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Elk season may reach new level Record number of hunters set to take aim in Saturday opener By Mark Freeman Rifle hunters will take to the woods in force Saturday for the start of the fall Roosevelt elk season that could be the most productive week of elk hunting ever experienced in eastern Jackson County. A record number of hunters are expected during the one-week general season in the Rogue Unit, which is one of the most popular hunting units for the Cascades season that begins Saturday. With forecasted rains likely to create a cool and somewhat soggy forest floor, hunters could find enough bull elk in the mountains around Prospect and Butte Falls to rival the 1996 season record of 262 bulls killed by hunters. "I�d think there�s a pretty good chance of that," says Merv Wolfer, acting Rogue District wildlife biologist for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "With good bull numbers and a damp forest, I�d expect hunting to be pretty good." The Cascade�s bull-elk rifle season begins Saturday and runs through Oct. 27 in the Rogue, Evans Creek and Dixon units of the South Cascades. Hunting in the Applegate Unit of western Jackson County falls under the new Mid-Coast/Valley season, which this year runs Nov. 11-14. The Chetco, Powers, Sixes and Tioga units of the South Coast are all open for elk-hunting on a limited-entry basis. The tag-sale deadline for the Cascades hunt is Friday night. In both the South Cascades and Applegate seasons, one $26 tag qualifies hunters to take one bull elk with a visible antler. This is a new definition, one that should make it easier for hunters in the field. The old rules required hunters take only bulls with at least one antler longer than the ears. Sometimes, for smaller spikes, it was harder to tell whether the antler actually eclipsed the ear, so being able to take bulls without having to do optical measurements should help ease some hunters� minds. But elk hunters are after branch-antlered bulls. And there�s a whole batch of them on public lands within the Rogue Unit, making it once again one of the best locales for taking a big Roosevelt bull under general-season conditions. The unit�s elk herd is again conservatively estimated at 3,300, and it generates close to the same number of hunters annually. This year�s elk herds sport 14 bulls per 100 cows in the Rogue Unit, up slightly from the 12 bulls per 100 cows last year. Both are above the ODFW "benchmark" of 10 bulls per 100 cows. Ironically, the estimates were made from spring helicopter census counts that this time found no groups of bachelor bulls roaming the woods, Wolfer says. So the ratios may actually be better than the estimates. If so, the harvest could climb in the Rogue Unit for the third straight year. In �97, 3,087 hunters took 139 bulls, while 3,250 hunters took 164 bulls in 1998. Last year, 2,295 hunters took 190 bulls, but 111 of them were one- or two-point yearling bulls, according to Wolfer. But that occurred during what is generally considered bad hunting conditions of hot and dry weather. "Everybody was complaining that it was too hot and dry to sneak up on anything," Wolfer says. But sneaking conditions ought to be better this weekend. Forecasters are calling for some rains Friday and a chance of rains for opening morning on Saturday, with temperatures dipping below freezing in the woods around Prospect, Butte Falls and the top of the Dead Indian Plateau east of Ashland. However, the National Weather Service predicts a snow level expected around 10,000 feet this weekend, meaning hunters likely won�t find the fresh tracking snows that helped make the 1996 season a record harvest in the Rogue Unit. Yet the hunting-friendly conditions expected this weekend likely will entice some fence-sitters to buy their tag and hunt the Rogue Unit Saturday and Sunday, says Wolfer, who is expecting about 3,400 hunters in the unit this year. Normal success rates for the Rogue Unit elk hunters hover around 6 to 7 percent. If the current hunting conditions generate close to an 8 percent success rate, hunters could set a new harvest record next week. Staff writer Mark Freeman covers the outdoors for the Mail Tribune. Call him at 776-4470, or e-mail him at [email protected] ) Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2000 Mail Tribune, Inc.