's no decision to be made. As you say, you would need to up the poundage to a 50# bow for elk.
http://www.dfw.state.or.us/resources/hunting/big_game/regulations/docs/2014_big_game_regs.pdf
Thanks a lot guys for filling me in. Looks like I'll be shopping for a new bow and applying for a 600 series tag as well. This is my second time moving to a different state and each one has its own peculiarities.