Unit research · Oregon Unit FOSSIL
Unit FOSSIL — Oregon
15% public across 902,553 ac. Real backcountry here — 27% of the public land sits more than a mile from any road. Watch the checkerboard: 18,210 ac of public land has no public route in.
Computed from primary government data by the open pipeline. See the code →
Tags & season
Draw hunts on this ground.
12 limited-entry black bear, elk and pronghorn hunts are drawn on Unit FOSSIL: apply in the Oregon draw, by the agency's deadline below.
Season dates: see Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife's regulations
Oregon black bear, elk and pronghorn draw calendar
- May 15, 2027 — application deadline
- May 15, 2027 — application deadline
Fees and draw dates from Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, 2026, verified 2026-08-15. Tag type from the agency's published draw statistics: a unit that appears in none of them has no limited-entry hunt we know of. Source: ODFW — Licence, tag and permit fees (2026) · ODFW — Controlled hunt applications and tags · ODFW — How to navigate the controlled hunt process (standing May 15 deadline).
Land & access
Backcountry
Where the ground sits
Tap or hover the bars for each elevation band
Slope mix
Which way the slopes face
Share of ground steeper than 5° — flat ground has no facing
North slopes hold shade, cover and snow; south slopes open first.
USGS 3DEP 1 arc-second (30 m), slope at native resolution in a local metric projection, sampled on a 200 m grid. See the code →
Unit intelligence report
321,228 ac of this unit has burned — 36% of the unit. USGS migration corridors cover 18%. The full report assembles it into one printable document and keeps it current as the facts change.
Season conditions — measured, not vibes
Historical temperatures · 2000–2025
Normals for 2000–2025 — tap or hover for a month
Measured at MUNICIPAL AIRPORT, 124 km from the unit’s center and ~3,200 ft below its median elevation — expect the unit to run colder. NOAA ISD-Lite hourly observations.
Harvest — agency survey estimates
Deer · 2024 · controlled hunts
39.9% success
67 taken by 168 hunters
Deer hunter success · 2015–2024 · 42% → 40%
Season breakdown · 2024
| Season | Success | Harvest | Hunters |
|---|---|---|---|
| Archery | 25% | 17 | 67 |
| Muzzleloader | 33% | 17 | 52 |
| Antlerless | 67% | 33 | 49 |
Which season is the value play here — same ground, different odds.
Pronghorn · 2017 · controlled hunts
21.1% success
4 taken by 19 hunters
Pronghorn hunter success · 2016–2017 · 31% → 21%
Estimated harvest from ODFW's MANDATORY HARVEST SURVEY — every tag holder is required to report, and the department extrapolates from the returns. These are estimates by construction and ODFW labels them so; the success rates are the department's own and are carried verbatim. Weapon is the VARIANT, because in Oregon a rifle, archery and muzzleloader hunt are separate controlled hunts with separate tags rather than methods within one season. A hunter appears in exactly one. These summaries are also the only published link from an Oregon hunt to its unit. ODFW names its controlled hunts in prose — "Alsea - Stott Mtn", "Aldrich 01 Bow" — and publishes no hunt-to-unit table anywhere; the Unit Name column here is the crosswalk, and without it the draw statistics could not reach a unit page at all. ⚠️ ODFW SPELLS ITS OWN UNITS TWO WAYS. The harvest summaries say "Alsea", "Lookout Mountain", "Murderer's Creek"; the boundary service says "ALSEA", "LOOKOUT MTN", "MURDERERS CREEK". Every harvest row is mapped through the LAYER's ids so a unit named here always exists on the map. Seasons are uneven: the current summaries carry one year each and the dated archive reaches back to 2014, but several of those older files use a layout this reader does not handle and are omitted whole rather than in part. Source: ODFW Big Game Hunting Harvest Statistics (estimated harvest by unit and hunt).
How these numbers are made
Computed, not curated: no paid research team, no opinions dressed as data. If a number looks wrong, file an issue — the fix ships for everyone.
Ready to scout it?
Everything on this page, live on the map — ownership, boundaries, roads, and your own waypoints.
Take Unit FOSSIL into the field
Download Oregon’s pack and this unit works with no signal — boundaries, ownership, roads, elevation. Record your hunt with the screen off. Check what’s visible from any ridge.
Scan to install OpenHunt for Android. Open this page on the phone afterwards and it lands in the app.
